Can it be Impedimenta? Was: An AK Puzzle

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 134666

Vivamus wrote:
<snip>
> > Did anyone notice that the AK does *NOT* blast things?  
> > <snip>
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...
> 
Merrylinks responded:
> Yes! Yes! <snip> [T]he effect of Snape's AK was unlike any
successful AK we have seen so far in the books. Dumbledore should have
expired instantaneously, slumping to the floor because his legs would
no longer support him, but with eyes open and with no change in his
facial expression.
> 
> It is unclear to me what caused Dumbledore to be blasted into the
air and then to fall from the tower. Was it the effect of a partially 
effective AK coming from Snape? <snip>


Carol adds:
I agree that there's something very strange about this AK. Not only is
Dumbledore thrown into the air, but his eyes, in marked contrast to
the Riddles' and Cedric's (in GoF), are *closed* and he looks (except
for the odd angle of his limbs) "as if he might have been sleeping"
(HBP Am. ed. 608)His eyes would not have been closed if he'd been
killed by an AK, nor would he have worn a peaceful expression. He must
have had time to close his eyes, to compose his thoughts and his
expression, before he hit the ground and was killed by the fall. It's
even possible that he died in midair, weakened by age and injury and
exhaustion and poison but still a great wizard whose last act was to
choose the moment of his death (which of course was inevitable and
imminent in any case).

As for the spell, we know that Snape is an expert at nonverbal spells
(he's been teaching them to his students all year) and we see him
using them to deflect Harry's curses and hexes later in the chapter,
so I rather like Valky's theory that he's thinking of some other spell
as he casts the AK. (I don't think Occlumency would have been
necessary, only that the spell be "nvbl.") She suggests a hover charm,
but what about Impedimenta instead? It might block the force of the AK
or even hinder it if he thought it before he spoke, and it might
explain why Dumbledore was blasted into the air, as we've noted is not
normal for a successful AK.

Compare these passages:

A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit
Dumbledore squarely in the chest. . . .  [Harry] was forced to watch
as Dumbledore was blasted into the air. For a split second, he seemed
to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly
backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of
sight. (HBP 596 Am. ed.)

and 

"Impedimenta!" yelled Harry.

His jinx hit Amycus in the chest. He gave a piglike squeal of pain,was
lifted off his feet and into the opposite wall, slid down it, and fell
out of sight behind Ron. (HBP 599)


DD doesn't squeal, of course, but both he and Amycus are
blasted/lifted into the air. There is no wall for Dumbledore to slide
down because he's not inside a building; he's at the top of a
crenellated tower. When Amycus falls backward, he hits the wall and
slides down to the floor. But when DD falls backward, he is above the
battlements and there is only empty air behind him. 

I don't think Snape has any illusions about DD's survival as they
exchange a last thought and he points his wand; he must know that his
spell will knock DD over the wall and that DD will die, whatever spell
he casts. And he knows that it must *appear* to be a Killing Curse,
the Dark Lord's own weapon. Anything else will look suspicious to the
Death Eaters, and he must not fail to convince them that he is
Voldemort's man. But it's just possible that, brilliant as we know
Snape is, he disguised an Impedimenta as an AK so that, even though he
did the terrible thing that the vow (and DD?) forced him to do, at
least he didn't have to kill Dumbledore with an Unforgiveable Curse.

I'm not sure of this theory, of course, but I don't think the
similarity of the two passages, only two pages apart, is accidental,
nor do I think that JKR threw in the detail of DD's closed eyes and
peaceful expression for no reason. I think it's also significant that
the expression of his sleeping portrait is "peaceful and untroubled"
(626), implying that neither his death nor Snape's role in it disturbs
Portrait!Dumbledore in the least.

One small objection that I can think of: it's possibile that
Impedimenta normally is some color other than green (does anyone
know?), but Snape would have had to make sure that the light of *his*
spell was green in order to pull off this deception. If anyone could
do that, it's Snape.
 
I don't know if Impedimenta is the explanation for the abnormal AK,
but I think it's a plausible theory--and a beacon of hope for those of
us who care about Snape to hold onto as we wait those long two years
for the next book. They also serve who only stand and wait.

Carol, wondering if the Phoenixlike thing that rises from DD's chest
just before the tomb encloses him is his spirit belatedly leaving his body