LV as a dementor?

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 85946

I sincerely apologize if I'm not the first to post this observation, 
but did anybody notice the slight change in the description of the 
patronous charm in OotP, and even more, the intriguing similarity 
between this description and Harry escaping VL possessing him?

In chapter 1 of the book Harry is attacked by a dementor, which tries 
to "kiss" him. Harry, due to his state of mind, fails twice to 
perform the patronous charm. Now read JKR's description carefully:


"There was laughter inside his own head, shrill, high-pitched 
laughter . . . he could smell the Dementor's putrid, death-cold 
breath filling his own lungs, drowning him — think . . . something 
happy . . .
    But there was no happiness in him . . . the Dementor's icy 
fingers were closing on his throat — the high-patched laughter was 
growing louder and louder, and a voice spoke inside his head: 'Bow to 
death, Harry . . . it might even be painless . . . I would not 
know . . . I have never died
    He was never going to see Ron and Hermione again —
    And their faces burst clearly into his mind as he fought for 
breath.
    'EXPECTO PATRONUM!'
    An enormous silver stag erupted from the tip of Harry's wand
"


Now, never seeing Ron and Hermione again is certainly not a happy 
thought, but just seeing their faces in Harry's mind somehow does the 
trick. Until now we were led to believe that the patronous charm is 
about happiness, but is it really about loving and/or being loved? 
This is not the same thing.

Now compare the description above with the next description from 
chapter 36, at the battle in the MoM. VL finally manages to really 
posses Harry:

"Then Harry's scar burst open and he knew he was dead: it was pain 
beyond imagining, pain past endurance — '
    He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of a 
creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know 
where his body ended and the creatures began: they were fused 
together, bound by pain, and there was no escape — '
    And when the creature spoke, it used Harry's mouth, so that in 
his agony he felt his jaw move . . .
    'Kill me now, Dumbledore . . .'
    Blinded and dying, every part of him screaming for release, Harry 
felt the creature use him again . . .
    'If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy . . .'
    Let the pain stop, thought Harry . . . let him kill us . . . end 
it, Dumbledore . . . death is nothing compared to this . . .
    And I'll see Sirius again . . .
    And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creatures coils 
loosened, the pain was gone
"

Interestingly parallel, isn't it? In both cases Harry accepts his 
death. In both cases thinking about people he loves (or that love 
him?) saves him. The similarity between "he was never going to see 
Ron and Hermione again" and "and I'll see Sirius again" is just too 
good to be a coincidence. One might object that they are opposed, but 
this is because Ron and Hermione are alive, while Sirius is already 
dead. We know that thinking about Sirius is the thing that saved 
Harry from being possessed because DD says in the next chapter about 
(presumably) love:  "It is the power held within that room that you 
possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That 
power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from 
possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a 
body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not 
that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you".

So what does this similarity signifies? Did VL become a kind of 
dementor? What would happen if Harry performs the patronous charm 
against VL? We already know that the patronous is good for more than 
fighting dementors. It also repels the lethifold, a very dangerous 
dark creature, as Flavious Belby had found (FB). BTW, we don't know 
what Belby's patronous was, but it was also a horned animal, as he 
tells: "I looked up to see that the deadly shadow being thrown into 
the air upon the horns of my Patronous". Is this JKR's way to hint 
that this story is relevant to Harry?

I would have hazard a prediction that this is how Harry is going to 
get rid of VL for good in book 7, but for one slight problem: the 
patronous does not kill dementors, nor does it kill the lethifold. It 
only repels them. Oh well. More ideas, anyone?

Neri