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Witch Weekly · August 30, 2020 – 3:46 PM

The Ghost That Wouldn't Go

Anyone who graduated Hogwarts has met at least a handful of ghosts. For most of us, our lives are peppered with interactions with spirits. You may even have a ghost in your extended family. But what happens when a ghost becomes unwelcome?

Daphne Winters was married in 1879 and had two children. Her husband passed away during the laughing plague of 1884, but lingered in their Bartonburg house as a ghost. "At first I was glad that he stayed," Daphne told us, "But it got to be too much very quickly. He was still laughing all the time, filling the house with the noise. It started scaring the children."

The late Mr. Winters wanted to be involved with the lives of his children, and would not take his wife's gentle suggestion that it might be best for him to steer clear. When he wouldn't relent, she took the children to her sister's house for a little peace and quiet.

"He got restless after we left. He started wandering to the neighbor's houses, looking for something to do. They wrote me to complain. That's when I contacted the Spirit Division at the Ministry."

The Spirit Division has the power to issue restraining orders to ghostly residents who overstep their bounds and harass the living. In cases where restraining orders have been violated, they can also perform exorcisms. Exorcised spirits are left to wander freely, but are magically barred from returning to the area they have been exorcised from. Most eventually disappear. Experts are uncertain whether this is due to listlessness which causes them to be more willing to 'cross over,' or whether being removed from their place of origin physically weakens the ghost and eventually forces them to dissipate.

"After the restraining order was issued, he became belligerent," Mrs. Winters told our reporters. "The man I'd married was gone, replaced by this... angry, bitter thing. It was heartbreaking."

Mrs. Winters moved in with her sister permanently and placed the house up for sale, but the presence of Mr. Winters deterred potential buyers. Eventually, she requested the Ministry to intervene with an exorcism.

"It would have been better if he'd just died," Daphne said in closing. "At least we would have had his memory, unsullied by all this unpleasantness."

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