Faking Sirius' Death?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 91570

"jozoed" wrote:
Here in the UK JKR has given several interviews describing her 
reasons for Sirius' death. <snip> I agree with Sophierom, we are
supposed to feel Harry's despair and hope beyond all hope that Siruis
isn't really dead. But at the end of the day life is unfair and it is
another obstacle that Harry will have to learn to get over. But even
with all that from JKR... why the voices behind the veil?
> 
>
Entropy responded: 
JKR's interviews describing the writing of Sirius' death are certainly
canon for his death being permanent.  However, I have come to feel a
bit manipulated by these interviews.  
> 
Although she seems to deny that Sirius is anything but "properly
dead", I can't help but feel that the books say otherwise. At a time
when Harry has been written to be in the midst of his darkest,
surliest, most angst-ridden moments, a case can surely be made that
JKR is knocking us over the head in OOP with signs asking us to
believe in optimism, rebirth, faith in the face of hopelessness, and
believing in the unbelievable.  
> 
Luna Lovegood embodies these qualities (with her belief in Snorkacks,
 her certainty that her things will be returned, and her faith that
her separation from her mother is only temporary), and is introduced
to readers (and Harry) just when we need her most. <snip> For goodness
sakes, the organization they've all joined is named the *Order of the
Phoenix*!  If that doesn't ask us to believe in the possibility of
Sirius' resurrection in one way or another, I don't know what does.
<snip>

Carol:
I think the voices behind the veil and Luna's faith that she'll see
her mother again are reflections of JKR's own Christian beliefs.
People who are "properly dead" (not ghosts like Sir Nick but those who
have chosen, like James and Lily and IMO Sirius as well) don't come
back to this earth (not counting preserved memories in portraits,
which I won't go into here), but there's clearly some sort of
afterlife in the Potterverse, whether or not it's the Christian
heaven, that only those whose souls are sucked by Dementors are
denied. Otherwise, souls would have no significance and the shadows of
Cedric and the others--even the old Muggle, Frank Bryce--could not
have spoken to Harry in the graveyard scene. That, to me, is what the
veil represents--the dead are not gone forever--they've just stepped
through the veil to the next great adventure. I thought that DD said
something of the sort to Harry near the end of OoP but I can't find
the reference. I do notice, however, that he carefully refers to
Sirius in the past tense throughout the conversation--more
confirmation, if we believe that JKR reveals facts through DD, that
Sirius is really dead. DD is not omniscient, I realize--he was wrong
about Sirius being the Secret Keeper and a murderer--but he's old and
wise and if anyone knows what the Veil in the DoM is, he does. 

This is not an instance of an untrustworthy narrator misleading us
through Harry's POV. JKR has given us every reason, short of a body,
to believe that Sirius Black is dead--not just Lupin's and Dumbledor's
assertions that he's dead but the incident with the mirror that
doesn't answer and the conversation with Nick about ghosts. I, for
one, would feel cheated if he returned in any earthly shape or form,
but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Harry gained some sort of
insight into death in more spiritual terms. That, I think, is where
Luna and the Thestrals and the Veil are leading us.

Carol