Snape didn't kill DD with AK!! And here's the evidence...

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 138657

--- Marrylinks wrote:
> I checked out the battle in the Ministry of Magic and, 
> sure enough, I found this:
> 
> Dumbledore brandished his wand in one, long, fluid movement 
> -- the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its 
> fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a 
> wisp of dark smoke; the water in the pool rose up and 
> covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass --
> 
> That example shows two spells cast successfully at the 
> same time. So, while we don't have a perfect parallel to 
> an *unsuccessful verbal spell* cast simultaneously with a 
> *successful nonverbal spell*, all done *by the same person*, 
> we probably have enough evidence that such a thing can be 
> done.

For what it's worth, the one faked death that we know about for sure
in the series also involved some apparently simultaneous magic, even
if it was not all spellwork.

When Pettigrew faked his death, we are given to understand that he did
three things almost simultaneously:

1) Cut off his finger,
2) Blasted open the street, and 
3) Assumed his rat form.

We know (at least Peter doesn't deny it) that he "blew apart the
street with the wand behind his back."  We don't know whether Peter
cut off his finger magically, but it seems likely (otherwise was he
manipulating both a wand *and* a knife with the hand behind his
back?).  Both spells most have been non-verbal, since all the
witnesses heard was Peter's denunciation of Sirius (which also gives
credence to the idea that one can perform a non-verbal spell even
while shouting something else).  Peter's transformation also has to
have been virtually simultaneous with the two spells -- he couldn't
cast spells in rat form, but the observers didn't see him in human
form after he blasted the street and cut off his finger.

I am a bit dubious about the faked death scenarios because the idea
doesn't seem to fit as well thematically at this point in the story as
the idea that Dumbledore is dead and Harry needs to go on alone.  But
it certainly does not seem to be foreclosed from a practical
standpoint, given what a lesser wizard (demonstrably lesser than Snape
or Dumbledore) was able to accomplish, acting alone, 15 years earlier.

-- Matt