Character Summary: RENEPEP's

[Steve Bates]

No: HPFGUIDX 1407

<<can we consider the "forms" of
> Voldemort's victims as ghosts, as well?  They certainly are the 
embodiments
> of dead persons, even if only temporarily manifested.
>>
> And what about Harry's Patronus?  How did he manage to produce a 
patronus
> that was the spitting image "ghost" of his dead father as the Stag 
Animagus?

I would say no to both of these questions.  The Patronus is 
definitely not a ghost; it doesn't have any personality or control of 
its own, and it disappears rather quickly if left to itself.  It is 
really a part of Harry, a projection of his positive emotions.  The 
fact that Harry's Patronus takes a stag form is just a result of 
Harry's genetic and emotional connection to his father.
As for the Priori Incantetum phantoms, I don't have GoF in front of 
me, but I remember Dumbledore specifically saying that these were not 
Harry's parents returned from the dead.  I don't think these phantoms 
have any life of their own; they just appear to by saying and doing 
what James and Lily *would* say and do if they were there.  It is a 
subtle difference, but, I think, an important one.  I would say the 
phantoms are merely preserved "memories" of Lily and James.  They are 
sinmilar to wizard photographs: they do things that appear to give 
them personality, but they are not truly sentient.