[It's one of the very few times Herbert can be actually likable, when he's talking about something he loves. He's actually sort of cute, then, too, when his face lights up with excitement and interest, instead of scowling or cold disapproval, though he'll never be handsome.]

Even the Muggles saw it - they described heads blinking and looking around, after the person had been guillotined. Wizards, of course, have far better resources to investigate. With spells, we can even preserve the life in heads, if you can get them right after they've been removed from the bodies! The old wizards used to do that, to keep the heads of their enemies and gain all the knowledge in them for their own. But no one does that any more, because it's considered Dark magic. It's so stupid, how anything associated with circumventing death is considered Dark.