Dept of Mysteries Veil Room

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 114082

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "abadgerfan2" <ABadgerFan2 at m...>
wrote:
> I imagine the group has discussed the various Dept. of Mysteries 
> rooms seen late in Bk 5. Still, my archives search reveals too 
> little discussion on the room that intrigues me the most – the one 
> with the amphitheatre seating looking down to the stage with the 
> veil. You know, the veil behind which Harry and Luna hear whispered 
> voices, and through which Sirius later falls, disappearing.  
> 
> What actually happened to his body?  The way the book is written, it 
> seems clear that the body is nowhere to be seen!
> 
> What logical purpose would such a room serve for the MoM?  A stage 
> is for performances, and amphitheatre seating is for an audience 
 
> what possible uses have been made of this room, is it a means of 
> communication between the dead and the living, as we saw from the 
> workings of the dueling wands of HP and LV in Goblet of Fire? 
> 
> If the dead can still be heard of from their paintings, might this 
> stage be yet another means of communication between the living and 
> dead? Could this even be some kind of portal that plays a crucial 
> role later in the series?
> 
> Questions abound. Has anyone uncovered answers, either from other 
> portions of the books, or from interviews of JKR herself?  
> 
> Educate me, oh wise ones!

Carol responds:
While a number of people on this list think that Harry will go through
the veil and return (like Odysseus or Orpheus from Hades), I'm hoping
that JKR won't inflict such an often-used device on us. 

As for the purpose such a room serves for the MoM, clearly it's their
means of studying Death, just as other rooms serve to study Time and
the Mind and presumably Life, though I don't remember such a room. My
hypothesis (there's not enough evidence to justify calling it a
theory) is that the MoM is built on the site of an ancient Celtic
sacrificial site, which would explain the amphitheater, a portal to
the world of the dead where ritual sacrifices and possibly public
executions were held in the time of the Druids. The later wizards
would have built a chamber around it and brought it other Mysteries to
be studied along with Death, and in the twentieth century, when even
the WW had become bureaucratized, the headquarters of the MoM were
built around and above the older chamber of Mysteries, which then
became just one department in the ministry. I think the fact that the
entire MoM is underground and the DoM is the lowest floor (the ninth,
IIRC) lends some credence to this view.

Carol