Ghosts

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 89930

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "drjuliehoward"
<drjuliehoward at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "gartzen88" <gartzen at e...> 
> wrote:
> > Rob wrote:
> > > What purpose do ghosts serve at Hogwarts? Each house has 
> > > one. Peeves seems to be just a troublemaker. So i keep 
> > > wondering why are they there.
> > 
> > 
> > In PoA they help searching the castle for Black... Maybe they 
> > help in tight situations or give advice. They could be some kind 
> > of "pets", and make Hogwarts a more cosy place ;)
> > 
> > - GartZen
> 
> I think the Bloody Baron would take offense to being referred to as 
> a "pet."  I think the ghosts play and will play a larger role in the 
> septology and that their presence does have meaning.  Could they be 
> part of what is protecting Hogwarts?
> 
> Julie

Carol:
Peeves (admittedly not a real ghost) certainly doesn't make Hogwarts a
"cozy" place. Neither does the Bloody Baron. They do provide
atmosphere for us as readers and some of them have served as minor
plot devices, e.g., Peeves attacking Umbridge, Myrtle helping Harry
with the Second Task, and Sir Nick being petrified. (I still wonder if
he's a Muggle-born ghost. Anybody?) But I agree with Julie that
they'll have a larger role to play in later books. The idea that
they're protecting Hogwarts is interesting, though I'm not sure what
they could do beyond scaring off Muggles and, in Peeves's case,
dropping water balloons on Lucius Malfoy's head. But IIRC, Beauxbatons
doesn't have ghosts (it definitely doesn't have a poltergeist), so
Julie could be right. And also the ghosts (not including Peeves) show
us one possible fate that awaits wizards after death. Any bets that at
least one of the main characters who dies in Book 6 or 7 comes back as
a ghost?

Carol, who just had a terrible thought--twin ghosts with silver hair
and silver freckles haunting the corridors of Hogwarts