[HPforGrownups] Hogwarts Ghosts

[MadameSSnape at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 87052

In a message dated 12/13/2003 5:35:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, Amy 
(amyg at babes-in-arms.com) writes:
One of the questions I have about the house ghosts is why, if they are former 
Hogwart's Students, do at least 3 of them have a title or position presumably 
conferred by the muggle world?  NHN is a knight, BB is a baron, FF is a monk 
and the Grey Lady could be simply a nickname or she is, in fact, "Lady So and 
So."  I have a hard time imagining a Hogwarts-trained wizard entering a Muggle 
monastary!  


Sherrie here:

I think the ghosts come from a time when the Wizard and Muggle worlds touched 
far more than they do today.  IIRC, NHN is more or less (give or take a 
century or so) a contemporary of Wendelin the Weird, who obviously had contact with 
the Muggle world <g>.  There are cases of royalty having connections with 
wizards (John Dee and Nostradamus leap forcefully to mind) as late as the 
Elizabethan period - I'd imagine that, as long as a wizard kept his nose clean and 
rubbed blue mud in his navel when everyone around him did, there's no reason why 
royalty would treat them differently - unless they WANTED to get rid of them, 
in which case drawing the attention of the masses to them would be a good way 
to keep their own hands clean...

Sherrie


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