Curse that killed Bellatrix

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 187675

sartoris22 wrote:
> > Like Ikotur, I wondered if Molly used the killing curse. I hoped that she didn't because it splits the soul and is punishable by imprisonment in Azkaban.
 
Bart replied:
> It's not the AK spell; it's murder that splits the soul. And the soul CAN heal. And, effectively speaking, there was no ministry when Molly cast the spell. Note that even the ministry played fast and loose with it; they allowed Barty/Crouch to use it on a spider as a demonstration to his class.

>
Carol responds:
I don't think that the Ministry knew what "Moody" was doing. In fact, I'm not even sure that he had Dumbledore's permission to teach those curses (despite claiming that he did), though I think the last is more likely than I did before reading the revelations about Dumbledore's manipulativeness in DH.

Other than that, I agree with your post. Molly's action wasn't illegal at the time regardless of the spell she cast, and her killing of Bellatrix wasn't murder. *Somebody* had to do it, just as somebody (Harry) had to kill Voldemort (or, at least, make sure that he died). For at least two books, Harry talks about killing him. And I'm pretty sure that even if he'd cast Avada Kedavra himself rather than casting an Expelliarmus that deflected LV's AK, his soul would not have been split.

Carol, glad that Harry didn't have to cast an AK regardless