magic - Why did Harry's father emerge before his mother in HP and the Goblet of Fire?

In Harry Potter book 4 (Goblet of Fire) Harry's wand 'links' with Voldemort's during their duel, and Voldemort's wand begins 'spitting out' each spell it had cast, in reverse order. This produces false 'ghosts' of people he had killed with Avada Kedavra. In the US printing, James Potter appears, followed by Lily.

If the spell order was supposed to be reversed, why did Harry's father's "ghost" emerge before his mother's, since it's repeatedly stated (before and after) that he died first?

Answer

JK Rowling got it wrong. She actually had it right, her editor told her that it was wrong, and she changed it to be the wrong way. This was corrected in later versions.

The explanation was previously on her official site, but her site has undergone a major rehaul recently. In any case, I tracked down the original quote, and have included it below.

At the end of 'Goblet of Fire', in which order should Harry's parents have come out of the wand?

Lily first, then James. That’s how it appears in my original manuscript but we were under enormous pressure to edit it very fast and my American editor thought that was the wrong way around, and he is so good at catching small errors I changed it without thinking, then realised it had been right in the first place. We were all very sleep-deprived at the time.

Comments

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