Matthew's Journal

Warning to Readers: There is a seriously nerdy discussion of the Harry Potter books ahead. If you read on and wish to understand all of what I have to say, you will most likely need to be familiar with all of the Harry Potter books.

The Killing Curse

I’d like to take some time and discuss the Killing Curse and why I think it has an important role to play in the Harry Potter series. The incantation for the killing curse is “Avada Kedavra”, which is an Aramaic phrase meaning “let the thing be destroyed”. The first detailed accounts of the Killing Curse come from the fourth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (GoF).

One of the first things we learn about the Killing Curse is its effects. Other than the obvious side effect of death, GoF tells us that the Killing Curse leaves its victims physically unharmed, but lifeless. The curse leaves no physical traces of interaction with its victim other than the absence of life. However, the fifth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OotP), gives conflicting evidence to this effect. In OotP, Voldemort uses the Killing Curse in his battle with Dumbledore. Dumbledore blocks a Killing Curse with a stone statue he animates reducing it to cobble. Perhaps the Killing Curse only leaves only leaves living being unmarked. That remains an unanswered question.

When Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as ex-auror and professor Alastor “Mad-eye” Moody, demonstrates the Killing Curse, Harry notes that the Killing Curse has a signature green hue and a distinctive rushing sound described “as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air”. To me, this description is key to exploring more about the nature of the Killing Curse and linking it to what I believe to be one of the most important spells illustrated in the entire Harry Potter series: The Patronus Charm.

Follow up:

The Patronus Charm, obviously enough, conjures a Patronus. A Patronus is “a kind of positive force, a projection of… hope, happiness, [and] the desire to survive”. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA) continues on to say, “it [a Patronus] cannot feel despair, as real humans can” suggesting that a Patronus is some type of living being which exists, albeit temporarily, in the normal plane of existence.

It is the summoning of magical, perhaps spirit-based, beings that I think potentially links the Patronus Charm and the Killing Curse. The description of the Killing Curse from GoF gives the impression that a being of some sort is called forth to somehow impact its victim and end their life. The Killing Curse and Patronus seem to sit opposite of one another. One spell calls forth a being a light to defend life and project goodness. The other spell calls forth a being, most likely evil, to take life.

The casting of the Patronus Charm and the Killing curse hold similarities as well. PoA tells us that the Patronus Charm is fueled by a happy memory, suggesting that the positive feelings trigger the summoning of the Patronus which is capable of projecting those emotions. The killing curse requires the same strength of thought, but opposite emotions. If we extrapolate from Bellatrix Lestrange’s statements about the Unforgivable Curses given in chapter 36 of OotP, we can say that the Killing Curse is fueled by the desire to kill. It takes more than a desire to see something die. The caster needs to enjoy killing. They must want to kill purely for the malevolent wish to take life. Both spells require specific intent and are a personification of the caster’s state of mind.

I currently have no idea if the apparently dichotomy of these spells is significant. However, the introduction of the Patronus Charm in PoA is a very prominent part of the Harry Potter saga and it is not a stretch of the imagination to presume that it will play a larger role than protecting Harry from Dementors. Harry’s mastery of the charm was used as an example of Harry’s potential in OotP. The Killing Curse, both mastered and feared by Voldemort, is the harbinger of death. In the final Harry Potter volume, I think it will play a role opposite of the Patronus Charm. The masters of these two spells that lie on opposite ends of the spectrum of magic are destined to face each other in an epic conclusion. To me, it seems logical that their signature spells share the same destiny.