foolhardy soft-headed buffons who couldn't stand to admit to so much as a whisper of weakness

[cimorene]

you know, i'm still waiting for an explanation in canon of the hp universe for why some dead people become ghosts and some don't.

admittedly since her ghosts don't seem to be in any way omniscient and can't cast spells, they wouldn't be necessarily a big plot-fix, but you'd think they might hover around and give advice sometimes. maybe it's being killed by magical means that prevents it.

Comments

[vellum.livejournal.com]

i wanna know about that, too. dying from old age prevents it, too, no?

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[cimness.livejournal.com]

i don't know; should it?

[vellum.livejournal.com]

probably. have yet to see any tiny ghosts waving walking sticks around, going, "when i was your age..."

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[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah. well, nick was beheaded, right? the friar and the baron have blood on them. i think it's fair to say they have to die by physical violence.
all the ghosts are old. maybe they can't manage it until after they've been dead for a certain amt. of time?

[vellum.livejournal.com]

would the basilisk have been violent? it's a magical means, isn't it?

i want the fifth book now...

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[cimness.livejournal.com]

i'm missing the fourth! i don't know if the basilisk counts as violent. well, it hypnotized her by magic, but then it squeezed her to death and ate her, so in fact she died by being crushed to death. that could count as non-magical violence since it's practically the same as being crushed under a house or a giant anvil.

maybe it has to do with the speed of death? whether you expected you were about to die or not?

[mamahooch.livejournal.com]

I thought it was the basilisk's direct stare that killed people and those who were Petrified stayed alive because they only saw its reflection, or saw it through something else (like Colin Creevey with the camera, or Justin What's-His-Face through Nearly Headless Nick)? And isn't Prof. Binns (History of Magic, I think) a ghost who died in his sleep of old age or something?

Hmmmm... I have long wondered about the logic of this, myself.

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[cimness.livejournal.com]

oh--oops, was thinking real mythology, forgot the hp canon. you're right about binns too.