Ghosts and Avada Kedavra (Re: James & Lilly's ghost)

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 44993

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "arcum42" <Arcum_Dagsson at c...> wrote:

> My personal theory is that Avada Kedavra causes the persons soul to
> evade their body and be sucked into the casters wand, leaving no
> ghost behind at all. If this is the case, that would give him an 
even
> better reason to go after Voldemort. 

Yes, this is something that many of us have discussed on this list 
in the past, and I'm in complete agreement with. Here's why:

In canon, there are ghosts. In other words, ordinary wizards and 
witches know that there is some form of life after death. So of 
course, dying can be The Next Great Adventure - it's not a complete 
cessation of thought, awareness and relation to the living world, 
which is what many of us Muggles fear death might constitute. 

However, there's something scarier about Avada Kedavra which makes 
it worse than "regular" death to witches and wizards - otherwise, 
all types of homicide would lead to a term in Azkaban, not just 
performing the AK curse. Catlady's done lists of ways to kill 
another without the AK curse. Why aren't those as heavily 
punishable? (yes, I know - perhaps they are, but it does seem that 
JKR really made an effort to show, in GoF, that the AK curse was 
specifcally "Unforgivable" and thus worse than other forms of 
magical homicide.

And it's logical to think that either being trapped in the wand (or 
possibly the total immolation of the soul so that ghosthood or other 
consciousness-after-death is impossible, but that wouldn't explain 
the echos) is the likely result of the AK curse. 

No, it's not canon-definite, but it does, IMHO, make sense. 

heidi
http://www.fictionalley.org