Dementors - Hermione

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 18904

David wrote:

> What I have in mind is that the D's may already be working against 
the MOM
> and Dumbledore, if not actually for Voldemort, and are targeting 
Harry -
> see the Quidditch match and the lakeside later.  Taking out Barty 
Crouch Jr
> so he couldn't testify might be part of this, and they might have 
some sort
> of hold over Fudge too, warping his judgement.

Toby wrote:

>Wow...this is so obvious, I feel really dumb for not having thought 
of it
>sooner.  :-) What an excellent idea! That makes so much more sense 
than the
>dumb answer Lupin gave about them "feeding of the excitement and 
happiness"
>of the Quidditch match. That never made sense to me at all, because 
the
>Patronus is supposedly pure joy, and it *repells* Dementors, not 
attract
>them. So why would they be attracted to the joy of the match?

I want to add my kudos for David's idea but also defend Lupin's.  
Dementors feed off human feelings, and the ones guarding Hogwarts 
haven't had close contact with too many humans lately.  Every once in 
awhile someone goes through the gate and gives them a gulp or two, 
that's all.  So it makes perfect sense to me that they find the 
"feast" of a Quidditch crowd irresistible.

The fuzzy explanation, IMO, is the one about the Patronus.  Why does 
it scare away Dementors?  I'm going to quibble with Lupin's 
explanation (or consider it incomplete) and say that they flee from 
Patroni because despite the latter being made out of happiness, it is 
inaccessible to Dementors because, not being part of a human psyche, 
it's invulnerable.  Something like that.

A "me too" to those who have said that among Hermione's motivations 
for taking so many classes is a tremendous love of learning.  A 
certain overachiever closely related to me :ahem: has been known to 
take on too many classes, projects, senior theses, etc. just because 
they were all so interesting and she couldn't say no to any of them.

Amy Z

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