Veiled Dementors; Was Re: The DD Brothers and The Dementors

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 81371

Donna wrote:
> Ah, but Sandy, isn't it true, that if something is not used, decay 
> begins to set in?  And since these people are not using their 
> bodies for anything, wouldn't decay begin there?  When Harry sees 
> the dementor's hand in PoA, he pretty much says the flesh looked 
> desicated and decayed.  That's why I think that dementors are soul-
> sucked people.  I don't have the canon in front of me, but it is 
> either Lupin or Sirius who says that the soul-sucked begin to 
> become like dementors.

Canon gives us Lupin, PoA Ch. 12, U.S. pb ed. p. 247 [Harry has just 
asked if a dementor's kiss is fatal.]: "Oh, no," said Lupin. "Much 
worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long 
as your brain and heart are still working. But you'll have no sense 
of self anymore, no memory, no...anything. There's no chance at all 
of recovery. You'll just -- exist. As an empty shell. And your soul 
is gone forever...lost." (Guess that answers *my* question...or does 
it <g>). So, does Lupin mean you go on moving about without your 
soul, or does he mean that the soul-sucked are just stacked up like 
cordwood somewhere? (I don't believe they turn straightaway into 
dementors, if at all.)

JKR, according to Al, said, "Dementors don't breed but grow like 
fungi *wherever there is decay.* That would make decay the cause and 
dementors the effect, if you see what I mean; she wasn't saying that 
dementors are decayed, but that dementors show up, are "born" where 
decay already exists. And she said, paraphrasing: where decay exists 
(not within or from those who are decayed).
 
In PoA, Ch. 10, p. 187 of the U.S. trade pb ed., Remus Lupin says,
"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They 
infest the darkest, filthiest places...<snip> If it can, the dementor 
will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself...
soul-less and evil. You will be left with nothing but the worst 
experiences of your life."
 
Lupin was Harry's DADA teacher in PoA; it was his business to know 
dark creatures, and he said "...reduce you to '*something like* 
itself'." He didn't say "a dementor." He didn't say "*a* thing like 
itself." Nowhere, I think, are we finding substantive canon for soul-
sucked *equal* or *become* dementors. I know I am splitting hairs 
here, but IMO it's the best I or anyone else can do with what we've 
got on the subject.

Here is the URL for the Lexicon (thanks, Lexicon!) page which has 
information on and a list of canon references to dementors:
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/dementors.html

Sandy