OOP: The Veil

[Maria]

No: HPFGUIDX 63508

  
> My guess is that the viel is the entrance way into Heaven or 
the "after life."  I believe this mainly because of what Luna said 
that indicated that the voices that were heard behind the veil were 
that of the dead that had passed.  My guess is that there is another 
reason why she and Harry could hear them when the others could 
not..they had significant people to listen for.  
~Melanie

Me:
The black Veil.

It is a very interesting addition to Harry Potter. It is like a 
gateway to the Underworld or into the world of death. The black veil 
in OOTP is like a prolonged gateway which allows people to
experience the unknown. There is a phrase used which is `beyond the 
veil.' A phrase which tells us one of humankind's biggest question... 
What happens when we die, where do we go? 

We see Harry slowly lured and entranced by it. The whispers from 
beyond pulling him forward into death. This might of have been 
intentional- in the sense that the spirits on the other side wanted 
to pull him into their world, grasping him in order to kill him. Or 
it may have been to welcome him into the next dimension, to let him 
experience the wonder, and trap him there forever. 

We see Sirius falling into the veil, dying himself. He didn't fall to 
death, but he fell into death itself- body and soul! So in a way he 
can never return. I believe that he will never set foot out of there. 
To fall into it... you will never exit. 

This Veil reminds me of Hades... the world of the Dead in Greek 
Mythology. When a soul has payed the ferryman to transport him to the 
land of the dead by the river Styx. He reaches the adamantine gates, 
then he steps into the new world... but he can never leave it
again. 

Another person who, like Sirius entered the Underworld, both body and 
Soul was Persephone. However, unlike Sirius she was able to return to 
the world of the living for a short period of time every year before 
going back.

As I have said the Gateway we see in the Department of Mysteries... 
is a long lasting portal into the other side. The veil itself 
represents the thinned boundaries of our worlds. In Celtic Mythology 
Otherworlds- worlds full of Spirits, and Magical creatures have been
foretold. These places can be majestic, wonderful lands or horrible 
nightmarish places. People can enter these worlds via doorways: such 
as walking across bridges, or in wells etc. And on Halloween the 
boundary between our living world and these otherworlds are thinned, 
and spirits can pass through.

I think the veil will be revisited in either book 6 or 7. Harry may
be able to uncover more secrets about it... and like in Celtic 
Mythology might be able to talk to his parents and Sirius, or summon 
them to the veil and talk to them at a certain time.

The Veil may also be the only way to truly get rid of Voldmort. So if 
Harry was to kill him, Voldemort would certainly become a ghost like 
Sir Headless Nick. It doesn't have to be the actual archway in MOM, 
but some sort of portal that Maybe Harry himself can cast. 

Maria:
www.geocities.com/queen_amidalachic/