Do the Dead Walk?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 88908

You know, I've been mulling over Kneasy's vampire challenge, 
and I'm not sure there are *any* undead in the Potterverse. The 
walking mummy and the wriggling severed hand were only 
Boggart manifestations. The legendary Veela is undead, but  the 
Potterverse counterpart has no hint of the grave. Quirrell's tale of 
meeting a zombie is regarded as highly dubious.  Even 
Voldemort can't possess or re-animate a corpse. 

Much is made of the fact that Ghosts and Dementors can't walk. 
It seems that though they may have the appearance of corpses, 
such creatures have left their mortal bodies behind forever.   
Lupin speaks of a legend ( "it is said") that Dementors can turn 
living beings into creatures like themselves, but  there is no 
indication that the graves on Azkaban are empty.    Sirius is quite 
sure that when Barty Jr. was buried  he  stayed put (well, he 
didn't, but not because he'd come back to life. <g>) 

Then there's the Thestrals. They have strange powers, they suck 
blood,  they look skeletal, they have glowing eyes. According to 
FBAWTF many wizards believe they're unlucky.  But they also eat 
flesh, and breed.  They're not dead.

Transfiguration may give inanimate objects  the semblance of   
beasts  or even humans and make them move about. But  if the 
Krum figurine is any indication, they are not truly alive. They don't 
eat or reproduce themselves.  Dumbledore flat out tells us, "No 
spell can re-awaken the dead."

Point is, there are a lot of things in the Potterverse that can look 
like re-animated corpses, and several ways in which wizards 
might produce such an illusion, the better to befuddle hapless 
Muggles or even superstitious wizarding folk. 

Is there anything we  know about vampires *from the canon* 
which suggests they are dead, apart from their appearance? 
We've been told in several places that Muggle ideas about 
fantastic creatures are wildly inaccurate. Could it be that one of 
these inaccurate notions is the whole idea of  a re-animated 
corpse?

Pippin