[HPforGrownups] Re: Avada Kedavra, Abracadabra, Mrs. Norris, and blood

[alex fox]

No: HPFGUIDX 46940

 
 ashfaex <ashfae at technicaldetails.org> wrote:from: Scheherazade

>>Also, there are many curses that a person cannot block against.
>>Hexes, which have been mentioned in the books, are cast from afar by
>>concentrating on a person, and would be very hard to block unless
you >>were paranoid like Moody. 

But these hexes do not kill outright. They might immobilize or
inconvience a person, or even cause extreme pain, but they don't
solely kill in the way that Avada Kedavra does. There's still at least
a _chance_ that you could block it, or that someone else could
interfere, or more importantly that the effects of the curse could be
undone. As for the relative morality of Avada Kedavra vs. Cruciatus
and the like, that's a matter of opinion, methinks.

>>Now, I know I am not the first to say this, but isn't Avada Kedvada
>>sound a whole lot like the abracadabra we are all used to hearing?
It >>took me so long to stop myself from thinking abracadabra when I
read >>it. Has anyone welse noticed this? Or am I just crazy?

Nope, you're not the first. I have an interesting book entitled *The
Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and
Interesting Facts*, written by one David Colbert. It has this to
say on the subject of Avada Kedavra: 

"...Although J.K. Rowling invents most of her spells and curses
entirely from her imagination, the Avada Kedavra curse derives from a
phrase in ancient middle Easten language called aramaic. That phrase,
*abhadda kedhabhra*, meaning "disappear like this word," was used
by ancient wizards to make illnesses disappear. However, there's no
proof it was ever used to kill anyone. The phrase is one likely origin
of the magical word *abracadabra*. Now just part of a magician's
entertaining chatter, that word was once used by doctors. Quintus
Serenus Samonicus, a Roman physician who lived about A.D. 200, used it
as a spell to make fever vanish..."  (Colbert, pgs. 17-18)

It continues, but you get the idea. =) The Colbert is a great book, by
the way; fun and interesting read, lots of details about the
mythological bases for some of JKR's ideas. Nifty stuff.


From: Carol Bainbridge

>>It also strikes me as a really lucky coincidence to find Mrs. Norris
>>in the right place at the right time in order to see that she's
>>attacked by the basilisk. Ginny doesn't have all day to get this job
>>done. I assume she has classes to go to. She wasn't missed all day,
>>was she? (I don't remember.) She has to be careful of the timing
when >>she paints the message on the wall. Painting the message has to
take >>a while. The hallway is obviously a place students use in
between >>classes. So is she hanging (no pun intended) around with the
basilisk >>waiting for Mrs. Norris to show up so she can hang her up
to >>emphasize her message? She's a first year and it's early in the
year, >>so how much magic can she know to get Mrs. Norris to come to her?

You forget, the first message and attack happened during the Halloween
feast. Ginny had a great deal of time in which to open the chamber and
paint the message, as everyone was up in the Great Hall (including,
probably, Filch). Given that Mrs. Norris has been said on many
occasions to have an uncanny ability to know when someone is in a
place they shouldn't be in, and cats don't have much to do with
Halloween feasts, it's not surprising that she came by Ginny. A
student lingering in a corridor instead of attending a Hogwarts Feast
is certainly suspicious, and would attract attention. I doubt Ginny
needed to call Mrs. Norris, and I doubt that killing Mrs. Norris was
originally part of the plan; Ginny/Tom just put her to good use once
she was there.


From: Indigo

>>Not necessarily. But that does beggar the question: "where'd she get
>>the blood/red paint?" 

Pretty sure it's stated that it was blood, in which case I'd bet it
was from the roosters that Ginny killed earlier on.


Ashfae (forgot to sign my name before; sorry Elf-type folks! *sheepish
gryn*)



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the fact that Kedavra sounds like "cadaver" meaning corpse? i would think this was perfectly clear!


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