IS Karkaroff dead?

[ericoppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 156090

They say that they found Karkaroff's body.  How do they know for sure 
that it is his body?  We know (via the Tale of Barty Crouch) that 
Polyjuice'd people retain their new form if they die while 
Polyjuice'd.  

What would prevent him from Imperio-ing someone to take Polyjuice and 
assume his form, AKing the poor fool, sending the Dark Mark into the 
skies (as a trained DE he'd know how) and splittin'?  His corpse is 
found and reported as dead, and in hiding, he breathes a big sigh of 
relief---Voldemort can't kill him if he's already dead, now can he? 

Particularly if he left his own wand with the corpse, and bugged out 
with another wand entirely.  

Seriously, we have already had several people who were "reliably" 
reported dead who turned up, alive and well.  

--Eric, who feels _real_ sorry for whatever the WW has for CSI.