This is my first shot at a book from the world of HP, please R/R. Thanks.
Dementors, A Theory by Christopher Crowley Order of Merlin, Second Class
Introduction
Anyone who has tried to undertake a serious study of Dementors has been immediately struck by how little he knows about them. Verifiable facts about these creatures are rare and their very nature makes it impossible to glean any further knowledge about them. A would be investigator would find himself running from Azbakan within a half hour of starting his study.
Most direct experience with Dementors has been rare and ( hopefully ) short-lived. From these we have a basic description and a short list of effects that they have on individuals concerned. People with longer exposure to Dementors come to it only under forced duress, being imprisoned in Azkaban. It is possible that these individuals have more knowledge about our subject than the average person, however, they are all stark-raving mad and as likely to believe themselves to be a glass of pumpkin juice as impart some acquired knowledge about their captors.
Given the pecularities of studying the Dementors, we will have to rely on reasoned speculation rather than imperical evidence. As such, I would caution the reader to remember that however reasoned the speculation in my book is, it is still merely speculation. No truth can be gained by reading this work, except to come from it knowing a little more about the arguments for or against various lines of speculation about the Dementors.
Much has been written about the Dementors over the years. Unfortunately, that has mostly been fiction. I would be wise to send a second warning to the reader to take what he has read about the Dementors with a grain of salt. Old witches tales and pulp fiction do not represent the truth more than the Collected Works of Gilderoy Lockhart. (1)
Habitat
When the naturalist starts to describe the attributes of his creature, he usually begins with the animal's habitat. Having an idea of where a creature lives gives the reader an idea of what challenges it faces and how well it is suited to overcome them.
We cannot say what the natural habitat of the Dementor is, nor do we have any evidence of any geological location at which they would rather locate themselves. We can say that a Dementor's preferred location depends only upon the it having a large source of sustenance; for the Dementor, it is emotion.
Dementors are rumored to frequent areas that have several large public events where they can ingest enough emotion from enough people without being noticed. Dementors are usually solitary for the reason that a herd of them would drain too much emotion, causing them to be quickly noticed and removed by an Auror. A few Dementors have been found in towns that have no large public functions, instilling a chill in it's feeding that has caused the residents to believe that their town was haunted. This is usually the case when a Dementor allows a small muggle town to become it's prowling grounds.
Dementors of course, can be found in Azkaban. Those few (2) that have come to serve have not come for duty, but instead for a steady quantity of emotion to drain with the added benefit of not having to be harassed. It is hard to say what the mindset of a Dementor truly is, but if we could, it would safe to say that Azkaban is like unto an all you can eat buffet.
Taxonomy
Dementors are strangely uniform. They are all approximately six foot and a half tall and wear black cloaks with cowls to cover their facial features. What has been seen under these cloaks has been nothing short of unsettling. Skin seems grayed and in a state of semi-decomposition with numerous scabs lining the surface. They have no facial features except that of a misshapen, toothless mouth not used for either talking or eating. Strangely, no smell has been reported with the appearance of a Dementor, which leads me to believe that the decomposition is magical in nature in contrast to the decomposition of zombies, which have a strong smell of rotten flesh.
Being that we have found no dead Dementor, nor been able to kill one, we have no idea what it's internal organs may be like. I suspect that they are as uniform as their race, differing little from Dementor to Dementor and the entire organ system is magical in nature. It reasons so because no other natural organ system could sustain a creature in such a state of stable decomposition on a diet of emotions alone. Any organs we may find once we procure a Dementor for the purpose of exploration will probably be found to be entirely useless, a remnant of what the Dementor used to be.
Procreation
Like the vampires and werewolves (3), Dementors probably procreate by the spread of a magical illness. In vampires it is called, aptly enough, vampirism. In werewolves, it is called lycanthropy. In both cases we have a name, source, and ways of treating these magical diseases. With Dementors, we have none of the above. We can start by having a name. I recommend calling it, for the sake of simplicity, Dementorism.
Treatments for vampirism and lycantropy started by studying the diseases in the early stages when it could be caught. Unfortunately, we have no such cases for Dementorism. There was a curious case of a man rumored to associate himself with Dementors early in the 13th century that could provide our model. Upon being captured by the muggle Inquisition, he was found to have a stark white color and several open sores along the length of his body. These symptoms have been reported to be afflicting prisoners of Azkaban who later died.
More marked was his history and attitude. The man had tried to commit suicide somewhat very unsuccessfully several times over the years before being captured. He was seen as being depressed and quoted as saying that he "has no joy, only pain." This is likely the mindset of all people who become Dementors. With no joy of their own, they become Dementors to steal it from others. It is widely known that Dementors ingest all but the worst of emotions. It seems that they have enough of that already.
NOTES
(1) It is with a happy regret that I have been informed that Gilderoy Lockhart has become the victim of his own memory charm. While the details of the incident are somewhat sketchy, most people who have had dealings with Gilderoy in the past take the fact as self-explanatory.
It has also been related to me that he has lost his entire sense of self so that we can no longer say that Gilderoy is among us, only a body and brain with some skills in language and, as Albus Dumbledore has said, a strange new sense of well-timed humor. As such, I cannot hold him accountable for his acts of the past and we all would do well to accept him back into our community and try to shape the person he is to become. Gilderoy has a sharp mind and is a hard worker, it would be a shame to see his talents go to waste now that he has a second chance.
(2) There are about 100 Dementors in Azkaban. We have reason to believe that there are some 3000 Dementors worldwide according to reported sightings over the last millennium reported in the Daily Prophet and it's American counterpart, The Lightning Post. Some information was obtained from retired Aurors.
(3) There have been rumors of an original race of werewolves and vampires that were not born in this way. I am intrigued by the possibility, and planning to research the matter after the completion of this book.
Dementors, A Theory by Christopher Crowley Order of Merlin, Second Class
Introduction
Anyone who has tried to undertake a serious study of Dementors has been immediately struck by how little he knows about them. Verifiable facts about these creatures are rare and their very nature makes it impossible to glean any further knowledge about them. A would be investigator would find himself running from Azbakan within a half hour of starting his study.
Most direct experience with Dementors has been rare and ( hopefully ) short-lived. From these we have a basic description and a short list of effects that they have on individuals concerned. People with longer exposure to Dementors come to it only under forced duress, being imprisoned in Azkaban. It is possible that these individuals have more knowledge about our subject than the average person, however, they are all stark-raving mad and as likely to believe themselves to be a glass of pumpkin juice as impart some acquired knowledge about their captors.
Given the pecularities of studying the Dementors, we will have to rely on reasoned speculation rather than imperical evidence. As such, I would caution the reader to remember that however reasoned the speculation in my book is, it is still merely speculation. No truth can be gained by reading this work, except to come from it knowing a little more about the arguments for or against various lines of speculation about the Dementors.
Much has been written about the Dementors over the years. Unfortunately, that has mostly been fiction. I would be wise to send a second warning to the reader to take what he has read about the Dementors with a grain of salt. Old witches tales and pulp fiction do not represent the truth more than the Collected Works of Gilderoy Lockhart. (1)
Habitat
When the naturalist starts to describe the attributes of his creature, he usually begins with the animal's habitat. Having an idea of where a creature lives gives the reader an idea of what challenges it faces and how well it is suited to overcome them.
We cannot say what the natural habitat of the Dementor is, nor do we have any evidence of any geological location at which they would rather locate themselves. We can say that a Dementor's preferred location depends only upon the it having a large source of sustenance; for the Dementor, it is emotion.
Dementors are rumored to frequent areas that have several large public events where they can ingest enough emotion from enough people without being noticed. Dementors are usually solitary for the reason that a herd of them would drain too much emotion, causing them to be quickly noticed and removed by an Auror. A few Dementors have been found in towns that have no large public functions, instilling a chill in it's feeding that has caused the residents to believe that their town was haunted. This is usually the case when a Dementor allows a small muggle town to become it's prowling grounds.
Dementors of course, can be found in Azkaban. Those few (2) that have come to serve have not come for duty, but instead for a steady quantity of emotion to drain with the added benefit of not having to be harassed. It is hard to say what the mindset of a Dementor truly is, but if we could, it would safe to say that Azkaban is like unto an all you can eat buffet.
Taxonomy
Dementors are strangely uniform. They are all approximately six foot and a half tall and wear black cloaks with cowls to cover their facial features. What has been seen under these cloaks has been nothing short of unsettling. Skin seems grayed and in a state of semi-decomposition with numerous scabs lining the surface. They have no facial features except that of a misshapen, toothless mouth not used for either talking or eating. Strangely, no smell has been reported with the appearance of a Dementor, which leads me to believe that the decomposition is magical in nature in contrast to the decomposition of zombies, which have a strong smell of rotten flesh.
Being that we have found no dead Dementor, nor been able to kill one, we have no idea what it's internal organs may be like. I suspect that they are as uniform as their race, differing little from Dementor to Dementor and the entire organ system is magical in nature. It reasons so because no other natural organ system could sustain a creature in such a state of stable decomposition on a diet of emotions alone. Any organs we may find once we procure a Dementor for the purpose of exploration will probably be found to be entirely useless, a remnant of what the Dementor used to be.
Procreation
Like the vampires and werewolves (3), Dementors probably procreate by the spread of a magical illness. In vampires it is called, aptly enough, vampirism. In werewolves, it is called lycanthropy. In both cases we have a name, source, and ways of treating these magical diseases. With Dementors, we have none of the above. We can start by having a name. I recommend calling it, for the sake of simplicity, Dementorism.
Treatments for vampirism and lycantropy started by studying the diseases in the early stages when it could be caught. Unfortunately, we have no such cases for Dementorism. There was a curious case of a man rumored to associate himself with Dementors early in the 13th century that could provide our model. Upon being captured by the muggle Inquisition, he was found to have a stark white color and several open sores along the length of his body. These symptoms have been reported to be afflicting prisoners of Azkaban who later died.
More marked was his history and attitude. The man had tried to commit suicide somewhat very unsuccessfully several times over the years before being captured. He was seen as being depressed and quoted as saying that he "has no joy, only pain." This is likely the mindset of all people who become Dementors. With no joy of their own, they become Dementors to steal it from others. It is widely known that Dementors ingest all but the worst of emotions. It seems that they have enough of that already.
NOTES
(1) It is with a happy regret that I have been informed that Gilderoy Lockhart has become the victim of his own memory charm. While the details of the incident are somewhat sketchy, most people who have had dealings with Gilderoy in the past take the fact as self-explanatory.
It has also been related to me that he has lost his entire sense of self so that we can no longer say that Gilderoy is among us, only a body and brain with some skills in language and, as Albus Dumbledore has said, a strange new sense of well-timed humor. As such, I cannot hold him accountable for his acts of the past and we all would do well to accept him back into our community and try to shape the person he is to become. Gilderoy has a sharp mind and is a hard worker, it would be a shame to see his talents go to waste now that he has a second chance.
(2) There are about 100 Dementors in Azkaban. We have reason to believe that there are some 3000 Dementors worldwide according to reported sightings over the last millennium reported in the Daily Prophet and it's American counterpart, The Lightning Post. Some information was obtained from retired Aurors.
(3) There have been rumors of an original race of werewolves and vampires that were not born in this way. I am intrigued by the possibility, and planning to research the matter after the completion of this book.