[HPforGrownups] Re: Dept of Mysteries Veil Room

[Troels Forchhammer]

No: HPFGUIDX 114182

At 11:09 29-09-04 -0700, sp. sot. wrote:



<snip>

>But the only thing I know about that death is death in H.P. is D.D.'s 
>answer to Sirius after L.V.'s return, that Lily and James came back or 
>something like that, I don't have the book with me, that there is no SPELL 
>that brings back the dead to life. The veil is not a spell, as far as I 
>know. If J.K.R. has anything in an interview, please correct me

JKR: Well, it would be nice, but - I'll tell you something - you
      - you've raised a really interesting point there, Peter,
      because when I started writing the books, the first thing I
      had to decide was not what magic /can/ do, but what it
      /can't/ do.
      I had to set limits on it - immediately, and decide what the
      parameters are ... and one of the most important things I -
      I decided was that _magic__cannot__bring__dead__people__back
      to life; that' - that's one of the most profound things, the
      - the natural law of - of - of death applies to wizards as
      it applies to Muggles and there is no returning once you're
      properly dead, you know, they might be able to save very
      close-to-death people better than we can, by magic - that
      they - that they have certain knowledge we don't, but once
      you're dead, you're dead.

 From the Boston radio show "The Connection", 1999-10-12
<http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/interviews/19991012_TheConnection.html#question40>
<http://tinyurl.com/27y34>