Peeves

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 39135

Amy wrote:
> 
> *gauntlet rattles to the floor.  Who's gonna be the first to found 
a Peeves Fan Club?

That would be me.  Except I don't join clubs or found them.  Or wear 
badges.  Or any of that tat.

But, anyway, Peeves.

He's obviously an important character, isn't he?  He's Dumbledore's 
foil.  He has the same sense of humour and dress sense as Dumbledore, 
only less generous.  He is Dumbledore's mischievous impulses 
untempered by his wisdom and sense of responsibility.

When Fleur criticises Hogwarts for having a poltergeist, she misses 
the point, IMO.  Peeves is a necessary presence to keep Dumbledore on 
the right path: he is the recoil from Dumbledore's acts of goodness, 
preserving a sort of moral law of conservation of momentum.  A 
catharsis for the strain of being unrelentingly good.

While Snape holds his nastiness close, and Sirius switches in and out 
of his, and Lupin slides his in gently like quinine in lemonade, 
Dumbledore holds his in an eccentric orbit, moving through space 
apparently of its own volition, yet ultimately bound to his 
gravitational pull.

That do, Amy?

David