I'd go with the theory of the victims magic fighting. Doesnt moody say that it could be cast by a student and not work? That would mean that you there is a ratio of power victim/caster. So if the caster doesnt cast it powerful enough (must be very weak) then the victim might fight back and live.

 

Eh...who knows whether we should believe a word out of Crouch's mouth in GoF anyway. But, my interpretation of what he was saying was more that the students would be unsuccessfully casting the curse. (There was more to AK than pointing and speaking.) If there was anyway to fight the curse (magically) I don't believe Harry being the only person to survive it would mean anything. Of course, technically Voldemort survived the curse as well, if we are going to believe that the curse rebounded rather than a variation on the curse rebounded that night.

I also find it disturbing that Bellatrix could cast a nonverbal AK in HBP. So much so, I decided that instant in HBP to ignore any spell theory JKR told us from then on.

 

Honestly, I don't think that JKR even thought about having spell theory. We have many examples of this: Avada Kedavra, Impedimentia (freezing or blasting?) and others that I'm too lazy to look up.

 

*Rolls eyes* Isn't it obvious? Peter is obviously more powerful than the Dark lord Voldemort. Duh!

-- I am kidding --

I agree.


I wouldn't say these plot holes are really big, I mean no casual reader who reads simply for enjoyment would actually give a shit about how far a killing curse propels a muggle. It's just the hardcore HP fans who finds he plot holes.

Congratulations on being a hardcore HP fan, Amerison.

 

What do we know about AK

What do we know about Avada Kedava?

The unblockable…

The unforgivable…

Killing curse.

Well that’s just not true now is it? Unblockable by magical means sure, as in it can’t be stopped by a shield like protego. But it is shown to be stopped by and physical object ie brass statues, walls and birds.

We first hear about the killing curse in the 4th year from Madeye/Barty Jr when he showed the class the 3 unforgivables. Here he says that it is unblockable and has only ever been survived by one person, Harry.

We are told nothing about how it is cast apart from that it needs some real power behind it and that the whole class could fire it at him and hardly give him a nose bleed. Unlike Crucio which we are latter told you need to really want to cause pain and enjoy it to cast the spell.

Now this brings up and interesting point of, does AK only work if you really want someone to die. Could you point your wand at someone say the words and have nothing happen or have the spell form but not work because you didn’t really want them dead. This could well be the loop whole used to keep Dumbledore alive in book 7.

The line “It needs a lot of power behind it” is often used to show why it is not the only spell used in fights. I know it would make a boring fight only using AK it would much resemble a gun fight but it makes sense to use a “Unblockable” spell over anything else if you are in a fight for your life. I mean why use a cutting spell that may not kill if it lands and can be blocked when you can cause instant death.

Ok now onto the effect of the spell. Unblockable by magical means ie shields. It is shown to cause instant and irreversible death ie CPR won’t bring them back and there is no wound to heal. It leaves the body untouched apart from in some (Maybe all) cases the person looks “Scared to death” But I don’t see how this is possible, shoot someone in the back they don’t see it coming so why would they be scared and muggles wouldn’t know what it is. If someone fired a bolt of green light at me I would probably die with a confused look on my face.

I’m not sure if this is fanon or canon but since the body is left unharmed by the spell many people believe that it has no destructive power. However we have seen it do damage to inanimate objects many times. In the duel between Dumbledore and Tom it blows up the security desk when it is hit. Now you could arguer that that is Voldemorts raw power leaking over giving it a destructive quality. Then in HBP we see it being used many times in the fight between the DE’s and OOtP inside Hogwarts. It is said that part of the roof caved in and damage was done but we are not made aware if this is the AK’s or other curses. But in this fight it is stated that one of the DE’s was firing off a bunch of AK’s so I’m not sure what they says about the whole “needs a lot of power” line.

Lastly I believe from memory when Harry saw the curse done on the spider in class he described it as a howling train like noise. I’m not sure if this is true but when ever I imagine duels I read fights I always picture the AK as having a high pitched whistling like sound as it rips through the air. Kind of like the German stuka (sp?) dive bomber so it freaks out people even more adding to its effectiveness.

What do you think?

 

Here's my take [Independent from HBP clues]:

My Initial Impression:

The Avada Kedavra kills by forcing the soul to pass on. Because casting it apparently splits the soul, it must affect the soul.

Dementors do not automatically kill their victims because the soul has not been passed on. It is consumed by the Dementors - still earthbound. This can explain why Dementors are so feared - no afterlife.

--

Now, I just regard it as something that just switches off your body and shunts the soul out as a result.

Next, I think of it sounding like a woosh but with slight crackling sounds.

I know many people will disagree with me, but I like to think that the AK takes massive amounts of energy to use, as well as a high level of hate. I'm not a fan of the "Wizards can cast endless amounts of spell without tiring" thing. What I like to see in duels are wizards conserving their energy and not just unleashing it haphazardly - it adds a whole new dimension.

QUESTION:

At the end of HBP, we see Snape apparently blocking Harry's attempts to cast the Cruciatus. How does he manage that?

 

I'm not sure but I was under the impression only AK was unblockable. I thought Crucio was unforgivable cause of what it did and imperio because it takes away free will.

So if you have enough skill I imagin you could block crucio.

 

The same way any other spell is blocked. The Avada Kedavra is the only unblockable curse - the Crucio, while and unforgivable, is as blockable as any other curse. Many people seem to forget this when writing fanfiction - probably need to read Moody's lesson in GOF again.

As for the AK, I'm of the opinion that it doesn't kill you by doing anything: it's the killing curse, not the soul-ripping curse, or the life-force ejection curse...therefore, all it does is makes you dead, like flicking a switch.

 

Now he didnt really block it so much as change it into a giant prior incantium thing. It is said to be a very rear event so I don't think they are really going to tell you to fire another spell at an incoming AK and hope like hell you have brother wands.

 

Snape didn't so much block Harry's spells in HBP but parry them. He was doing something that flicked Harry's wand of course whenever he was finished with a spell so Harry mess up or missed. At least that's what I got out of that scene.

 

From what i figured, snape blocking harry's spells was a form of ligimancy/occulemcy. and it was the whole point of wordless casting, that the blocker wouldn't know when you going to cast the spell.