Wand shadows (Was: Angels on my mind)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 141724

Saraquel wrote:
<snip>
> What's interesting about the GoF battle is that when the wand
regurgitates its spells, it is not the avada kedavras which emerge,
but the shadows of the people that they killed. As though the wand 
somehow stores/reproduces the connection between the killer and the 
killed, rather than the act of killing.  I'm wondering if this scene
is a foreshadowing of something to come. I haven't exactly worked out
what that might be yet, but there is the notion of feelings involved
in casting a spell to bring into the mix.
> 
> We know that in order to cast some spells - patronus,avada kedavra - 
you really have to mean it.  In other words, you have to involve your
whole being – head, heart and wand.  We know that powerful emotions
can produce magical outcomes without the use of a wand or spell
(discussed recently on the list), and that Harry seems to do this not
infrequently. In other words he manifests his feeling directly into
magic. We have DDs speech about his parents living on in Harry.  Put
all that together and might we have the spirits of the angelic four
emerging from Harry's wand because they somehow `live' in his heart,
and through his intense loving invocation, emerge from his wand to
help him at the end? <snip>

Carol responds:
Setting aside the difficulty I have in viewing Sirius Black as in any
way angelic, I don't see where we could go with this idea as
formulated here, but I want to offer an alternative suggested by your
point that the shadows that come out of Voldemort's wand are not so
much records of the AK itself as shadows of the people who were
killed. Moreover, they know who killed them, and how, even if, like
Frank Bryce, they don't understand the spell. ("He was a wizard, then?
He killed me, that one. You fight him, boy." quoted from memory)

We've already seen James's and Lily's shadows and I don't see how they
could emerge again. Sirius didn't die from whatever spell Bellatrix
cast. He fell through the veil. It's unlikely, though not impossible,
that his shadow self could appear if a Priori Incantatem were
performed on Bellatrix's wand, but even if it were, I don't think that
Harry would witness it.

But just suppose that Snape performed a real AK on Dumbledore, or that
whatever spell Snape cast caused Dumbledore's shadow self to appear,
fully aware of what had happened on the tower and fully aware of his
surroundings, like the shadows that came out of the wand in the
graveyard. Not DD as angel coming to aid Harry, but DD as shadow
summoned to explain the events on the tower. Who better to confirm the
thoughts (if any) exchanged by the two Legilimens? Who better to
explain exactly when and how he died and whether he was already dying
and what plans, if any, he and Snape had made in relation to the UV?

I think this would be a better method than talking to a portrait that
can only repeat catch phrases or witnessing the scene by entering the
memory in a Pensieve (which would still show it in real time from the
outside and still be subject to the same (mis)interpretation as the
original event, even by witnesses less prejudiced against Snape than
Harry. No one, not even Harry, would doubt the word of a shadow
Dumbledore.

If, indeed, the graveyard scene foreshadows something in Book 7, maybe
it's Dumbledore's final appearance and the exoneration, or at least
the vindication, of Snape.

Carol, wondering how such a scene could come about and hoping that it will