Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died - Emerson Spartz [22]
The satisfaction of the duel is that Voldemort goes through the range of emotions, from arrogance and disdain to fear and absolute shock, and then furious outrage. He is totally shaken up and blown away, which is the point of the duel. Harry beats the odds and beats the old man at his game. It’s the longest, the best, and the most dramatic of all the dueling scenes in the books.
Dumbledore and Voldemort at the Ministry (OotP)
Because Albus Dumbledore was the “only one he ever feared,” Voldemort has never dueled with him until they come face-to-face at the Ministry of Magic in OotP [p. 813]. What the Dark Lord didn’t know then, nor did the readers, is that Dumbledore had a secret weapon—the Deathly Hallow known as the Elder Wand, which was considered unbeatable. And in this duel, it’s clear that for an old guy, Dumbledore still has the right stuff to take down Voldemort. He spins and twirls while casting jinxes and dodging Unforgiveable Curses, and at the same time brings the large golden Ministry statues to life so they can protect Harry. Dumbledore acts “as though he had not a fear in the world” and lectures the Dark Lord on life and death “as if he was discussing it over drinks” [p. 814]. How cool is that? Fawkes the phoenix shows up to swallow a green burst of the killing spell Avada Kedavra, but Dumbledore never tries to kill his old student Tom Riddle in return: He just wants to capture him and lock him up, which is the same way he overcame his old friend, Gellert Grindelwald back in 1945. But Voldemort is too slippery and tries to possess Harry before the boy’s pure soul power drives Voldemort away. He is last seen carrying off Bellatrix Lestrange and Disapparating, so Dumbledore puts Voldemort on the run. Voldemort has truly met his match in his old professor. A duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore—two of the biggest badasses in wizarding history—has to be the most epic duel ever, by default.
Molly and Bellatrix at Hogwarts (DH)
Harry duels Voldemort over and over and everyone knows who has to win, so it’s a big yawn. The best duel is the one that is totally unexpected, coming out of nowhere at the Battle of Hogwarts, when Molly Weasley battles Bellatrix Lestrange in DH. It’s a feminine clash of the titans, pitting our favorite domestic goddess against Voldemort’s scarlet woman. Molly the Earth Mother unleashes all the repressed hostility she has saved up over years while watching the Weasley clock turn to “mortal peril” for her loved ones, and her revenge is particularly sweet. She is standing up for Gideon and Fabian Prewett, whom Harry saw in a photograph of Order Members. We learn that Fabian and Gideon died heroically along with their parents in OotP, and J.K.R. wrote on her official site that they were Molly’s twin brothers. She’s also grieving the loss of her own twin son, Fred, and she doesn’t want to lose anymore children to a senseless death. She’s especially scared for her only daughter Ginny, who has been a target of the dark forces since CoS, when she is possessed by Tom Riddle’s creepy diary-crux. Bellatrix has also gone after Ginny before, offering to torture the girl at the Department of Mysteries in OotP because Ginny is the smallest of the group. That happens just before Bella pushes Harry