[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP Professor Binns

[yellows at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 60286

In a message dated 6/12/2003 11:03:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, Tish writes:

> My *theory* as to why some people become ghosts was sent down the 
> toilet with Binns.  I thought that maybe people who were murdered 
> (Moaning Myrtle, Nearly-Headless Nick, Bloody Baron) were able to 
> come back as ghosts.  That is why everyone was able to come 
> out of 
> LV's wand in GoF.

I think the people coming out of Voldemort's wand is different than the ghosts who walk around Hogwarts on a regular basis.

First of all, Lily and James are *never* seen anywhere else as ghosts, and I doubt they will ever be. We may get little hints of them here and there like we do in each book to remind us of Harry's heartache, but they can't, say, make it to work every day anymore. They're really gone.

There must be something different. 

First, I wonder if there are ghosts elsewhere in the wizarding world. I've loaned out all my books but GoF right now, so I don't have the canon at hand. Are there ghosts outside of Hogwarts?

Second, it doesn't seem that murder vs. natural causes makes much of a difference. Lily and James were clearly murdered, as were a number of other Voldemort-victims, and yet we don't see them anymore. Binns may have died of natural causes, and yet we see him all the time. Nick was murdered, and so was Myrtle, both of whom we see regularly. So I don't see a common thread there.

I've heard that JKR suggested we'll learn soon why some people become ghosts and some don't. That makes me think the death of Book V will be related in some way. Either that, or the room that Harry will keep visiting in his dreams will hold the answer. 

But I can't make a good guess about what it is! Nothing come to me.  :)

Brief Chronicles