HOW Avada Kedavra Kills You - Harry Potter Theory

Описание: Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. For today’s video, I’m going to be discussing one of the unforgivable curses. More specifically, I’m going to be discussing the avada kedavra and its properties. We know avada kedavra as the killing curse - the staple spell of Lord Voldemort- and seemingly the go-to spell for dark witches and wizards intent on putting an end to their enemies.

Avada kedavra is a truly sinister spell that is classed as ‘unforgivable’ by the ministry of magic along with ‘crucio’ aka the cruciatus curse, and ‘imperio’ aka the imperius curse. These three curses were classified as ‘unforgivable’ in the year 1717- when the ministry of magic determined that they were entirely unsuitable to be freely used in the wizarding world. At the same time, the ‘strictest penalties’ were put in place and attached to their use. Before 1717, we can only assume that they were regarded just like any other spell. And while we don’t have any information to support this, there must have been some sort of catalyst that made the ministry realize how truly dangerous these spells were. Ulick Gamp was the minister for magic at the time the spells were outlawed, with just one year left in his term. Perhaps something happened, involving these spells, that threatened his position. I can only imagine the chaos that something like the imperius curse would cause in a government structure like that.

The most notorious of the unforgivable curses- Avada kedavra- has a simple purpose: it causes the victim to instantly die. If you want to kill your victim, then this is the spell to use. Upon uttering the incantation, the spell creates a blindingly intense green bolt of light- and the victim simply drops dead. However, one thing that is never properly explained is HOW avada kedavra actually kills people. Unlike many other spells, avada kedavra leaves no trace at all - they just die. So, my question is- HOW do they die? What’s going on?

I’m going to start by taking a look at the chapter ‘The Riddle House’ from the Goblet of Fire- the chapter that examines the murder of the Riddle family in Little Hangleton.

“The police had never read an odder report. A team of doctors had examined the bodies and had concluded that none of the Riddles had been poisoned, stabbed, shot, strangled, suffocated, or (as far as they could tell) harmed at all. In fact (the report continued, in a tone of unmistakable bewilderment), the Riddles all appeared to be in perfect health - apart from the fact that they were all dead. The doctors did note (as though determined to find something wrong with the bodies) that each of the Riddles had a look of terror upon his or her face - but as the frustrated police said, whoever heard of three people frightened to death?”

What this excerpt confirms entirely is that the killing curse leaves no physical trace- the Riddle family were undoubtedly killed with avada kedavra- but they didn’t have so much as a scratch on them. They were just..dead- and it happened instantaneously. So-what is the process? What does the spell do?

I know that some people have made the argument that the killing curse simply causes the organs of the victim to stop working. Stopping the functions of certain organs, particularly the heart-inducing a heart attack, would be a surefire way of killing someone. However, IF this were true, then their deaths would have been a little bit more drawn out. Whatever the killing curse does happens INSTANTLY- which is why the victims still have the ‘look of terror’ on their face described by the police. Though it wasn’t something that they could run with, the best way that police at the crime scene could describe their deaths was that they appeared to be ‘frightened’ to death- but of course in the muggle world, that isn’t possible.

So if it isn’t physical- then avada kedavra must have more of an ethereal effect. The ‘Soul’ is a common theme in Harry Potter- we see it with Voldemort, and we see it with dementors. Leveraging his own soul, Voldemort tried to fragment it in order to achieve immortality- and it resulted in his horcruxes-pieces of his soul that he embedded in to different objects to stay alive.

..Watch for the rest!



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