Do the Dead Walk?

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 88988

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Campbell, 
> Anne-TMC-Rcvg" <silverthorne.dragon at v...> wrote:
> > {Pippin}
> > You know, I've been mulling over Kneasy's vampire challenge, 
> > and I'm not sure there are *any* undead in the Potterverse. 
> > 
> > {Anne}
> > Aw, Pip...don't give up. I Don't think Kneasy (or any of us really) 
> is challenging the existence of undead Vampires in the HP 
> world, simply WHO happens to be one. <<
> 
> *I* am challenging the existence of undead Vampires. In fact, I 
> challenge the existence of undead in the Potterverse, period.  I 
> hereby state the theory that all the things that look like undead or 
> have a reputation in real life folklore  as undead, *including 
> vampires* are something else. They are manifestations like 
> poltergeists, ghosts and Dementors that have no ties to a mortal 
> body. Or they are illusions. Or they are living magical creatures 
> and can eat, breathe and reproduce --like the Thestrals, the 
> Veela and the Ghouls--I can't believe I forgot them.
> 

Hey! Steady on! Don't do anything rash.
It wasn't my intention to scupper an entire field of speculation;
seemingly fertile ground for discussion, disagreement, recrimination 
and life-long emnity. That would eliminate half the fun.

My argument was very definitely centred on the Snape!Vampire heresy.
Other un-dead are a another thing entirely, IMO.

True, we have no direct evidence, but when has that ever stopped the
firm declaration of a perverse poster?

Vampires exist in the WW. How they are defined is unknown, but they
must bear some sort of relationship to traditional legend. If they don't,
why call them vampires? A un-undead beast  who preys on flesh and
blood would be an ogre (no mention so far), so the term 'vampire' 
must have some significance.

Additionally, there  is Pavarti's  boggert. An animated mummy. Why 
should she fear an imaginary being more than a whole beastiary of
'real' monsters? Note that the rest of the class seemed to accept it
as an acceptable and reasonable cause of terror. And if they didn't 
exist I'm sure Hermione would have had something scathing to say.

Slim evidence, yes. But I  live in hope. Ah! The dark of the moon; 
that piquant graveyard smell; maggot-ridden flesh; the trail of 
digits and limbs surplus to requirements as a monstrous being
lurches towards an unsuspecting victim! 

Surely JKR won't deny us a glimpse into the necropolis?

Kneasy