My experience with a dementor
Author: TraScully
Rating: K
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how did they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

Chapter 3: Severus Snape
I have only met a dementor once, and it was during Potter's third year. The dementors had been assigned to guard the school against Sirius Black and apparently weren't doing a good job of it. But those three Gryffindors managed to make my life a living hell that night. First Potter jinxed me, knocking me out, then Lupin became a werewolf and almost killed me, and worst of all BLACK GOT AWAY!

But about the dementor, I met it in the tower while we were preparing for the Dementor's Kiss to be administered to Black. He was in the top cell and I was outside the door, anxiously awaiting my revenge. It had been a long time coming.

Dumbledore came up the stairs, breathless as if he'd just run a mile with a hippogriff on his tail, followed by a dementor. I shrank back at the sight; it wasn't quite as subdued as I had expected.

The moment it neared me, though, everything seemed to dissolve and I remembered the worst day of my life. James Potter and the others laughing. Me hanging upside down. The taunting. The jeering laughter. Lily Evans, that mudblood, trying to defend me. The nerve of her! Hatred ran through my veins. I could have killed them all, if I only had my wand.

But as the memory came back clearer and clearer, my anger faded away and I felt anguished, pained, and helpless. Why did this have to happen to me? They were all laughing. The embarrassment. I felt like a bug being crushed. The tears I could hide, but the sobs I couldn't. Once they had dropped me back down to the ground and had all left, I buried my face in my robed and cried there by the Whomping Willow. Things would never get better, never.

A racking cough brought me back to the present. Dumbledore's arm was on my shoulder reassuringly, and the dementor had already passed into Black's cell. I didn't look at the Headmaster, but simply followed the shadowy demon into the stone doorway. But Black wasn't there!