The Issue of Death In Harry Potter

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 91605

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "iam2cute4u2have2001"
<ALisha0715 at a...> wrote:
> Alright, first and firemost this is my first post here. Hi i'm 
> Alisha! I'm not technically a grown up, but I actually possess brain 
> cells, so feel free and imagine that I'm a 'grown up' because I have 
> the mind of a forty year old.
> 
> Now that that's done, don't shoot me if someone has asked this 
> already. I know this may found very morbid, but I've always wondered 
> about the concept of Death in Harry Potter. I'm just really curious 
> about how witches and wizards deal with the subject of death, and do 
> they have funerals for their dead? I've been trying to look this up 
> on discussion boards and in the books themselves, and so far I've 
> only found little clues.
> 
> One clue I found was towardes the end of Goblet of Fire, when Harry 
> saw the 'echo' of Diggory telling him to take him to his parents. 
> Obviously, the Diggory's must have recieved their sons body and done 
> something with it. 
> 
> I don't think they BURY their dead like we do, because no one in the 
> books has ever mentioned to Harry a gravesite where his parents' 
> bodies could be. So obviously, if they don't bury the departed, they 
> don't have funerals. But then, what do they do?
> 
<snip>

Carol:
We do know of two instances that may be of some help to you. The
Dementors bury the polyjuiced body of Mrs. Crouch, thinking it's Barty
Jr.'s. Shortly afterwards, Crouch fakes his wife's death, but, in
Crouch!Moody's words, "That grave is empty." So they do, at least
under some circumstances, bury their dead. My guess is that Cedric's
shadow (the silver shape of Cedric that came out of Voldemort's wand)
wanted his parents to bury him, and that they did so. Whether wizards
have funeral or memorial services (beyond the burial itself or raising
their goblets in honor of Cedric at the end-of-term feast), I don't
know, but given what some of the characters, notably Lupin, have said
about souls, I imagine they do.

Carol, who can't believe how many typos she's edited out of this post
and hopes she caught them all