The Dementor Solution

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 151296

No the Dementor Solution is not a really nasty dishwashing liquid,
it's a concept I'm bringing in from a discussion in another group.
Certainly the basic concept of Dementor's kissing Voldemort is not
new, but I wonder if it has been examined from this particular
perspective before.


Here is what I said in the other group -

Well, the real question is what happens to the soul once the Dementor
has /kissed/ it out of a body. Is it consumed, digested, and thereby
destroyed? The Dementor only getting short term nourishment from it?
Or, is the soul imprisoned in the Dementor so that the Dementor can
feed off of the souls emotions forever? That is the one true question
that needs to be answered.

If the soul is destroyed, then disregarding Voldemort for the moment,
that is very bad. In a sense, it means no heaven or hell, the
spiritual essense of that person vanishes and ceases to exist. Instead
of eternal spiritual life, we have the unheard of spiritual death.
That's quite a complicated situation with many ethical and relgious
dilemmas. 

On the otherhand, again discounting Voldemort for a moment, if the
soul lives on in a kind of Dementor Purgatory, trapped inside the
Dementor while the Dementor feeds on the emotions of the soul. That
works better, because Voldemorts eternal soul would be trapped inside
the Dementor. It wouldn't matter whether Harry found and destroyed all
the Horcruxes, because their existance only keeps Voldemort's soul
earth-bound, and that is exactly what being kissed by the Dementor
would do. 

That is one of the dark and dreadfull things about the Dementor. It's
not that they leave the body soulless, but that they leave a soul with
no resolution, with no final rest, no eternal peace; a soul forever
cut off from heaven.

This would be away for Harry to destroy Voldemort without having to
become a killer himself. Further, in a dark and sad way, Voldemort
gets his wish, he will now live earth-bound forever, but sadly he will
do so not with freewill and free volition, but eternally trapped in a
Dementor. I'm sure that not what he had in mind.

So, all Harry has to do is convince a Dementor to kiss Voldemort,
shouldn't be that difficult (he said with a great deal of sarcasm).

On the other hand, if the Dementor-Kissed Soul is consumed and thereby
destroyed, how does that effect Voldemort if Horcruxes still exist?
Could the Dementor still digest that soul fragment contain in
Voldemort's body, or would the Horcrux soul pieces prevent that? And
if so, how would they prevent it? I can't see how they would prevent
it, in a sense, that would be like saying that I can't digest the
hamburger I just ate because I didn't eat the whole cow. If Dementors
can consume souls then they can certainly consume parts of souls. 

Souls are generally considered eternal, they do live forever. What
Voldemort has done is prevented his soul from moving on. He has
prevented it from leaving the mortal realm even after it has lost its
mortal body. But the preferred location of Voldemort's, previously
assumed immortal soul, is irrelavant if the Dementor is able to
consume it.

I'm not sure what this adds up to, or which characters it effects. I
guess more than a Harry/Voldemort question, it is really a Dementor's
Kiss question.

Further, if this were the solution to the story, it continues the
theme that Evil is never truly destroyed. Voldemort has been
vanquished and defeated, but he is not really gone, assuming his soul
it trapped in the Dementor, but it is functionally gone, and there is
no logical means which would allow for any assistance or chance of escape.

For what it's worth.

Steve/bboyminn