Mad-Eye Moody was a popular character in the Harry Potter series. He was an Auror, which is essentially a Dark wizard catcher. Mad-Eye was known for his magical eye, his paranoid vigilance, and his gritty toughness. Sadly, he met his demise in the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But who exactly was he flying with when he died? Let’s take a closer look at the details surrounding Mad-Eye Moody’s death to uncover the answer.
Mad-Eye’s Death in Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort has returned and the Second Wizarding War has begun. Harry is moving from place to place to stay hidden while he hunts down Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Early in the book, the Order of the Phoenix puts together a plan to move Harry safely from his aunt and uncle’s house before his 17th birthday. They know Voldemort will come for Harry once the protection from his mother’s blood ends.
Several Order members volunteer to be part of the operation. Mad-Eye Moody will be one of the key members, helping to guard and transport the real Harry Potter. The plan involves having decoys act as Harry using Polyjuice Potion to divert the Death Eaters. Despite their careful strategy, the Death Eaters ambush them mid-flight. Voldemort himself shows up to attack Harry.
In the chaos, Moody is killed. But J.K. Rowling purposefully does not reveal many specifics about how it happens. All that’s said is Voldemort casts Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse, at a broomstick where he thinks Harry Potter is riding. Instead, he actually strikes down Mad-Eye Moody, who plummets to the ground.
This leaves some intriguing questions. Who was flying with Mad-Eye when he fell to his death? Was it the real Harry Potter or one of the decoys?
Examining Each Possibility
There are a few key possibilities for who could have been flying with Mad-Eye when he met his tragic end. Let’s examine each one:
Harry Potter
Could the real Harry Potter have been riding alongside Mad-Eye? This seems unlikely, for a few reasons. First, the Order’s whole plan hinged on keeping the real Harry as safe as possible. Having him fly exposed alongside Mad-Eye would have been an unnecessary risk. Also, when Voldemort attacks, Harry is already described as flying with Hagrid in a separate group.
Mundungus Fletcher
Mundungus Fletcher was another Order member participating in the operation to move Harry. He was disguised as one of the decoy Harrys. However, when the Death Eaters attacked, Mundungus panicked and Disapparated away. This means he couldn’t have been flying with Mad-Eye when he died.
Ron Weasley
Ron, along with Hermione, volunteered to act as Potter decoys under Polyjuice Potion. This makes Ron seem like a strong possibility for who died next to Mad-Eye. However, right after the attack, he is seen still flying his broomstick with Hermione and Kingsley Shacklebolt. So he can’t have been the one killed.
Hermione Granger
Like Ron, Hermione took Polyjuice Potion to transform into Harry for the mission. But as we just established, she was also seen alive with Ron right after Moody was struck down. So she is eliminated as a possibility.
George Weasley
The Order utilized two sets of Weasleys as decoys – Ron with Fred and George with Mundungus. Since we’ve already eliminated Ron, Fred, Mundungus and George’s twin Fred, it seems logical George flew with Mad-Eye. Especially since there’s no mention of George’s whereabouts at the time Moody gets hit by Voldemort’s Killing Curse.
Putting the Clues Together
To sum up the clues:
– The real Harry was flying in a separate group with Hagrid, away from Mad-Eye.
– Mundungus Disapparated in fear before Mad-Eye’s death.
– Ron and Hermione were seen right after the attack, ruling them out.
– By process of elimination, the most likely candidate is George Weasley.
Why the Ambiguity?
This still leaves the question – why didn’t J.K. Rowling definitively reveal who died next to Mad-Eye? Leaving it ambiguous seems like an odd narrative choice.
A few possible explanations come to mind:
– It focuses attention on Mad-Eye’s death rather than the decoy’s identity.
– It highlights the chaos and confusion of battle.
– Knowing George survives, the reader can assume neither he nor a more prominent character died in that scene.
– Since Mad-Eye was already established as doomed to die for the storyline, there was no need to dwell on the decoy’s fate.
Ultimately, the open-ended nature of Mad-Eye’s death seems to emphasize its shocking abruptness. He was suddenly snatched from the sky in an arbitrary act of violence. The anonymity around which decoy was present highlights the brutal randomness of his murder.
In that moment, Mad-Eye wasn’t flying alongside Harry Potter or any of the others specifically. In Voldemort’s eyes, he was simply eliminating an obstacle in his path whilefocused on the bigger target – Harry.
Conclusion
Based on the process of elimination using clues from the book, the most likely candidate flying alongside Mad-Eye Moody when he died was George Weasley. J.K. Rowling’s purposeful omission of the decoy’s identity focuses attention on the shocking nature of Mad-Eye’s demise instead. His abrupt, arbitrary death at Voldemort’s hand underscores the brutality of the Second Wizarding War.
Ultimately, knowing exactly who died next to Mad-Eye doesn’t change much about the meaning of the scene or the overall storyline. The identity of the decoy was less important than Mad-Eye’s grim fate. His murder marked him as the first victim of the revived Voldemort’s reign of terror. Mad-Eye Moody died as he lived – in constant vigilance. He sacrificed himself in the fight against evil and for Harry Potter’s cause.
