Disarming spell/ Character's choices

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185474

Magpie write:
> We were talking about the attention drawn to Harry using "nice"
spells and the focus on killing as tearing the soul leading up to
Harry being in a situation where Voldemort casting an AK himself kills
him (Voldemort). <snip>

Carol responds:

I think the confusion lies in whether it's killing or murder, a
particular type of killing, that tears the soul. We used to think that
using an AK would, in itself, tear the soul, but apparently that's not
the case for Snape, who kills the dying Dumbledore at DD's request for
the greater good (or for the humane motives that DD provides him--to
spare DD pain and degradation--concealing his primary reason, the
Elder Wand). Voldemort, OTOH, tore his soul using other methods--the
Basilisk as weapon to kill Moaning Myrtle and poison to kill Hepzibah
Smith--as well as through AK. (His murder of Snape using Nagini no
doubt did further damage even though the soul piece wasn't actually
torn off, just available if he were insane enough to want yet another
Horcrux.) Murder is murder, whether the victim is AK'd, poisoned,
killed by an animal on its owner's orders, shot, strangled, burned, or
starved.

And murder is what Harry thought he would be forced to commit when he
interpreted the Prophecy as meaning that he must either murder or be
murdered. (He didn't say kill or be killed.) The first time around, he
chose to be murdered. When, thanks to the shared drop of blood, he had
the choice to go back and try again, he no longer needed to sacrifice
himself--there was no soul bit to destroy, and his death would serve
no purpose. So the question, which he did not consciously formulate
but nevertheless faced, was how to vanquish Voldemort without
"murdering" him, without using the one Unforgiveable that he had never
been tempted to use, perhaps because he associated it with murder.
(See his reaction to the AK that Crouch!Moody cast in his DADA
class--paralleling Neville's more extreme reaction to the curse that
drove his parents to insanity. He'd had nightmares for years about a
flash of green light before he knew what it meant--his mother killed
by that curse before his childish eyes, or maybe LV hitting him with
that curse and giving him his scar. He'd seen Cedric and then
Dumbledore killed by that same curse. No wonder he was reluctant to
use it. No wonder Expelliarmus, which had (through the Priori
Incantatem in GoF) saved him from yet another AK, was his last, best hope.

Carol, who sees absolutely nothing wrong with having Harry choose not
to kill Voldemort directly, especially with an AK, and would have been
highly disappointed had he done so