Who killed Lily and James Potter?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 55434

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "addictedtobass2003" 
<katie.jarvis1 at n...> wrote:
> Events that occurred on 31st October 1981, and their order are still 
> unclear to the reader (in my opinion).
> Priori Incantatem reveals the spells discharged from a wand in 
> reverse order, but not who cast them.
> In GoF chapter 34, it reads as if Harry was attacked first (because 
> he never came out of the wand, and we presume that if Harry would 
> have endured, he would have appeared.  The next event that happens 
> is the death of James, and then of Lily.  If Voldemort was left 
> almost powerless by Harry, how could he have killed Lily and James?

Annemehr:
It is the shades, or "echos" (as Dumbledore called them) of the murder 
victims which came out of Voldemort's wand.  In Harry's case, it was 
only attempted murder, so there was no shade of Harry to come out at 
all.  Some of us have previously speculated on why there is apparantly 
*no trace* of the spell that gave Harry his scar, and which should 
have emerged after Bertha Jorkins' shade and before Lily's.

What *do* we see emerging from Voldemort's wand?
There are the sounds of screams, presumably from the Cruciatus Curses.
There is the echo of Wormtail's new silver hand in the appropriate 
place.
There are the shades of the murder victims killed by Avada Kedavra.

What *don't* we see any trace of in priori incantatem?
There seems to be no trace of either the Imperius curse nor whatever 
it was Voldemort did to Harry to force him to "bow" before dueling.
There was no trace of the failed AK that gave Harry his scar.
There was no trace of whatever Voldemort did to break Bertha's memory 
charm (if he even used his own wand for that -- but why wouldn't he?)

So, the conclusion some of us reached (especially Steve b_boy mn?) was 
that some spells leave either no trace or, most likely, subtle traces 
that only experienced wizards would recognize.

I actually tried to find this thread for you, but when I tried to 
search the archive, I got a (scary) message that the archive for 
HPforgrownups is empty!

So:

> 
> "Voldemort killed James and Lily, then tried to kill Harry." 
>      -- JKR on the Diane Rehm Show, October 20, 1999.  
> 
<snip>

Annemehr:
Yes.  This is what happened.


> I'm not entirely sure if I am interpreting the whole thing wrong, or 
> if it is a misprint.  I'm new to the board so I'm still catching up 
> on past messages, so if this query has already been answered, I 
> apologise, but would appreciate a reply nevertheless.
> 
> Also does anyone have any theories on why Voldemort was so 
> determined to kill Harry in the first place, I would be interested 
> to read them.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> addictedtobass2003
> 
> "We are only strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."

Annemehr:
Welcome!  Yes, it can be hard to find stuff, but it's okay, we discuss 
stuff over again all the time -- until June 21st!

Sorry I can't look up theories on why Voldemort tried to kill Harry, 
because of my trouble with the archive...
Check the HBfile you got when you signed up for the FAQ's and 
Fantastic Posts links.
But I for one am certainly hoping that is one of the things Dumbledore 
tells Harry in OoP when he tells him what he should have five years 
ago (and he'd better not get interrupted)!

And finally, are you addicted to fish or to low register music? ;)

Annemehr
who takes the pages from her CoS daily calendar and puts them in order 
of the story...