Skip to main content

harry potter - Why does Peeves listen to the Bloody Baron?


Peeves the poltergeist very rarely takes commands from anyone. However, he does listen to the Bloody Baron. What's the story behind this?



Let me summarize some of what we know about Peeves.


We learn that the Baron is the only one who can really control Peeves in Philosopher's Stone chapter 7, when we first meet Peeves, and Percy Weasley says



‘You want to watch out for Peeves,’ said Percy, as they set off again. ‘The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us Prefects. […]’




This later becomes a plot point: in PS chapter 16, Peeves catches the trio under the Invisibility Cloak, but Harry gets rid of him by pretending to be the Bloody Baron. Peeves is apparently terrified of having insulted the Baron (“almost fell out of the air in shock”), and leaves.


We know Peeves cooperates with Filch to catch students out of bed, and with the Weasley twins to wreak havoc in the castle and annoy Umbridge, but he does this in his own interest, enjoying what he does, and isn't actually controlled by Filch or the Weasleys.


Professors like McGonagall and Lupin and probably Dumbledore do sometimes have some authority over Peeves, see eg. PS. chapter 9 when McGonagall orders Peeves out of a room. This could be because they are powerful enough magic users to do magic on Peeves if he doesn't obey. Also, Peeves is very connected to Hogwarts, as we can see in Deathly Hallows, so that might be why he respects the authority figures of Hogwarts somewhat. Peeves thus tries to mostly stay out of their ways unless necessary, but it doesn't look like he's as terrified of them or respectful to them as he is to the Baron.


In PS chapter 7, the House ghosts are arguing about Peeves, mentioning things like “haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?” and that “he gives us a bad name.” I think there's a possibility that any ghost has some way to interact with Peeves and control him more easily than the students, and the Baron just uses this in the most skilled way among the ghost, or is the only really terrifying personality among them.



Now a few facts about the Baron. We know his story. In short, he was a liege of the Hogwarts founder Rowena Ravenclaw, and the lover of her daughter Helena. Rowena Ravenclaw had sent him after Helena, who wouldn't return with him, so the Baron killed the girl in a rage, then committed suicide. As a ghost, he wears the chains and the blood as penance.


We don't know everything though, as the story doesn't explain why he became the Slytherin house ghost if he was a liege of Ravenclaw. (The Grey Lady is Helena, the daughter of Ravenclaw, and the Fat Friar claims that Hufflepuff was his former house, which explains how they got associated with their houses.)



Answer



While this doesn't answer directly, JKR very clearly indicated that Bloody Baron's influence on Peeves does NOT have anything to do with the story of Baron and Helen.




Camille: What or who is peeves exactly, is he linked with the blood barons story?
J.K. Rowling: No, Peeves is not linked to the bloody Baron’s story.
J.K. Rowling: He is a spirit of chaos that entered the building long ago and has proved impossible to eradicate!


(src: J.K. Rowling Interview; The Deathly Hallows Web Chat; July 2007)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more