Ariana's death

[Katie]

No: HPFGUIDX 177166

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> I'm curious as to what others think regarding Ariana's death.
> Dumbledore himself isn't sure what happened and Harry doesn't want 
to know. Obviously, JKR didn't want to tell us, either. She 
deliberately left it open to speculation. To me, it seems most 
likely that Grindelwald killed her (probably aiming at Aberforth), 
but if the spell he cast had been an AK and the brothers knew they 
hadn't cast one, the identity of the killer would have been obvious, 
at least to them. Gellert's conduct (fleeing the scene) indicates 
that he either was guilty, feared he was guilty, or thought that the 
others would suspect him of being guilty.
> 
> Anyone care to speculate on what actually happened? 
Who cast the spell and what was it? 

***Katie:
I have no idea what the spell could have been. Any number of deadly 
spells obviously exist, so I assume it could have been plenty. As 
for who cast it, I definitely feel that it could have been Albus. 
Since it wasn't an AK, I wonder if the spell (assuming DD did cast 
it) wouldn't have been as deadly to a wizard with a stronger 
constitution? Maybe it wouldn't have killed Grindelwald, but Ariana 
was weaker and so it had more of an effect on her. 
 
>Carol:If it was Grindelwald, was he trying to kill
> Aberforth, or did his magic completely escape his control?
> (Apparently, an AK isn't the only spell that can kill. Ariana 
managed to kill her mother through accidental magic.)
> 
***Katie: If it was Grindelwald, then my supposition changes, and I 
would think that the spell was meant to be deadly. He was obviously 
a person with little conscious and lots of arrogance, and I'm sure 
he saw Aberforth as an incredibly unimportant person whose death 
would mean little. 

>Carol: Assuming that Albus didn't actually cast the spell, to what 
>degree is he responsible for his sister's death, in your view?

***Katie:
I think there's a very good chance that Albus DID cast the spell, 
not, of course, meaning to kill his sister. However, assuming that 
he did NOT...I think he's still very responsible for her death. He 
brought Grindelwald into the fold, he alienated his brother and 
ignored his disabled sister, and was generally incredibly negligent 
of the responsibility left to him. I would say he has most of the 
responsibility for her death, because the whole situation was caused 
by his behavior.  

> Carol, wondering why there's been so little discussion of DD's 
youth and a certain merry-faced boy


***Katie:
I haven't been that interested in grindelwald as a character, 
because he's someone we have very little real contact with and his 
story is very disjointed. I don't know that I know enough of him to 
discuss him intelligently.  
As for DD's story, I am very interested in how he changed from 
basically Percy into almost Voldy (in terms of Muggle attitudes) and 
then into the DD that we know and love, who obviously had a lot more 
going on than we ever imagined (or at least more than I ever 
imagined)...I guess I just never found a good way to start a 
thread. : ) 
Katie