How did Dumbledore block the Avada Kedavra spell?

Question

In The Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra on Harry, but Dumbledore clearly deflects it.

But in The Goblet of Fire, Moody mentions that there is no way to fend off that particular Curse.

So how did Dumbledore do it?

@ThruGog Just after snuffles dies and harry chases bellatrix — user3564421, Feb 15 '16 at 13:25
You can block the progress of any spell by putting an obstacle large enough in its way. That’s not what Moody was talking about when he said there’s no blocking Avada Kedavra; he was talking about blocking it with a counter-spell like Protego. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Feb 15 '16 at 15:16
Related: Can Avada Kedavra be blocked, contrary to Barty's statement? and Why is Avada Kedavra considered unblockable? — Möoz, Feb 16 '16 at 01:49
Why does everyone believe Barty Crouch Jr (who is NOT Alastor Moody) implicitly? The man who declared it unblockable was NOT Moody. He is an acknowledged liar (he lied about being Moody) and has a vested interest in his students being less skilled at defending against (HIS) Dark Arts. — Jeff, Apr 18 '17 at 15:13

score 97 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 15 '16 at 13:40

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I believe Dumbledore made the statues in the ministry come to life to take the hit for him/block the hit. He didn't use any counter-curse or counter-jinx directly on the Avada Kedevra spell

But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Harry and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry. "What -?" cried Voldemort, staring around. And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!" -OOTP

edited Feb 15 '16 at 13:40

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answered Feb 15 '16 at 13:22

user3564421

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How ingenious - how do you block a curse that kills no matter what? Make something spring to life and let it kill that instead of you! The ultimate Avada Kedavra protection - a cloak of living hamsters! – Luaan Feb 15 '16 at 15:30
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Is it possible that any solid object would block the curse? Voldemort never tries to kill anyone by firing the curse through the floor or the wall. – Oscar Cunningham Feb 15 '16 at 15:51
@OscarCunningham Can block the curse, but might break the object, as the centaur statue broke when it blocked the curse aimed at dumbledore. Could argue Voldemort sent a stronger killing curse at Dumbledore – user3564421 Feb 15 '16 at 16:12
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Should also note that, in addition to animating the statues, Dumbledore also used Apparition and Fawkes' sacrifice to avoid other instances of Avada Kedavra during that same fight. – ssell Feb 15 '16 at 17:25
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@OscarCunningham Yes, likely any sufficiently-thick rigid-body object would block the curse. Avada Kedavra is clearly a ballistic curse, with a variable penetrating power (see Moody's reference in GoF that a Hogwarts student could cast it at him and he wouldn't get so much as a nosebleed). Since no upper bound of power is ever mentioned, so it's theoretically possible to kill someone through a wall. I would imagine if you somehow had several extremely powerful wizards combine their efforts (like Dumbledore w/ Elder Wand, Voldemort, and Grindelwald), the spell might penetrate a thin enough wall – TylerH Feb 15 '16 at 19:09
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@Luaan: No -- Avada Kedavra "merely glanced off [the statue's] chest"; it didn't kill it. (The statue wasn't really alive anyway.) – ruakh Feb 15 '16 at 22:53
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The problem with defending against AK isn't so much the method as it's plain time -- 'Avada Kedavra' is six short syllables with a brief pause. Unless you're already aware of the attack before it's cast, that's all the time you have to react. 'Expelliarmus' is five syllables, so if you aren't already casting it by the first 'da' you're going to be too late. – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Feb 16 '16 at 14:36
@Shadur could always use a non verbal and get that split second advantage :3 – user3564421 Feb 16 '16 at 14:44
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@Shadur Expelliarmus wouldn't counter Avada Kedavra anyway except in cases of twin-core wands (possibly. Harry's horcrux might have also helped in that instance in GoF), or in the case of the true owner of the Elder Wand defending against AK being cast from the Elder Wand. – TylerH Feb 16 '16 at 17:07
@Shadur Six is really a lot of syllables. Avis would block it and that only has two. – Oscar Cunningham Feb 17 '16 at 15:49
Why use a counter-spell to a quick action in the first place? Once you know the opponent tends to use Avada Kedavra, you should prepare your defense before combat. For example, wear a Cloak of Displacement so you are less likely to be hit, or spam wall of force/iron/stone to block. And then there's the always overlooked grease, to worsen the adversary's stability and thus their aim. – Codes with Hammer Feb 17 '16 at 16:27
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@CodeswithHammer that's gotta be it, the reason Voldemort couldn't kill Harry as a child wasn't because of love...it was because he was a greasy baby o.o – user3564421 Feb 17 '16 at 16:30
@user3564421: I think you have it backwards. The wizard doesn't cast grease on the opponent's target (baby Harry), but at the ground under the opponent's feet. Plus, in the case you mention, the attacking wizard DID hit -- and the target (Harry) successfully saved vs. Death Magic, due to a contingency-type ward. – Codes with Hammer Feb 17 '16 at 16:53
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Sounds like body armor is a good thing for wizards to wear. – Paul Draper Feb 17 '16 at 18:20
@CodeswithHammer i prefer dumbledores explanation of "love" :D – user3564421 Feb 17 '16 at 19:26
@PaulDraper: From the Evil Overlord rules list, body armor accessorizes well with every choice of outfit. – Codes with Hammer Feb 17 '16 at 19:32
@user3564421: Dumbledore's explanation is the same as mine, from a certain point of view. I don't know what that POV is, yet I know it exists. (A little green creature told me so. :) ) – Codes with Hammer Feb 17 '16 at 19:34

Treborcram · Answer 2 · 2016-02-19T03:00:08.020

Voldemort uses the killing curse several times in the Battle at the Ministry.

The first time Voldemort aimed it at Harry and Dumbledore animated the golden wizard statue: "The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms, protecting Harry" (pg 813 of Scholastic paperback).
Next time: "Voldemort raised his wand and sent another jet of green light at Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak;" (also pg 813)
Third time: "[Voldemort] sent another Killing Curse at Dumbledore but missed..." (pg 813)
Next: "Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, that took the blast..." (pg 813)
Finally: "But even as he [Harry] shouted, one more jet of green light had flown at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand...Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole. (pg 815)

Voldemort's killing curses either missed, hit non-living objects, or was swallowed by Fawkes, who "died" in his own way, falling "to the floor, small, wrinkled, and flightless."

Dumbledore didn't actually block the Avada Kadavra as much as avoid it or was protected by things and beings that can't be killed.

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This should be the official answer. – Apr 30 '18 at 06:41

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 15 '16 at 17:51

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As several others have mentioned, during the battle at the ministry Dumbledore used something like an animation charm to make the statues of the Fountain of Magical Brethren protect Harry from the curse, from reading the books I believe that an animated object is given a facsimile of life so the curse killed the statue, moreover, any spell, even the Avada Kadavra can be blocked by a physical object of a large enough size and density, so when Moody mentions it being unblockable he's referring to all magical means of protection such as the Protego shield charm or a runic protection or some such magic

answered Feb 15 '16 at 17:51

user62045

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This appears to be little more than a rewording of user3564421’s answer and the comments under it. Please don’t post an answer unless you actually have something new to contribute. – Peregrine Rook Feb 15 '16 at 18:05
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@PeregrineRook It is pretty common for people to post answers with very similar content that they feel explains the situation better. I'm not necessarily arguing that this is true in this case but just because your answer has the same content, doesn't mean it can't be better than an existing answer. So I don't support your advice to AnimeChick. – DQdlM Feb 15 '16 at 20:38
@KennyPeanuts: Well, I said "Please don’t post an answer unless you actually have something new to contribute." Are you arguing that it's OK for a person to post an answer when he has *nothing new to contribute?* – Peregrine Rook Feb 15 '16 at 21:28
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@PeregrineRook In this case you have decided that this person does not have anything to contribute because you don't feel like their explanation does a better job than the existing answer. However, they did not just copy-paste but appear to have made an attempt to synthesize and explain a combination of information from other answers and comments, which suggests that they felt like they were adding something new. I felt like your advice was inappropriate in this case because there is a precedent on the site for answers that duplicate content but explain it differently. – DQdlM Feb 15 '16 at 21:42

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 18 '17 at 12:37

I do believe the topic poster is referring to the movie, in which Voldemort casts Avada Kedavra and Dumbledore creates a spell-lock with it, kinda like the graveyard scene. Also, in the movie for Harry Potter 7, Part 2, Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort is show Avada Kedavra'ing the heck out of Harry, who is casually deflecting them magically, although this can be attributed to the imbalance of the Elder Wand belonging to Harry and Harry using a wand he actually did own, or to Voldemort's life protecting Harry's.

The movies do seem to kind of not care about the books' rules of magic at many points, and the OoTP fight scene and Battle of Hogwarts are just two of many examples of this. At this point, I would assert that the book's version of events are what "actually took place".

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 21 '19 at 11:17

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Tom Riddle's wand is made from Dumbledore's Fawkes feather, so it would refuse to kill him like how the Elder wand refused to kill Harry at the end.

answered Jul 21 '19 at 11:17

Leo Lennox

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That's an interesting theory, but is there any evidence for it? The relationship between Harry and the Elder Wand is very different from the relationship between Dumbledore and Fawkes. – Rand al'Thor Jul 21 '19 at 11:22
I understand why you'd think that but the Elder Wand's loyalty doesn't apply here. Harry won the Elder Wand's loyalty in combat (by disarming Draco) whereas Dumbledore had never gained Voldemort's wand's loyalty by overpowering him. Sorry, Fawkes is an interesting connection between the two but I think he's a red herring. – The Dark Lord Jul 21 '19 at 11:46

score -2 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 30 '18 at 07:25

Dumbledore didn't block it, he just cast it away meaning he curved it and it hit the wall anyways and we just can't Avada Kadavra curse by Protego or any other attacking spell.

Like Harry used Expelliarmus to block Avada Kadavra, he didn't really block it, what he did was like two lasers attacking each other and making a circle of power, one more example take two pipes of water direct them to each other then turn on the water the one with more pressure and water will win

How did Dumbledore block the Avada Kedavra spell?

6 Answers6