The Death Scene ...

[Lelie]

i don't know if there is a topic anywhere on this, so if i'm being redundant, i'm terribly sorry.
why is it that when others are killed by avada kedavra they just slump over dead, and when dumbledore is hit with it he goes flying? is there an answer to that that i have missed or does this belong in theories?

[pheonixrising]

either it is all of the explicit power that he had in life , snape didn't do the right spell ,or jkr is losing her touch and or sanity

[Athena Appleton]

Do we know for sure they just slump?

It could be that because Dumbledore was hit when he was so weak, it had a double effect on him, knocking him away. It could be that the weakness kept him from being firmly planted on the ground, opening the possibility for him to be knocked for a loop. It could be that Snape's premeditated murder of Dumbledore caused the curse to have a stronger effect. Most of the Avada Kedavra curses I can remember were somewhat spur-of-the-moment, possibly weakening (but not eradicating) the effect of it.

[Mistress Siana]

I've heard that questions a few times now, but actually, it's not quite true that we've never seen Avada Kedavra have a stronger effect than just a person dropping dead. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry and the curse backfired, it didn't only varporize Voldemort, it took the whole house down.

So I wonder...it can't depend on who casts it, since we've seen Voldemort use AK more than once, and most of the time, nothing remarkable happened. The only times that AK caused destruction were when it hit Voldemort, and when it hit Dumbledore, the two greatest wizard of their time. So I think it could very well depend on how powerful the person who is hit is.

[Froggs]

Mistress Siana- I think you are dead on. I think that DD went flying simply because of the amount of power that rapidly vacated his body.

[Lelie]

are we sure that the avada kedavra is what made the house in godric's hollow come down, or are we just assuming that? if the house was really rubble immediately, how did anyone ever find lv's wand???
interesting point about them being strong wizards though. that does sound plausible.

[Mistress Siana]

Well, Hagrid said it was Voldemort's curse that 'took care' of the house, as he puts it. And I think McGonagall mentions something similar in PoA, but I'm not quite sure. But what else should it have been?

Anyway, I've read through HBP again and found something else. Dumbledore told Harry he was sure that Voldemort intended to use the murder of Harry - which caused the untypical side effects - in combination with another spell, in order to create another Horcrux.
And the backfiring spell kind of collided with the magic Lily's sacrifice left in Harry. So what took the house down could as well have been a combination of Avada Kedavra with another spell. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

[Lelie]

talk about opening a can of worms!!! siana... what a brilliant thought. i'll have to think on that one for a bit!

[Athena Appleton]

I'm with Mistriss Siana on the idea that it's based on the power of the person affected.

I think it can be assumed that Avada Kedavra was used in Godric's Hollow, but we don't know if it's the only spell or curse used. It certainly fits: Harry does remember a flash of green light (which is what the Avada Kedavra curse causes), and Fake Moody tells them the honest truth (which is oddly one of the most useful lessons they ever learn in DADA, despite everything going on with the teacher) about the Unforgivable Curses. I wouldn't imagine he would have left out another one. For one, for some reason, he wanted Harry and the rest of the class to know about it. For another, I'm sure Hermione would have caught on to the fact that he was holding something back if he told them about three and there were really four Unforgivables. And I'm inclined to believe that Voldemort only would have used an Unforgivable curse at the Potters' home.

One thing we should remember, though... as much as we've learned what happened that night, there's still a lot of questions, some of which J.K. Rowling herself has presented as "something important". We know virtually nothing about what really was going on with Lily (it's clear she chose to die, while James did not), but Rowling has also said that Lily was definately good. The house could have been almost destroyed before Voldemort ever got to Harry. James was a gifted wizard, and if there was any kind of altercation before he was killed, damage could have been done. Same goes for Lily.

[Mistress Siana]

I know the movies don't count as canon, but the PS/SS movies shows the scene in which Voldemort attacks the Potters, and there the house wasn't blown up before Voldemort attacked Harry. I wonder if JKR would've allowed them to include that scene if it was so wrong.

[Ginny Potter]

Perhaps the destruction of the home ties into Voldemort looking for a horcrux in Godric's Hollow and/or with the Potters' mysterious occupation?? Just a stab in the dark...

Back to Avada Kedavra, it was discussed on another thread that perhaps Dumbledore wasn't hit with that curse after all...something about Snape saying the curse, but actually performing a nonverbal spell. Just a theory, of course, but it could possibly explain why Avada Kedavra looked so different. Of course, those who have said Dumbledore was already so close to death that the strength of the spell is what knocked him backwards could be it, too. It seems to me JKR wanted us to speculate on a lot of different possibilities...

Which makes me think, why she wants us to speculate? If she wanted us to know that Dumbledore was definitively dead, would she not have described him the way she described Cedric, for instance? There was no doubt Cedric was dead, but there's a lot of doubt regarding Snape and Dumbledore...

I feel that the reason the Potters' house was destroyed may have had to do with curses, or it may have been the result of someone desperately looking for something...I guess it depends on how "destroyed" it was...

[Mistress Siana]

If Dumbledore isn't really dead, Snape would have died because he broke the Vow. Snape, however, seemed very much alive. Of course we don't know how quickly the vow kills, but I expect it does as soon as you act definitely against it. It would be rather pointless, otherwise.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Dumbledore is definitely dead. His portrait is up. I think he knew his time was over as well...
As this is related I'm going to quickly post a theory on near enough the topic, before you can all go back to your peaceful little chat.
Right - here it is, could be wrong, could be right. I've never really thought of it before, and I haven't thought it through completely, but still, here goes:
-Lord Voldemort goes to Godric's Hollow in search of the boy named in the prophecy that was overheard by Snape. He enters the house, which he can do due to the information given by Wormtail. He is confronted by James, and duels with him until James is killed.
-At the same time Snape realises what he has done by telling LV the prophecy - and because of the debt he has with James for warning him not to enter the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, he gets guilty, realises it's Harry LV is after, and leaves to try and do something.
-Lord Voldemort proceeds upstairs to kill Harry, and Lilly stands in his way. He threatens her - She resists. Lord Voldemort kills her, and loves protection is placed over Harry.
-Snape arrives in Godric's Hollow.
-Lord Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra on Harry, but first does something to his wand so it can acknowledge another murder, and make him his horcrux.
-Snape arrives at the house, and sees the Dark Mark that LV placed on the door when he had time - after he killed James.
-Snape doesn't know what to do. He sets fire to the house and flees to Hogwarts, where he can meet Dumbledore and try to escape LV.
-Lord Voldemort fires upon Harry. The protection holds and Voldemort is thrown from his body as it is destroyed and can no longer hold love. The horcrux that is his soul flees in the ruins of the burning building. His wand has dropped to the floor.
-Lord Voldemort's wand has the charm placed upon it for his next murder victim to count, so he can make his next horcrux. However, the wand has not committed any murder, and the wand is waiting for it, so the charm can work. The wand shakes and the charm escapes it's grip. It flies toward the nearest living thing. Harry.
-The wand slumps onto floor, and is later picked up by what we can only assume is a DE, that felt enormous pain as LV fled.
-The house burns on and on.
-Harry waits with his new scar, until Hagrid arrives on Sirius' motorbike.
-Harry is flown to the Dursley's.
-Hagrid returns the motorbike to Sirius that night.
-Sirius returns it to 12 Grimmauld Place, London.
-Sirius confronts Pettigrew, and if framed for the murder of Wormtail.
The First War Ends

It should probably have been in Theories, and you can move the post if you want, but I thought it had relevance here - even if only slightly.

[Scarlet Lioness]

I don't really know if it should be in the theories but...WOW!!! That was a long post but I think that might've been what actually happened maybe not exactly but you could be right with some of it...

[Lelie]

i was totally with you up until the part about the wand emitting the horcrux anyway all on its own. i don't know about that.
however, here's an idea brought about from a mixture of both pheonix in the ashes theory and Athena's theory. what if snape was at godric's hollow that night trying to stop LV? If he was, and at the moment that LV casts the avada kedavra at harry snape cast another (or perhaps the same?) spell at LV, what might have happened then? is it possible that the combined force of both those spells brought the house down? or did someone destroy it later to cover something up?