What really happened
on the night
James and Lily were killed?
A timeline and commentary
"It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an' James's house after they was killed! Jus' got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, 'an his parents dead...an' Sirius Black turns up, on that flying' motorbike he used to ride. Never occurred to me what he was doin' there..."
-- Rubeus Hagrid
On this page:
Timeline | Key quotes | Unanswered
questions
A timeline of the events
Italics indicate editor's commentary and questions
| DATE | EVENT |
|---|---|
| 1978 | Lily Evans and James Potter finish Hogwarts and immediately go to work for The Order of the Phoenix (OBT/CH). Voldemort tried to recruit them to be Death Eaters (PC/JKR1), but both were defiant. Lily and James probably got married in the Summer or Fall of 1978, though it could have been as late as the summer of 1979. |
| Fall 1979 | Sybill Trelawney makes a prophecy to Albus Dumbledore about a child to be born in July of that year. Partially overheard by a Death Eater, Severus Snape, who reports what he heard to Voldemort. |
| circa October 1979 | Lily becomes pregnant with Harry, and both she and James go into hiding because of the prophecy (OBT/CH). |
| July 1980 | Two children are born who fit the prophecy's criteria: Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. Dumbledore knows that they are in danger, but hesitates to act until he knows more about what Voldemort might do. |
| between July 31 and September 1, 1980 | Severus Snape discovers that Lily and her infant son have been targeted by Voldemort, has a crisis of conscience, and tells Albus Dumbledore. Snape offers his allegiance to Dumbledore in exchange for protection for Lily and is given the position of Hogwarts Potions Master. |
| before October 24, 1981 | Approximately a week before the attack, Dumbledore suggests that the Potters use the Fidelius Charm to protect their hiding place. The Charm's Secret Keeper was initially supposed to be James’ best friend Sirius Black. However, Sirius persuaded the Potters to bluff and use Peter Pettigrew instead (PA19). Unfortunately, Pettigrew had become a servant of Voldemort and he betrayed their hiding place to him. A week after the Charm was first performed, Lily and James are attacked by Lord Voldemort. |
| Monday*,
October 31, 1981, nighttime at Godric’s Hollow *October, 31, 1981 was in reality a Saturday, not a Monday. |
Man’s voice: "Lily, take Harry and
go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off
------" Lily goes to Harry's room where he is in his cot [crib]. According to Voldemort, James died "straight-backed and proud." (GF34) The sounds of someone stumbling from a room -- a door bursting open -- a cackle of high-pitched laughter -- (PA12) Lily’s voice: "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Voldemort: "Stand aside you silly girl … stand aside now." Lily: "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead ----- " Lily: "Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy… " Harry hears a shrill voice laughing and the woman screaming (PA9, PA12). Then Harry remembers a blinding green flash and a burning pain in his forehead, then a high, cold cruel laugh. Voldemort had used the Killing Curse on Lily and Harry. Dumbledore knows Dumbledore had placed a charm on the house and knew immediately what had occurred (PC/JKR1). He dispatches Hagrid to rescue the infant Harry. What happened to Harry Lily was killed, but 1-year-old Harry survived, marked with a large jagged wound by the curse meant to take his life. Voldemort lost almost all of his powers as well as his body, and fled "horribly weakened." Dumbledore believes that Lily’s love and sacrifice ("ancient magic") created invincible protection for Harry, and that the curse then rebounded on Voldemort. Later, Dumbledore comes to believe that in cursing Harry, a piece of Voldemort's unstable soul fractured and attached itself to Harry through the lightning-shaped wound. This had the effect of giving Harry some of Voldemort's own powers, including making Harry a Parselmouth, and created a psychic link between Voldemort and Harry. This link strengthened as Harry got older and as Voldemort grew stronger -- at least until Voldemort began to block the connection after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Voldemort’s account of what happened to him "Pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost … but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know … I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal – to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments worked … for I had not been killed, though the curse should have done it. Nevertheless, I was as powerless as the weakest creature alive…" (GF33) Voldemort’s one remaining power is that he can possess the bodies of others. What happened to the house? There is some mystery about what happened to the house. We know that other Killing Curses did not damage the structure or the bodies (Riddle House murders, for example); normally it kills but does not leave visible trauma. And yet, Hagrid reports to Dumbledore that the house was "almost" destroyed (PS1); he also tells Harry that an "evil curse" destroyed the house (PS4).
Where is Dumbledore? |
| Tuesday, November 1, 1981 | Minerva
McGonagall encounters Hagrid. Hagrid tells her very
little of what's happened; all he tells her is that Dumbledore
will be going to number four Privet Drive later that day. She
is not even informed at this point what the significance
of that address is, since she is shocked later to discover
that Dumbledore intends to leave Harry there and is not aware
that those horrible Muggles are Harry's relatives. Hagrid
also does not tell her that James and Lily were killed (or
else she refused to believe it until she heard Dumbledore
confirm it personally). Hagrid arrives at the Hollow. Sometime in the very early morning hours, Dumbledore sends Rubeus Hagrid to Godric’s Hollow. As best we know, Hagrid is first on the scene. We do not know how he travels there, but he gets there so quickly that he is able to rescue Harry from the ruins of the house just before Muggles start "swarming around."
The bodies?
The wands? James's and Lily's wands are unaccounted for. Peter Pettigrew went to the house and retrieved Voldemort's wand.
Sirius arrives. Sirius says he had previously arranged with James and Lily to "check on Peter" that Wednesday. When he discovered Pettigrew was missing from his hiding place, Sirius got worried and took his flying motorcycle to the house in Godric’s Hollow, where he was horrified by the destruction and death (PA19). Hagrid is still there and comforts him, and Sirius, as Harry’s godfather, asks to take the child. However, Hagrid is on strict orders from Dumbledore to bring Harry to his Aunt and Uncle’s house on Privet Drive. Sirius gives his motorcycle to Hagrid for the trip, saying "I won’t need it anymore." (PA10) The news spreads. And the word is quickly spreading through the wizarding world: sometime before 8:30 that morning, Minerva McGonagall (as a rather uptight cat) is already waiting and watching at Privet Drive, and others are beginning to celebrate. Vernon Dursley heads off to work. A whole day passes. Dumbledore arrives at Privet Drive just before midnight and tells Minerva McGonagall that Hagrid is late, so another mystery is the time lapse between the time Hagrid and Sirius parted and the time Hagrid arrived at Privet Drive. Once Hagrid gets there (on Sirius' motorbike), it is clear from his report that he has not seen Dumbledore since he left to go to Godric’s Hollow. There are at least 12 hours that are unaccounted for. Hagrid reluctantly hands Harry over to Dumbledore to put on the Dursleys' front step. About Hagrid and Sirius's motorbike So far, the motorbike has not reappeared in the books, although in the WBD, JKR told us that we'll find out what happened to it, but "the real sleuths among you might be able to guess." |
| Wednesday, November 2, 1981 | Petunia Dursley finds Harry in a bundle of blankets on her doorstep,
along with a letter from Albus Dumbledore tucked
inside. She agrees to provide Harry with a home and in so
doing, knowingly seals a protective charm on Harry while
he lives in her house. (OP37)
Sirius confronts Pettigrew. That same day,
Sirius finds and corners Peter Pettigrew in some metropolitan
area [where?],
but according to Sirius, Pettigrew yelled "for the whole
street to hear that I’d betrayed Lily and James. Then
before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the
wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of
himself --- and sped down into the sewer with the other rats …" (PA19)
The blast killed 12 Muggles.
Sirius arrested. The Muggle witnesses claim that Pettigrew cornered Black and attacked Sirius saying "Lily and James, Sirius, How could you?" Then they said that Sirius raised his wand and blasted Pettigrew "to smithereens." Black is taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad and is imprisoned in Azkaban without a trial; Pettigrew posthumously receives the Order of Merlin, First Class (PA10). Although Harry, Ron, Hermione and members of the Order of the Phoenix eventually realize that Sirius Black was innocent, Black was never officially cleared of the crime. |
Key Quotes
Sybill Trelawney’s prophecy, spoken to
Dumbledore early summer 1980 at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches …
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month
dies
…
And the Dark Lord will mark him as equal, but he will have power the
Dark Lord knows not …
And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while
the other survives. (Voldemort knows only the first two parts of the
prophecy.)
PS4
Hagrid: "Never wondered how you got that mark on yer
forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful,
evil curse touches yeh -- took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house,
even -- but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry."
GF2
Harry had been a year old the night that Voldemort -- the most powerful
dark wizard for a century, a wizard who had been gaining power steadily
for eleven years -- arrived at his house and killed his father and
mother. Voldemort had then turned his wand on Harry; he had performed
the curse that had disposed of many full-grown witches and wizards
in his steady rise to power -- and, incredibly, it had not worked.
Instead of killing the small boy, the curse had rebounded upon Voldemort.
Harry had survived with nothing but a lightning-shaped cut on his forehead,
and Voldemort had been reduced to something barely alive. His powers
gone, his life almost extinguished, Voldemort had fled; the terror
in which the secret community of witches and wizards had lived for
so long had lifted. Voldemort's followers had disbanded, and Harry
Potter had become famous.
GF14
Harry had been picturing his parents' deaths over and
over again for three years now, ever since he'd found out they had
been murdered, ever since he'd found out what had happened that night:
Wormtail had betrayed his parents' whereabouts to Voldemort, who
had come to find them at their cottage. How Voldemort had killed
Harry's father first. How James Potter had tried to hold him off,
while he shouted at his wife to take Harry and run ... Voldemort
had advanced on Lily Potter, and told her to move aside so that he
could kill Harry ... how she had begged him to kill her instead,
refused to stop shielding her son ... and so Voldemort had murdered
her too, before turning his wand on Harry ...
EBF 2004
"Harry did not see his parents die. He was one year old and in a cot
at the time. Although you never see that scene, I wrote it and then
cut it. He didn’t see it; he was too young to appreciate it." (JKR)
TLC
[Lily] could have lived and chose to die. James was going to be killed
anyway. Do you see what I mean? I’m not saying James wasn't ready
to; he died trying to protect his family but he was going to be murdered
anyway. He had no - he wasn't given a choice, so he rushed into it
in a kind of animal way, I think there are distinctions in courage.
James was immensely brave. But the caliber of Lily's bravery was, I
think in this instance, higher because she could have saved herself.
Now any mother, any normal mother would have done what Lily did. So
in that sense her courage too was of an animal quality but she was
given time to choose. James wasn't. It's like an intruder entering
your house, isn't it? You would instinctively rush them. But if in
cold blood you were told, "Get out of the way," you know,
what would you do? I mean, I don't think any mother would stand aside
from their child. But does that answer it? She did very consciously
lay down her life. She had a clear choice -
ES: And James didn't.
JKR: Did he clearly die to try and protect Harry specifically given a clear choice? No. It's a subtle distinction and there's slightly more to it than that but that's most of the answer.
MA: Did she know anything about the possible effect of standing in front of Harry?
JKR: No - because as I've tried to make clear in the series, it never happened before. No one ever survived before. And no one, therefore, knew that could happen.
MA: So no one - Voldemort or anyone using Avada Kedavra - ever gave someone a choice and then they took that option [to die] -
JKR: They may have been given a choice, but not in that particular way. (TLC)
(sources: US hardcover editions, PS 8-17 & 55-57; CS 332-333; PA 204-207 & 358-375; GF 652-653; OP 835-836 & 841)
PotterCast #130 -- referred to here as (PC/JKR1)
JKR: "Obviously Dumbledore could cast a charm on a dwelling that would immediately alert him if something happened to it. So he can know instantaneously. That's not a problem at all. And then he could dispatch Hagrid, and so on. [...] I'm gonna have to really go back through notes, and either admit I've lost 24 hours, or, I don't know, hurriedly come up with some back story to fill it. Either way, you either get to be right, or you get more story. So you can't complain."
Remaining mysteries:
- So where were Hagrid & Harry for most of Tuesday?
- Where was Dumbledore?
Where were Harry and Hagrid for all that time?
Now it gets really mysterious. When we try to track the whereabouts of Hagrid between the attack in Godric's Hollow and his arrival on Privet Drive, we find a huge gap of almost 24 hours. Where did Hagrid take Harry?
Logically, it would have been somewhere for safekeeping or even medical care while Dumbledore hurriedly made arrangements. Perhaps this is when Mrs. Figg was moved into her house a few streets away from the Dursleys. Perhaps Dumbledore was casting wards and spells to protect Privet Drive. But where was Hagrid?
Why didn't Harry die when the house was destroyed?
After all, he was on the second floor (PS/f, scene written by JKR) and the house was completely wrecked. How did a one-year-old baby escape unharmed?Perhaps we see a hint of why this would be in Hagrid's statement that a car crash couldn't have killed James and Lily Potter. It would seem that Wizarding folk aren't injured as quickly by things like this. That also ties in with the fact that people in the Wizarding world engage in frightfully dangerous activities all the time and don't seem to get hurt. Neville fell from a broomstick from way up in the air and only broke his wrist. Apparently, this isn't as deadly to a wizard. When he was younger, he bounced when he was dropped out of an upstairs window, which indicated to his family that he had magical power.
And what about Quidditch? People fall from great heights, get hit in the head by solid iron balls, and do all sorts of things which should cause serious harm. Yet Wood tells Harry that no one has died playing Quidditch at Hogwarts. It would certainly seem that magical folk are protected to some extent by the very "magic-ness" of their bodies. (See medical magic for a fuller discussion of this).
Some notes on this page:
The page that used to be here was written right after GF came out.
At that time there was a lot of speculation in the fan community
about what JKR was hinting at with the apparent inconsistencies in
the text [the wand order problem]. After she had surprised us with
Scabbers' true identity and with so many other things, we were trying
to figure out what these latest clues was all about. But then the
later versions of the book were corrected and she even e-mailed and
told fans that no, Lily came first. This didn't answer all our concerns,
but it did bring us back to earth a little. There are actually errors
all through GF, and instead of clues, that's what they were: errors.
The original page is still interesting [you can view that page here], I suppose, from the standpoint that it gives you a glimpse of what things were like in July, 2000. It's always been exciting to be a Harry Potter fan, but it was particularly fun then. That was before there were Harry Potter movies or coloring books or action figures or trading card games to confuse things. There were only books, and we were all giddy with the pleasure of discovering the amazing world Jo had created. She was doling details out a little bit at a time in interviews after the release of GF, and we adult fans were have a ball trying to figure it all out.
Okay, so we've all settled down a little since then. But you know what? It's still just as exciting to be a Harry Potter fan. And there are still plenty of mysteries to be solved, plenty of things we haven't figured out yet.
Thanks to all of you who have written and commented.
Steve
