PoA ch 11-13 post DH look

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 181602

I've always had this question about Dementors that stems from two 
explanations Lupin gives in PoA. The first was in Chapter 10, after 
Harry has succumbed to the Dementors and lost his first Quidditch 
match. The second part was from chapter 12 and the first Patronus 
lesson. First Lupin explains what they are:

"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. 
They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and 
despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around 
them. Get too near a dementor and every good feeling, every happy 
memory will be sucked out of you."   <p. 187, US Ed.>

OK, they drain hope and happiness. They also "glory in decay and 
despair". So doesn't that mean they thrive in squalid conditions? 
Now what kind of 'food' are they likely to find these type of 
conditions? Hold that thought, and let's go to the second part. 
Patronus lesson #1, Lupin is tell us what a Patronus does:

"The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very 
things that the dementor feeds upon -- hope, happiness, the desire 
to survive -- but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the 
dementor can't hurt it."  <p. 237, US Ed.>

I guess dementors feed on brain waves or something like psychic 
energy. That soul sucking thing doesn't seem to do anything for 
*them*. Since soul sucking leaves the victim with no memories, no 
anything <p. 247>, those victims won't have anything that the 
dementors feed upon. In fact, since we were told that dementors 
breed, soul sucking must not make new dementors, either.

Now for my queations: How can you project the very thing that 
dementors feed upon and *weaken* them at the same time? How do 
dementors glory in decay, when they aren't very likely to find much 
hope, happiness, or desire to survive in those type of conditions? 
After Lupin's first explanation, this doesn't make sense, to me.

So now I'd like to postulate the way I think dementors should be 
portrayed. Heh, I know, here's me trying to tell JKR what her 
creatures should be. But, wouldn't it make more sense if dementors 
fed on despair, sadness, and depression? I mean, they would suck out 
all the happy stuff thereby leaving their victims with only those sad 
thoughts that they would then feed upon. Then it would make more 
sense for them to glory in decay, because that's where they would 
find their kind of  food.

If they needed negative energy instead of positive energy, they would 
be sucking out those happy thoughts in the way we peel an orange to 
get to the real food inside. The dementor would be throwing away the 
positive thoughts, not feeding on them. That would make a Patronus a 
projection of an orange rind, nothing that a dementor could do 
anything with. The Patronus isn't the actual thought, it's a 
projection of the thought, so the dementor can't siphon it off. If 
dementors fed on negative thoughts and the Patronus is a made with 
positive thoughts, a Patronus would be like garbage to them, a 
repellant, disgusting thing to the dementors.

Did anybody else get confused trying to put these two Lupin 
explanations together? And why is it that every confusing concept 
that JKR tries to explain, seems to come out of Lupin's mouth? <eg>

Mike, wanting to tweak that dementor/Patronus thingy ever so 
slightly ;)