Dementors and the Mist *Spoiler*

[kashlie]

OMG THE DEMENTORS ARE BREEDING!!!

The mist in June being caused by dementors breeding is pretty scary.


So...what do you all think this means?

Are there baby Dementors running...I mean floating...around out there or do they come out fully grown?


My thoughts...they 'breath' out the souls they have captured which form into the mist and eventually mass together to make dementors (and they have a really bad tailor who makes them those cloaks)...

What do YOU think happens, and how is this going to affect Harry and his mission?

[Fortescue]

Breeding Dementors is obviously not a good thing. I thought about that when I read the first chapter - but was surprised when there were no dementors in the story. JKR must be saving their new, larger population for the last book. That should be interesting however she uses them - again, I think they should leave Hogwarts open for the summer and teach all the students who want to, or whose parents will allow them to stay, how to defend themselves properly by learning how to conjure a Patronus. That would also give Harry an opportunity to learn how to do the unspoken encantation as he won't be able to practice anything away from Hogwarts until his birthday -

[Tonks]

Ok, I do believe it was Lupin himself who said that when Dementors administer the kiss to a person, that person turns into something like themselves - soul-less and evil. Now he said "something like themselves", not "another Dementor", but I still think that there has to be a connection between the two, especially since we are told they are breeding at the exact point we know that they are swooping around everywhere and kissing people..

It must take time though..
Umm.. so I don't think there are really baby dementors, since they are already full-grown people. I was surprised there wasn't more given about the Dementor attacks - seems Ron was more concerned about who was actually killed by the Death Eaters, even though Dementor attacks are much worse..

The whole thing about the cloaks is interesting though - and must mark the point where this soul-less being becomes an actual Dementor.. wonder what the qualifications are exactly..? Maybe when they too are able to kiss another and take away their soul? :eek:

I think ultimately it will just mean that everyone is in so much more danger. There will be more Dementors around then ever and those who don't know the Patronus charm will need to learn it as soon as they can.. Ron comes to mind here - i don't think he ever really mastered it..

Another side thought - there's no known way to actually destroy a Dementor is there? So they just continue to multiply? Maybe if they are without any happy souls to feed on for a long enough period of time?

[Alz]

The reproduction stuill remains an enigma despite JKR giving us a few more clues ..
I'm not sure how mist equates to offspring - I mean you could go anywhere on that right!
Voldemort believe in safety in numbers - despite being a loaner!
You have the inferi, the giants, dementors, DE's etc - he likes clans and gangs ...
The Dementors look to be increasing their stock - something I think the MoM was trying to control when they had them working Azkaban ... this means it is a free for all ... that means more and more Dementor attacks just to add to the misery ... get it :D

[Boing]

ha ha ha, Blaise . . . nice one. :p

I thought about this when reading that first chapter and was also surprised that they weren't mentioned through the rest of the story. It also didn't sound like Voldemort was necessarily telling them what to do, more like they were just sort of roaming around doing what they pleased. Unless he told them not to kill too many people (or to save certain people for him to do himself).

I do wonder how they are formed and am sure we will hear more about them in the next book. As for killing them, I don't think we've ever heard how to do that. I wonder if it is possible at all. If not, how did the Ministry keep them under check for so long . . .they must need something to breed because if not, they could have just run up their numbers while at Azkaban and overpowered the Ministry.

[Alz]

Actually that is a good point ...
The Dementors are suddenly re-producing - and we know we have never heard of that before ..
As such I wonder if Voldemort gave them pretty much freedom to do as what they want - as long as they return to him if needed?
This could be a telling sign of how Voldemort is attracting his allies - making them feel he can offer them freedom when in essence he is actually just controlling them!

[Snuffles]

I thought about this when reading that first chapter and was also surprised that they weren't mentioned through the rest of the story.

Exactly same here. :cool:
It's not like the Dementors to suddenly reproduce. It must be on Voldemort's orders. but what for is he using the dementors? To suck souls out of people who dare oppose against the DEs? I was pretty surprised too that there hasn't been any mention of the dementors in HBP, except that little article about them in the Daily Prophet.

[Alz]

I suppose we have to figure that they will play a much larger part in book 7- because there was emphasis from JKR to make us all remeber that they are now breeding and will be around in larger numbers ... I suppose one could argue more for the Voldemort army he seems to be amassing in the wings ...

[Sirius Potter Fan]

My question, going back to the old discussion on Dementors and the connection to water, is this: Is the mist a result of the Dementors efforts to reproduce, or is it shomething they need to reproduce that Voldemort has created for them? and in doing that further earning their loyalty?

[kashlie]

mist comes from the cold right? and the dementors cause the air to become icy cold and can even freeze vodka (tell me Lupin wasn't drinking vodka aboard the Hogwarts express in the movie :p )

i think, and i am merely guessing, as usual, that when they breed, it causes the air to become even colder, and you get the mist...der...
how? they are choosing victims. creating more dementors from their human victims. perhaps there is another step, past the kiss, that creates a dementor. maybe there is some sort of ceremony - in the beginning there was one, right? it had to create more, and perhaps by taking a human victim, immersing them in the water...they re-emerge a dementor...
however it is done, it has to be really, really creepy and feared more than the kiss...

[yarvelling]

At various points throughout HBP we do hear news of Dementor attacks on muggles, and that, I believe is Voldemorts current purpose for them; to spread fear throughout the muggle population. Remember, muggles can't actually see Dementors, but they can be physicaly affected by them. And what better to way to spook somebody than to attack them mentally with something that they cannot see?
I've always perceived the Dementor as more of an ethereal, spirit type creature...a kind of 'ghost'....not something solid. To me, the mist that was observed all over in HBP was more a reaction of their inherant cold on the warmer air, and the fact that they are more spirit, drifting through the air rather than walking on the ground. The breeding would almost to me, seem like a sort of seperating and spreading out; rather amoeba like: a single cell splitting to form two cells.... this also would help explain why wherever there was the mist, there was the feeling of depression and sadness; because the mist and air was full of Dementors doing their splitting thing and feeding off anyone unfortunate enough to be around!!

[Alz]

Actually when I read that - it washed my mind back to the first chapter when the PM was thinking about his voters feeling all depressed etc and made him feel faint :D
I think you are right - there was a few mentions of them attacking Muggles .. but the over-riding thing in my mind from that initial chapter was that they were breeding - as if that was the emphasis we should pick up on ...
of course you could go sideways on this thread and discuss if indeed the Wizarding world and MoM were controlling the race as far as reproduction ... but that would seem logical because now they are really going for it ... :p
I can only suppose that JKR has plans for large amounts of Dementors in book 7 - which is why she made us all remember that part ;)