OOP: The veil

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 65734

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jklb66" <jklb66 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "showmeblue" 
<showmeblue at y...> 
> wrote:

 Something about that just doesn't add up to me. Perhaps they were 
> > not able to find Sirius's body? I keep thinking there is 
something 
> > else on the other side of that veil...but then again, I'm still 
in 
> > denial of the death of poor Padfoot. Just trying to hold out for 
a 
> > miracle...
> 
> I love Padfoot too--but please don't deny the truth.  Have you ever 
> heard the expression, "the veil between life and death"?  We 
Muggles 
> think it's just a metaphor for the dividing line between the two 
> states, but in the Dept. of Mysteries, the veil is an actual 
physical 
> force.  It is, quite literally, the point where the reality of the 
> living and the reality of the dead meet.  Harry and Luna can hear 
> whispering behind it because they have loved ones (parents) on the 
> other side.  Ron and Hermione do not have someone waiting for them, 
> so they do not hear the whispering.
> Which curse Bellatrix hit Sirius with is probably irrelevant.  The 
> important thing is that it pushed Sirius through the veil into 
> death.  THAT is why he is dead.  Most people die elsewhere and 
their 
> soul alone goes through. (When Harry first sees the veil, it sways 
> slightly as if someone just went through.)  However, Sirius 
> physically went through, thus no body was left behind.


Which then leads to the next question.  I think it's safe to assume 
that, for the vast majority of deaths in Potterworld, the physical 
body dies and stays behind in the real world as a corpse, and the 
spirit goes through the veil between the living world and the dead 
world.  Mabye there are other portals to the afterworld; maybe wizard 
spirits can travel to the portal in the Dept. of Mysteries, who 
knows?  But, the evidence seems to be that bodies are generally left 
behind.

 The fact that JKR didn't simply kill Sirius off with an AK curse, 
but set up this elaborate slow, graceful fall through the veil shows 
she deliberately wants his body and his soul to be on the same side 
of the veil.  I can't help but think that this will be important in 
some way in the later books.

Marianne