CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 12: The Pat

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189940

Alla:
> >  3. If Dementor can suck a person's soul from them, does it mean that
> > Potterverse does not believe in souls' immortality? If a Dementor dies
> > somehow, would the soul be released? Lupin tells Harry that a soul is gone
> > forever, lost. Where is it lost in your opinion?
> 
> Annemehr:
> 
> This whole Dementor's Kiss thing always felt weird to me.  
> 
> The way I read it, Lupin is supposed to be stating fact here.  I don't know how he would know, as I don't imagine even a ghost could know whether or not those souls have ever "gone on."
> 

Pippin:
 Nick and Myrtle both  consciously chose their "pale imitation of life." Perhaps wizards have observed that those whose souls have been sucked out by dementors never reappear as ghosts.  That would be a practical reason for such a dire punishment--there'd be no chance of the criminal carrying on  as a ghost.

Perhaps wizards consider that  if a soul isn't capable of choosing to  leave an imprint as a ghost, it couldn't make the choice to go on either. Voldemort's mutilated baby of a soul seems to be in just such a condition at King's Cross. 

Pippin