Inferi (was Re: CHAPDISC: HBP21, The Unknowable Room

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 158882

> Ceridwen:
> Interesting that the previous lesson was on resisting the Imperius.
> Aren't Inferi animated to do a wizard's will, much like Imperius
> forces the living to do another's bidding?
 
> Potioncat:
> Good point. It even sounds alike. Imperius/Inferius. So, why 
didn't 
> Snape highlight the differences between controlling a live wizard 
and  a dead one?
> 
> And I agree with whoever said it---seeing a Inferius!DD would be 
> devastating.


Tonks:
I do think that we are to ask 'why does JKR tell us this?'

Ghosts are as Harry says `transparent'.  But they also have free 
will.  The Inferni do not.  It is as if they were under the 
imperious curse.

The other thing is that Ghosts are souls that are still on this side 
of the veil.  The Inferni do not have a soul that is in this world.  
They seem to be just animated corpse.  Not real.  Except that since 
they have bones they can probably do harm to someone in a way that a 
Ghost can not. 

One might wonder what role the Ghost will play in the final battle, 
if there is anything like a battle of Hogwarts where everyone gets 
in the act.  

One rather interesting thing about the way that JKR has invented the 
Inferni is the origin of the name.  The Latin dictionary says that 
Infernus is: coming from below, the lower world, the shades.  

It also seems to incorporate something of the very Dark Magic called 
Necromancy.  This is a real thing in real Dark Magic as practiced in 
early days.  The evil wizard calls upon the `demons' to do his 
bidding.  They, like Rowling's inferni, have no free choice.  The 
work is done in the spiritual world.  Demons in this context have 
nothing to do with the Christian concept of demons.  Demons are 
spirits, not necessarily evil ones.  The wizard controls them, and 
thereby is able to do things in the other realm where the wizard can 
not go.  When you see pictures of a wizard in a circle with strange 
symbols around it, he is usually a necromancer.  The circle is used 
to protect the wizard from the forces of the other world that he is 
invoking.  (This is really all I know about this subject.)

A word about Sirius and DD:  It is interesting that they both do not 
have bodies that are available to LV to uses as Inferni. Maybe this 
is part of the reason that JKR made things happen as they did.

I fear that we may well see Inferni again.  Do they have to be in 
water?  It would be rather creepy if the graves opened and the 
corpses started walking about.  It would be a rather creepy thing 
even if it were meant as a Christian symbol.  I hope she isn't going 
there.  Just too creepy! And she could kill off another person like 
Ginny and have LV use her body. Still much too creepy.

Tonks_op