Fake AK Theory

[snipsnapsnurr]

No: HPFGUIDX 134520

There are a lot of posts concerning the possibility that Snape used 
some other, non-verbal spell while saying the AK words. Lots of 
speculation over whether it would be possible to do that, etc. I 
would imagine it would be extremely difficult, but not impossible, 
and if it's possible, I bet Snape could do it. But here's another 
thing about it. There were a bunch of DE's looking on when Snape did 
it. They all probably know what a real AK looks like. They wouldn't 
be fooled. Of course they might not care what spell was used anyway 
as long as Dumbledore is dead. We only care because we have been told 
that it is an unforgivable spell and Snape is definitely evil if he 
used it. From an artistic point of view, though, if he is using a 
fake AK he has to be doing it in an attempt to deceive a character 
who is present in the scene. The only real candidates are Harry and 
Draco. Draco is actually a slightly better candidate since we know 
for a fact that Harry has seen a real AK performed successfully. In 
other words, if it was fake, and Harry was fooled, he should have 
known better.

As I was writing this it occurred to me that maybe the AK spell is 
sort of personalized the way the patronus spell is. Or maybe it looks 
different depending on the state of mind of the person casting it. 
But now we are off into pure speculation. I'm starting to sort of 
hate this theory, actually. We the readers think it is really 
significant whether the AK was real or not, but I'm not sure anybody 
in the book really cares at all. If Snape had come up to the tower 
and beaten Dumbledore to death with a sock full of knuts Harry's 
reaction probably wouldn't be any different.


snipsnapsnurr