I couldn't quite believe it when I discovered this passage of hidden text on page 579 of my copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I knew that J.K. Rowling had managed to confuse her fans by allowing two different versions of this scene to go to print, but I had no idea there was a third version -- depicting the characters' own uncertainty as to the facts. There are also striking continuity errors here: Voldemort makes no mention of spoons, and his tanned and beer-bellied body is gone. Weird.
And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort's wand ... and Harry knew when he saw it who it would be ... he knew, as though he had expected it from the moment when Cedric had appeared from the wand ... knew, because the man appearing was the one he'd thought of more than any other tonight ...
The smoky shadow of a tall man with untidy hair was halfway out of the wand, already smiling at Harry, when a third arm snaked out infront of his face.
"Whaff?" mumbled James, his left leg almost touching the ground. "Goffmee!"
Another arm now joined the third arm, making four arms and one leg in total, and a second head began to protude from the wand-tip. There was a brief struggle between the two heads, four arms and leg before the second figure became clear ... a young woman with long hair; the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter. She managed to shove her elbow into James's face, giving her the chance to speak to Harry.
"I died first, Harry," she said.
"NOFF!" said James, as loudly as he could with an insubstantial elbow in his shadowy mouth. He used his leg (the only advantage he had over Lily at this point) to cleverly pin both of Lily's ghostly arms to her side as he turned to Harry and said, "I died first, Harry."
Lily frowned for a moment, and then bit James's left arm, spitting out the smoky fabric of his shadowy shirt so that she could say, "Don't listen to him, Harry. I died first, really. It was dark ... Voldemort appeared ... you were only a baby ... James was hiding in the toilet ... I leapt in front of Voldemort ... and then I --"
"-- and then you said, 'James is in the toilet' and ran away, didn't you, Lily?" snarled James, kicking her flailing arms as hard as he could. He almost had his other leg free now, but Lily had managed to grab hold of a tussock of grass and was using that to pull herself out of the wand.
"I DID NOT!" she shouted, almost out of the wand. "I used clever diversionary tactics and unfortunately died first."
Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims either prowled around him or squabbled amongst themselves in the end of his wand, could not hear what they were saying. Harry thought quickly and addressed his enemy.
"Whom did you kill first, my mother or my father?"
"Your mother," said Voldemort instantly.
"You said it was my father last time we talked about this," replied Harry, sweat pouring down his face with the effort of holding onto his wand.
"I was lying," said Voldemort, with a nasty smile on his face.
"When?" asked Harry, confused. "Then or now?"
Voldemort pretended not to hear, and gave his wand a little shake.
Harry gasped; fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.
Cedric asked Harry to take his body back to Hogwarts, which seemed a bit selfish, given the circumstances. And then James and Lily turned to Harry and said simultaneously, "I died first, Harry."
"Oh, for goodness sake!" Harry exclaimed and, with that, he ran off.