"...yes, please don't get murdered. Should you acquire a daeva bodyguard or something?"

" - crossed my mind but we don't know that daeva're invulnerable to the Killing Curse either and you are stunnable, I'm not sure it'd do more than a regular bodyguard. I could ask Maitimo if he minds looking like me and then coach him on how to do the bits where I'm nervous about the position I'm putting myself in. But he might mind looking like me. Elves."

"Elves! If we had someone who knew the Killing Curse I'm sure we could get a Poppy Garden patient, and we don't stay stunned long, and a daeva'd be useful in any more obvious assault. But."

"I know who to ask but I'm just not sure I could cast it even if I knew it."

"Would it have to be you? Is there some reason it couldn't be whatever person you'd ask?"

"- he's not someone I would be thrilled to have knowing daeva exist?"

"I would bet there is somebody in the Poppy Gardens desperate enough to chop their wings off and promise to play dead even if it doesn't work, but I suppose they might dramatically vanish or something..."

"And 'would you kill this random person for me' is - I would need a very convincing explanation and insisting on the method would make it weirder."

"True."

"Could just make him forget it afterwards."

"Didn't think you'd approve."

"Not so much."

"Regrettably I have no acquaintances who can be trusted and will also murder a stranger for no reason."

"And 'they want to die' doesn't work because the spell is evil. Right."

"Yup. 'They're trying to kill me' would work but it's again rather few people who'd go straight to an Unforgivable - even with Azkaban now out of the picture - and even if you do go to an Unforgivable you might not kill them, you might tell them to stop and tell you why they're doing it -"

Sigh.

"Really inconvenient, evil spells."

"How does a spell even do that - I haven't been looking into magic theory because it wouldn't do me any good but if there's a lay introduction to spells comma evilness of..."

"Most spells are a combination of an intent and a focusing gesture and incantation. The focusing gestures and incantations are more developed than discovered but spell development's dangerous because minor variants of even very benign charms can do bizarre and occasionally fatal stuff. The intent for most spells can be partial - you can cast 'Lumos' knowing only 'it does something related to light' - but not incorrect - you can't cast Lumos believing it sends a blazing ball of light flying at your enemy. It's pretty rare for spells to require harmful intent - most lethal spells, for example, require that you intend to kill someone but not that you intend to in so doing commit a wrong against them - but that's just because spells that do simple things are much more common than spells that do complicated things, and spells that have simple attached intents are much more common than spells with complicated ones.

More powerful stuff usually has more complicated attached intent. Though, honestly, it could be that there're less powerful spells that have complicated attached intent and no one's stumbled on them, if there were a flower-growing spell that required you to passionately desire the death of your spouse it just never would have caught on. It's also harder - and more dangerous - to cast with partial information. Usually won't work at all, if it does work might have some kind of unexpected backlash... it is totally plausible you couldn't cast the Killing Curse on someone if you expected this would cause them to daevafy, and it might depend on whether you conceptualize that as death. You get better at spells with practice, and that's partially getting better at the focusing and it's also partially getting acclimated to the mental state for casting it from, so that it's easier to slip back into. The other two Unforgivables, inadequate intent just results in the spell failing, inadequate experience or power results in the spell not being very powerful - snaps without direct attention, in the case of the Imperius, and is easier to break, and requires more micromanagement while lending less fine control. I think the Cruciatus is just less painful if you're not very good at it. Avada Kadavra's all or nothing so I don't think there's a getting-better-at-it, just knowing how it's done and being in the right state of mind."

"Huh."

"If we can come up with a harmless explanation for indestructible people I could pull it off."

"...testing some kind of protective spell, could explain a variety of results but doesn't solve the evil intent part."

"No, that bit's straightforward - testing a protective spell, you can test it too if you like, need to know if it works against the Killing Curse but I've gotten attached to my pretty innocent Muggle test subject, will you do it for me -"

"Aha."