Further, the assumption is that he just cast Avada Kedavra against Lily and James. So that would have been the last spell if he cast no spells at Harry and just left. Or tried to throttle him with a pillow.
How do we know he cast any more spells? How do we know he cast any spells at Harry?
The Dumbeldore plan, to trick him into accepting a bargain by ritual magic and then violating that magic seems like something that would have been obvious to Voldemort.
I never thought it made sense for Voldemort to try to kill Harry, or at least try to kill him himself. But if he did try, maybe Dumbledore (with the Potters’ consent) booby trapped Harry in some other way? Maybe that’s where the magical resonance between them comes from.
Further, the assumption is that he just cast Avada Kedavra against Lily and James. So that would have been the last spell if he cast no spells at Harry and just left.
If we’re assuming a clever Voldemort, there’s any number of ways that ‘check his wand’s last recorded spell’ could fail to be conclusive evidence. He could’ve used someone else’s wand (a backup wand is a good idea for a ton of reasons). He could’ve brought someone else to do the actual deed (how else did Bellatrix get to the wand before anyone else showed up like Dumbledore or Aurors?). He could’ve used any of a billion Muggle methods, as you point out (plausible since we know about Pioneer and Dumbledore regards clever use of Muggle tech as pointing to Voldemort). He could’ve used an innocuous spell in a fatal way (a dark lord in hiding could be expected to use Apparating all the time, and Apparating seems like it could be quite fatal given ‘splinching’). He could simply have broken the detection spell and set up a false audit trail, as it were. And so on and so forth.
Lily and James are dead. Harry has a scar. There is a burnt husk of something nearby.
In fact, not even so much. What the world sees are Dumbledore producing the dead bodies of Lily and James, a scarred Harry, and a burnt husk of something.
One point against a Dumbledore conspiracy theory—how would he know that Voldemort wouldn’t show up a week later and blow his story?
I thought so too.
Further, the assumption is that he just cast Avada Kedavra against Lily and James. So that would have been the last spell if he cast no spells at Harry and just left. Or tried to throttle him with a pillow.
How do we know he cast any more spells? How do we know he cast any spells at Harry?
The Dumbeldore plan, to trick him into accepting a bargain by ritual magic and then violating that magic seems like something that would have been obvious to Voldemort.
I never thought it made sense for Voldemort to try to kill Harry, or at least try to kill him himself. But if he did try, maybe Dumbledore (with the Potters’ consent) booby trapped Harry in some other way? Maybe that’s where the magical resonance between them comes from.
If we’re assuming a clever Voldemort, there’s any number of ways that ‘check his wand’s last recorded spell’ could fail to be conclusive evidence. He could’ve used someone else’s wand (a backup wand is a good idea for a ton of reasons). He could’ve brought someone else to do the actual deed (how else did Bellatrix get to the wand before anyone else showed up like Dumbledore or Aurors?). He could’ve used any of a billion Muggle methods, as you point out (plausible since we know about Pioneer and Dumbledore regards clever use of Muggle tech as pointing to Voldemort). He could’ve used an innocuous spell in a fatal way (a dark lord in hiding could be expected to use Apparating all the time, and Apparating seems like it could be quite fatal given ‘splinching’). He could simply have broken the detection spell and set up a false audit trail, as it were. And so on and so forth.
The official story seems completely inferred.
Lily and James are dead. Harry has a scar. There is a burnt husk of something nearby.
In fact, not even so much. What the world sees are Dumbledore producing the dead bodies of Lily and James, a scarred Harry, and a burnt husk of something.
One point against a Dumbledore conspiracy theory—how would he know that Voldemort wouldn’t show up a week later and blow his story?