[HPforGrownups] Ariana's death

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 177167

From: "Carol" <justcarol67 at yahoo.com>
> 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.

I wondered too, why each of the brothers wonder why they might have killed 
Ariana, because they would have known if they had cast a killing spell, but 
then again, I have to look at Ariana herself for this answer.  I wonder if 
her magic was "off" of sorts- that she could absorb a spell that wasn't 
meant to kill and it would do something really weird and unexpectedly nasty 
to her. If the brothers knew this, and thus feared that when they cast a 
mere "hex" at Grindelwald, if it did indeed hit her and went awry, that they 
would have been at fault for killing her. Even if Grindelwald had cast a 
mere hex that hit Ariana, Grindelwald would not have known about this 
"oddness" of Ariana's, but the brothers would, and thus they would feel bad 
about it later, knowing that she was more at risk than a normal wizard would 
have been ordinarily. I think Grindelwald fled at seeing this oddness of the 
spell going off, for surely he recognized that "this" was not right, and he 
feared being blamed for it, even if he hadn't sent a killing curse. (I think 
it was Grindelwald's hex that killed Ariana, but that was never his intent 
when he sent it, as it wasn't a killing curse.)

I think her death was indeed an accident, but the three men involved knew 
they had been dueling at the time, and thus each felt a measure of personal 
responsibility. Grindelwald fled because of the unexpected magic he saw from 
the spell he cast, and he feared being blamed for the murder; Aberforth 
turned his anger on Albus for not protecting Ariana when she was vulnerable; 
and Albus blamed himself for allowing Ariana to be harmed at all- thus did 
not try to defend himself when Aberforth vented on him and broke his nose. 
There is no getting around that Ariana died as a result of that duel, and 
even if it was a total accidental death that no one could have predicted, 
still, you can't undo the guilt that each of them would feel for a lifetime. 
I consider it to have been an "accidental homicide" that no external 
punishment was needed, but would be felt internally forever.

Shelley