Dementors always Prison Guards? (Was: Awful Boy)

[Arya]

No: HPFGUIDX 83828

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kirstini" <kirst_inn at y...> 
wrote:

> I'm fairly sure that the awful boy in question is James. I'm fairly 
> sure of this because he seems to be a fairly easy person to blame 
any 
> sort of wizarding knowledge on, and because I think Petunia is 
> lying.  Is it plausible that Petunia would hear the 
word "Dementor", 
> and trot out a sentence like "They guard the wizard prison, 
> Azakaban", if she had only overheard this information once, from a 
> source she distrusted, twenty-ish years earlier? "Azkaban" is quite 
a 
> tricky word, especially in these conditions, and yet Petunia uses 
it 
> with a certain familiarity. She doesn't say "which I think is 
called 
> something like Azkaboon" <tips hat to CMC>. Then she realises her 
> mistake and needs to cover her tracks with a plausible explanation -
 
> and the only wizard (other than Lily) who Vernon knows she's met 
> is "that awful boy" who Lily married.
> Something else that doesn't ring true - Petunia doesn't use the 
> word "wizard" ever. She says "you-know-what", or employs other 
> similarlly delicate euphemisms. And yet, here she is making a 
> distinction between "wizard" and "muggle". It would have been far 
> more in keeping with what we know of her character for her to say 
> something like "that lot's prison" or "the prison, Azkaban" 
> (depending on how familiar she is with it). To say "wizard" *does* 
> sound like she's quoting someone else, but not pureblood, wizard-
bred 
> James. Some other Muggleborn? Not Lily, because then she wouldn't 
> have to have bothered with awful boys at all. In my wildest 
moments, 
> I imagine some sort of support group for Muggle relatives of 
wizards. 
> Then my common sense kicks in... 
> 
> Ah, who knew you could make such a long and involved post out of a 
> sentence?
> Kirstini, feeling a bit dizzy.


Arya now:  

I'm leaning towards agreeing with Kristini and here's another reason 
and tangent to jump off onto.

I think there may be a sufficient case to belive that the Dementors 
being the guards of Azkaban Prison is a fairly recent development 
(only since the fall of Lord Thingy-Part 1).  

If this were true, then it supports the evidence that Petunia has a 
way of gaining knowledge about the current state of Wizarding World 
and not just how it might have been some 15-25 odd years ago.

What eveidence suggests the Dementors are more recent?  
In GoF when DD and Fudge "Part Ways", DD's first suggestion is to 
remove the Dementors at once, claiming that the Dementors are Volde's 
natural ally.  This leads me to belive that the Dementors were NOT 
the prison guards then when Volde first rose to power. 
Hmm, this leads me to hink about how they dealt with bad guys then 
before Dementors...immediately, the "Veil" comes to mind.  Can you 
say "Capital Punishment"?

Arya