Dementor Feeding Theory! (WAS Re: Questions and ponderings--the dementor's kiss)

[aldrea279]

No: HPFGUIDX 41046

Richelle said:
> I'm really confused now. Is it the good thoughts or the bad 
thoughts that the dementors feed on? >

To quote Professor Lupin: "they glory in decay and despair"...I'm 
thinking that reliving your parents murder qualifies as despair.  So 
I'd say they like taking good things and making them as bad as they 
can.

Erasmas:
>>One would think they'd also go for Neville at least; if you 
stripped 
away his happy thoughts wouldn't you be left with a memory of his 
parents being tortured?>>

Well, is there any proof that Neville was even there when his parents 
were tortured?   All we know, IIRC, is that Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom 
were tortured with the Cruciatus Curse so much as to turn them 
insane, and that they can't even recognize their own son.  I don't 
remember being told that Neville was there when it happened, although 
I do know there's that whole Memory Charm theory floating around 
saying that Neville was there but he was Memory Charmed to forget it 
all.

Erasmas:
>>I guess I was originally 
trying to say that Lupin's explanation for the interaction between 
the dementors and Harry doesn't seem to tell the whole story.>>

Well now... *goes off and gets PoA* Harry's queston was: "Why did 
they have to come to the match?"  Not, "why did they have to come on 
the field and stand right under me?" And Professor Lupin answered the 
question, he explained what attracted them to the match in the first 
place.  I think the fact that Harry was feeling so good- we know how 
much the boy *loves* to fly- was what attracted them to him 
specifically.  I mean, if what I think is right, and the bigger 
emotional drop somenoe experiences gives them a bigger meal, then I 
think that's why they went after Harry then.



But I have a theory as to why the dementors liked Harry more than 
anybody else:  the effect they have on him, they way they can bring 
him from being a reasonably happy young man down to lying on his back 
and crying...I'd say that provides them a bigger "meal" than most 
other people would.

Alrighty.  I'm going to use an example, so let's take Harry versus 
Hermione.  Both Harry and Hermione are in very good moods-  then a 
dementor pops up.  Hermione starts reliving some horrible thing, I 
don't know maybe her first B on a paper(=P)..*shrugs*  The dementor 
sucks the happiness that it's stolen from her, right? The ammount of 
happiness she lost when she went from very good mood to feeling all 
bad about her paper. Well, a dementor approaching Harry would bring 
Harry all the way from his happy mood down to swooning/crying as he 
listens to his parents being murdered by an evil overlord.  I'd say 
that's a *much* bigger drop, going from a good mood down to complete 
helplessness and fainting...and so that's a bigger load of happiness 
that the dementor's would be stealing, correct?   So I don't think 
Harry is a snack to them. I think the other kids are a snack, but 
Harry is a very tasty meal they can get just by standing near one 
person. Well, that covers it- the dementor's are lazy! They'd rather 
go near one kid and get one big load from him than have to go around 
a bunch of other people just to get the same ammount. =P

~Aldrea, who's now going off to take her temperature and see if her 
fever really is gone yet.