As in this comment: Probably Quirrell is lying. When he realized Harry was upset about the centaur dying, he thought fast and Inferiused the centaur and made up the bit about green stunners.
IIRC, in canon Avada Kedavra has a distinctive color not shared by any other spell.
If Quirrell is lying, then asking the question “Why not use the green stunner in other circumstances where Avadra Kevadra was used?” may lead to that lie being uncovered.
I admit I had not considered Inferius on the centaur. However, I rather suspect that Quirrell is priming Harry here; he does something (hitting a centaur with a green stunner) that looks evil, then demonstrates that it is less evil than it was. In the future, then, Harry will be more inclined to believe that Quirrell has done something less evil than it looks like he has done; he could, for example, use Avadra Kevadra on Dumbledore later (making it look like a green stunner to Harry) in circumstances where a green stunner would not be evil and then rely on Harry to prevent any immediate revenge against himself (long enough to portkey away at least).
True (probably). The more troubling evidence includes the fact that he acted like he thought Harry would accept his first explanation, and that we saw him Obliviate Bellatrix without ordering her to forget. Plus, Quirrell uses the phrase “stunning hexes”, but those don’t prevent breathing (unless that really was “her last breath escaping” in chapter 33).
As in this comment: Probably Quirrell is lying. When he realized Harry was upset about the centaur dying, he thought fast and Inferiused the centaur and made up the bit about green stunners.
IIRC, in canon Avada Kedavra has a distinctive color not shared by any other spell.
If Quirrell is lying, then asking the question “Why not use the green stunner in other circumstances where Avadra Kevadra was used?” may lead to that lie being uncovered.
I admit I had not considered Inferius on the centaur. However, I rather suspect that Quirrell is priming Harry here; he does something (hitting a centaur with a green stunner) that looks evil, then demonstrates that it is less evil than it was. In the future, then, Harry will be more inclined to believe that Quirrell has done something less evil than it looks like he has done; he could, for example, use Avadra Kevadra on Dumbledore later (making it look like a green stunner to Harry) in circumstances where a green stunner would not be evil and then rely on Harry to prevent any immediate revenge against himself (long enough to portkey away at least).
On the other hand Quirrell, via the basilisk, has spells that are not shared with any other wizard.
True (probably). The more troubling evidence includes the fact that he acted like he thought Harry would accept his first explanation, and that we saw him Obliviate Bellatrix without ordering her to forget. Plus, Quirrell uses the phrase “stunning hexes”, but those don’t prevent breathing (unless that really was “her last breath escaping” in chapter 33).
Also, recall that Eliezer hasn’t read all the HP books. We can’t have 100% confidence that he is aware of any given fact that is true in canon.
In MOR, though, “green light the exact shade of the Killing Curse” is a spell first-year Draco can cast (ch47).