Beyond the Veil

*Harry Potter spoiler alert ahead for anyone who might care.

My favorite HP book is Order of the Phoenix.  If I rank them in order of my preference, my number is 573-1462, just in case anyone was wondering. lol

Anyway, I'm continually impressed with J.K. Rowling.  I have yet to make it through book five without crying, and the same goes for The White Tomb chapter in book 6. She uses the veil at the center of The Department of Mysteries as a metaphor for death (or more accurately, the passing from life into the afterlife).  There are so many poignant moments in these books, and she writes the complicated emotions of loss and grief especially well.

"There was a raised stone dais in the center of the lowered floor, and upon this dais stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked, and crumbling that Harry was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched... He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. 

'Let's go,' called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps, 'This isn't right, Harry, come on, let's go...'

She sounded scared, much more scared than she had [before], yet Harry thought the archway had a kind of beauty about it... The gently rippling veil intrigued him; he felt a very strong inclination to climb up on the dais and walk through it...

There were faint whispering, murmuring noises coming from the other side of the veil.  "Can't anyone else hear it?' Harry demanded... 

'I can hear them too,' breathed Luna.....

'What do you reckon that arch was?' Harry asked Hermione... 'I don't know, but whatever it was, it was dangerous,' she said firmly...

Toward the end of the next chapter, called Beyond the Veil.

"The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.  Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so... It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall.  His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch... Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing - Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second...

But Sirius did not reappear.

...Lupin dragged Harry away from the dais, Harry still staring at the archway, angry at Sirius now for keeping him waiting - but some part of him realized, even as he fought to break free from Lupin, that Sirius had never kept him waiting before... Sirius had risked everything, always, to see Harry, to help him... If Sirius was not reappearing out of that archway when Harry was yelling for him as though his life depended on it, the only possible explanation was that he could not come back."

Harry, who has already suffered a great deal of loss, is drawn toward this veil, finding beauty in it and feeling an inexplicable desire to walk through it, even without fully understanding it.  That rings true to me.  His friends who have also experienced deep loss (Neville and Luna) are transfixed and entranced by it, all three of them hearing faint voices and very aware that there is life on the other side of it... but the friends who haven't yet experienced that type of loss are either totally indifferent or they find the veil frightening and dark and dangerous.  It creeps them out and puts them on edge, and they just want to move away from it and stop talking about it.

J.K. doesn't go into trying to explain the afterlife, but she clearly implies that the people we have loved and lost are just beyond the veil, alive and well, but separated from us and unable to reappear or be here with and for us now.  The metaphor is very well done, (along with the rest of this brilliant series)!  And the veil terminology makes me think of Jesus tearing the temple veil that once separated us from God.  There's a lot to unpack there, and I won't go into it now.

Anyway, I realize this is not a very holiday-themed post, but I've been thinking about that since I read that book again earlier this month.  So I wanted to share a bit of it here before I forget.  That's all I've got for today. ❤