Ghosts from violent deaths

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 15634

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Jen Faulkner <jfaulkne at e...> wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, crystal white wrote:
> 
> > Peeves is a bit different because he's a poltergeist.  Anyone 
know the 
> > theoretical difference?  If HE has any unfinished business, I 
think it's 
> > just that he wanted more time to have fun. GO PEEVES!! :@)
> 
> A poltergeist is quite different from a ghost; ghosts were once 
human,
> poltergeists never were.  They are spirits, a concentration of
> malevolent energy.  Unlike Peeves, AFAIK, the trad'l poltergeist of
> folklore does not have an anthropomorphized identity (a name, a
> personality, and so on), but is really more an evil force.  The 
general
> belief is also usually that poltergeists feed off the energy of 
teenaged
> boys, and that manifestations are particularly bad, or in some cases
> only present, when there are teenaged boys in the home.  
Poltergeists,
> like ghosts, seem place-bound; I think exorcism is the prescribed 
method
> for eliminating them, as they are very close to demons?  
> 
> --jen :)
> 
> * * * * * * 
The ghosts (in HP anyway) aren't place bound: see the headless hunt 
at Nick's deathday party, and Moaning Myrtle, who stalks Olive Hornby 
until she is banished back to Hogwarts by the MoM.  
Catherine