The Avada Kedavra on the Astronomy Tower
[This post is an expansion of the first section of an essay arguing the Stoppered Death theory. I needed more room over there to describe the background to that theory, so I moved the AK evidence here and vastly expanded it. Read about the Stoppered Death theory here: http://felicitys-mind.livejournal.com/2616.html]
The Avada Kedavra Snape Cast at ( Read more... )
The fox was described as leaping up the banking when Bellatrix turned to it and then fell back to the ground after being hit with the AK. Neither of us have proof that the fox was actually in the air when the AK hit it, nor can we say that the fox wasn’t lifted higher by the AK if it was in the air at the time the curse made contact.
Fawkes burst into flame in mid-air the instant the AK hit it and transformed into a baby bird the instant he died . He burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled, and flightless”. No other creature we’ve seen physically transformed as Fawkes when did hit with the AK, so Fawkes can’t be compared to any other animal or object. There was an extra variable involved.
The reason I included the passages for the other jinxes was to show that the same spell can produce different secondary effects. As for the power of a spell to lift Dumbledore vertically, you need to note the difference in the Impediment jinx effects: When Harry used the Impediment jinx against Lucius Malfoy, Lucius was “blasted off his back” from his position lying on the floor and sent crashing into a dais. (OP35) That would be the “wrong trajectory” I suppose, but it happened.
As for Cedric, I stand 100% by what I wrote. A standing man who is killed instantly is not going to fall backwards with his arms and legs fully extended away from his body.
I’m sorry you didn’t have a chance to read the last essay I linked to. Here is an excerpt:
“Further, Mike Newell, the director of the film version of Goblet of Fire consulted Jo about the effect of the Avada Kedavra curse prior to filming Cedric’s death. “She gave me very clear things when I needed them, like, what did the Avada Kedavra Curse actually do when it hits you." In the movie, Cedric is blasted up off his feet. He does not merely crumple to the ground like a limp rag doll. Why would they consult her if they intended to ignore whatever she told them? We must assume that she told them the Avada Kedavra curse would cause a wizard to be blasted back, up off their feet because that's what we see.
Immediately prior to being cursed, Dumbledore is leaning against the battlements on the astronomy tower of the castle. Battlements have sections that are higher to allow defenders of a castle to hide from incoming weapons and sections that are lower to allow defenders to fire back at oncoming invaders. We do not know how close Dumbledore is to one of these lower sections. Perhaps he was leaning near just such a section and was blasted through this lower portion. Or perhaps AK Curse performed very strongly against very powerful wizards can have the effect of blasting the body into the air.
As I said, having only observed one Avada Kedavra curse in action (against a Muggle), we can hardly make generalizations about “all” Avada Kedavra curses.
Further, none of the Death Eaters assembled on the tower finds anything strange about the way the Avada Kedavra curse hits Dumbledore’s body. As one or more of them were ready to curse him themselves, I assume they have some general familiarity with this curse and the way a body reacts to it. As these seasoned dark wizards find nothing strange in the trajectory of Dumbledore’s body, neither do I.”
You make an interesting point about the backfired AK at Godric’s Hollow, but that was not a physical shield as Rowling has made clear in her interview quotes (the theorized shield is physical). Rowling said what happened to Harry had never happened before because no person had ever been offered the chance to live but chose to die sacrificially instead. People in the Potterverse have seen AK’s hitting inanimate objects for a long time, so if it were possible to make this shield, someone would have invented it and everyone would know about it.
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