Death rites and such

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 32604

Evil Flame wrote (about death and burial in the wizarding world):

> This brings a wealth of questions to mind.  What are the burial/ 
death
> traditions for the wizarding world?  I can imagine that wizard 
cemeteries
> would be quite interesting places and would be unplottable or at 
least very
> remote to protect them from curious muggles.  Also, it would seem 
to me that
> someone as infamous as the Potters were, they would have been laid 
to rest
> in a secret
> location.
> 

Interesting questions.  The most significant "burial" I can recall is 
Crouch Jr.'s handling of his father's remains in GoF.  He turned dear 
old dad into a bone, tossed him into the forbidden forest, then went 
back later and buried him in a patch of loose dirt.  Very touching.

Another burial was Crouch Jr.'s mother, whom the dementors buried 
while Sirius was in Azkaban (not to mention her second burial, which 
was really an empty coffin).  The other instance is Cedric's murder, 
in which he asks that Harry take his body back to his parents.  This 
suggests that retrieving the body is very important in the wizarding 
world as it is in the muggle world.

I wonder why JKR chose to treat death and burial in this conventional 
fashion.  She could have come up with any number of fanciful ways of 
dealing with wizard death rites, like using Transfiguration.  As 
morbid as this idea is, wizards could do things like transfigure the 
dearly departed into a useful object or something related to a 
passion of the decedent.  But then again, maybe this would lack 
sufficient emotional impact for the reader.  :-)

Cindy (thinking Fake Moody could have turned Crouch Sr. into a 
decorative reading lamp)