Introducing New Theory SNUFF (Was: Sirius Blacks Death Poll)

[Diana]

No: HPFGUIDX 86393

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "thelinnealand" 
<LinneaLand at C...> wrote:
> The poll invites suggestions for Sirius' further involvement.
> 
> The Veil room resembles a theater, court or lecture room with all
> attention directed at the veil. Apparently wizards gather to watch 
the
> veil do something.
> 
> Prisoners convicted of even the most heinous crimes are sent 
instead
> to Azkaban.
> 
> It therefore seems possible that some fate other than death lies
> behind the curtain. Perhaps the curtain was an experiment in travel
> gone wrong or is a gateway to another realm of existence. The
> possibilities are, in fact, endless. Tantalizing to think about and
> sure to be part of future books.

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "thelinnealand" 
<LinneaLand at C...> wrote:
> The poll invites suggestions for Sirius' further involvement.
> 
> The Veil room resembles a theater, court or lecture room with all
> attention directed at the veil. Apparently wizards gather to watch 
the veil do something.
> 
> Prisoners convicted of even the most heinous crimes are sent 
instead
> to Azkaban.
> 
> It therefore seems possible that some fate other than death lies
> behind the curtain. Perhaps the curtain was an experiment in travel
> gone wrong or is a gateway to another realm of existence. The
> possibilities are, in fact, endless. Tantalizing to think about and
> sure to be part of future books.

Diana (me) replies:

  For me, there are several problems with the above theory that make 
me disinclined to believe that archway is anything else but a 
gateway between life and death.  I believe Sirius Black is truly, 
irrevocably dead.

Here are six arguments to support my theory, which I'm calling - 
Sirius Now Unfortunately Fatally Finished (or SNUFF).

1.  Not a single adult (who cares about Harry) in Harry's life would 
keep Sirius from him and tell Harry that Sirius was dead if he had 
only gone to another realm or had a travel mishap wherein he could 
later be rescued.  After Dumbledore told Harry everything at the end 
of OoP, Dumbledore wouldn't lie to Harry and tell him Sirius was 
dead if he wasn't really dead.  I do believe that Dumbledore would 
know exactly what that archway is and wouldn't lie to Harry about 
it's true nature. 

2.  The Department of Mysteries contained mysteries of the universe 
and of being human.  If wizards wanted to study these mysteries, 
they'd have to have a way to physically represent the abstract.  We 
did get to see several of the subjects being studied in the DoM:  
Love [behind the locked door that melted Harry's knife and was 
referred to by Dumbledore in his office]; Thoughts (or even the very 
Process of Thought) [the room with the brains that trailed 'film 
strips' of thoughts]; Time [the room with the time turners and 
hatching/re-hatching egg in the bell jar]; the Solar System 
[described by Luna after she blew up Pluto in the Death Eater's 
face]; and Death [the archway], but more on death below.  

3.  The archway is a physical representation of an abstract event.  
If wizards wanted to study death, they'd need a way to 'capture' it 
or 'contain' it in a way that allowed a clearly definitive line 
between life and death,  so they created (or discovered?, but I 
doubt that somehow] the archway to represent death.  On one side of 
the archway you're alive and on the other (after you've stepped 
through) you're dead.  It's like if you discovered (or even cut 
yourself) a portal into another dimension and then erected a wood 
frame around the portal to mark it, perhaps even to keep it open.  
So, when Sirius fell through the archway, he, literally, fell into 
death.  

4.  I suspect that the physical archway itself doesn't actually kill 
you; it just marks the portal between life and death.  Maybe the 
archway even keeps the portal open in some way, but maybe not.  The 
fluttering cloth veil covering the arch is JKR playing on the way 
poetry and other works of literature have referred to death 
as "passing through the veil" or "the veil of death".  It strikes me 
as a sly, literary way of pointing out what the archway truly 
represents.  

5.  Harry, Neville and Luna are drawn to the archway because they 
have lost loved ones (parents for Harry, grandfather for Neville, 
mother for Luna) and part of them (an unconscious part) knows that 
their lost loved ones are just a few steps away through that 
archway.  They even hear whispering voices, or at least we know for 
sure Harry and Luna do according to the text.  
Ginny's fascination must be due to her near-death experience at the 
hands of Riddle in CoS.  Since Ginny didn't get all the way there, 
but, metaphorically, stood in the middle of the archway between life 
and death, she would naturally be drawn to what she came so close to 
fully experiencing.  She is probably not even fully aware of the 
reason for the attraction I would surmise.  
We don't know whether Neville, Ginny or Luna ever actually thought 
about walking up the dais and through the archway because the book 
is told through Harry's point of view.  We know Harry thought about 
it, though.  Not only would the pull of seeing his parents draw him 
to the archway, but with Harry's burdens, death might represent a 
way to find peace, even though he didn't know at the time that 
that's what was pulling him toward it..  

6.  Hermione, and Ron to a lesser extent, had strong misgivings, and 
even downright fear, about that archway because I think she knew 
instinctively what it was.  She saw Harry and the others fascination 
with it and hurried them out of there because she probably intuited 
that the lure of seeing your loved ones again (especially for Harry) 
might be too much resulting in one of their quite unintentional but 
very permanent deaths.  Hermione has very good intuition and, while 
it hasn't always been acted upon, she has been proven correct in 
her 'bad feelings' about events and actions many times. 

So, while I hate to see Harry hurting so badly because of the loss 
of his godfather, I have accepted that Sirius is really dead and 
won't be coming back.   

Diana L.