Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died - Emerson Spartz [23]
As women, Molly and Bellatrix are opposites. Molly is the loyal wife to Arthur and a loving mother to her children. Bellatrix apparently dumps her husband Rodolphus Lestrange out of a sick obsession with Voldemort, and J.K.R. said at Carnegie Hall that Bellatrix is actually in love with the Dark Lord. Molly, on the other hand, would never be attracted to someone evil (although she has a soft spot for the wayward Gilderoy Lockhart in CoS), and she wants to adopt the entire world, taking care of Harry and Hermione both in OotP, and trying to help Tonks with her problems in HBP. Auntie Bella has no sympathy and would have gladly handed her nephew Draco over to the Dark Lord. She also doesn’t seem to understand in HBP why Narcissa would be upset about losing her son that way, since it’s an honor to please the Dark Lord [HBP, p. 35]. Bellatrix even says that if she had children of her own, she would have sacrificed them as well. Molly represents normal family life, while Bella is outside of society and nothing can control her.
Unlike Harry in the Priori Incantatum duel in GoF, Molly is an adult and knows exactly what she is doing. She’s not afraid or at least doesn’t show it if she is. She doesn’t have a lucky wand or blood protection, and she’s running only on adrenaline and motherly instinct, like every other mom in the series, from Lily to Narcissa. She gets the job done with one of the strongest and most colorful lines in the whole series: “Not my daughter, you bitch!” [p. 736]. That says it all, in spades. This is a big duel, and it overshadows the vanquishing of Voldemort at the end, which is all talk but little action. No other duel can compare with this one.
The Final Duel Between Voldemort and Harry (DH)
In GoF, Voldemort makes a long speech before dueling Harry, but this time in DH the tables are turned, and Harry returns the favor by explaining all the Dark Lord’s mistakes over the years in minute detail, telling Voldemort “it’s backfired on you, Riddle” [p. 742]. Like Dumbledore at the Ministry, Harry talks about the L-word, love, which is something Voldemort never wants to hear about, and points out that Snape was never on his side due to his love for Lily Potter, the very woman who had vanquished Voldemort when Harry was a baby. As Harry evokes the names of Lily, Snape, and Dumbledore, Voldemort gets more and more shaken up that their protection of Harry has foiled his evil plans again.
It’s absolutely Harry’s duel to lose because as Harry explains: While Voldemort is using the Elder Wand that he stole from Dumbledore’s grave, the wand actually recognizes Harry as its true master because Harry overpowered Draco, the real master, weeks before. Plus, Harry has already (kind of) died and come back, so unlike Voldemort, he has no fear of death, and he has nearly become master of death by using the other two Hallows: the Cloak of Invisibility and the Resurrection Stone. The last Hallow he must use is the Elder Wand, but Harry doesn’t even have to use the killing curse, Avada Kedavra. He uses good old Expelliarmus, the Disarming Charm, and things quickly happen, one, two, three: The Elder Wand lets Voldemort’s own killing curse rebound on him so that it flies into Harry’s hand because of Expelliarmus, and Voldemort falls down stone-cold dead. Everyone cheers and Harry’s long ordeal is finally over. It is probably the shortest duel in the series, and it’s not that exciting, but Harry is so in control of things that Voldemort has no chance at all, and that makes it a total victory.
Verdict
Harry duels Voldemort twice—trapped in the graveyard when he is fourteen in GoF, and again at Hogwarts when he is seventeen in DH. Both times it’s a war of words ending with special-effect wands and a single Expelliarmus. Dumbledore at the Ministry seemed like an easy mark, but he fights like a warrior and Voldemort has to flee. Talk about clash of the titans! And let