Sirius' soul

[swartell]

Several folks have commented on the the odd way in which the dementors
seemed to be sucking something out of Sirius and Harry by the lake
near the end of the movie.  I don't think it was their souls, for a
couple reasons.

1.  The same effect was noticable when the dementor first showed up on
the train early in the movie.  In fact, the first time I saw the movie
I spent a fair amount of that scene trying to figure out what the heck
was supposed to be happening - Harry's face blurred or was dragged
towards the dementor)  Second time I saw the movie, it was with the
image of the events by the lake in mind, and so I had a better notion
of what I thought it was supposed to be showing -  I think it is
supposed to be the "feeding on the emotions" effect of the dementors,
rather than the soul-sucking.  YMMV

2.  The dementors were pulling back at that point.. perhaps just
preparatory to sweeping back in.  (I'm not 100% sure about that; it's
the memory of the scene I have, but I may have distorted it.)

3.  The camera angle made it look to me like the the point of light
being pulled out of Sirius (if that's what it was) turned into the
stag.  In fact it almost looked to me like he was exhaling the
patronus, though I knew that Harry was casting it.   And as the
patronus receded into the background, the point of
light/reflection/whatever disappeared as if Sirius sucked it back in.
 Alternatively, it was as if the brightness of the stag was reflected
in the lake just beyond Sirius and it just appeared to be coming out
of him and then returning to him.   

I found that bit visually confusing, and a bit over the top, frankly.
I never did quite decide how to interpret it.  

Sue