Petunia and Dementors

[fuzz876i]

No: HPFGUIDX 147872

Cat wrote:
> SNIPPED
> > Another point I have been pondering, as awful as Harry's 
> > childhood has been, as many bad memories that he must have,
> > why does he keep remembering *only* the memory of his parent's 
> > death when attacked by Dementors? Everytime I remember people 
> > talking about Dementors, they make you relive your worst 
> > MEMORIES (note the plural) yet all Harry remembers is the night 
> > his parents were murdered. I think that this will come into 
> > play. Either on purpose (or being overcome perhaps by Dementors) 
> > Harry will relive the *entire* night, and see who else was in 
> > Godric's Hollow the night his parents died. JKR has hinted 
> > that maybe Voldemort was not alone that fateful night. There 
> > might have been witnessess, and where better to get this 
> > information, than his own memories? Opinions?
>
> Jen D.:
> Harry was very young at his parents' death. Pre-verbal would be 
> the important descriptor. <snip> pre-verbal memory is very 
> amorphous and unformed. <snip> I find it very telling that Harry 
> can remember the screams of his mother. I don't think he can 
> remember very many things she said and surely he'd have heard her 
> begging for Harry's life. But since he was so very young, he just 
> didn't have the words to put meaning to his experience.


To continue on Jen's point, Harry's subconscious could remember 
the screams and her pleading for his life.  The dementor attack 
not only brought about the attack on his mother but also the 
attack on his father.  In his subconscious mind these two attacks 
are linked; they took place at roughly the same time just within 
a few moments of each other.  

The morning of Dudley's birthday on the way to the zoo he speaks 
about a flying motorcycle that he saw in a dream.  We know that 
Hagrid took him to the Dursleys' on the back of Sirius's flying 
motorbike; this again was his subconscious mind bringing out a good 
memory. We tend to repress memories we had best not think about 
and our subconsous minds bring them out.

Harry had dreams about a flash of green light and had no idea what 
it meant until fake Moody showed the class the unforgivable curses.  
Harry was then able to associate the flash he saw in his dreams 
with the Avada Kedavra curse.  

In Prisoner of Azkaban Harry thinks that it is weakness that causes 
him to pass out when the dementors get close.  Lupin points out 
that it is the horrors in his past that cause him to pass out.  
When he faces the boggart/dementor he hears his dad for the first 
time.  This again is his subconscious mind producing yet another 
memory from that fateful night.

Petunia kept the truth from Harry because she thought he could not 
handle it.  So did Dumbledore until Sirius's death in The Order of 
the Pheonix.  In my opinion the story of Harry's parents dying in 
a car crash not only came from the Dursleys but also Dumbledore. 

In Harry's psychological mind and subconscious these memories from 
that fateful night in Godric's Hollow will lead him to the truth 
and the best way to dicover what is there is to put him under 
hypnosis.  This could be the key to tell us exactly what he 
remembers from that night.  Or give him some truth serum.  These 
two things can lead to either exact memories or fake memories.  
Either of these can be very dangerous and can cause a lapse in 
Harry's own subconscious revealing what it needs to.

Fuzz876i