The editor was sobbing

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 167044

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...>
wrote:
>
> 
> However, I, personally, don't want Harry to use Avada Kedavra or any
> other Dark Curse. The Unforgiveable Curses, it seems to me, corrupt
> the mind and the soul. (Look at the Crouches, for example, or at the
> probably irredeemable Bellatrix Lstrange.) I wish that Harry, who
> knows what a Crucio feels like, would stop attempting to cast one, and
> I think it would be simply wrong, an inversion of the morality of
> JKR's world, for Harry to use the weapons of the enemy to kill him. I
> would prefer for him to bring about Voldemort's death in some other
> way, such as forcing him to go beyond the Veil (or summoning Fawkes to
> act as suicide bomber?) rather like the One Ring's falling into the
> Cracks of Doom causes Barad Dur to crumble and Sauron to fall into the
> abyss, never to rise again.
> 
> I know that Harry thinks that he has to "kill" Voldemort. He even
> thinks of it, after he first hears the Prophecy, as having to commit
> murder or be murdered. I know all the arguments about self-defense not
> being murder, about soldiers having to kill, and none of them gives me
> any comfort. I don't want Harry to suffer the anguish of having killed
> anyone, even Voldemort, who is hardly human and, as you say, has to
> die. So I cling to the hope that Voldemort will die in some other way,
> and the U.S. cover fans the flames of what would otherwise be a
> forlorn hope.
> 
>

Ken:

You are not alone in this hope but I for one fail to see the
distinction that you are trying to make here. Actively killing someone
differs not at all from causing someone's death whether by action or
inaction. I've never looked at going beyond the veil as any different
from death. The veil is the boundary between life and death and it can
only be crossed in one direction (although maybe DH will portray and
exception to this). Forcing Voldemort through the veil somehow or
simply not grabbing him to keep him from falling through accidently is
the same as killing him with a rifle or a wand. If you went into a
confrontation with him with the intent to kill him then it is a
premeditated killing, a murder.

Killing is an awful thing and it isn't an easy thing for decent
people. In rare instances it is the right thing. Harry should do the
right thing no matter the cost to himself. There are some burdens
worth bearing. The only real way to avoid the anguish you want to
spare Harry is to have someone else kill Voldemort. I'd say that there
is a reasonable chance that Pettigrew or Snape will do just that.
Severus has already spared one Hogwarts student the life long burden
of knowing that he killed someone.

I think that Gandalf said that it was unimaginable that Sauron would
ever rise again. I don't believe he said it was *impossible*. That
door might be open the barest crack. I'd prefer that Voldemort's fall
be truly permanent. My better side would like to see all the rest
redeemed but perhaps some outcomes *are* too trite to be suffered.

Ken