[HPforGrownups] Priori Incantatum and the missing AK

[rebecca]

No: HPFGUIDX 153810


>"Peggy Wilkins" said:


<snip>

> We see the past spells come out in reverse order: Wormtail's
> regenerated hand, cries of pain associated with Crucio, victims Cedric
> Diggory, Bertha Jorkins, Frank Bryce, Lily and James Potter--but there
> is no sign of the Avada Kedavra that Voldemort shot at Harry, which
> should have occurred immediately before Lily's regurgitated "shadow"
> appeared.
>
> What could this mean, if anything?  Is it a Flint that it is missing?
> Was Voldemort's own wand not used to fire AK at Harry (seems
> improbable)?  Or, perhaps it is evidence of something I have suggested
> before: that because the failed curse never completed, it is "clogged
> up" between Harry and Voldemort, the basis of what connects them?
>
> My tendency is to believe the last: that because the curse couldn't
> complete, its energy remains between Harry and Voldemort, and it may
> be able to complete its job after Voldemort's Horcruxes are gone.  If
> that is true, then the absence of AK among the Priori Incantatem
> spells that emerge from Voldemort's wand is deliberate on JKR's part.
>

Rebecca:

IMO, the following that Dumbledore says in PS/SS to Professor McGonagall (at 
Pivet Drive when they arranged to leave Harry at the Dursley's) makes me 
wonder:

"It's-it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all 
the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy?  It's just 
astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven 
did Harry survive?"

"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

"We can only guess", hm? Personally, I always found it odd that the *legend* 
of that night was so widely known. There's that old adage that comes to mind 
about stories becoming myths, then myths lead to legend and legend has a 
little truth somewhere in the mix. One alternative could be that Lily jumped 
in the way of the curse intended for Harry, rather than having a separate AK 
curse thrown at her specifically by His Dark Lordship-ness. Then again, if 
that's not what happened, what exactly would we see since the AK didn't 
work?

Rebecca, pondering the possibilities