SPOILER - Switching Spell that might have been used at Godrics Hollow

[tinglinger]

No: HPFGUIDX 171813

Everyone assumes that the reason that Harry Potter was
marked for death by Lord Voldemort was because of the
prophecy. But there was another reason as well........

>From the first chapter of SS we are led to believe that
Lord Voldemort wanted to kill Harry, and, after killing
his parents, indeed tried to kill Harry using the Avada
Kedavera spell which backfired and destroyed LVs body
while letting his spirit survive. The green light is
evidence that such a spell was cast.

JKR, for some reason that I cannot fathom, said towards
the end of the interview "The first question I have never
been asked is "why didn't Voldemort die?" Not "Why did
Harry live?"

By changing the focus of the question she has raised an
entirely new possibility and a new line of questions and
possible contradictions -

The Avada Kedavera spell is supposedly unstoppable
and fatal. We have been told this several times.
Yet Harry stopped it and survived.
That is the first contradiction.

Then the same Avada Kedavera spell is supposed to have
rebounded and destroyed Voldemort's body, while leaving
his spirit alive. This would contradict Crouch!Moody's
statement that Harry was the only survivor -- Voldemort
survived too.
This is the second contradiction.

The basic information on Avada Kedavra comes from
Crouch!Moody in GOF pg 216
"Not nice. Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse.
There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever
survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
We then are privy to Harry's thoughts over the next
two pages .... jkr describes his memories
(GOF pg 216 again)....... "How Voldemort had killed
Harry's father first. How James Potter had tried to hold
LV off, while shouting at Lily to take Harry and run ...
Voldemort had advanced on Lily Potter, told her to move
aside so that he could kill Harry .. how she had begged
him to kill her instead, refused to stop shielding her
son.... "
Then in the next paragraph jkr writes
"Harry knew these details because he had heard his
parents' voices when he had fought the dementors last
year ---"
He also remembers the green light.

OK...... so lets get out copy of POA and find out what
Harry heard back in POA ... On page 238-239
"... and his mother's voice was louder than ever,
echoing inside his head - "Not Harry! Not Harry!
Please - I'll do anything"
"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"
............then Harry is awoken by Lupin

Notice any difference ?

Where in Harry's POA memory is it mentioned that
Voldemort wanted to KILL Harry?
Or at least want to kill him by using an Avada Kedavra
curse ????????

IT IS MY CONTENTION THAT THE AVADA KEDAVRA CURSE WAS
NEVER USED ON HARRY !!!!!
The green light that Harry sees as a baby is the AK
curse used to kill his mother - not necessarily the
one (if it was cast) that was used to allegedly try
to kill him.
Harry must have had something or some quality that
Voldemort desperately wanted which would have been
unattainable by Voldemort if he KILLED Harry
directly by using the AK curse.

And that quality was a living body with a complete soul --
unlike Lord Voldemorts soul which was fragmented into 
horcruxes ...  and thus Voldemort was not truly "alive"

Think about this, now. If Voldemort used the AK on
Harry as a baby and as a result was blasted out of
his body,
WHY WOULD HE TRY IT AGAIN,
NOT ONCE BUT TWICE
(in GOF at the graveyard and in the MOM) ??
He couldn't be THAT stupid !

Also note that in COS Riddle waited for the basilisk to
try to kill Harry rather than use a faster and seemingly
more fatal method of the AK curse. This was so even
AFTER Harry killed the critter.

Well then, what is going on here ?


There are spells that we know about but don't know how
they are summoned or the impact of what happens if
they go wrong. We do know that spells can and do
go wrong -- time turner effects, Luna's mom's
experiment, the Polyjuice potion - with unforseen and
possibly disasterous results.

So if the Avada Kedavra curse wasn't used, what curse was?
How about a switching curse.

Now this is a bit of a stretch, but not too much........
My starting point is the set of quotes below, particularly
the very clever play on words by Dumbledore
"HE SAW HIMSELF IN YOU before he had ever seen you,"
(OOP pg 842)
Side note -- part of Voldemorts soul inside of Harry ?

Hagrid (SS 53)
"How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter?"
Hagrid (SS 57)
"Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."
Harry's short life line as described by Trelawney
"HE SAW HIMSELF IN YOU before he had ever seen you, ..."
"... he did not kill you, as he intended, but gave you
powers, AND A FUTURE, ....."
baby headed death eater (silly image unless you think
of it as a subtle hint.....)

So think of a switching spell that went badly wrong......
Why would Voldemort do it ? Maybe Hagrid was right --
there was no human left in him to die, so a switching
spell would in effect kill Harry once he gets switched
into an already dead body and Voldemort would be
switched into Harry's body as a full occupant.
(Think of the famous Ray Bradbury story
"The Small Assassin" -- a fully cognizant baby who
can kill....).

So again, baby Harry must have had some special quality
that Voldemort desperately needed which would have been
gone if he KILLED him directly by using the AK curse.
And once again, after LV got his body back in GOF and was
able to touch Harry, he had no fear of using the AK curse
on Harry.

But when Harry was a baby, Voldemort was not as bright
as he thought because it appears that the switching spell
only works with two LIVING bodies......
and since Voldemort wasn't alive, the spell wasnt fully
realized, and for him went horribly wrong...............
The spell DID work partially though, Voldemort wasn't
totally dead, and part of him was "switched" to Harry
in the form of his scar....

Hmmmmmm.................

NOTE - I originally posted this theory (as Samnanya) in a
slightly less extensive form in HPFGU shortly after JKR's
Edinborough interview. I believe that it was the first
time anyone had suggested that an AK was NOT used on Harry
at Godric's Hollow.