Hey Everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In the last couple of months, I’ve
made a few videos on various dark witches/wizards and discussed whether or not they’re able
to produce patronuses. In the comment section of these videos, there was quite a bit of
discussion surrounding the relationship between dementors and death eaters- some people even
asked: Can dementors ‘kiss’ or ‘hurt’ death eaters? Are they able to suck out the
soul of dark witches and wizards- those who aren’t pure of heart.
Let me start off by saying that just because most dark witches/wizards can’t produce
a patronus, it’s not entirely accurate to say that they would NEVER need them, it’s
only very unlikely that they would. We all know that a patronus charm is the only effective
defence against a dementor, and the reality is that most dark witches/wizards lack the
capability to produce one. So, why aren’t they more threatened by the presence of Dementor?
Why is it (for the most part) OK that they don’t have any form of defence against them?
The reason for this is because, in a weird sort of way, Dementors and Deatheaters are
on the same side - both sharing the common goal of ridding the world of light, happiness,
altruism and basically just anything positive in nature. Both death eaters and dementors
are known to revel in the darkness, each party finding solace and satisfaction only in the
prospect of the downfall of what light is left in the world. Their alliance is almost
preordained because of these shared values.
However, just because they share these values and goals, it doesn’t necessarily mean that
Deatheaters, or dark wizards in general for that matter, are entirely safe against them.
In fact, if a Dementor made the decision to attack a Deatheater, they would likely be
more defenceless than their virtuous wizard counterpart. The Deatheater would ‘kiss’
them, their soul would be ripped from their body, and they would have no defence to speak
of- and that’s because dementors are repelled by positive energy forces. I do theorize,
however, that a dementor’s advances on a death eater would be a lot more drawn out
than what we are used to seeing. In the books and films, we’ve seen and heard of Dementors
kissing people, and it doesn’t seem to take long for their soul to be taken from them.
Their positive lifeforce is a veritable treat for the Dementors dark and starkly contrasting
presence. So, provided that a death eater is a much darker lifeforce in general, I would
expect that it is more of an undertaking for a dementor to suck out their soul. The very
presence of a Dementor is enough to incite feelings of hopelessness, depression and darkness,
but I would expect that many of these negative feelings aren’t even on the death eaters
radar. SO many of them have sociopathic tendencies- they’re not like normal people- so my theory
is that Dementors would have to work a bit harder to strip them of their soul.
Though the relationship between Deatheaters and Dementors is scarcely discussed, we do
know that they are used as guards to Azkaban prison, where the darkest and most foul witches
and wizards are held. I really can’t see a reason for why they would be used there
if their effectiveness as guards wasn’t completely valid. You might ask, why are they
just content with guarding a prison? The book answers this when it is implied that the mere
presence of the prisoners in a hopeless state is enough to ensure that the Dementors are
‘fed’. In the prisoner of Azkbaban, Hagrid explains this:
"Think that matters to them? They don' care. Long as they've got a couple o' hundred humans
stuck there with 'em, so they can leech all the happiness out of 'em, they don' give a
damn who's guilty an' who's not."
So I hope that answers the question. No one is safe from the Dementors, not even Dark
Wizards! What do you guys think? Do you think that it takes a dementor longer to suck out
the life force of a dark wizard? Or is it the same amount of time because their souls
are already so damaged? Do they even want to eat the souls of evil wizards? Let me know
down in the comment section below
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY