A Godric’s Hollow Theory

I agree with the part of Lily’s sacrfice of love, but also I think that maybe she knew something else that make her so special that Voldemort let her choose between run or stay. We don’t know so much of that night, i think that in book seven we will know more things about tom riddle by himself not only in memories of other people and we will know by himself what happened that night because he is the only witness that could remember. Maybe what J Rowling is going to tell us on the next book about Lily that is relevant has to do with that night and something she knew that leave harry with another kind of “scar”, her green eyes

Well, this is what I just posted over there:

I have problems with this theory.

First, no assumptions can be made about the secondary effects of the Avada Kedavra since it’s clear from the text that these are so variable and overlapping that no patterns can be drawn. The Avada Kedavra always produces an intense green light, but the light is sometimes described as a flash of green light and sometimes described as a jet of green light. There is similar variability in sound effects since the curse is sometimes described as accompanied by a rushing noise and sometimes not. A quick look at the AK’s we’ve seen so far demonstrates that there is a lot of overlap and no pattern:

• Babymort cast the curse on Frank Bryce in GF (it was a verbal curse by the way since Babymort was described as muttering words even though Harry couldn’t hear them over Frank’s screams; Frank’s death was immediately preceded by a “flash of green light and a rushing sound,” so we have every reason to believe it was a verbal AK, especially since the identical secondary effects were described when we saw Fake Moody demonstrate the AK a few chapters later).
• Fake Moody cast the curse on a spider in GF (it was verbal curse that produced a “flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound).
• Wormtail cast the curse on Cedric Diggory in GF (it was a verbal curse that produced a “blast of green light” that “blazed through Harry’s [closed] eyelids,” but Harry didn’t hear a rushing sound even though he heard the verbal curse and heard Cedric’s body fall next to him).
• Voldemort cast the AK verbally at Harry in the graveyard at the end of GF; this was the curse that connected with Harry’s Expelliarmus spell and caused the Priori Incantatem effect; it produced a “jet of green light” but no sound.
• Voldemort cast the curse five times in the MoM battle at the end of OP—the first time was cast verbally at Harry and then was cast four additional times in a short period nonverbally at Dumbledore (we know the first one was an AK because it was cast verbally, shortly after, Voldemort is described as casting a curse that produced “another” jet of green light,” and shortly after that, Voldemort was described as casting “another killing curse.” It is clear from the context of this section that Voldemort was casting a series of AK’s even though Rowling didn’t include descriptions of light or sound for each one).
• Bellatrix cast the curse on a fox in HBP (it was cast nonverbally, but we assume it was an AK because it produced a jet of green light and the fox died instantly from it; there was no sound described).
• Snape cast the curse on Dumbledore in HBP (it was a verbal curse that produced a jet of green light that hit the headmaster in the chest but no sound was described).

Second, Voldemort’s wand did not regurgitate evidence of every spell it had been used for since the murder of Lily Potter, so it’s no surprise to me that there was no evidence of the failed killing curse that backfired at Godric’s Hollow. After all, there was no record of the AK cast that caused the Priori Incantatem effect, and if the wand recorded every casting of the AK whether or not it succeeded as intended, then some evidence of it should have appeared first. There was no magical record of the ropes Wormtail had conjured to bind Harry even though we saw at the end of PA that this spell causes the ropes to be expelled directly out of the wand; Wormtail’s silver hand had come directly out of the wand and a ghostly image of the hand was produced during Priori Incantatem, so if the hand, why not the ropes? That wand must have been used many times in Albania and the UK between the deaths of Bertha and Frank, so why no record of those spells? And surely the wand had been used during the ritual that created Babymort’s rudimentary physical body, so why was there no record of that spell? Since the final (failed) AK wasn’t reproduced in a ghostly record, why would the failed AK cast at Harry in Godric’s Hollow be recorded in the wand? And shouldn’t we have seen some magical record of the Horcrux spell if indeed one had been used? My gut says Rowling, for dramatic purposes, only included a few select events to emerge in ghostly form during Priori Incantatem; I don’t see how anything can be surmised from the absence of a spell record during that event.

Third, and most importantly, although the AK cannot normally be blocked, we do have evidence in the Priori Incantatem event of a highly unusual event that mutated the magic of the AK and produced a different outcome. When the jet of green light from Voldemort’s verbal AK met the jet of red light from Harry’s verbal Expelliarmus, the intended effects of both spells were blocked and the magic that connected in the light stream was altered to form the golden cage, etc.

I believe something similar happened at Godric’s Hollow that mutated the magic of the AK Voldemort cast at baby Harry. The deep, ancient, impenetrable blood magic invoked by Lily’s sacrificial death covered Harry with a powerful magical protection that caused a mutation of sorts to Voldemort’s AK when it met Harry’s forehead; when the altered curse magic rebounded on Voldemort, it had changed so completely and powerfully that it destroyed Voldemort’s body and caused an explosion that left the house in ruins. The fact that Baby Harry was unharmed by the destruction of the house is another clue that the effects of the rebounded AK were caused by the interaction with the magic invoked by Lily rather than being evidence that Voldemort had cast something other than an AK. And my interpretation is consistent with Rowling’s drumbeat about LOVE being so important: the reason Harry didn’t die, the magic that Voldemort underestimates, the means by which Voldemort will be vanquished, etc.

There are other problems with the theory IMHO, but the ones I’ve listed struck me early on in the essay and undermine the rest.

Don’t you hate it when you’ve written a post and you computer stuffs up and you lose it all. Well, that happened to me.

I found this theory very frustrating to read. Too many statments that cannot be supported or were, in my opinion, a wrong interpretation of the texts.

The rushing sound that sometimes is heard by Harry when the AK is fired off is, I think, part of his emotional reaction to the spell that topped his parents. I have heard a rushing sound when receiving a strong emotional shock (being told about the death of my parents). I think it has little to do with the spell itself.

“And, as a side note, a “normal” murder would NOT split the soul at all.”

What?!

I did’t like this. I think it’s very clear from Rowlings writings that Life is so precious to her and murder or unnecessary killing is abhorent to her that she descibes murder as soul rending! It’s this splitting of the soul that certain evil wizards have made use of, not as this theory proposes- that the dark wizard splits their soul, puts it into someone else then kills them. That’s all arse-about(pardon my french). It’s this soul damaging actions that Harry wants to protect Sirius and Remus from in the Shrieking Shack (even though he doesn’t cognitively know the reasons for it at that stage- just a feeling I suspect.)

I also have a problem with the suggestion that AK and the Horcrux spell are the only killing spells. We know that AK is called the Killing Curse (maybe it would be better called the Slaying curse). When it kills it doesn’t leave any apparent damage on the body. The Death Eaters were firing off a lot of spells in the ministry fight that had many colour effects. These spells were obviously cast to kill their opponants and from the blasting damage to the ministry furniture it seems like that would happen. I reckon that if the Reducto spell was thrown at someone it’d blast them to smitherines.

I think Red Hen’s theory relies too much on her own fiction.

eg. her suggestion that Billy stubb’s rabbit hanging from the rafters is suggestive of Tom Riddle’s early ability to possess other creatures. I just cannot buy this. To me, it’s more indicative of Tom’s growing cruelty. Deliberate cruelty to animals is a major warning sign that the perpetraitor has the potential to become a murderer of serial killer. I believe this is whatRowling is trying to suggest to the reader and that Dumbledore is concerned about with Tom Riddle.

Joyce is definately correct about the horcrux creation being a part of ritual. I commented similarly regarding this in the Horcruxes: A summary post #171
http://swordofgryffindor.com/2005/12/21/horcruxes-a-summary/

I realise that theories like this are an exercise in speculation, but I found this one too much of a stretch.

Matthew

Oho! So you baited me, Travis, and I fell for it! Truly, this is a theory that I can’t take seriously. I only touched on a few problems I saw with it, but the whole “possession necessary for Horcrux production” idea doesn’t hold up in other ways.

So are you buried under 100 inches of snow in Rochester? I was thinking of you today when I saw images on the news of unfortunate upstate NY residents digging themselves out, but the exact location of the mindboggling snowfall wasn’t mentioned. I was once caught in a blizzard in which 28 inches fell in 24 hours, but 100 inches? I can’t even fathom it.

Dumbledore said that the only known relic of Gryffindor remains safe. So the Hallows could work for the locket, the cup and the wand but could NOT work for the sword…that is, unless Dumbledore was wrong with his knowledge. We do however know another relic of Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat when singing, said that Godric whipped him off his head… So there is another. And Harry said he was going back to Godric’s Hollow to rebuild the house. Perhaps he will uncover another artifact of Gryffindor’s there. But for the Hallows thing, only Hufflepuff Ravenclaw and Slytherin could have been used as we have Dumbledores word that the sword is safe.