The AK (was: My HBP Review)

[Jim Ferer]

Pippin: "Sure -- but Draco didn't *try* to kill Dumbledore. He lowered
his wand. Snape tried, thus carrying out the deed Draco failed to
perform, the one he was ordered to do, and also failed to kill him.
Mischief managed. Snape made much of the fact that the Dark Lord
_didn't _ expect Draco to succeed. And Narcissa agreed. So Snape did
just _exactly_ what the Dark Lord had ordered Draco to do."

No, Draco's job was to kill Dumbledore, and Snape's vow was to finish
whatever Draco's job if he couldn't, or wouldn't. I didn't quote all
the dialogue that backs that up, but it is there.  Are you saying
Draco's mission was to fail at killing Dumbledore?

Pippin: "A human body is what, 70% water? -- I'm no forensic
specialist, but it seems to me a trickle of blood from the mouth is
either too much or not enough. Forgive the imagery, but Dumbledore
should have splatted like one of Peeves's water balloons. I suspect
Dumbledore's luck ran out about thirty feet from the ground ( advice
from my physician brother, whatever you do, *don't* try to kill
yourself by leaping from a third story window. Go upstairs a floor
first.) That would be enough to break all his bones and cripple him
for life if he were a Muggle, but not to kill him -- if he hadn't been
dead already."

I am a safety engineer. I investigate accidents, and have done several
fall death cases.  I've seen people lying dead, looking pristine in
the front, but the back...  A relative lack of blood can be suggestive
of a post-mortem injury.

The castle is seven stories tall (seven stories is roughly 100 feet),
and the Astronomy tower is presumably somewhat taller. We don't know
how much, so we'll stick with 100 feet.  Long drop.

Pippin, are you a criminal defense attorney?  If they ever get me on
video doing someone in, I want you to defend me. You'll have a story
for me. Way to go! So, the potion killed him in between the time DD
was blasted off the top of the Astronomy tower by the AK spell and the
time he hit the ground. Okay, the jury will go with that.

A Crucio curse and an AK aren't comparable. Harry's half-hearted
Crucio worked, just not well. An AK seems sure to be binary: it either
kills ya or fails utterly. Doing what you say Snape did seems like
shooting someone with a bazooka but not really meaning it.  Mad-Eye
suggested to his fourth-year students that they couldn't cast an AK;
he didn't say the spell could be faked.

Hey, I've been wrong on a lot of stuff here. I might as well be wrong
again.

Jim Ferer