Professor Binns

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 57571

>Something when it comes to the description of Binns's death has made me
>wonder if he might have been one of Voldemort's earliest victims, and I
>don't mean by the basilisk.  He got up the next morning and went to teach,
>leaving his body behind.  It's always made it sound like he just died of 
>old
>age in his sleep in the staffroom.  But why would he be a ghost if his 
>death
>was that peaceful?  I speculate that he may have perhaps been AK'ed while
>sleeping, being Riddle's guinea pig in trying out the Killing Curse.

Well, personally I suspect that Professor Binns is JKR's parody of the kind 
of person who is so boring that he dies of old age in his club and no one 
notices for several days. In this case, since it's the wizarding world, the 
person himself doesn't notice either.

However, your idea is not only good, but can be taken further:

If Binns died of a curse from Tom Riddle, and is therefore a ghost, then a) 
why hasn't he mentioned it to at least Dumbledore, and b) what is the 
unfinished business that keeps him here (clearly it isn't teaching ...)?  
The answer to both questions may be that Tom Riddle also cast a powerful 
Memory Charm on Professor Binns. This would explain a) why he hasn't told 
the world what happened to him, b) why he can remember every word of his 
subject but has trouble remembering names and c) why he is still here 
instead of wherever ghosts go; he is aware (consciously or otherwise) that 
there's something he needs to deal with but doesn't know what it is.

(I suspect that if you become a ghost, you don't show up in someone's wand 
for a Priori Incantem. I also suspect that Moaning Myrtle *did* tell 
everyone what she remembered, and they didn't think she was reliable -- she 
probably was a great exaggerator when she was alive -- and/or assumed the 
big yellow eyes belonged to Aragog and the boy's voice was Hagrid.)


Janet Anderson


*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
An ordinary person says, "You have a face that would stop a clock." A 
diplomat says, "When I look at you, time stands still."

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