Powers of the Veil

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 89695

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizvega2" <lizvega2 at y...> wrote:
> In OOP the room with the veil is referred to by Dumbledore as 
> the 'death chamber'.
> 
> Does this mean that the wizarding world has an equivalent to the gas 
> chamber/electric chair?
> 
> I was under the impression that all wizards, even the really bad 
> ones, were sent to Azkaban. Sirius was convicted (without a trial by 
> Barty Crouch)of killing 13? people- surely if there is such a thing 
> as the 'death penalty' for wizards- Sirius alleged actions would 
> have merited that sentence, but no, he went to prison.
> 
> All of the death eaters who were caught were sent to Azkaban, not 
> one word about being executed. 
> 
> If these people, surely the worst of the worst, weren't even 
> sentenced to death, who would be?
> 
> Of course, the veil in the 'death chamber' may not be there to serve 
> that purpose. Perhaps it is there as a portal to death? Death would 
> be one of the mysteries the the MM would study in the dept. of 
> mysteries, surely?
> 
> But, if it is a portal to death, and not a death device, then why 
> couldn't Sirius be retrieved?

I don't think thst the term "death chamber" has any connection to,
say, gas chamber or the death penalty. The veil is simply the entrance
into the realm of dead, with death being  one of the great Mysteries
that the DoM houses.

As for a death penalty, we do see it exercised, and we do see an
executioner (MacNair) armed with an axe, but the "condemned" is the
hippogriff Buckbeak. Also it would seem that the WW executed human
criminals by beheading them in the past, which would account for
Nearly Headless Nick and the members of the Headless Hunt he wants to
join. (Or maybe they were all executed by Muggles, since they don't
appear to be very sinister.)

Carol, who will continue to use "Muggle" without apology because she
is one, despite its slightly pejorative connotation in the WW