Inferi (was Re: What things that you wanted did you get? (was: Killing Harry)

[guzuguzu]

No: HPFGUIDX 175650

guzu wrote: 
  
> With the inferi guarding the locket in HBP, I thought that in DH 
> Harry would have to face more, possibly including someone he 
> recognized(someone like Cedric). When Voldemort cracked Dumbledore's 
> tomb, I was afraid it was going to be him, foreshadowed by the dust-
> dolly Dumbledore that was guarding Grimmauld Place. I was happy that 
> was all just my imagination running wild, because that would have
been monumentally creepy!

va32h wrote:

> Monumentally creepy or incredibly awesome? I think both. One of
JKR's strengths is her ability to come up with some truly terrifying 
> imagery. Voldemort's eyeballs in the locket? Nagini emerging from 
> Bathilda's rotting corpse? I absolutely hate horror movies, but I 
> found those passages both fascinating and sickening. 

guzu again: 

Good point—- it would have been both. Rowling could have pulled it off
well. I am a huge horror fan (especially Lovecraft and Barker) so I
probably would have technically enjoyed the scene itself, but I think
it would have been too creepy for me personally to reconcile being in
the HP series. The anonymous inferi (and the other freaky scenes
mentioned above) were horror scenes of the "shock/monster" variety. As
creepy as the Bathilda/snake scene was, it would have been a whole
level more disturbing if Harry had actually known her. Adding the
psychological horror component of fighting rotting, reanimated corpses
of friends on top of that might have pushed it over the edge for me;
my mind is in a different space when I read HP than when I'm reading a
horror story. Maybe if Harry and company had discussed the possibility
of having to face inferi they personally knew to mentally prepare
themselves for it, or Harry have a nightmare about it, it would have
been a "creepy" medium—- creepy but not as creepy as if it actually
played out. 

va32h:
 
> Still - she could have slipped one in the Battle of Hogwarts - every 
> other type of creature was in there, why not?

Agreed. Now that I think about it, were there any goblins fighting? I
checked the book again quickly, but I might have missed them. 

guzu