Death and magic

[mooseming]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Eva Thienpont 
<severelysigune at y...> wrote:
> 
 
> 
> Sigune:
> 
> Question: does the Dementor's Kiss really kill? I understood it 
removed the soul but left the body alive, the result being 'worse 
than death'. I am ready to accept that my restricted command of the 
English language may be responsible for this, but for me 
something 'worse than death' means it is not the same as death. Or 
else it depends upon how you define 'death': is it purely physical, 
or rather spiritual?

Ah yes, we are never actually told what happens to the body so you 
may be correct. I am working on the basis that death is defined as 
the separation of body and soul (for which there is absolutely no 
direct evidence) and the `worse' bit is that the soul is prevented 
from moving on. Azkaban for eternity.

> 
> Also, it seems to me that AK evicts the *life* from its victim's 
body, rather than the soul specifically.
> 

Again yes, we are not told what the AK does so you might be right 
here too. If there is such a thing as *life* force in the HP world 
then what I'm saying doesn't work, it only works if life is a 
product of body and soul.

> But here, again, I may be taking a view with which you may not 
necessarily agree, namely that: when life goes from a body, the soul 
goes with it; but when the soul goes from a body, life does not 
necessarily go with it.
> 
>  

My view, purely speculative for the purposes of this theory, is that 
there is no `life' in life. The combination of body and soul is what 
is called life. 

>> 
> Sigune:
> 
> Or, alternatively, just like magical power, life force is 
dispersed at the moment of death. But because of Voldy's many 
pursuits into magic that aims at immortality, his life force was not 
dispersed by the AK rebound - he just lost his body and became a 
kind of vapour - his life and soul, but with no physical shape worth 
speaking of. As magical power seems to be closely linked to the 
body, he did not have much of it left.
>
> 
> I think the fact that Voldy can/could cheat death has to do with 
two separate things: his own pretty formidable magical ability 
(comparable to Dumbledore's) on the one hand, and his specific 
research into the subject of immortality on the other. There are 
spells, objects etc that deal explicitly with making/keeping life, 
like the PS - magic dealing with life and death seems to pose a 
particular challenge to the gifted witch or wizard - even 
Dumbledore, who professes death to be only 'the next great 
adventure', has interestingly been hanging around Nicholas Flamel. 
Whereas Dumbledore has apparently moved on to other fascinations 
such as magical oven cleaner, Voldy's fascination with it continues 
and he applies his power to it.
> 
> Sigune
> 

Again yes. Why I like the idea of body + soul = life is that there 
is evidence already that magical ability can influence this 
equation, as proved by ghosts and the splinched, it is simply that 
the influence is limited. For Voldy to have survived at GH he need 
only to have extended that influence there is no need to propose 
magic that doesn't already exist as his experimentation is a 
continuation of existing principals. If his experimentation was 
aimed at a life force then this is an area not yet evident elsewhere 
and although feasible it hasn't the same continuity. I'm not saying 
you are wrong only that I like the neatness of my idea :-)

Regards
Jo