Quick Questionnaire v1.1

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 168601

> Dungrollin: 
> > I suppose I veer away from the idea of Harry going through the 
veil and seeing Sirius again because of this quote:
> > 
<snip>
http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1299-wamu-rehm.htm
> > 
> > I dunno. I'm probably rationalising. I can't shake the feeling 
that she'd be undermining herself by allowing Harry to see Sirius 
again before he dies.
> > 

> Hickengruendler:
> 
> But she already did something like this with the Priori Incantatem 
> scene. This is not like the Mirror of Erised (where there were just 
> images of James and Lily) or the Pensieve (which might be similar 
to watching a homemade video). Here some forms of James and Lily (as 
> well as Cedric, Frank and Bertha) came out of Voldie's wand, and 
they directly interacted with Harry and had memories of the present. 
> Therefore you could argue, that she already did undermine herself 
> here, though I disagree. It's not that the ghostlike figures 
actually stayed, Harry had to let go of them again.
> 
> Personally, I wouldn't be surprised at all, if something like this 
> happens again. JKR had found a way to explain a short-time return 
of the dead once, therefore she theoretically could do it again. And 
if it's an even as half a satisfying read for me, as the climax of 
GoF was, I won't complain.
>

Dungrollin:

Yeah, I see what you mean... But she makes a very strong distinction 
between the shades that Harry sees, and the actual *dead person's 
spirit/soul/whatever* which is no longer in this world and isn't 
coming back.

---------------------
"Which means," said Dumbledore slowly, his eyes upon Harry's 
face, "that some form of Cedric must have reappeared."
Harry nodded again.
"Diggory came back to life?" said Sirius sharply.
"No spell can reawaken the dead," said Dumbledore heavily. "All that 
would have happened is a kind of reverse echo. A shadow of the living 
Cedric would have emerged from the wand ... am I correct, Harry?"
"He spoke to me," Harry said. He was suddenly shaking again. "The ... 
the ghost Cedric, or whatever he was, spoke."
"An echo," said Dumbledore, "which retained Cedric's appearance and 
character."
---------------------
GoF ch36, UK p605-6.

An echo which retained Cedric's appearance and character, the way the 
magnetic tape in a cassette retains a voice's rhythm, pitch and so 
on, *but is not the actual person, nor their soul nor spirit*. I 
think that crossing the veil and seeing Sirius *would* be different 
to seeing a portrait or a priori incantatem echo, or a ghost (which 
are the imprints of departed souls, but not the souls themselves). 

I suppose I'm probably just being pernickety, and JKR might not see 
it the same way. I'd probably not feel cheated if Harry found 
Sirius's body on the other side of the veil, and the souls of the 
ghosts he knows, but not Sirius's soul. As NHN says "He will not come 
back [...] He will have ... gone on." (OotP ch38 UK p759) 

Yes, if beyond the veil is some sort of waiting room which is where 
those who become ghosts decide they are too afraid of death to "go 
on", Sirius's body would be there, and he could meet up with NHN, the 
Bloody Baron, the Headless Hunt, Myrtle, etc. However, if he met up 
with Sirius or Cedric or his parents, I'd feel that JKR was cheating. 
In fact, if Wormtail's the kind of guy who'd become a ghost and he 
cops it before the grand finale, it would be an interesting situation 
in which he could repay his debt to Harry.

There you go, I'm probably wrong. But I'd still rather that Sirius 
had to die because of something that happened in the past.

Dung