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Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’re going to be discussing Harry and Voldemort’s final showdown in the Deathly
Hallows part 2; the day that Lord Voldemort’s tyrannical regime finally came to an end.
We’re also going to be discussing why every time Harry and Voldemort meet and engage in
combat (which happens a fair bit), they resort to using the same spells over and over again-
with Voldemort using Avada Kedavra and Harry using Expelliarmus.
We see this in their graveyard duel in the Goblet of Fire:
"A jet of green light issued from Voldemorts wand just as a jet of red light blasted from
Harry's — they met in midair — and suddenly Harry's wand was vibrating as though an electric
charge were surging through it; his hand seized up around it; he couldn't have released it
if he'd wanted to — and a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither red
nor green, but bright, deep gold.
Harry, following the beam with his astonished gaze, saw that Voldemort's long white fingers
too were gripping a wand that was shaking and vibrating."
And we also see this in their final fated duel at the Battle of Hogwarts:
“The bang was like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupted between them, at
the dead center of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells
collided.
Harry saw Voldemort's green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against
the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning
through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession
of it at last.
And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as
Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward.
Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands
empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing.
Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his
hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.”
My question is this: WHY is it that Harry Potter resorts to Expelliarmus for (seemingly)
every circumstance?
With the wizarding world at stake, wouldn’t it make sense for Harry to use something like
the killing curse?
Why would he rely so heavily on a glorified disarming charm?
Wouldn’t Harry want to guarantee surety of Voldemort’s demise?
Yes Expelliarmus ended up working for Harry, largely- actually, EXCLUSIVELY due to extraneous
circumstances- but I can’t help but wonder why Harry would opt for a common duelling
spell.
The first reason that I suspect Harry opted for Expelliarmus is that he is more experienced
at casting it than..Probably every other spell.
This, as opposed to avada kedavra, which we never actually see Harry use, seems like a
more obvious choice.
Furthermore, we do have to remember that Avada Kedavra is one of the unforgivable curses,
making it less than straightforward to cast.
It’s repeated time and time again that in order to successfully produce an unforgivable
curse you need to ‘MEAN’ it- you have to be able to cast the spell and utter the
incantation with conviction.
Harry used the Cruciatus Curse, another unforgivable curse, on a few separate occasions with mixed
results.
The first being when he tried to cast the spell on Bellatrix following the death of
Sirius.
In this instance, Harry was extremely unsuccessful- not being able to muster the necessary emotions
to produce a potent enough torture curse.
The second time was when Harry used the spell on Amycus Carrow, this time producing a better
result, most likely due to the fact that he was more composed.
Regardless of these facts, testing a new (uncharted) spell in a high stakes situation like a DUEL
with the dark lord seems unwise.
Expelliarmus was his specialty, and he knew that it was reliable.
It had worked for him perfectly thus far, so why would he even begin to consider using
another spell?
It worked for him in the graveyard, so why wouldn’t he use it again at the Battle of
Hogwarts?
Harry’s reliability surrounding the use of Expelliarmus is even acknowledged by the
book as his best chance:
Harry heard the high voice shriek as he too yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing
Draco’s wand:
“Avada Kedavra!”
“Expelliarmus!”
Another reason that Harry would have likely avoided the spell is that he is simply NOT
a killer.
No matter what he thinks of someone- even if he is DISGUSTED with them- Harry clearly
values life- this is exemplified on a few occasions throughout the books:
First with Peter Pettigrew in the Prisoner of Azkaban:
“NO!”
Harry yelled.
He ran forward, placing himself in front of Pettigrew, facing the wands.
“You can’t kill him,” he said breathlessly.
“You can’t.”
Black and Lupin both looked staggered.
... “We’ll take him up to the castle.
We’ll hand him over to the dementors....
He can go to Azkaban... but don’t kill him.”
“Harry!”
gasped Pettigrew, and he flung his arms around Harry’s knees.
“You — thank you — it’s more than I deserve — thank you —” “Get off
me,” Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew’s hands off him in disgust.
And next following a showdown with Death Eaters at Tottenham Court Road:
“What are we going to do with them?”
Ron whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, “Kill them?
They’d kill us.
They had a good go just now.”
Hermione shuddered and took a step backward.
Harry shook his head.
“We just need to wipe their memories,” said Harry.
“It’s better like that, it’ll throw them off the scent.
If we killed them it’d be obvious we were here.”
Peter Pettigrew as well as the Death Eaters he encountered at Tottenham Court road were
some of his worst enemies- serving the very man that threatened everything he loved.
If he wasn’t going to kill them, he wasn’t going to kill anybody.
But on the notion of death, I don’t believe that simply not wanting to kill Voldemort
was the only thing holding him back.
I think there were a number of things at play here- things like mercy, and not wanting to
stoop to the level of the man that stood before him.
Honing in on the mercy component for just a second, I think it’s important to note
that Harry is not only merciful in the sense that he tries to spare Voldemort’s life,
but is also merciful because he offered Voldemort a chance at redemption.
In the books we’re taught that an act of great remorse has the capacity to repair a
damaged soul (even one split using horcruxes), and Harry extends this offer to Voldemort
towards his final moments.
It was Voldemort’s last opportunity to repair his broken soul.
“Yeah, it did,” said Harry.
“You’re right.
But before you try to kill me, I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done…
Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle…”
“What is this?”
Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had
shocked Voldemort like this.
Harry saw his pupils contract to thin slits, saw the skin around his eyes whiten.
“It’s your one last chance,” said Harry, “it’s all you’ve got left…
I’ve seen what you’ll be otherwise…
Be a man… try…
Try for some remorse…”
By using a disarming charm, Harry not only verbally offers this chance to Voldemort,
but physically offers it, as if Voldemort had decided to capitalize on killing Harry
in this moment then it would have backfired on 2 fronts: 1, it would have killed him,
and 2, it would have ensured that- even in the afterlife- Vodemort’s soul remained
damaged for all of eternity.
Not killing Voldemort would also ensure that Harry, who held very different values than
Voldemort, wouldn’t stoop to ‘his’ level.
Voldemort killed for fun- he was ruthless, and saw no value in life other than his own.
In a weird sort of way if Harry had tried to enact vicious revenge upon Voldemort, ruthlessly
killing him, then he too would have lost.
To quote Ovid: “The high-spirited man may indeed die, but he will not stoop to meanness.
Fire, though it may be quenched, will not become cool.”
We know that Harry Potter ends up becoming an auror later in life, a career that can
test a witch or wizards character more than anything.
One such auror that Harry looked up to tremendously- and the first auror he met- was famed Dark
Wizard catcher Alastor Moody, who always tried his best to minimize the amount of death that
he caused in his profession.
Given that Moody regularly found himself in high stakes environments, I think that it
truly speaks to his character that he was able to maintain this stance.
Harry discusses and praises Moody in in the books:
“I’ll say this for Moody, though, he never killed if he could help it.
Always brought people in alive where possible.
He was tough, but he never descended to the level of the Death Eaters.”
As Harry respected Moody to a large degree, then I think it’s safe to say that Harry
also followed this doctrine of avoiding unnecessary death.
One last reason that I suspect Harry avoided Avada Kedavra relates to his history with
the spell.
This was the spell that put an end to the Potter family, the spell that represented
the death and destruction of those that he loved, and the spell that rebounded off of
him 17 years prior.
Why would Harry Potter want to use the very spell that turned his world upside down?
And that’s it for this video!
Did you ever wonder WHY Harry was so trigger happy with Expelliarmus?
Why he avoided the killing curse?
To answer those questions, and to give me new video ideas, be sure to leave a comment
down below.
Until next time
Remember
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on
the light