Patronus

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 190480



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, June Ewing <doctorwhofan02 at ...> wrote:
>
> > June:
> > I think that the Dementors have the same effect on everyone good
> > or bad and that is why Umbridge needed the patronus.
> 
> > Joey:
> > Well, I think so too. Yet Steve's explanation as to how the
> > effect can vary *for the victim* based on the victim's
> > personailty, mindset does make sense to me.
> >
> > ...
> 
> 
> June:
> That is exactly the way I see it. It makes sense that no two people
> will react the same way. True, everyone fears the Dementors but
> look at what happened on the train in POA, .... So the Dementors
> do affect people differently and the death eaters, although they
> too must have bad things in their past, are probably not affected
> by them because they are the ones doing the bad things to everyone
> else. ...
>

Steve:

Consider this, you've probably all been somewhere at sometime an come across a 'creepy guy'. The guy doesn't have to do anything or say anything, but he still creeps everyone one out ... some more than others. 

We know Harry is more effected because he has more substantial horrors in his past, and while the Death Eaters have surely done horrible things, they don't see them, or feel them, as horrible, and therefore aren't effected by them to the degree that a decent rational person is. 

But, I think the Dementors effect everyone ... everyone. So, Death Eaters in Azkaban are effected, and as time goes on, they wallow in misery, they start to think that maybe some of the things they've done really were horrible, and that compounds the effect of the Dementors, which I suspect is the Dementor's plan. Set up a cascade of dispare and have unlimited misery to feed on.

We know that the Dementors do not automatically Kiss everyone they meet, that implies they are capable of a degree of restrain. And I also suspect that they can apply that to the general effect they have. If they meet someone they are allied with, whether the Ministry or the Death Eaters, they can restrain their feeding frenzy, and as a result the effect is not so strong.

But, I do think that anyone in the presence of even the most self-restraining Dementor is going to feel the cloud of darkness and misery come over them. However, if the Dementors are restrained, they can tolerate the misery long enough to do the job at hand, and then get the he|| out of there. 

The absolute best encounter with a Dementor is still a miserable experience. But by the same token we know that every encounter does not have to be a deadly or soulless experience. 

Steve/bboyminn