[HPforGrownups] What was the spell that hit Tonks? (Was: NVBL spell question)

[Karen]

No: HPFGUIDX 147750


On Tuesday, February 7, 2006, at 08:20 PM, justcarol67 wrote:
>
>
> That aside, are we certain that the spell Dolohov cast would have been
> more powerful if it had been spoken or is the narrator reflecting
> Harry's OOV?

kchuplils:

It doesn't sound like it is just a guess:

"The curse Dolohov had used on her, though less effective than it would 
have been had ha been able to say the incantation aloud, had 
nevertheless cased, in Madam Pomfrey's words, "Quite enough damage to 
be going on with."  "
>
carol:
> Also, there are a lot of jets of green light flashing around the DoM
> during the battle and very few cries of "Avada Kedavra," or at least
> very few that get beyond the first word of the curse. One of these
> jets of green light (note that they are not blinding flashes and
> there's no rushing sound) hits Tonks and she rolls down the steps,
> unconscious. She alone of the Order members has to spend time in St.
> Mungo's, but she doesn't die.

kchuplis:
So maybe a silent AK is just really damaging to possibly deadly?

carol:
> Granted, most of these green spells miss their targets and damage the
> benches, walls, and (in LV's case) the fountain of Magical Brethren,
> so we don't see their effects on people. The one that (temporarily)
> kills Fawkes is almost certainly an AK, but (IIRC) the narrator labels
> only one other silent spell as a "killing curse," and that label could
> simply reflect Harry's perspective. He may assume that because the
> light is green, the spell must be an AK (despite the fact that Ron's
> "Eat slugs!" spell also involved a jet of green light).
>

kchuplis:
I definitely agree that the color of flash is not proprietary of the AK.

carol:
> It seems to me that if these green spells were all killing curses,
> more people would have been killed. Surely they didn't *all* miss
> their targets (except for the one that hit Tonks, who was seriously
> injured but did not die). Either that or nonverbal AKs aren't
> necessarily lethal and kchuplis is right that they're generally weaker
> than spoken spells. (Maybe it depends on the individual wizards powers
> and abilities, and most of these DEs have only recently escaped from
> Azkaban and probably are not in top form. I also wonder where they got
> the wands, since theirs must have been broken when they were sent to
> prison, but I'm straying off topic as usual.)
>
> Thoughts, anybody?
>
> Carol, who hopes that JKR will tell us what that purple spell Dolohov
> used on Hermione was (it doesn't seem to be Sectumsempra or she would
> have bled, even from the silent version)
>

kchuplis:

Totally agree. I've been dying to know what that was. One other note 
about the sectumsempra Snape used on James, maybe it almost missed him 
and that is why there was only a cut on his cheek, but maybe it was 
because it was nonverbal.