The final duel between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the most iconic moments in the Harry Potter series, with the opposing witches being respectively played by Julie Walters and Helena Bonham Carter in the movie adaptations. Bellatrix is one of the biggest and most despicable villains in the Harry Potter franchise — a terrible character who we love anyway — and her death needed to be a grand affair, with several characters who could have suitably killed her. Molly, meanwhile, acts as a comforting maternal figure throughout the saga, making this display of her ferocious side very satisfying.
The duel during the final part of the Battle of Hogwarts was meant to create a contrast between Molly’s protective mother’s love and Bellatrix’s violent zealotry. However, it has also prompted a fair amount of debate about what spell Molly actually uses to kill Bellatrix, when it is apparently not the straightforward killing curse of Avada Kedavra. The problems with Harry Potter‘s world-building include gaps in the magic system, with lethal spells besides Avada Kedavra not being properly explained. However, fans have taken it upon themselves to make sense of this, with some different options as it pertains to Molly’s killing blow.
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Stunning Spell To The Heart
Molly May Have Just Used A Common Spell Very Effectively
The most popular and most likely explanation is that Molly simply wielded the frequently-used stunning spell (incantation stupefy) and hit Bellatrix in a more ᴅᴇᴀᴅly spot and with enough strength that it killed her. The final moments of the duel between Molly and Bellatrix read as:
“Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backward through the veil, and suddenly Harry knew what was going to happen before it did. Molly’s curse soared beneath Bellatrix’s outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart. Bellatrix’s gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.”
Striking her in this way could have potentially stopped her heart (maybe someone could have even restarted it if they understood some aspects of Muggle medicine). It is a plot point in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix novel that Professor McGonagall is hit in the chest with multiple stunning spells, and the school nurse remarks that she was lucky it didn’t kill her. Thus, stunning can be lethal in some cases.
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Dark Charm Intensified By Strong Emotions
Molly Had Just Lost One Of Her Children & Was Protecting Another
A Reddit user theorizes that Molly could have used a dark charm, one which we may have even seen before, which was made stronger by Molly’s emotions of rage and grief at that moment. This same principle could also apply to her using the stunning charm. Fred is killed in the first half of the battle, and Molly rushes into this duel, demanding that everyone else let her fight Bellatrix alone, because Bellatrix has just nearly killed Ginny. This is actually a moment of very intense emotions in many ways defined by a mother’s love, and it makes sense if that affected the magic.
3
Freezing And/Or Disintegrating Charm
The Deathly Hallows Movie When With Something More Visual
The movie altered Bellatrix’s death slightly into something more visually dramatic. In the book, Molly hits her in the chest, and she simply goes down. In the movie, Molly seems to petrify Bellatrix and then blasts her into dust — which does indeed look cool. It has been determined that Molly either used the hardening spell Duro or the freezing spell Inmobulus and then an unnamed disintegration spell. This makes sense for the movie; in the book, she might have used a similar spell that killed Bellatrix by freezing her (perhaps a vital organ rather than her entire body).
2
Dolohov’s “Purple” Curse
Hermione Was Once Almost Killed By A Specialized Curse
Also repeatedly referenced in discussions of Molly/Bellatrix is the fact that Hermione was almost killed by Dolohov in the Department of Mysteries in Order of the Phoenix, with a curse that has a similar effect of simply causing her to collapse and which led to a long recovery. The spell, cast by Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, is only described as being “purple,” and Hermione apparently narrowly avoids death. If Molly was familiar with this spell and cast it under slightly different circumstances, it also could have been what she used to kill Bellatrix.
1
Curse That Paralyzes The Heart
There Are Many Other Curses We Don’t Know About With Different Effects
Finally, it is implied that there are many, many spells that exist in the Harry Potter universe which it would have been awkward to list in the text, but Molly is well-studied and has an arsenal at her disposal when she faces Bellatrix. Fans have actually proposed some fairly creative ideas when it comes to what Molly’s spell actually did. A user on Quora says: “Perhaps there are curses that can paralyze the heart, freeze the lungs, or suck oxygen out from the victim’s bloodstream.”
Again, the curse in some way affecting Bellatrix’s heart seems most congruous with her falling to the ground, instantly ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. This scene also establishes that Molly knows her magic and can handle herself in a duel, and she knows any number of useful spells. Whether it would have been better for Harry Potter to explain this is subjective, but the scene remains famous just the same.
Source: Reddit, Quora
Harry Potter
- Created by
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J.K. Rowling
- First Film
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
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Harry Potter
- Cast
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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, Matthew Lewis, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Richard Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Alfred Enoch, Harry Melling, Gary Oldman, Robert Pattinson, Warwick Davis, Oliver Phelps, James Phelps, David Bradley, David Thewlis, Katie Leung, Jason Isaacs, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jamie Campbell Bower, Timothy Spall, Robbie Coltrane, Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Johnny Depp, Mads Mikkelsen
- TV Show(s)
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Harry Potter
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