Dream on. Back to the Dream. Was: Survival of AK

[kim reynolds]

No: HPFGUIDX 114300

Mandy wrote (in response to Kneasy):

>I don't think it is foreshadowing but I do agree that the dream is gift for us.  The only purpose I think it has is as a clue to the final solution to the whole saga. Namely what is the relationship between Harry and LV, and why and how did Harry survive GH.< 

>I support your GH theory of possession.  That LV wasn't trying to kill Harry at all and did not cast an AK on him, but instead tried to possess him and was ejected by the protection Lily placed over Harry when she died.<  

>The failed GH possession left remnants of LV in Harry's head and that is what is surfacing in his dream. Simply the remnants of LV, as the Heir of Slytherin, wanting to be in Slytherin House.<

>Harry's memory of the green flash was the AK that killed his mum, right before LV jumped into his head and Harry passes out with pain as he did at the end of OotP.  It is the only physical representation of that event that he remembers. He was too young to talk really understand language so his brain processes it as sound and light.<

Kim here: 

I still think (dare I say, know?) that the last green flash Harry saw was from the Avada Kedavra Voldemort aimed at him, that is, the AK that ended up  rebounding onto Voldemort. If the last green flash Harry saw was from the AK that killed Lily, why would JKR say this at the Edinburgh Festival this past summer?  Quote "..I really thought this one through. Harry did not see his parents die. He was one year old and in a cot at the time.  Although you never see that scene, I wrote it and then cut it...").  He only saw one green flash, the one aimed at him, because he hadn't seen the one that hit Lily nor the one that hit James.  They weren't directly in Harry's eyeview when they died.  And an AK may not leave a scar when it actually kills someone, but since no one ever survived an AK before Harry, it may well have left a scar on the boy who lived.  Simply put, if you die from AK, no scar.  If you survive AK (Harry being the sole member of that club), scar.

For more substantiation, here's another quote from JKR from the festival, same Q&A session:

"The first question that I have never been asked ... is Why didn't Voldemort die? Not Why did Harry live? but Why didn't Voldemort die?  The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn't he?"

The killing curse (Avada Kedavra) she's talking about was the killing curse LV aimed at Harry.  The AKs he aimed at James and Lily didn't rebound, J and L died, and Harry didn't witness their deaths.  And to restate a previous post of mine, that's essentially the same story JKR retells (as narrator) in the 2nd chapter of Goblet of Fire.

It makes sense to take the author at her word, doesn't it?  I think she knows more about what happened at Godric's Hollow than the rest of us do.  But that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other mysteries in the books to speculate about...

For instance, I have a theory (please let me know if it's been gone into before) as to why Voldemort didn't die from the rebounded killing curse at GH:  Because he'd learned things, during previous years, about how not to die ... from vampires.  That might explain his pale skin, bald head (I assume), long skinny fingers (Nosferatu anyone?), need for blood, and the possible fact that he only comes out at night... He didn't die from AK because he was already the undead.

Any thoughts, pro or con, are welcome!     

Kim