Ghosts could be moved with air and water currents. In addition, ghosts were also weightless and might fly in any direction. Ī ghost's weightlessness allows them to glide in any direction They also had the ability to 'almost' taste things, which was amplified with the use of pungent, rotting food. Ghosts also secreted ectoplasm over time in places that they frequented. In passing through a living creature, ghosts gave the sensation of plunging into ice-cold water. Īccording to Rubeus Hagrid, many ghosts liked lily flowers.

ĭepending on the conditions of the person's soul, they might have been able to return, as Tom Riddle's self-mutilated soul was trapped in limbo for eternity and couldn't become a ghost. They were especially disappointing on the one subject that fascinated most people: ghosts couldn't return a very sensible answer on what it was like to die, because they had chosen an impoverished version of life instead. For this reason, ghosts tended to be poor company, on the whole. No physical pleasure remained to them, and their knowledge and outlook remained at the level it had attained during life, so that old resentments (for instance, at having an incompletely severed neck) continued to rankle after several centuries. Having chosen a feeble simulacrum of mortal life, ghosts were limited in what they could experience. As a result, ghosts knew nothing about the afterlife and some later came to regret that they became ghosts instead of moving on. It was those with 'unfinished business', whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets or overt attachment to the material world who refused to move on to the next dimension. Muggles cannot come back as ghosts, and the wisest witches and wizards chose not to. But very few wizards choose that path.' - Sir Nicholas discussing ghosts with Harry Potter Ī ghost was the transparent, three-dimensional imprint of a deceased witch or wizard, which continued to exist in the mortal world. ' Wizards can leave an imprint of themselves upon the earth, to walk palely where their living selves once trod.

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