FILK: Ah, But After Death

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 130161

Ah, But After Death (OOP, Chap. 38)

To the tune of Ah, But Underneath, from Sondheim's Follies 

Dedicated to Pippin

A brief excerpt of the song can be heard here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000FDK4/qid=1118067063/sr=2-
2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-0004733-8922441

(This song parodies the style of an old vaudeville strip-tease 
number) 

THE SCENE: The hallway outside the Charms classroom. SIR NICHOLAS DE 
MIMSY-PORPINGTON tells HARRY all he knows about the world to come. 

HARRY:
Sirius was not in the mirror
He had it not the day he died
But suddenly to me it is clearer
I've found a more reliable guide.

I may learn a post-mortem definition
When I consult with Hogwarts apparitions
It's my idea to ask Mimsy,
Of truth he cannot heedless be.
It ought to be a ghost 
Is who will know the most

 
HARRY & NEARLY HEADLESS NICK
He was true-blue, braver than an Auror
Ah, but after death

He was quite through when he clashed with horror
Ah, but after death

 
NEARLY HEADLESS NICK
Mister Black, the Grimmauld carrier
Got blast across the barrier
But that which made me warier
To him was far less scarier, the terrier was merrier.
 
Though a Wiz is only a mere mortal
Yet he can decide 
Upon death to choose or not the portal
To the other side
 
When I died, I'd soon rejected the secret of the ol' Veil
For I dreaded what came after death
And I wouldn't dare risk the travail

And so I fled finality, the door to immortality
And once you become a ghost, you see, you dwell on Earth unendingly
 
Magic can grant `em time as a phantom
Though it does scant `em – pale and poor while none applaud, we
Plod through life without a body

It's wonderful if we could duly clarify the details
But nobody knows what is really there beyond all those Veils
 
He was tough, gruff, great and grand and gracious
That was Mister Black
Let's avoid the urge to wax loquacious:
He ain't coming back 
 
He said "Ecch!" to ectoplastic, as he did breathe his last breath,
As he stepped out toward the Fantastic - 
It is here your mind must be elastic, 
I trust this is not bombastic.....
 
What comes after death?
 
It is....

(SIR NICHOLAS gestures as if he were about to make some astonishing 
revelation)

It is....


(Likewise)
 
It is....

(Likewise)
 
Sadly, we've now hit a wall
For ghosts don't know a thing at all.

(SIR NICHOLAS vanishes through the wall)

   -	CMC

HARRY POTTER FILKS
http://home.att.net/~coriolan/hpfilks.htm