[HPforGrownups] Ghosts, Horcruxes, The Veil, and Death in the Wizarding World

[Scarah]

No: HPFGUIDX 152794

Najwa:
>
> People who die unhappy become ghosts right? Or is it people that are
> afraid to die become ghosts?

Sarah:
Going off Nick's speech in OOTP, I think it's more the latter than the
former.  Those who aren't ready and willing to cross over and face
"the next great adventure, simply don't.

Najwa:
> If so, then why are there poltergeists
> like Peeves? Did he die in an angry manner?

Sarah
A poltergeist is different from a ghost.  Peeves was never alive.
>From jkr.com:  "Peeves isn't a ghost; he was never a living person. He
is an indestructible spirit of chaos, and solid enough to unscrew
chandeliers, throw walking sticks and, yes, chew gum."

> Sirius passed through the veil, and can't come back, however if it's
> sad people that become ghosts, then surely Lily, James, and DD would
> have been ghosts for the mere fact that they did not die happily at
> all.

Sirius was almost certainly the least happy of the list.  But as Nick
says, Sirius would never want to trap himself on earth, when he spent
so much of his time here being frustrated that he was trapped already.

I don't think Lily, James and Dumbledore were happy about dying, but
they were all happy in their daily lives weren't they?  Dumbledore had
his issues certainly, but he's also the one that claimed he sees
himself in the Mirror of Erised exactly as he is, only with socks.
Lily and James were hiding because of the prophecy, but other than
that small detail ;) they really seemed to have everything else going
for them.

> In that case, I don't think Merope would come back as a ghost because
> she died of a broken heart and not because she was afraid to go, in
> fact she seemed to give up on life altogether.

Right, there was nothing tying her here because she'd given up
completely.  Even haunting Tom wouldn't be any good anymore.

Sarah