One Honest Heart

6. Dementor

De\'ment: To deprive of reason; to make mad. Derived
from the Latin dementare.
Also dementate (n. dementation). Forms the root of Dementor,
one who dements.

-      F&B
Wizarding Dictionary, 1986 ed.

Dementor. A creature that sucks the happiness out of
anyone in its close vicinity. Employed at Azkaban prison for its ability to
dampen or, in extreme cases, completely obliterate the magic of wizards and
witches subjected to its influence.

-      Encyclopedia
Magica, De-Dr, 1972 ed.

Of
all the monsters outlined in this book, the Dementor is perhaps the most
unforgivably evil. Its one defining motivation, its sole reason for existing,
is to prey on the happiness of others, to create discord and fear and feed on
the filthiest of emotions: hate and mindless fear. In extinguishing every last
spark of hope, the Dementor turns its victim into a state beyond mere life or
death; a state of existence so pitiful that even the cruellest of physical
torture would be less demeaning.

The
further the victim sinks into this state of anti-life, the weaker its magic
will become and it will lose the very last hope for survival: the Patronus
charm. Having thus debilitated its victim, the Dementor devours the final
ragged remnants of that lost soul and leaves behind an empty shell, a demented
body that cares not for survival and wastes away in the most degrading way
conceivable.

Still,
it cannot be said that the Dementor takes any perverse joy in these killing
kisses. Its very coldness, its inability to feel any sort of compassion, its
very repulsion of all the finer emotions is what makes the Dementor perhaps the
foulest creature ever to walk the earth.

-      Frederick
Fallswipe, Musings
on the Monster, 1912

   The Empty Ones rose from
the dirt

   To topple Evil from his
throne,

   But not to battle, maim
or hurt:

   They sucked the souls
from flesh and bone;

      They spread the
Emptiness around

      And then returned to the
ground.

    

   A man came wand’ring
from the woods,

   As empty as a hollow
tree

   His back still bore the
stolen goods,

   They’d hearkened to the
peasants’ plea;

      They spread the
Emptiness around

      And then returned to the
ground.

   

   The Empty Ones came into
town

   To from its folk their
payment wring.

   They cast the gold into
a crown

   To put upon their
shining King;

      They spread the
Emptiness around

      Without returning to the
ground.

   

   The Empty Ones did rule
the land;

   For many years their
threat’ning Kiss

   Did make the scoundrel
stay his hand

   For fear of that most
foul abyss;

      They rose to form a
force renowned

      And then returned to the
ground.

-      from
the Song of the Empty Ones, modern text, from an incomplete thirteenth century
manuscript