Thoughts on the Dementor's Kiss

[Bernadette M. Crumb]

No: HPFGUIDX 38457

I've been rereading POA and it struck me when I was reading about
what the Dementor's Kiss entails and wondered just WHY it was
considered the worst possible punishment that could happen to
anyone.

I mean, just what is different between the Kiss and a straight
execution?  The physical body remaining alive but mindless?  When
someone is executed the body is mindless to, but the body isn't
animate.  And we get the impression from POA that shells that
remain after the Kiss don't live that much longer anyway.  So is
it just a non-bloody way of execution?  What makes it "worse than
death?"  The fear the victim feels when it's happening?  Well,
I'm sure that the level of fear of someone facing the headsman's
axe or the garrote or other means of death is right up there
too... so I don't think that applies.

To cover this, I think we need to ignore what happens to the body
of the victim, but look at what possibly happens to the mind/soul
of the one who is Kissed.

The Dementor appears to take the soul into itself, but is it
consumed and ceases to exist?  Or, and this is what gave me
nightmares last night, does the awareness remain, but trapped
inside the Dementor along with all the other mad souls that had
been Kissed by that Dementor?  And if it is an aware but
non-corporeal being, doesn't that mean that it must still suffer
the same effects of the Dementor's presences as it did while
inhabiting a living body, but with NO way to escape the horror?
Dementors appear to be immortal.  An eternity of depression and
madness IS worse than death.  If this is the case, the only way
that a soul could find release would be if the Dementor was
destroyed and the souls contained within it were either wiped out
along with it, or, perhaps, set free to continue to whatever
afterlife exists.  But, so far in my reading, I haven't been able
to find out how one actually could destroy a Dementor.  Using a
Patronus can drive them away, but what kills them?

Obviously, the only ones who would know the truth of what
actually happens to the souls the Dementor takes are the
unfortunate victims.  I find myself actually pitying Barty
Crouch, Jr. now... It would have been more merciful if he had
just been AK'd or otherwise physically executed.  But then, from
what we've seen of Wizarding Justice, they don't appear to have
any sorts of rules prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments.

And what scares me even more than the whole concept described
above is the thought that perhaps the powers that be in the MoM
know EXACTLY what happens to the souls of the Kissed.  I really
hope that they DON'T know; that they truly believe that it's a
much more merciful end than the victim would otherwise receive.
The idea that the people in power allow--nay, encourage--such a
horrific thing to happen, knowing just how bad it is for the
victim makes me very glad that I don't live within their
jurisdiction!

Bernadette

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no
survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value
to survival."
-- C.S. Lewis (1898-1963).