Ignore the Dementor

***Ignore the Dementor*** is a slightly AU non-crossover story by NinjaPandaScholar available on Fanfiction.net; it consists of a little more than 130 000 words, was published between July 2021 and March 2022 and is rated **Teen**. It is an attempt to combine horror with humor, set just before and during the 1995/96 school year in a slightly alternate universe where certain Hogwarts students are in fact non-humans masquerading as humans.

## Plot summary

When Harry is attacked by dementors during the summer before his fifth year of school, one of them manages to give him the kiss; surprisingly, the end result is that he becomes a dementor himself. However, he doesn't want to join the other dementors; instead, he discovers that he can inhabit his old body, and decides that as long as he can make it act reasonably convincing he can continue to live among the humans. It works out pretty well while he stays with the Dursleys – at least once he figures out that his "Harry-suit" needs to eat, even if he himself doesn't – but when he joins his friends and the Order at 12 Grimmauld Place, the risk of being found out increases. He reckons he'll be exiled to Azkaban with the other dementors if the truth comes out, a fate he considers likely to be worse than death, so he decides to try to avoid being in the spotlight – including anything to do with the war – as much as possible. It may help that he seems to have lost his connection to Voldemort completely.

Another problem is that the happiness and positive feelings of his friends set off a hunger gnawing inside him unlike anything he's ever felt before; when he gives in and skims just a little off the top, the ever-present cold and emptiness within him is temporarily filled with warmth. However, Sirius seems to notice and Harry quickly cuts himself off, silently swearing to never again feed off his friends and family. Luckily, he finds a certain locket while helping to clean the library, and the piece of soul stored within is just what he needs. When Hermione and Ron confront him about his changed behaviour, he acknowledges that something has happened but, since there is nothing they can do about it, manages to get out of telling them exactly what – and they even agree to help him stay in character at Hogwarts: when he acts weird, they will work in the name *Jamie* (his internal name for his "Harry-suit", which he has come to think of in terms similar to a pet) in the conversation.

On the Hogwarts Express he meets Luna Lovegood sitting alone in a compartment, and the two strike up a conversation; she reveals that she is aware of Harry's situation, and that the reason is that she is a fairy hiding behind a glamour to appear human. The next day the two spend the evening with the thestrals in the Forbidden Forest, feeding raw steak to a baby colt, and they make plans to go again the next week. As Harry spends the night in the Hogwarts library reading up on dementors, Dobby shows up; while the Hogwarts house-elves are well aware that there are non-humans among the students and treat them just as they do the human ones, this is the first time with a dementor and many of them are scared. Harry promises he won't hurt them, or anybody else, and Dobby in turn admonishes him to eat properly; during Quidditch games, on Saturdays or even just at dinner there should be plenty of happiness for him to skim.

Luna also introduces Harry to the Hogwarts Society of Magical Creatures. It's a safe space where non-human students – of which there tends to be two or three in each year – can relax and drop the facades they must otherwise hide behind to avoid persecution, and has managed to stay hidden since its founding in the early 19th century. It is usually led by whatever non-human is a member of the teaching staff a given year, and pretends to be a study group for that teacher's subject; right now it's known as *Remedial Potions* because the faculty sponsor is Snape, who turns out to be a vampire. His is not the only face familiar to Harry, though: Colin and Dennis Creevey are secretly *magical druids*, Neville Longbottom is a High Elf and Draco Malfoy is... well, he won't tell until Harry does, and even in this environment Harry is worried he'll be shunned if his secret is revealed.

Harry reluctantly agrees to lead the secret DADA study group formed by Luna and Hermione, which happens to include several of his new friends from the HSMC. Unfortunately, the repeated detentions with Umbridge's blood quill (and perhaps an incident with a niffler in Care of Magical Creatures) cause a bad infection in "Jamie's" hand, resulting in Harry during one of them inadvertently letting go of his aura of cold and fear. By the time he realizes something is wrong, Umbridge is a gibbering mess cowering in a corner – something she will certainly be able to recover from, but which will just as certainly bring an investigation that will reveal all his secrets. He quickly decides his best hope is to get Snape to obliviate her, which he eventually agrees to; Snape also confiscates the blood quills and brings them to Dumbledore in the hope that *he* can use them as evidence that Umbridge is ill-suited to run a school. However, that discussion ends with Harry letting slip that he died during the summer, and then having to explain his current situation to both Snape and Dumbledore.

Throughout the term, Harry has felt the presence of another soul piece whenever he's visited the Room of Requirement; after the DA's end-of-term party, which leaves him a little less distracted than their usual activities, he decides to look for it and quickly uncovers Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. Once he has eaten the delicious piece of evilness hidden in it, Luna transfigures it into a bracelet so that he can wear it without getting too many weird looks. During Christmas break, he notices that Remus doesn't seem to be aware of the existence of the HSMC, and when he corners Snape and asks him about it, he learns a different version of their backstory with Remus irresponsibly ignoring safety precautions due to not accepting the realities of being a werewolf. Unfortunately, the talk veers into the topic of Lily Evans, and Snape – tired, frustrated and annoyed – lashes out with the accusation that it is Harry's fault that she died. Harry, accepting this claim as true because it fits only too well with how he has been raised and his bad conscience for his (inadvertent) role in the rebirth of Voldemort, decides to run away and try to atone for his mistakes; he leaves "Jamie" in bed, feeds Hedwig and sets out for Azkaban as a dementor.

Meeting the other dementors, he learns that their contract with the Ministry has been completed for a decade, but none of their requests for either a new contract or other guardians to take over their duties so that they can leave have ever received a reply. Thus, when the Ministry ordered them to suck out his soul, and they remembered from their time guarding Hogwarts two years before that he carried a parasitic soul fragment, they decided to take this chance to turn him into a dementor; instead of simply consuming his soul during the kiss, they separated and consumed the soul fragment but left him intact and able to repossess his body. Since he was not spawned the normal way he is not part of the contract and is free to act on their behalf. As it turns out, the demand for their services is high; an empty cell in the minimum-security wing is about half filled by the job offers that have arrived over the years, including one from Voldemort. Together with the dementors he has dubbed Jean and Athena, Harry sorts through the mail until he finds one from the Ministry of the Caribbean Magical Community to guard a magical prison on a tropical island; the dementors vote unanimously to accept it, and Harry writes an acceptation letter to them, a letter of resignation to the British Ministry and (very carefully) a polite letter of rejection to Voldemort. After some negotiation through a self-updating parchment, the new contract is set for a mere twenty years – instead of the one hundred years of the British Ministry's contract – with an option to extend it for another fifty if both parties are content at that time; it also includes a formal requirement that a house-elf translator be present at all in-person negotiations.

On Christmas Eve, Harry's fourth day in Azkaban, Luna shows up; having been alerted to his absence by a frantic Hedwig, she had made her way through the fidelius charm, convinced Dumbledore to apparate with her to the Azkaban gates and flown from there in her fairy form. Now – after calling Kreacher to translate for him – she tries to convince Harry to return. However, he is stubborn until eventually the dementor dubbed Drake suggests fetching Snape, whose comment set Harry off in the first place; according to Luna he's been "positively beside himself, not that he'd ever admit that of course", and has been taking care of Jamie with nutrition potion. Talking with Snape while he is in a better mood – and recognizing the parallels between their respective self-recriminations – lets Harry work through his issues until he is ready to return, although he also promises to come visit the dementors after they have moved. Back at 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry apologizes to Sirius, Remus and Hedwig, but to his surprise finds that even Sirius doesn't have a problem with living with a dementor, as long as it is Harry. They celebrate a happy Christmas together, and even manage to get Remus and Tonks together under a piece of mistletoe at a Boxing Day brunch for the Order of the Phoenix. However, even though the Ministry were warned well in advance – and the dementors' letter of resignation was published in both the *Daily Prophet* and *The Quibbler* (although the former called it a hoax) – no new guards were appointed in time, leading to a mass breakout of death eaters in early January.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore was seen leaving Azkaban with Harry in dementor form, and this gives the Ministry the excuse they need to get rid of him; during the start-of-term feast, Umbridge tries to arrest him for "coercing the dementors away from Azkaban" and he only escapes by calling Winky. He ends up staying in Snape's personal quarters, so that he can help with behind-the-scenes damage control and make sure that the wards of Hogwarts stay active. Ron and Hermione confront Harry, and make him finally explain what happened to him, and he takes the opportunity to ask Hermione to create another set of coins, similar to the DA's but each linked to all the others instead of with a single sender, that he plans to give to the HSMC as a safety measure.

About a week into the new term, Umbridge gives Harry detention again; however, since she no longer has access to blood quills (and suspects Harry to be behind this state of affairs) she simply tortures him with the Cruciatus and a cutting curse. When he collapses into seeming unconsciousness she comes close, clawing his face with her nails and then – apparently – trying to either lick the resulting blood or abuse him sexually. Given how hungry he is, since there's been no happy feelings to feed off, his reaction is more or less automatic: he drops Jamie and gives her the Dementor's kiss. Her soul tastes divine, like candy floss with caramel and a hint of treacle. Coming back to his senses, he calls for Dobby and Winky to help him; they hide the body in one of the (currently unused) werewolf rooms where nobody will find it until it is fully dead (as opposed to just soulless), and then fetch Snape to heal the worst of the curse damage. Once he is able to pick up Jamie again he returns to the dorms, only to be met by Ron and Hermione; he carefully explains to them that he is perfectly fine, he went to the detention but Umbridge never showed up and nothing at all happened. Harry leaves Jamie in the dorms and spends the night brooding on the Astronomy tower, more or less coming to terms with what has happened, but when he returns in the morning he finds Neville sleeping in his bed, spooning Jamie. He wakes up just in time to see Harry in his new form, but takes it in his stride once he realizes it is Harry; it turns out he overheard Ron and Hermione discussing Harry's need to heal, came over to check if there was anything he could do with his high elf magic and got worried when he noticed Harry was in pain but wouldn't wake up. During the day, while Umbridge's absence is noted, nobody is very interested in investigating it and maybe bringing her back.

The next day two dementors, the ones Harry dubbed Ronnie and Drake, show up wearing golem bodies made for them by the Caribbean wizards; they intend to track down the Azkaban escapees – a situation they feel somewhat responsible for – and eat them, although Ronnie also expresses an interest to stay at the school and go to classes with Harry. At Harry's request, they agree to let Sirius go, since they could tell that he wasn't guilty of anything deserving the time he spent in maximum security. However, when Harry contacts him through their two-way mirrors to tell him about this, Neville overhears (through a Silencing Charm, because he's a High Elf) and breaks into the conversation, adding that Harry suffers from nerve damage similar to that from the Cruciatus Curse; on hearing this, Sirius promptly sets off to Hogwarts again. Harry and Neville arrange for Draco to bring him, in his dog form, to Snape's quarters, where Dumbledore somehow convinces the potions master to let him stay. By pretending to be the latter's pet, he plans to patrol the school to help keep Harry safe. Meanwhile, as Umbridge's continued absence is noted, the Ministry sends Rufus Scrimgeour to replace her as Hogwarts High Inquisitor; he keeps the Inquisitorial Squad and all her Educational Decrees except three, and starts his investigation of her disappearance by interviewing Harry. Harry keeps to his story that Umbridge never showed up, and while Scrimgeour's suspicions of his involvement are not abated, he can't prove anything.

The Sunday after the Valentine's day Hogsmeade visit (actually taking place on Saturday 17 February), Ronnie and Drake try to catch Rodolphus Lestrange leaving Gringotts but are instead picked up by aurors; since they are disguised as Hogwarts students, they are brought back to school. They explain to Harry that they've caught most of the escapees, although they've only kissed Dolohov, Rookwood and Rabastan Lestrange – who had been determined to be too volatile – and used portkeys to bring the rest to the Caribbean maximum-security wing; only Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange are still on the run, and they seem to have holed up behind a Fidelius charm. Unfortunately, their golem bodies are about to expire, so they decide to spend the day with Harry in Hogwarts before heading back home. In the evening, Harry (in his dementor form) and Dumbledore set out to retrieve the ring horcrux; he is able to stop the Headmaster from touching the ring, but only by dropping him unconscious by shutting down his emotions, giving him "the worst dementor-exposure hangover of anyone not a prisoner". Luckily, the curse fizzles out while trying to penetrate Harry's magic-resistant dementor skin after he eats the soul fragment, and Winky can bring them both back to school.

When Fred and George push Graham Montague into the vanishing cabinet, he calls for help using the HSMC coin and they all gather around the cabinet. After studying its magic, Luna comes to the conclusion that the best way to save him is to have Harry use his dementor ability to walk through its locked door and pull Graham with him to the other side, then let him send a message back to tell where they are. Finally revealing his creature side causes quite a shock for most of the rest of the club, but soon Harry is on his way through what feels like a drug trip; after maybe ten seconds he is able to wrap himself around Graham's huddled-together gargoyle form and levitate them both forward. Once they are out in Borgin and Burkes, of course, Graham freaks out over the dementor and Harry finds himself unable to call a house-elf to translate for him, but he eventually manages to explain his identity through pantomime, and that Graham should use his coin to contact the others.

A few weeks later, the Malfoy family owl delivers a letter to Harry: Voldemort has caught Remus, and wants to trade him for the prophecy. Dumbledore just happens to be away at an ICW meeting, so Snape goes to the Ministry to try to save the werewolf; Harry follows in dementor form to act as a shield against killing curses. However, Sirius calls for the Order and soon a battle is raging. Harry eats the soul of Greyback but finds his evil so intoxicating that he is temporarily out of the action himself. Snape reveals himself pushing Sirius out of the way of Bellatrix' killing curse, which hits her husband instead, and when Voldemort tries to kill Snape in turn all Harry can do is to throw the prophecy at him; when it shatters and starts to play, luckily Dumbledore is able to drown out most of it with a loud curse. Then aurors start arriving and Voldemort withdraws.

With some help from Luna, the Creevey brothers manage to construct a ritual circle capable of removing Snape's Dark Mark. Dumbledore suggests that Helga Hufflepuff's cup might be the last horcrux (beside Nagini), and after some quick brainstorming they decide to ask at Gringotts if Sirius, as Head of the House of Black, can inspect Bellatrix' vault. The goblins mull it over for a while, then decide that since a horcrux is a soul, there is precedent for the head of a house checking a family member's vault for persons, living or dead – and even removing them, if one is found. Of course, they are not allowed to touch anything else, but Harry in his dementor form has no trouble finding it and bringing it out while floating above all the other objects; once he has devoured the soul, Dumbledore transfigures the cup into another bracelet for him to wear. Harry and Luna attend the wedding of Dobby and Winky, and then spend the night camping out among the thestrals in the Forbidden Forest.

However, during the night they receive a call for help from Draco, using the HSMC coins, and all the members able to apparate (or use comparable means of travel) gather at the Shrieking Shack – together with Sirius and Remus, who insisted on following Snape from Grimauld, and Aurora Sinistra who must have come with Matthew Bastien. Before they left school, Neville had given Draco his emergency portkey, so now he is at Longbottom Manor – which is under a Fidelius Charm, so they can't find it, but the Death Eaters have access to a portkey tracking spell that will let them follow Draco even without knowing where they are going. Luckily, Hestia can track them to the right general area, a remote island, after which Luna leads them through the wards. In a ballroom on the second floor they find Voldemort with eight followers having recently triumphed over the defenders: Augusta and Algernon Longbottom are tied up and gagged, Neville lies shaking and unconscious on the floor and Draco is twitching under his father's repeated Cruciatus curse; however, Nagini is dead and after a quick surprise attack the tables are soon turned and Harry can finally eat the last part of the Dark Lord's soul.

Since Peter Pettigrew has been caught alive (and Fudge decides exposing "the corruption from the [previous administration]" would help his chances of getting reelected), Sirius is quickly declared innocent, and once Harry's involvement in the final death of Voldemort is made public the two decide to spend the rest of the summer in the Caribbean. However, the dementors want his help picking up their payment from Gringotts, and when they do Scrimgeour tries to arrest him; only the presence of the Caribbean Minister, who argues that as an ambassador of the Autonomous Nation of Dementors and member of its ruling Council Harry is entitled to diplomatic immunity, keeps him out of jail – at the cost of revealing his secret. Draco's status as an eros has also been revealed, since he used a very specific power during the fighting, and so the HSMC makes the decision to go public during the start-of-term feast. Over the next year, more and more creatures come out to the public and as Harry, Sirius, Neville and Draco take up seats in the Wizengamot public opinion slowly starts turning positive. Eventually Harry and Luna marry and have two children, Lily Selene and Albus Xenophilius, who exhibit both fairy and dementor traits. When Dumbledore retires, McGonagall takes over as headmistress, and when she in turn retires Snape succeeds her on the post; this likely happens in the 2010s, since Harry's children are among his students.

## Characters

### Other central character(s)

* Neville Longbottom
* Luna Lovegood
* Draco Malfoy
* Severus Snape

### Non-canonical characters

* Athena (dementor)
* Drake (dementor)
* Jean (dementor)
* King (dementor)
* Ronnie (dementor)
* Sparky
* Matthew Bastien
* Brook Baye
* Bartholomew Beedle
* David Birch
* Kara Brynhildr
* Eir Herja
* Aceline Hesop
* Aurelius Jones
* Aurora Jones
* Sachin Joseph
* Algernon Longbottom (Augusta's brother)
* Albus Xenophilius Potter
* Lily Selene Potter
* Hestia Talon

## Further non-canonical world elements

### Magical creatures

* Aswang
* Druid
* Dryad
* Eros
* Fairy
* Frazzelbee
* Gargoyle
* High Elf
* Naiad
* Roc
* Valkyrie

### Magical objects

* Cursed silverware
* Self-updating parchment

### Organisations

* Autonomous Nation of Dementors
* Council of the Autonomous Nation of Dementors
* Hogwarts Society of Magical Creatures
* Ministry of the Caribbean Magical Community
* Singapore Ministry of Magic

### Places

* 12 Grimmauld Place library
* Caribbean Magical Community
* Dryads' realm
* Fairy realm
* Longbottom Manor
* Naiads' realm

### Potions

* Cruciatus-relieving potion
* Nutrition potion

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1
2. ↑ Chapter 2
3. ↑ Chapter 3
4. ↑ Chapter 4
5. ↑ Chapter 5
6. ↑ Chapter 6
7. ↑ Chapter 7
8. ↑ Chapter 8
9. ↑ Chapter 9
10. ↑ Chapter 10
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 11
12. ↑ Chapter 12
13. ↑ Chapter 13
14. ↑ Chapter 14
15. ↑ Chapter 15
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Chapter 16
17. ↑ Chapter 17
18. ↑ Chapter 18
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 19
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 20
21. ↑ Chapter 21
22. ↑ Chapter 22
23. ↑ Chapter 23
24. ↑ Chapter 24
25. ↑ Chapter 25