I know that JKR says in GoF she made a mistake by letting Lily and James out in the wrong order but there was another spell missing - the AK curse fired at Harry...

What would have been the effects of reversing this do you think?

An Avada Kedavra curse cannot be reversed. Maybe there wasn´t an echo of thatone because it wasn´t a curse that worked correctly.

Ooh, now there's an interesting question. Mmm....maybe you've really struck on something here...why didn't the AK curse come out too? It should have, shouldn't it?

And where did JKR say that Lily and James came out of the wand in the wrong order? I thought Lily came first, then James, because they are replayed backwards, which means that James was killed first, then Lily, which is the way it was supposed to have happened, isn't it? So the AK curse should, technically, have come out before Lily. Maybe it doesn't come out if it didn't work properly, but it must have done something, because it reflected on LV, didn't it?

Ooh, I think you might really have hit on something here...and JKR did say to consider why Voldemort didn't die....maybe his wand wasn't the source of the spell that 'killed' him after all....I dunno....

Anyone else got some thoughts on this?

I just want to echo Louise in this... because I've seen someone else mentioned about it too in other thread... are you sure JKR said it's in the wrong order? Could you provide a link or something? I mean, if only one person mentioned it, it could be some mistake (don't take me wrong here, everybody makes mistakes) but when there's two of you... hmm... a link to this is very much appreciated.

About the AK curse,

I know it's a flim reference and it was probably done for effect. But advanced wizzards don't use a wand for simple spells.

I can't personally understand what the difference would be whether Lily died first or James. As far as we can gather, both died at the scene and that's that.

On with the plot twist!

JKR actually mentions it on her site - I think it's in the FAQs, though don't quote me on this...

hmmm, this is interesting...
what about the missmemory (or how it's called) spell LV used to get the info about the triwizard turnament? Can't remeber the name of the witch he used it on, she had to forget all about Voldemort after he was finished sucking informaton out of her... right..?
So how came that didn't came out of his wand. It happnd after Lily and James was murdered so it should occured before they came out of the wand.


Perhaps only the people who has been killed came.

hey one thing just hit me... Vodemort used the Crusio curse on Harry before the Hexus Historicus happend. then Harry should be hit by a crusio curse then?
But what about the light going forwards and backwards between LV and Harry. Those had to be the spells, They just sent a new light towards the other after reciving one from the other..
These lights must have been the spells.

I believe Priori Incantatem regurgitates only completed charms.
The process of a charm is conduction, projection,contact, and enchantment.
The enchantment is when the spell does what its intentions are, completing the charm.
The Avada Kedavra attempted on Harry was conducted, projected, and made contact.
The enchantment of AK is the destruction of another's life.
Harry lives meaning AK has not concluded its enchantment, to end his life.
Thats why there was no echo of that Killing Curse because Harry nor Voldemort died.

I believe the echo of the Cruciatus Curse is all the yelling and scrreaming that´s heard between the other spells.
About Lily and James' order of appearance, it´s probably the american edition the one you´ve read, and there was a mistake in that one(the first edition, at least, I think it was corrected after).

Yeah, I read that JK admitted it was a mistake. Cause the Hand, then Cedric, then Bertha Jorkins, Frank Bryce, James and Lily. It should have been Lily then James. And maybe something did come out but Harry didn't notice, cause that would have been the very first thing to come out, and he was kind of busy with the whole pushing it back in Voldemort's face/Sudden gold dome thing, so maybe he didn't notice. It wouldn't be the first time that we didn't get to see something because of the "Harry filter" (www.redhen-publications.com)

hmmmm...v. true and v. interesting I think for the first time I'm gonna go! oh! oh! thats actually a proper thing that'll contribute. Very interesting. I'll definately keep a look out for that!

Alright, so this summer I've been rereading all the books for what must be the umpteenth time.

I'm just about finished with the 4th one, and I found something that made me think. When Harry and Voldemort are dueling, and they invoke Priori Incantatem, the "ghosts" of Voldemort's victims emerge in reverse order from when they were killed (ie the most recently killed emerged first).

Now, after Cedric, Frank Bryce, and Bertha Jorkins, we have James and Lily Potter. Now in all the previous books, we have heard that Voldemort first killed James, then proceeded to kill Lily while she protected Harry.

However, in Priori Incantatem, James appears before Lily, meaning that Voldemort actually killed James after Lily.

This was never explained further in any of the books following, nor is it even mentioned any further in GoF.

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what this meant. Because such an obvious error wouldn't be in there still if JK hadn't intended it.

Now, I haven't read any of JK's interviews or her site, so this may have been explained there, and if so, could someone point me in that direction so I can read it?

But if it hasn't, then a whole slew of theories could be proposed. I myself had come up with a vast number of theories, some of which were along the lines of James never really died and would be back in Book 7 (owing to a large amount of oddly placed evidences). But this passage (one I managed to overlook in my theorizing) seems to prove that James is indeed dead, but the circumstances surrounding his death may indeed be different then we are lead to believe.

Ummm I may be wrong but Im almost positive that it was a mistake on JKR part and that she did recognize it as such.... again I may be wrong but I almost sure

Well...i overlooked this bit when i read through the books...so i guess i can only say that its a mistake !

Mod Note:

I merged the newly opened "Priori Incantatem" thread into the already excisting "duelling mistakes" one. Feel free to use this thread for discussing mistakes related to Priori Incantatem or the AK curse.

Ooo.. I had the same question. I was half-way through creating a topic before I remembered to search, and I came across this thread. Ok, for starters, Jo has said that the whole James before lily mix-up was the american editor's fault. But there is the other question: why didn't voldemort come out of the wand? Or Harry? The spell was cast, and someone died. But nothing came out of the wand from that spell. I tend to agree with others that it was because the spell backfired. but what if someone actually was there that night, and voldemort used their wand for some reason? I doubt that is the case. For Voldemort's big victory, he would have wanted to use his own wand. A related problem is the horcrux spell. We didn't see a spell making Nagini the horcrux. But, perhaps the murder is the spell, and what else happens is wandless or something. I don't know. Just a question.

Maybe she said that was a mistake because she is hiding something. Maybe Lily was killed first and then James, and it`s something that we will discover in the seventh book.

And maybe the reason that just people who were killed by Voldemort got out of the wand, in the reverse way, is that voldemort tried to kill harry at the present time. He already said "Avada Kedavra" while Harry said "Expelliarmus", so maybe the reverse spells where just those who voldemort did the avada kedavra curse... just a thought..

I don't think so, if it wasn't a mistake, then it wouldn't have been corrected in later editions. In the book I have, Lily comes out first, then James.

I didn`t knew that, The last Horcrux. Well, now it`s obvious that was just a mistake that later she corrected or they (the publicers).
Funny that the film producers weren`t carrefull enough, in the movie james gets out first like in the book (the one who hasn`t been corrected).

No one has posted where Jo has said this yet. That makes me really wonder about this. I have found myself with a knack, but trying to understand another person's thought process creates crazy results with me, but onto my point. What if she meant it was a mistake to say in which order they came out, instead of they both appeared. I mean if it was in the movies this way it has to hold some major plot point. This could mean that James did not die first.

It is on her website...here is a link to the question

www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=19

I just wanted to ask.. How come loads more people didn't come out of Voldemorts' wand? Someone said (I think it was Sirius) that Voldy killed enough people to make an entire army! So why did only a few come out of his wand? Just wandering!