Can Harry kill LV? Was: Why can't Harry?

[curlyhornedsnorkack]

No: HPFGUIDX 142440

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:
(in message 142327)

> In general, I have a problem with Harry killing Voldemort. I could
> handle Harry causing Voldemort's death, but I'm just not sure I can
> see Harry 'bang-your-dead' flat out killing Voldemort. Is it really
> that simple? Will Harry just go, in the final moment, 'Avada 
> Kadavra'
> and Voldemort will fall over dead? It leaves me feeling uneasy.
> 
> Maybe Harry could ...< kill him with>  some other indirect means. 
> But if Harry flat
> out kills Voldie, doesn't he become essentially the thing he is
> fighting against? 

Snorky responds:
JKR has talked several times about how she wants her books to reflect
the reality of war.
For instance, in an interview with Stephen Fry around the time of Book
5's publication she said the following:
"... It's one of the cruel things about death and we're now in a war
situation where that does happen. That's how it happens – one minute
you are talking to your friend and the next minute he is gone, so
shocking and inexplicable – one minute they are there but now where
did they go?..." [Edited]
A reality of war is that killing your enemy is something you do even
if you are the good guy. (It reminds me of a short story by Joseph
Conrad in which an immigrant horrifies officials when he answers "yes"
to the question, "Have you ever killed anyone", and is  let off the
hook when he explains that he had been a soldier. I don't like the
image of Harry killing LV like prey, but if I were a soldier, I
might not be so squeamish. JKR seems happy to shock - she might go for
it! Or less traumatically, perhaps Harry kills LV to save a friend.

A slightly separate point: I'm also not sure that JKR meant that
whenever you kill someone, your soul splits unconditionally. Perhaps
we'll learn more about soul splitting, and whether Snape's soul was
split by his killing of Dumbledore, in Book 7.

-Snorky