Dementor

"*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.*"
— Description of Dementors
 A **Dementor** (pl. Dementors) is a Dark apparition which appears throughout the *Harry Potter book series*.

They feed on human happiness and cause them to feel depression and despair in their presence. With the Dementor's Kiss, they consume a person's soul until they are left in a vegetative state like an empty shell, a state in which their victim will not survive. They are employed at Azkaban to guard prisoners for the Ministry of Magic. They had hoped providing a food source would control the Dementors. However, they leave to help Voldemort in the Second Wizarding War after which they are replaced by Aurors. Support for their use varies.

The Patronus Charm is a known form of defence from Dementors. Chocolate helps survivors feel better if they had received the Dementor's Kiss.

## Appearance

"*Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you.*"
— what Dementors do.

Dementors are cloaked in a black fabric and have a hood hiding their face. Their skin looks decayed, grey and peeled, with their faces of decayed grey skin stretched blankly over empty eye sockets. They have a gaping and shapeless hole for a mouth which sucks air and souls. It is generally unknown to wizards and witches what they look liked under their hood because they only lower it to give a Dementor's Kiss which very few people survive to tell the tale of. They glide along the floor and possess a towering height. Dementors are blind and hunt by sensing feelings instead.

## Personal character

"*It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you.*"
— Professor Dumbledore's warning.

### Personality

Dementors feed on happy memories by sucking the happiness out their victim. They force their victim to relive a bad memory. If they have a good life with no bad memories to be sensed, they are instead shown their true colours. They can't sense an obsession. Being around them for a long time slowly induces insanity until it is difficult to even think of a cheerful thought, but Dementors are less keen on those who go insane because there is to less feed on, no longer able to sense them in the same way.

Dementors have no concept of pleading or excuses and will feed on anyone in their presence. It is important to give them no reason to attack. They will drain their victim for good if they want by shutting their jaws down upon their victim and completing sucking out their soul by using a Dementor's Kiss, for which they lower their hood. Being blind, they sense for complex emotions, good or bad but sense happiness better. They have a long, slow and rattling breath.

If a prisoner of Azkaban is freed, the Dementors didn't like it. They know they are losing their food source and are unhappy even if the prisoner is innocent. Hagrid described how he continuously thought about upsetting things in Azkaban until he couldn't remember who he was and began to lose the will to live. Being free of Dementors is like being "born again".

### Ability

In their presence, the environment changes until it is very dark and ice cold. Those within it suddenly feel a sadness so intense, they feel they will never be happy again. The intense cold goes deeper and deeper into their skin and towards their heart. If they are the focus of a Dementor, it will take control of their mind and force them to relive a bad memory. The cold goes into their ears and makes them feel like they are being dragged down into ice-cold depths. Their eyes get foggy.

Eventually, the victim will start to hear a roaring sound which gets louder and louder while their eyes roll to the back of their head. Their body goes rigid and begins twitching, which will cause them to fall in the process. They eventually pass out. When a survivor wakes up, they feel weak and shivery like they have a bad bout of the flu. Eating chocolate helps them to feel better. If they aren't saved with the Patronus Charm, their soul is completely sucked out their body. They are left in a vegetative state like an empty shell of which there is no return.

The apparitions are rarely fooled by tricks or disguises. The Invisibility Cloak is helpless, but Animagi can fool them because they don't appear to have complex human emotions in the form of an animal. It appears Dementors do have an ability to communicate because Cornelius Fudge told Harry that he was told by an Azkaban guard about Black's escape, and Remus Lupin told a Dementor searching for Black that he wasn't on the train which it should have understood. A Muggle feels their presence but they are invisible.

### Dementor's Kiss

"*If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself – soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.*"
— the Dementor's Kiss

A Dementor's Kiss begins when one shut their jaws round their victim's face and starts sucking their soul. They have strong hands which they wrap around their neck to pull their face upwards. They continue until the soul is completely gone. They are abandoned in a permanent vegetative state, an empty shell which has no thoughts and feelings. A Dementor's Kiss can't be reversed. The soul will be gone forever but carry on living for a short while if the brain and heart keep working. The Patronus Charm is capable of fending off Dementors if they remember a single, powerful happy memory.

## History

### Control by the Ministry

Azkaban is a wizarding prison established by the Ministry of Magic which chose Dementors to be the guards. Dementors gained a fearful reputation and people shivered when they talked about them even if they had confidence in their ability to find and guard criminals.

Dementors were fed and kept control of with prisoners provided for their food supply. Support for the Dementors varied. There were those with the opinion that they serve a purpose better controlled in their employ. Others had the opinion that they were too fickle and could change their loyalty if promised better feeding grounds by a Dark witch or wizard. Dementors had a high success rate in containing prisoners and didn't have a breakout until the late 20th century.

### Searching for Sirius Black

In the summer of 1993, Sirius Black fooled Dementors by escaping Azkaban in Animagus form. Dementors were sent to hunt for him and Cornelius Fudge had complete confidence in their ability to find Black successfully. Dementors were sent to patrol Hogwarts in case Sirius attempted to kill Harry Potter. They were patrolled to guard every single entrance until they found him. They further patrolled Hogsmeade every night at sundown.

Unfortunately for Harry, whenever he was near a Dementor they would feed on him. In September, they searched the Hogwarts Express and looked in Harry's compartment, and immediately began feeding on him until he fainted hearing Lily Potter's voice when she died. Remus Lupin woke up and used a Patronus Charm to help Harry. Lupin later taught a lesson about Boggarts and Harry's took the shape of a Dementor.

In October, Black got past Dementors again and sneaked into Hogwarts School. A search was conducted but Professor Dumbledore wouldn't let Dementors help because he would have had to let them into the school. He eventually told Dementors he had searched the whole school and Black was gone.

Because they weren't given permission to search school grounds and their feeding source diminished, they began to get hungry. They saw crowds cheering at a Quidditch game of Gryffindor against Hufflepuff and headed to it. It became very cold, silent and windy. They had their faces pointed at Harry and fed until he fainted again, and he again heard the voice of Lily confronting Voldemort when she was killed. Professor Dumbledore was very angry because Dementors should never have gotten on the grounds, and he drove them away using a Patronus Charm.

In early 1994, Professor Lupin began teaching Harry Anti-Dementor lessons every Thursday evening. He found a Boggart so it would transform into Harry's fear, a Dementor. He began learning how to use the Patronus Charm. He was unsuccessful at first and fainted again. He passed out hearing James Potter's voice. He improved and was soon blocking their voices like he was hearing it through a radio instead. Four lessons in, he could produce an indistinct Patronus.

In February, they were given permission to use a Dementor's Kiss if they found Black. Later, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Flint posed like Dementors in long, black hooded cloaks to spook Harry and he successfully used a Patronus Charm to subdue their group.

In June, Black caught Peter Pettigrew and Harry decided they should take Peter to the Dementors, but he escaped. In an ensuing panic to control Lupin, who had turned into a werewolf, he and Black ended up getting found and hounded by at least a hundred Dementors. They sucked their souls until a time-travelling Harry and Hermione used a powerful Patronus Charm and the Dementors flew away. They were later sent for to take Black's soul using Kiss, but he had escaped again.

Because they had used a Kiss on Harry when they hadn't been given permission to do so, Fudge was shocked they had acted out of control and decided they couldn't be used to guard Hogwarts. They were taken back to Azkaban that night, but a few were used to continue searching elsewhere.

### Second Wizarding War

Before the summer of 1994, Dementors were fooled a second time when Barty Crouch Snr. and a dying Mrs Crouch helped Barty Crouch Jnr. escape Azkaban using Polyjuice Potion. In June 1995, Barty was finally found having helped Voldemort get a new body, and he was given a Dementor's Kiss. He became an empty shell and he eventually died. Fudge wouldn't accept he was back, and persuaded many people to agree. Due to Fudge's incompetence, he neglected a growing danger of Dementors.

Dolores Umbridge sent two Dementors to Little Whinging to subdue Harry, and attacked Harry and a Muggle, Dudley Dursley. Harry saved them both using a Patronus Charm, and Dudley became a changed person because he had saw who he truly was - a bully. Squib, Arabella Figg had also felt the affect of the Dementors, but neither she or Dudley could actually see them.

Arabella went to court in defence of Harry for having using underaged magic, and supported Harry's story that Dementors had gone rogue. Fudge used the fact that she could not see Dementors to claim that Harry had invented the story. He was determined that the Dementors would never act on anyone's orders besides the Ministry of Magic. Fudge had no idea that Umbridge had in fact done that.

In the summer of 1996, the Dementors of Azkaban went missing. Voldemort had persuaded the Dementors to join the Death Eater cause by promising better chances to feed than Azkaban. They let Dementors feed on their victims. A fog was found in their wake at an abandoned Azkaban. The Ministry of Magic was put to shame over their disappearance and attempted to explain it away.

When Voldemort took over the Ministry in the summer of 1997, Umbridge made the Dementors guards of the Muggle-borns brought in for a trial determining that they had "taken" their magic from "proper" witches and wizards. She protected the judges from the Dementors above them with the Patronus Charm. Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger showed up at the trial of Mary Cattermole in order to get Slytherin's Locket from Umbridge, and she let the Dementors loose. Harry saved them with the Patronus Charm.

In about March or April 1998, Harry was taken prisoner by Death Eaters who wanted to use the Dementors and give Harry the Dementor's Kiss, in order to weaken him by the time they took him to Voldemort, but Harry managed to escape. In May 1998, the Dementors fought for Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts, but fortunately many of the students had learned the Patronus Charm and managed to keep them back.

## Defences from Dementors

"*Expecto Patronum!*"
— incantation of the Patronus Charm

* Chocolate helped people who survived a Dementor's Kiss feel better immediately following the event. It had a short-term effect.

## Behind the scenes

* They targeted Harry because he was present when Lily Potter was killed.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 5
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 20
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 12
4. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 19 - "Dementors can't see, you know …' [...] 'They feel their way towards people by sensing their emotions …'"
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 19
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 10
7. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 19 - "but they thought, of course, that I was losing my mind like everyone else in there, so it didn't trouble them."
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 9
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 11
10. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 6 - "They suck the happiness out of a place, Dementors."
11. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 - "An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart … Harry's eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was drowning in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was being dragged downwards, the roaring growing louder."
12. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 - "'You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching – '"
13. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 - "He felt weak and shivery, [...]"
14. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 - "Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises – or even an Invisibility Cloaks [...]"
15. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 19 - "they could tell that my feelings were less – less human, less complex when I was a dog …"
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 3
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 13
18. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 12 - "'With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.'"
19. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
20. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 7
21. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 22
22. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 1
23. ↑ J.K. Rowling's web chat with Bloomsbury
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 8
25. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 1
26. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 13
27. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 28
28. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 36