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In the last battle between Harry and Voldemort, I remember something like,
The wand soared in a high ark, towards a master it would not hurt (or kill?)
So my question is, what would happen if someone directed their wand toward themselves and cast a spell, like some minor hex (e.g. Petrificus Totalus), or even if they did the Killing curse? Would the spell work?
Technically, although without meaning to, Ronald Weasley cast a slug vomiting curse on himself.
Ron plunged his hand into his robes, pulled out his wand, yelling, “You’ll pay for that one, Malfoy!” and pointed it furiously under Flint’s arm at Malfoys face.
A loud bang echoed around the stadium and a jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of Ron’s wand, hitting him in the stomach and sending him reeling backward onto the grass.
Presumably as long as the spell is performed correctly the spell will act correctly no matter what way the wand is pointing. In this case the magic happened to shoot out the wrong end of the wand.
Near enough the same thing happened to Lockhart when he tried to Obliviate Harry and Ron in the Chamber
He raised Ron’s Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, “Obliviate!”
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.
I think under normal circumstances the problem would be performing the spell properly whilst pointing the wand at yourself.
while a hypothetical situation, Ron has said this
"Okay...hows this for a theory," said Ron excitedly. "Krum attacked Crouch - no, wait for it - and then Stunned himself!"
"And Mr. Crouch evaporated, did he?" said Hermione coldly.
"Oh yeah..."
Now a misstep in how magic works is almost ALWAYS caught by Hermione, especially when its by Ron and she can shove it in his face. Remember at this time she is also fairly fond of Krum which is why she responds so coldly towards Ron.
So while hypothetical at the time the 3 of them at least accepted that you can stun yourself.
It would probably work and even kill the caster.
Luna Lovegood's mother died because a spell of her own backfired, therefore it is certainly possible to die because of one's own spell, at least accidentally.
Moreover, the main requirement to cast the Killing Curse(and, for that matter, the Cruciatus) is intent, so I guess that -keeping aside issues related to the wand core or wood- a sufficiently motivated wizard could intentionally torture or even kill himself.
In addition to the examples given in the other answers, don’t forget that we do actually have two completely certain examples of Avada Kedavra working as intended on the caster of the spell. In both cases, the caster is Voldemort and the intended victim is Harry.
Granted, Voldemort wasn’t trying to kill himself, and he wasn’t pointing the wand at himself; but in both his first attempt when Harry was a baby and his final attempt during the Battle of Hogwarts, the spell basically acted as though it had been reflected off a mirror and then went back to hit Voldemort himself.
There doesn’t seem to be any reason to suspect that the outcome would have been any different if he had done away with the ‘mirror’ and just pointed it straight at himself.
Remember that in the 7th Harry Potter Book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, portrayed in the eight movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) Voldemort killed his own horcrux which at the time was resident in Harry Potter’s body. Unless, of course, you would say the Elder wand which he used at the time did not belong to him, but then, he pronounced the curse and it killed his own horcrux in Harry Potter, which was a part of his soul. Technically, if you could kill your soul (seat of the mind, emotions and conscience) then you’ve killed you.
