[HPforGrownups] Dementors kiss

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 41044

JKR wrote (interspersed by Darrin <g>): 

> "Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk
> this earth. they 
> infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in
> decay and despair 
> they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air
> around them. Even 
> Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see
> them. Get too near 
> a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy
> memory, will be sucked 
> out of you."
> 
> On page 183, UK, Hagrid describes his time in
> Azkaban:
> 
> "Yeh've no idea. Never bin anywhere like it. Thought
> I was goin' mad. 
> Kep' goin' over horrible stuff in me mind... the day
> I got expelled 
> from Hogwarts...day me dad died...day I had ter let
> Norbert go."
> 
> 
> On page 272, UK, Sirius answers Hermione's question
> about how he got 
> out of Azkaban.
> 
> "I don't know how I did it," he said slowly. "I
> think the only reason 
> I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent.
> That wasn't a 
> happy thought, so the dementors couldn't suck it out
> of me."
> 
> 
> Ok, now for Nicole's interesting Dursley theory. Not
> quoting here, 
> but to sum up, she speculated that the Dursleys have
> been purposely 
> mistreating Harry to keep him from having tons of
> happy thoughts that 
> can be sucked away.
> 
> The main problem with this is that happy thoughts
> are the main 
> component for the defense against Dementors. Think
> of a happy 
> thought, shout Expecto Patronum, and watch old Stag
> Boy Prongs go.

I'm really glad someone brought this up (it was
Richelle, right? Sorry if I am misremembering) because
I've vaguely wondered about it for a long time, but
now that we look at the relevant quotes I think I've
got it.  Dementors suck happiness out of people.  That
doesn't mean that happiness is what they live on; it
may be that what they really live on is the despair
that results.  That would certainly explain why they
love filthy, decaying places (I also thought less of
swamps than of shantytowns: places filled with human
misery).

Or, looking at their attraction to the Quidditch
match, it may be that they live on human emotions of
all kinds, but that their *effect* is to drain away
happiness.  What I imagine about Dementors--and this
seems to fit with everything we know about them--is
that one of their "foods" is precisely this transition
from happiness to despair.

I am trying in vain to think of a good analogy, but
hope I'm being clear without it.  

Amy Z

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