Soul-less Existence

[Eustace_Scrubb]

from POA, Chapter 12, "The Patronus":
"They call it the Dementor's Kiss," said Lupin, with a slightly
twisted smile. "It's what dementors do to those they wish to destroy
utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there,
because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and -- and
suck out his soul."

Harry accidentally spat out a bit of butterbeer.

"What -- they kill --?"

"Oh no," said Lupin. "Much worse than that. You can exist without your
soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But
you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no. .. anything.
There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just exist. As an empty
shell. And your soul is gone forever... lost."
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OK, so we know a Dementors' ultimate weapon is the Kiss.  Done to
those they wish to "destroy utterly," says Lupin.  So far we only know
of one individual who's gotten this treatment, Barty Crouch the
Younger.  Dumbledore (and others) have made much of the fact that
young Master Barty was silenced before his testimony could be taken in
open court, thus abetting Fudge in obfuscating about the return of
Voldemort for a year.

But there's so much we don't know about Dementors, the Kiss and its
victims.  How often do the Dementors get to enjoy this treat?  Do they
really differentiate between victims?  What deal did the Ministry do
with them to arrange their gig guarding Azkaban (and did this involve
_all_ Dementors?)  And how long ago?  One guesses that the Ministry
must have some assurances that the guards won't Kiss prisoners
indiscriminately, but who knows?  Are there dozens of Patronus experts
assigned to Azkaban to prevent the Dementors' hunger getting the
better of them?  So many hungry Dementors, so few "approved"
souls...is there anyone who a Dementor would _not_ want to "destroy
utterly"?  Or is it more satisfying to allow the prisoners to keep
their souls so the Dementors can sponge happiness off them
indefinitely?

And what exactly did happen to Barty Jr. after the Kiss?  If we can
believe Lupin, the victim, although worse than dead, isn't in fact,
clinically dead.  Without the soul, the victim has "no sense of self
anymore, no memory," but the brain and heart may still be working.  So
is Barty in a special ward of St. Mungo's with other Kiss victims,
just existing, being fed via tubes?  To what extent are their brains
still working?  

And about those memories...  Are they really gone or does their owner
simply no longer have the means to access them?  Could a legilimens or
someone with a pensieve still extract them from the victims' (still
working) brains and examine them?

Of course in Barty's case, as he had no living relatives to make
decisions for him, perhaps the Minister decided he should be allowed
to conveniently expire or participate in a little memory modification
experiment.
 
Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb
(who ever since reading Kneasy's "Connecting the Dots," has had the
names "Gryffindor...Dumbledore...Dumbledore...Gryffindor" running
through his head for some reason)