Avada Kedavra could be the most powerful curse in the Harry Potter franchise. Many accomplished wizards fell victim to it, and one has few options to avoid the curse if an enemy is about to use it on them.
If you read the books or watched the films, you might realize that some characters have blocked Avada Kedavra. How did they do this if there is no countercurse?
Acts of love can block Avada Kedavra, like Lily Potter’s sacrifice for her son, Harry. Priori Incantatem is a rare phenomenon capable of blocking the curse, which can also be blocked with large objects. If someone uses Avada Kedavra without winning a wand’s allegiance, it can backfire.
Contents
What is Avada Kedavra?
Avada Kedavra is known as the Killing Curse. It is one of the three Unforgivable Curses along with the Imperius Curse and the Cruciatus Curse.
The curse instantly kills its victim. Though it is unknown how this happens, there are two theories. One is that Avada Kedavra rips the soul from the body, while the other claims the curse immediately shuts down all vital organs.
Of the two theories, the former is more widely accepted, as numerous texts within the books support the notion that those the curse hits will drop dead. If the latter were the case, their respective deaths would be more dramatic.
Despite its lethal nature, Avada Kedavra is painless, as Albus Dumbledore stated in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
During a flashback in Chapter 33 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Prince’s Tale, Severus Snape informed Dumbledore he had roughly one year to live, prompting the Hogwarts headmaster to plan his own death.
While Dumbledore wished for Snape to kill him, he also stressed that he did not want to die a painful death. When the time for Dumbledore to die arrived in Book Six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Snape used Avada Kedavra to kill the headmaster.
Of course, you may know that Lord Voldemort is the most famous practitioner of the curse. He used it to kill countless witches, wizards, and Muggles before and during the events of the books.
How Did Harry Block the Curse?
Lord Voldemort tried to kill Harry multiple times with Avada Kedavra. But either Harry blocked it in creative ways, or, someone else’s influence blocked the curse for him.
Bartemius Crouch Jr., disguised as Alastor Moody, stated in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that you cannot block Avada Kedavra. However, under minute circumstances, you can block the curse, even if it hits you.
In Godric’s Hollow
In the first instance, an infant Harry survived the curse after Voldemort used it to kill Lily and James Potter.
Harry survived Avada Kedavra because Lily used what is called sacrificial protection. This must involve a strong emotional connection with one individual that they wish to save.
Lily possessed this high emotional connection to her son and physically shielded him, even after Voldemort twice ordered her to get out of the way.
Before Voldemort invaded Godric’s Hollow, where the Potters lived, he made a deal with Snape, who was then a Death Eater. Snape, who loved Lily even before they became Hogwarts students, pleaded with Voldemort to spare her, and the Dark Lord initially agreed.
This meant Lily was never in any real danger until she put herself in danger. Voldemort, failing to realize that Lily’s love would continue to shield Harry, killed her, turned his wand on the infant, and cast the curse.
However, it rebounded upon Voldemort, and it would have killed the Dark Lord had he not created multiple Horcruxes. So in this case, Harry didn’t necessarily block the curse; Lily’s love created a shield and blocked it for him.
In Little Hangleton
Barty Crouch Jr. overpowered Alastor Moody and disguised himself as the former Auror in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He secretly put Harry’s name into the Goblet under a random school, knowing that he would be the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament.
This made Harry magically bound to compete in the tournament, and he was an underdog, being the youngest wizard in the competition.
Crouch became a “mentor” to Harry, providing a blueprint to help the boy complete the First Task before indirectly ensuring he made it through the Second and Third Tasks.
Harry reached the Triwizard Cup with Cedric Diggory, and the two agreed to grab the trophy simultaneously. Unfortunately for them, the Cup was a portkey that transferred them to Little Hangleton.
They met Wormtail, and Voldemort ordered the traitor to murder Cedric with Avada Kedavra. Afterward, Wormtail conducted a ritual to bring the Dark Lord back into a living vessel, which shortly thereafter summoned the Death Eaters to the cemetery.
After taunting Harry, Voldemort forced the boy into a duel. While Harry tried to disarm Voldemort, the Dark Lord cast Avada Kedavra. However, Harry blocked the curse because his wand and Voldemort’s wand shared a core from the same phoenix.
This method of blocking Avada Kedavra, Priori Incantatum, is rare, since the wands must contain a core from the same exact being. If Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands contained the cores of different phoenixes, this method would not have worked.
But since they both came from Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, Fawkes, the two wands refused to fight one another.
In the Forbidden Forest
Harry’s next stint against Avada Kedavra occurred in the Forbidden Forest. In this case, he willingly walked into Voldemort’s camp of Death Eaters and allowed the Dark Lord to hit him with the curse.
However, Voldemort had used Harry’s blood to resurrect his body three years before. This meant that, thanks to Lily’s sacrifice, Harry could not die if Voldemort still lived unless Harry chose to enter the afterlife.
The curse destroyed another part of Voldemort’s soul because, when he had tried to kill Harry nearly 17 years before in Godric’s Hollow, he inadvertently turned the boy into a Horcrux.
Since Harry decided to return and end Voldemort for good, Lily’s sacrifice once again blocked Avada Kedavra from killing him.
In the Great Hall
Shortly after Harry returned, the final leg in the Battle of Hogwarts erupted in the Great Hall. Now mortal thanks to destroying his own Horcrux after Neville beheaded Nagini, Voldemort attempted to kill Harry with Avada Kedavra once again.
But Voldemort made another mistake, erroneously believing he became the master of the Elder Wand by taking it from Dumbledore’s grave.
However, Dumbledore was no longer the master of the wand since Draco Malfoy had disarmed the former headmaster the year before during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. This made Draco the master of the wand.
But after a group of snatchers caught Harry, Ron Weasly, and Hermione Granger and took them to Malfoy Manor, a fight ensued, and Harry overpowered Draco, becoming the wand’s master.
Therefore, the wand refused to kill Harry. So when Voldemort used the curse with the Elder Wand, Harry disarmed him, and the curse rebounded.
Since Voldemort had no Horcruxes left, the curse killed him. So in this case, a wizard can “block” Avada Kedavra if the wand recognizes them as their master. If an opponent tried to use that wand against its master, the curse would rebound.
How Did Dumbledore Block the Curse?
Although he was the most powerful wizard in recent history, even Albus Dumbledore could not survive Avada Kedavra when it hit him.
However, we saw Fawkes take the hit for Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic during the climactic moments of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
This technically resulted in zero deaths–since as Fawkes was a phoenix, the curse only forced him to burst into flames. From his ashes, he was reborn seconds later.
Earlier in that scene, Voldemort had tried using the curse to kill Harry. Dumbledore caught the Dark Lord off-guard when he used a charm to make the golden statue of a wizard spring to life, which rushed in front of Harry and blocked the curse from hitting him.
Dumbledore used the same charm with the centaur’s statue when Voldemort again tried using the curse. Avada Kedavra blasted into the statue, further preventing it from killing the headmaster.
In The Secrets of Dumbledore
Albus and his estranged brother, Aberforth, saved Credence from falling victim to the curse when the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald cast it.
In the scene, they used a mysterious strand of golden magic to block the curse. And although Crouch stressed there is no countercurse for it roughly 50 years later during the events of Goblet of Fire, there could be an explanation of how Albus and Aberforth blocked it.
In The Secrets of Dumbledore, we discovered that Credence was Aberforth’s son. Therefore, when the brothers cast their protection charms to block Grindelwald’s curse, they did so out of protection of another Dumbledore.
Since this was technically an act of love, and one must have a measurable amount of hatred behind a curse like Avada Kedavra, it allowed Albus and Aberforth to cancel out the curse.
Conclusion
Avada Kedavra is almost impossible to block. Countercurses are ineffective against it unless someone else is casting it out of love and protection, and are also powerful enough to cancel it out, like the Dumbledore brothers.
When Lily Potter shielded Harry from Avada Kedavra and died in his place, it blocked Voldemort from killing Harry with the curse. When Voldemort resurrected his body, his use of Harry’s blood further reinforced Harry’s ability to keep Avada Kedavra from killing him.
Priori Incantatum blocked it from killing Harry in Little Hangleton. And during his final battle against the Dark Lord, Harry was already the master of the Elder Wand. When Voldemort used the wand to cast the killing curse, it refused to kill Harry.
Immortal animals, like phoenixes, can also block the curse. While the curse ends their present life, they are immediately reborn.
Sion Fawkes has been covering Star Wars since January 2022, expanding his expertise in Star Wars Canon, Legends, and MCU. When not writing, you can find Sion in the gym or running trails. He also likes watching sports and listening to audiobooks.