How Peeves Came to Be
I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are the rightful property of J.K Rowlings
On their way to Divination, Ron, Seamus and Harry narrowly escaped having a glass jar of frog eyes being dumped on them.
Peeves cackled.
"Stupid Peeves! I hate him! I don't know why he hasn't been expelled from the castle yet?"
"He's completely mental." Ron agreed. "There's something wrong with his head. Always babbling nonsense. "
"What makes a poltergeist anyways?" Asked Harry.
"Now, now." Came a soft, quavery voice. "You mustn't judge Peeves so harshly."
The three boys turned around to find the painting of an old man with a medium length, white beard and mournful gray eyes, standing in front of some tall trees.
He nodded.
"All three questions may be answered, if you have the time to listen."
They shared glances with each other, on one hand, none of them wanted to be in trouble for skipping class, on the other, none of them much liked divination anyways.
"Once Peeves was not so different from you or I. He was an exceptionally talented boy from Ravenclaw by the name of Adrian Wellington. He was intelligent, hard working and punctual. However he was also arrogant and bossy, coming from a good family and of superior intellect, he believed that many of his classmates were below him and he made quite a few enemies. One day two brothers, the younger from Slytherin and the elder from Gryffindor decided to exact revenge on him, for what reasons, I do not know. They ganged up when the halls were still quite empty on the holidays and hit with two spells, one was a Babbling Charm, the other was supposedly botched but the two spells hit the boy with such force that it sent him tumbling down the stairway."
Here the old man paused. "It is a terrible thing to be in a painting," He said, shaking his head.
"Had I been alive I might have prevented the horrid incident, it was quite gruesome to see a boy with a gaping head wound and blackened skin round his eyes, bleeding everywhere." He shook his head again.
"As it was, I alerted the Head Master at once and the boy was rushed to St. Mungos, the Babbling Charm had done it's damage and could have been fixed, had he himself not suffered serious brain damage from his fall. It is why he speaks the way he does."
All three boys turned pale.
"Naturally, his parents were distraught and the brothers had been expelled from the school for the unforeseen, dire consequences of their cruel act."
"For whatever reason, his spirit came here after he died, perhaps somewhere inside his damaged psyche this was the place where he felt he could find comfort."
There was something in the old man's tone, that made them believe Peeves had been better off if his spirit had gone elsewhere.
The Head Master felt sorry for him and allowed him to stay. So now you know why he is the way he is and perhaps have a better understanding. Perhaps you should learn about a person, before deciding to speak ill or good of them hmm? Now, off you go, mustn't keep your teacher waiting too long now must we?"
The boys shook their heads now and walked away, discussing their newfound information.
Peeves watched them go as a stray, ghostly tear trickled down his face.