Can Ghost eat?

[sbursztynski]

No: HPFGUIDX 90693

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Carolina <silmariel at t...> wrote:
> 
> Fred asked:
> > The reason I ask this is, in SS/PS, chap 7 (the sorting hat), page
> > 123 US, it says:
> > "That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching
> > Harry cut up his steak.
> > "Can't you - ?"
> > I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years" said the ghost.
> >
> > Then in CoS, chapter 8, (the deathday party), page 133, it goes on
> > to say:
> >               Sir Nicholas De Mimsy-Porpington
> >                   Died 31st October, 1492
> >
> > Which is 500 years since his death.
> > If the year before he had not eaten for "nearly 400 years", did he
> > eat during the first 100 years after his death?
> 
> He was trying to do a joke by substracting a century?  I see this
very OOC for 
> Nick.
> 
> You know the commonly accepted answer, that it's a flint. It is
difficult to 
> explain if taken at face value, so only (very wild) speculation
here.
> 
> Maybe he died twice, first as human and later as vampire. He'd be
the 
> strangest ghost in history, but it explains eating after dying(if
vampires 
> die to become so, of course).
> 
> Maybe not all ghosts are inmediately aware that they are dead and
he is the 
> extreme case, he needed 100 years so the period he remembers as not
eating is 
> 400 years.
> 
> Maybe ghosts can 'eat' in some sense for a given period. They
usually feed of 
> blood. I'm talking of two cases I recall: 
> a) Japanese (the Eye) and Chinese (I believe, but I don't trust the
source of 
> the information very much, it is White Wolf)
> b) Greek (the Golden Fleece, Robert Graves, 1944)
> 
> Silmariel

As a matter of fact, in COS, the ghosts do have food at the party -
disgusting and 
smelly so they can taste it. They don't seem to actually consume it,
but they can taste 
it if it's "strong" enough.

Sue B