An AK Puzzle

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 133189

There isn't time to read all the traffic here, so I'll keep it brief.

A. Did anyone notice that the AK does *NOT* blast things?  

When Crouch!Moody demonstrated it on the spider, it was accompanied by a
rushing sound, green light, and the spider simply falling down dead.  When
the Riddle family were killed, they didn't have a mark on them -- other than
expressions of terror.  And so on.  A *missed* AK might be expected to blast
something.

When Snape supposedly AK'd DD, DD was blasted through the parapet.   What
if, as someone else already has suggested, Snape did not mean the AK at all,
but did a wandless and silent Wingardium Leviosa to fling DD off the parapet
at the same time he said the (fake) AK?  There could have been any number of
ways DD could have saved himself and substituted a body (inferi?) for
himself.  Had it actually been a conspiracy to fake an AK of DD by SS, they
could easily have worked up an enchantment that looked and sounded exactly
like an AK, to fool the DEs present who actually know what one looks and
sounds like, while appearing to blast DD off the tower, so there would be
time to do the switch.

Balancing that, however, is that at the end, it was clear that Draco's task
was not merely to repair the vanishing cabinets, it was to kill DD.  SS
therefore took the unbreakable vow to kill DD as well.  If what we are told
about unbreakable vows is correct, then either DD or SS must have been dead.
Unless there was something misleading there (QUITE possible), then DD
certainly seems to be dead.   Also, I don't think Fawkes would mourn like
that unless DD were actually dead.


B. Did SS kill DD on DD's orders, or because he is ESE!Snape?  

Personally, I can see how JKR could make it happen either way, although the
ESE!Snape theory seems to leave a lot more major moth holes behind in the
plot fabric.  (1. It's too obvious.  2. DD isn't the type to ignore the
advice of EVERYONE he cares about over a period of years on a quick
character judgment.  3. DD ended his life after an entire evening of
failures and blunders that accomplished absolutely nothing -- which again
does not fit DD.  4. It would imply that SS was the "most faithful servant
still at Hogwarts" rather than Crouch!Moody, which cannot be reconciled with
the events LV recites at the end of GoF, unless SS was constantly feeding LV
lies about who was really doing things at Hogwarts -- quite a stretch.)


C. The only comfort I can take is that she is probably well on her way to
finishing book 7 by now.  This was indeed half a book, and as much as I
enjoyed JKR's wonderful writing style, I am *really* looking forward to the
final book.  

Vivamus