Ridding the Dementors

[OliveOil_Med]

Just how long after DH do you all think it was that the Dementors were removed from Azkaban? And how do you think they went about doing it? Are Dementors destroyed by the Patronus Charm, so does it just banish them away?

[Mina]

I think most, if not all, of the UK's dementors ended up at Hogwarts during the final battle. So I imagine after Voldy died, the dementors dispersed - even if a few weren't at Hogwarts, I don't think they would've hung around Azkaban when they found out what had happened. I always thought they would sort of wander, on their own or in small groups, draining an area of joy and then moving on. It would be up to the Aurors to...catch them, I suppose? I don't know if dementors can be killed/destroyed. As far as I remember, the Patronus Charm is always described as driving dementors back, not killing them.

I would hope that Dementors wouldn't be used in any capacity by the Ministry after the war, since it's obviously foolish to leave them with criminals, and cruel to use them in lieu of the death penalty. Perhaps there is a way to kill them, but we haven't seen it because it's difficult (plus for the time they were in the Ministry's employ, it would've been wasteful). Maybe they would've kept them rounded up and isolated? It's possible dementors can starve to death. Certainly if they can breed, they should be able to die...

[Tim the Enchanter]

Just how long after DH do you all think it was that the Dementors were removed from Azkaban? And how do you think they went about doing it? Are Dementors destroyed by the Patronus Charm, so does it just banish them away?

Well, with Kingsley Shacklebolt being the goody-goody Minister for Magic immediately after the Battle of Hogwarts, I suspect in typical Rowlingesque fashion that the Dementors would be gone pretty quickly.

They probably just got rid of the Dementors around Azkaban by shooing them away with Patroni. But as for destroying them?

In HBP, I believe Fudge or Scrimgeour tells the Muggle Prime Minister that the Dementors are 'breeding' - therefore, if they are capable of reproducing, they are capable of at least dying. However, I don't think you'd be able to actually kill a Dementor - they can only be destroyed by 'starving' to death, as in having no happy memories to feast on. So, I guess to kill Dementors, you have to push them around to where you want them with Patronus charms, and just keep them in a spot far away from human happiness, so they will eventually die out.

Tim the Enchanter

[gene24]

I always imagined that without Voldemort they would become aimless, and it would be up tot he Ministry to recapture them or however they deal with them. I think the Ministry would be wary of using them as prison guards now that they know their loyalty can be "bought," in a sense.

I think there would be a way to kill them, we just never encountered it in the books. There is no mention in the books about anything else living forever, and I don't think the dementors, of all the magical creatures, would be the ones with that ability. I agree, maybe they could be starved to death, but I would imagine that would take a very long time.

Maybe instead of killing them, the Ministry could round them up and find another purpose for them.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Maybe instead of killing them, the Ministry could round them up and find another purpose for them.

What other purpose would the Ministry use for soul-sucking bringers of misery and despair? The new Kingsley government would have to be pretty malicious to want to find another use for them.

Tim the Enchanter

[Russia Snow]

Oh, Molly. Why did you name the thread that? Every time I see it I read it as "Riding the dementors" I'm like, "WOW! How do you ride a Dementor??":o :rolleyes:

I think possibly, if you put a dementor is a room with a patronus charm, it would eventually kill it?

I think though, the patronus charm might be hard to keep going for that long? It takes a lot of concerntration to cast, so maybe it wouldnt last long enough. I just feel that if you trapped a dementor in a room with a patronus that it couldn't escape from, it would eventually die.

Just my 0.5674 cents :D

Russia xxxxx

[clabbert2101]

I find myself agreeing with Tim, but I've always wondered what would happen if you trapped a Dementor in a room and then filled all the space in that room with Patroni?

Because I rather imagine that that could destroy a Dementor.


/even less of 2 cents than whatever Russia put

[OliveOil_Med]

I wonder if it would be possible for a Dementor to starve to death. We know they feed on human misery, but if that were somehow cut off, could they stave just like any other creature could.

Also, Dementor breeding? I don't even want to think about how that would work, unless they bud like ameobas or Spongebob.

Also, I wonder if the Ministry would ever launch a campaign to rid the world of Dementors and make them go extinct. I wonder if there would ever be any wizarding campaign to save the species. This seems like something that not even Hermione would get involved in.

[Inverarity]

It's my impression that Dementors aren't really a "species," but more like living embodiments of despair, akin to undead. They're spawned by misery, and would probably starve and fade away if they had none to feed on.

If they are actually living creatures, I doubt that they reproduce sexually. (I really don't want to imagine how, at any rate...)

[Tim the Enchanter]

I wonder if it would be possible for a Dementor to starve to death. We know they feed on human misery, but if that were somehow cut off, could they stave just like any other creature could.

Also, Dementor breeding? I don't even want to think about how that would work, unless they bud like ameobas or Spongebob.

Also, I wonder if the Ministry would ever launch a campaign to rid the world of Dementors and make them go extinct. I wonder if there would ever be any wizarding campaign to save the species. This seems like something that not even Hermione would get involved in.

I doubt Dementors are endemic to Britain - they have to be found all over the world, since their emotion food is not an exclusively British phenomenon. Even if the British Ministry of Magic wanted to push Dementors to extinction, they couldn't, since they'd run up against other national governments.

Also, Dementors do not feed on human misery - they feed on happy memories, only leaving miserable memories behind. Misery is a byproduct of Dementors, not the source.

As for how Dementors breed, I have no idea. Maybe they just spontaneously generate...

Lastly, I dug up a quote from Rowling about killing Dementors, from a 30 July 2007 chat:
You cannot destroy Dementors, though you can limit their numbers if you eradicate the conditions in which they multiply, ie, despair and degradation. As I’ve already said, though, the Ministry no longer used them to torment its opponents.

But if Dementors feed on happy emotions, and force people to relive terrible memories, wouldn't Dementors be more likely to multiply in areas with lots of emotion and excitement, not "despair and degradation"?

Tim the Enchanter

[clabbert2101]

But if Dementors feed on happy emotions, and force people to relive terrible memories, wouldn't Dementors be more likely to multiply in areas with lots of emotion and excitement, not "despair and degradation"?

I've always been puzzled by the idea of Dementors 'feeding' on happy memories in the first place. If that was true, how could Patronuses, conjured of happy memories, drive them off?

I've always thought it more likely Dementors feed on the despair people, drawing out their worst memories and forcing people to relive them until they simply can't remember what it's like to be happy. I know that's not quite how the process is described in the books, but the effect is the same, and I think it might just be two different ways of explaining the same thing.

If that's the case, then an excess of 'despair and degradation' would be beneficial to the Dementors, and by simply hanging around they would increase their own 'food' source.


~Bella

[OliveOil_Med]

Hmm, yet another debate to be added to this newly revived thread. Does anyone know for certain whther it is happy memories or sad ones that Dementors feed on?

[Annalise28]

Hmm, yet another debate to be added to this newly revived thread. Does anyone know for certain whther it is happy memories or sad ones that Dementors feed on?
I am not certain but I remember Lupin telling Harry that the reason the Dementor's attacked him so strongly and the reason he fainted was because he had so much despair in his life.


So, does that mean: he had so many bad memories that the Dementor's acted upon him stronger than others, or: he fainted because he had so much despair in his life?

~ Annalise x :)

[Finest Firewhisky]

I think it's explicitly stated than a Dementor feeds on happy memories, leaving you with your despair. Sirius says that one thing that kept him sane in Azkaban was the thought he knew he was innocent, and "That wasn't a happy thought, so the Dementors couldn't suck it out of me". The dementors don't deliberately attack Harry because he has worse memories, it's just that those memories make the dementor's effects more pronounced.

In the movies, this is made much clearer, and Lupin says a shield - form Patronus works by getting the Dementor to feed off of it and not the caster.

I think a fully-formed Patronus can drive down a Dementor by overwhelming it with emotion. Like how a person needs plenty of water to survive, but can still drown.

Also, about killing them, I think a Dementor can starve, which is why they are so hungry. There are things in the HP universe which can live forever, most notably pheonixes.

My two knuts.
Jake