The Avada Kedavra Curse
What is the Avada Kedavra curse? Let’s look into this more fully.
First, Avada Kedavra is considered an Unforgivable Curse:
The Avada Kedavra Curse causes instant death that is never explainable. When the curse strikes a non-living object, the energy is released in a small explosion at the point of impact. If the material struck is flammable, the curse starts a fire of greenish flames. The extent of damage from the curse when used on a phoenix is uncertain, as the primary trait of a phoenix is self-resurrection. It seems to merely start the phoenix’s current resurrection cycle over again. Albus Dumbledore’s pet phoenix named Fawkes is seen to swallow a killing curse in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The Avada Kedavra curse is used regularly by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters to kill their enemies. There is no known counter-curse or blocking spell, although the caster can be interrupted, the victim can dodge the green jet, hide behind solid objects, or, if the casting wizard is not sufficiently competent, the curse may be completely ineffective as described by Barty Crouch Jr acting as Alastor Moody in The Goblet of Fire. Harry twice countered this spell by casting Expelliarmus.
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Keep reading for more about the Avada Kedavra curse:
Here’s JK Rowling’s take on one of the times we saw this curse used against itself: in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
What exactly happened when Voldemort used the Avada Kedavra curse on Harry in the forest?
Again, Voldemort violated deep laws of magic he did not understand, but there is more to it than that.
Having taken Harry’s blood into himself, Voldemort is keeping alive Lily’s protective power over Harry. So Voldemort himself acts almost like a Horcrux for Harry – except that the power of Lily’s sacrifice is a positive force that not only continues to tether Harry to life, but gives Voldemort himself one last chance (Dumbledore refers to this last hope in chapter 35). Voldemort has unwittingly put a few drops of goodness back inside himself; if he had repented, he could have been healed more deeply than anyone would have supposed. But, of course, he refused to feel remorse.
Voldemort is also using the Elder Wand - the wand that is really Harry’s. It does not work properly against its true owner; no curse Voldemort casts on Harry functions properly; neither the Cruciatus curse nor the Killing Curse. The Avada Kedavra curse, however, is so powerful that it does hurt Harry, and also succeeds in killing the part of him that is not truly him, in other words, the fragment of Voldemort’s own soul still clinging to his. The curse also disables Harry severely enough that he could have succumbed to death if he had chosen that path (again, Dumbledore says he has a choice whether or not to wake up). But Harry does decide to struggle back to consciousness, capitalises on Lily’s ‘escape route’, and pulls himself back to the realm of the living.
It is important to state that I always saw these kinds of magic (the very deepest life and death issues) as essentially un-scientific; in other words, there is no “Elder Wand + Lily’s Blood = Assured Survival” formula. What count, ultimately, are Harry and Voldemort’s own choices. They have each been given certain weapons and safeguards, but the power of these objects and past happenings lie in how they are understood, and how they are used or enacted upon. Harry has a deeper and truer understanding of the meaning of the objects and past events, but his greatest powers, those that save him, are free will, courage and moral certainty.
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Here are some video clips that show this curse in action. First, Voldemort vs. Harry Potter in the graveyard:
Dumbledore vs. Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic. I *think* that the Avada Kedavra curse was used here, but not necessarily verbally.
Bellatrix Lestrange vs. Sirius Black:
Voldmort kills Cedric Diggory:
Obviously, the Avada Kedavra curse is extremely powerful. I’ll write more about the Unforgivable Curses tomorrow.
Tags: Avada-Kedavra, Death Eaters, Snape, the-dark-lord, unforgiveable-curses, VoldemortRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Death Eaters, Voldemort
1 opinion for The Avada Kedavra Curse
liam brodley
Jan 21, 2008 at 06:31
i think the infomation is great make some on harry though plus put in some harry songs
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