Why did Voldemort aim for Harry's head at Godric's Hollow?

[phoenixashe]

Originally Posted by FredWeasleyJr

So its very possible that Voldemort aimed the spell at the chest and it exited through the head

Do we know that spells exit the body? I mean they hit the body certainly, but do they really enter and exit like a bullet wound? If that was the case, then maybe that is where the spell exited, that would certainly have a whole lot of implications. There was an interesting point made earlier about Snape healing harry's scar. It must have been an actually wound at some point and one would think that any wound caused by a killing curse would cause a bigger mark, so maybe there was some magical intervention.

[gaurdian]

maybe voldemort just plain hates green eyes.......


what i want to know is why voldemort hit him with the spell when he knew babies have a magical protection up to a certain age

[phoenixashe]

How do we know babies have protection up to a certain age? Harry had protection because his mother died for him, not because he was a baby.

[hedwig_3180]

Umm, how do we know that he was even going for Harry's head? I know that we assume that because the scar is on his head, but he could have been aiming for his heart, and the scar ended up on his head cuz... well, I don't know why! But it would prolly have been easier to point his wand at Harry's heart.

[MadEyeRocks]

Ok lets assume that Voldy did have a reason to specifically aim for harry's head. Perhaps it has something to do with him wanting to make a horcrux out of this kill. Perhaps the spell has to be done in a very specific manner. Aiming at the head to force the soul to leave from the chest or something...I know a long shot, but there is most likely a reason it was done this way. Voldy would not take the chance of aiming a spell at someone, who a prophecy has said could distroy him, that he did not put considerable thought into.

[xhanax315]

What if he didn't actually point the curse at his head. What if he was moving and the spell just happen to hit him on the head? Maybe it wan't intended.

[phrodo]

what if Voldemort used Sectumsempra instead of Avada Kedavra?

Sectumsempra makes a slashing mark. For more theories on connections between Snape and Voldemort, see Harry Potter and the Lord of Darkness.

[PhoenixFire_DA]

What if the scar isn't from Voldemort's curse at all? What if Lily was holding Harry and shielding him when Vold killed her and she just dropped him on his head? What if the scar has no more significance than where Harry hit his head on the floor when Lily died and dropped him? Perhaps the curse used by VoldeRiddle simply rebounded and didn't leave a mark at all? Just thought I'd play devil's advocate here!!

[hedwig_3180]

Originally Posted by Fostwolf

Maybe he aimed for Harry's head to make sure he killed him.

Avada Kedavra kills no matter what. There is no blocking of it. Well, execpt for that one little exception. What was his name?

[taupimu]

I would have thought that as a toddler, Harry would have been standing in his crib while the fighting was going on. If this is the case, the crib may have been covering most of Harry's body and the only target would have been his head.

Some how, since JKR says the placement of the scar is important, I don't think this is the reason. She has some other reason for the scar on the forehead and she isn't telling yet.

[LeiaShadow]

I just had a little epiphany when I read from phoenixashe that people mostly aim at the chest when performing the AK curse because that is where the heart is. The heart is associated with love, right? And Voldemort aimed not at the heart, which we could possibly say contains love, or is strongly associated with love, but at Harry's head. Why didn't he aim at Harry's loving heart? Why did he choose the head, where the brains are, instead?

Perhaps he thought that because Harry had the power to kill him, part of that power would be the knowledge of how to kill him. "Knowledge is power", as they say. Maybe Voldemort was very Hermione-ish. That is, he was very clever (I'm sure he was, to be able to do complex things like implant memories in people at the age of sixteen), and had high aspirations. He was Head Boy, and before that, Prefect, and during his whole Hogwarts career he probably had fantastic grades. So Voldie aimed at the place where, if the curse didn't do the job properly for some reason (I don't think he thought conciously that the curse wouldn't do its job properly, but unconciously he just planned for something of the sort to happen, just in case), Harry might sustain some brain damage and not be able to access the knowledge of how to destroy Voldemort, rendering Harry perfectly harmless in his Voldie-killing-ability.

Did Voldemort, unconsciously, not aim at Harry's heart because he cared for Harry? He had...compassion? Not likely. Was he just underestimating Harry's love-power, and deciding that it wasn't a threat at all and his head was much more dangerous because it contained the knowledge of how to vanquish Voldie? Maybe everybody aims at the heart because, unconsciously, they know the power of love, they know that compassion is the most powerful or something, and they want to make sure the victim can no longer feel any love and somehow survive, or that the heart is the power that drives the whole body (love is the power that drives the whole universe, some people say...) and so killing the heart will make sure nothing continues to live. Voldemort, being so twisted, was analyzing things a bit too much and thought that Harry's head was a greater threat, and therefore aimed for the head. I don't think that the prophecy drove him to do this, because Dumbledore said (or implied, I don't remember which) that the prophecy didn't make Voldie do the things he did--he did them because he acted on the prophecy. He chose to act on the prophecy. He marked him as his equal--literally "marked" him, and make him stand out--made Harry a "marked man"--by aiming for the head and so if the curse didn't work properly and left a scar of some sort--which it did--it would stand out and mark him, remove him from other people.

Yes, Voldemort aimed at Harry's head for a reason. His belief in the prophecy drove him to mark Harry as his equal--he consciously did it, he chose to do it. He aimed at Harry's head because he believed in the prophecy, and thought that the power to vanquish the Dark Lord would lie in Harry's brain, and so he aimed at the part of Harry that would be the biggest threat to him.

Or perhaps he just wanted to make sure that Harry would get properly killed, and Voldie thought that his skill was so great that he'd aim for a smaller target, like a head, rather than a larger one, like Harry's chest, his heart (not that I think he'd show off, but it could have been another unconscious thing he was doing--he did it for that reason without realizing it).

[MAGICicalMUggle]

I remember reading a theory about Lily putting a powerful protection on Harry that has to deal with Egyptian magic or something...Anyways it said that Harrys scar was a third-eye that protects the holder against the evil eye and reflects all the negative energy back to the person that sends it...I guess it works something like a mirror!..Alot of cultures believe in the evil eye and they use an blue eye amulet to ward off evil....What if harrys scar used to be a third eye or something?

[DarkSphynx]

Originally Posted by shmcminn

This might be kinda far out there but if power=knowledge and Harry had "The power to conquer the dark lord" then wouldn't Voldemort want to eliminate that knowledge. Therefore he would be aiming at the brain. This is just a wild guess, I can't really come up with a better reason.

I wouldn't call that a wild guess. It seems as plausible a reason as any. If Voldemort is killing Harry with the purpose of ridding him of the power to defeat him, why not aim the curse at his head?

To me this seems to have quite an irony to it - the curse seems to be mostly aimed at the heart/chest from what we see in the books (Dumbledore, Cedric, etc.), and Voldemort would never have guessed that it was Harry's love - his heart - that would prove to be his 'Voldy-Vanquishing' power, and therefore aimed the curse at Harry's head instead.

[magical4life]

Originally Posted by kala_way

I don't think Voldemort aimed for Harry's head. A one year old sitting in a crib and looking up at someone--well, the biggest target is their head.

I think the location of the scar is important because it has to do with his eyes, Lily's eyes, and his vulnerability & strength.

these are my exact thoughts. For a small baby, the head would be what anybody looks at and is the biggest target. It was an easy place to aim. The location could also be important because it signifies that Voldie and Harry's minds are connected (as proven in OotP).

[Mazuna]

Being the power hungry egoistical that he is, he probably tried to aim at the "most important part" of his party. And if Dumbledore was right and he was trying to use Harry's death as a Horcrux, maybe you have to aim at the head (or something). A flipside would be you have to aim somewhere else, but the spell hit his head and backfired.

[Evil_Voldemort]

Hi. He was probably aiming for Harry's head, because Harry would have been killed easier and faster then.

[Jamie_gryf]

I agree with Mazuna.
He believed that it was the "most important part".
The thing about the aiming at the head of something to make it a Horcrux...why does that sound familiar?

[unconvinced]

Personally I think he was just aiming at the closest part which if Harry was still sitting in his mothers arms, would have been his head.
Also the series would be much less iconic if Harry's scar had been on his chest...or any other body part.

[potatoesrock]

I don't think it particularily matters where Voldemort aimed. A killing curse aimed at his arm would have had the same effect! Your soul does not reside in any particular part of his body! Seeing as babies have fat heads it was probably the easiest target. Also, it makes it so that Harry can have the super cool scar on his forehead. The series just wouldn't be the same if he had a scar on his leg, would it? Just kidding!

All I'm saying is that Lily's protection in Harry resides in his soul and his soul doesn't reside in any particular part of his body. The curse still would have backfired on Voldemort even if Voldemort had aimed at his heart. Lily's protection would still be there no matter where the curse hit. The only difference would be that the scar would be located in a different spot.

By the way, I can't recall whether it says in the books where Voldemort aimed. I think we only see that in the movie. If it really matters, JKR would have mentioned it in the books. If it is mentioned in the books and I've just forgotten, then ignore this last paragraph! I think I might have noticed while reading each of the books at least five times (most of them more)

[Lord_Kaine]

Well, there could be many reasons, since they're wizards and have spells at their disposal.

But I always assumed that baby Harry was in a crib or something at the time, since LV had to get Lily out of the way before he could aim on him, and not in her arms, as I first thought. Maybe he was in a blanket as well, and the head was the only visible part? You aim on what you can see, mostly.

Then again, it could have been a pure luck that the scar appeared on the head. Is that scar the reason why Harry sometimes gets those outbursts when he either feels left out or just stricken? I don't really know why Voldemort aimed on the head. He could have done anything, destroyed the house with Harry in it, set it aflame, but no, he used the AK on a baby. (lazy bum)