Sirius and the thirst for revenge

[Marvin Long, Jr.]

No: HPFGUIDX 13637


I wonder how much Sirius's desire for revenge on Pettigrew would have
helped him stay sane in Azkaban.  The desire for revenge is not a happy
one, not for somebody who is essentially a good person, but it can be a
*sustaining* emotion.  Dementors wouldn't take one's thirst for vengeance,
recognizing it as a negative and self-destructive emotion.  But for the
person who desires revenge above all things, it gets elevated to a kind of
holy purpose, a cause for which to live, and if Sirius enshrined revenge
in his consciousness as a just and crucial goal, perhaps that was enough
to help him get through.

This raises a question about Voldemort's followers, however.  The more
bourgeois types would succumb to Azkaban quickly.  What what about the
really, really, nasty bastards?  What if Azkaban has a "cell block"
devoted to a more psychotic class of wizard criminal that grows stronger
in hatred and rage under the dementors' influence, not less?

Assuming Voldemort succeeds in recruiting the dementors, what happens when
the really hard cases escape from Azkaban?

Marvin Long
Austin, Texas