Disarming spell/ Character's choices

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185499

Annemehr wrote:
> 
> For my part, since the graveyard scene of GoF, I expected Harry to 
defeat Voldemort by having and AK cast at him by LV.  I spent a lot of
time trying to guess how that would play out, and *why,* because that
moment was going to encapsulate the raison d'etre for the entire series.
<snip>
> What she actually did was to mirror *both* of the Godric's Hollow 
AKs, which I didn't expect, and I think that in itself is rather neat.
In the Forest we have the image of Lily's death and creation of the
extra soul-bit, in the sacrifice and "death" of Harry, where that 
soul-bit was destroyed.  Shortly afterward, we have the AK in the 
Great Hall which is the echo of LV's attempt to kill Harry as an 
infant, and which likewise rebounded on its caster.

Carol responds:

I've been talking about the way she brought the story full circle from
Godric's Hollow, including the parallel with his mother's
self-sacrifice and the rebounding AK, but I missed the mirroring of
*both* AKs. Very astute!

<snip>
> Well, okay.  So, Harry seems to be a completely normal person of
goodwill, and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, just as many
others in the story did.  The only thing that made his sacrifices more
potent was mere circumstance: being an accidental Horcrux and the
master of the Elder Wand.  Neither of which were choices of his, or
even foreseen by the people whose actions caused them.

> 
> LV's fate and Harry's victory alike were the result of circumstances 
> beyond their control.

Carol responds:

True, but it fits with the motif of unforeseen consequences that we
see throughout the books. And, at least, this time around, Harry is
aware of what he's doing. He knows (finally) about the soul bit and he
knows that he *may* be the master of the Elder Wand. The choice of
casting an Expelliarmus and hoping that it causes the AK to rebound is
very different from being a passive, helpless infant who "caused" the
AK to rebound through no wish or action of his own.

And LV's fate is also only partly the result of circumstances beyond
his control. He chose to go after the Elder Wand and break into
Dumbledore's tomb to get it. He chose to use it instead of his own yew
wand, which would have worked just fine against any wand except
Harry's holly one. (The Priori Incantatem, I agree, is a circumstance
beyond his control, as is the mastery of the Elder Wand.) He chose to
confront Harry alone, to make the Horcruxes, to commit his various
crimes, to refuse remorse. And he chose, having never learned from his
mistakes, to cast yet another AK against Harry after having failed
twice before. So he's hardly an innocent victim of circumstances
beyond his control.

Annemehr:

Mechanically, the Great Hall AK is unsatisfying because it depends on
what to me is a deus-ex-machina of that Elder Wand business. And
with that comes the fact that Harry already knew about the Elder Wand
and so knew he was not facing a potent AK. <snip>

Carol responds:

Here, I have to disagree with you. Harry doesn't know for sure that
the wand knows he's its master (or regards him as its master after
having heard that he took Draco's wand by force). And he certainly
doesn't know that the AK won't be potent. He saw, through the scar
connection, Voldemort killing his own DEs quite effectively with that
wand. The AK it cast against him earlier utterly destroyed the soul
bit and would have killed him, too, had it not been for the soul bit.
The power of his self-sacrifice, which protected Neville so that he
could draw the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and so forth
seems to be wearing off. He and Voldemort agree that Love won't
protect him this time. All he has is his luck, his courage, his
favorite spell, and the hope that the Elder Wand will refuse to kill
him, causing the AK to rebound as it did at Godric's Hollow, thanks to
Lily's self-sacrifice (and LV's broken promise to Snape).

I do agree that the Elder Wand business is a deus machina and
unsatisfying from many angles, but I don't agree that it would not
have killed him. That AK was potent enough to kill Voldemort. It would
certainly have killed Harry if it had hit him.

Carol, who likes the overall plot *structure*, just not some of the
plot *devices* that JKR used to achieve it