Dark Magic

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 176797

>   If you ask me Helena Ravenclaw could do with some repentence 
> herself, she stole a treasure from her own mother didn't she? She
> could also do with a little forgiveness. Holding a grudge for a 
> thousand years doesn't strike me as being very spiritually advanced.
> BTW we haven't any idea have we exactly why Nearly Headless Nick was
> beheaded? Treason and/or murder are his most likely crimes. Of course
> he might have been innocent...
> 
>   Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch
>

lizzyben:

Alas, no. Nearly Headless Nick gallantly & chivalrously tried to
use a spell to straighten a Lady's teeth - when he turned them into
tusks instead. A mistake anyone could make, I'm sure you'll agree. And
he was so sorry, and cried, and tried to correct the spell, but he was
still put to death. And we think wizarding justice is bad *now? Jeez. 

Nick's song was in the first draft of COS -

"It was a mistake any wizard could make
Who was tired and caught on the hop
One piffling error, and then, to my terror,
I found myself facing the chop.
Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve
A-strolling the park in the dusk!
She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth
Next moment she'd sprouted a tusk.
I cried through the night that I'd soon put her right
But the process of justice was lax;
They'd brought out the block, though they'd mislaid the rock
Where they usually sharpened the axe." 

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/nick.html