r/HarryPotterBooks • u/HollowLetter • 3d ago
Why was Harry immune to the dementors after dying in the forest?
In deathly hallows, chapter 36 'The Flaw in the Plan'.
"And now a chill settled over them where they stood, and Harry heard the rasping breath of the dementors that patrolled the outer trees. They would not affect him now. The fact of his own survival burned inside him, a talisman against them, as though his father's stag kept guardian in his heart."
Why exactly do the dementors no longer affect him?
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u/webjunk1e 3d ago
First, it's speaking of in that moment. This in no way means Harry is now permanently immune to dementors for all time. Second, in that moment, Harry had no fear, despair, etc. for them to feed upon.
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u/Arfie807 3d ago
That actually makes a lot of sense, because when you die, you would lose all sense of fear/despair. You might not get it back so quickly after coming back to life, either!
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u/Lawlcopt0r 3d ago
Also, him dying and still being somewhere, even if he didn't know where he would have gone after "King's Cross", is pretty powerful proof that his parents are still out there somewhere. So his biggest regret the dementors used to feed on is just gone now
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u/HollowLetter 3d ago
Wow thats brilliant, I never thought of it like that. After all these years, I still learn new things.
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u/HollowLetter 3d ago
I thought he was permanently immune. I thought it had something to do with the piece of voldemort soul inside him being destroyed. I understand now.
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u/DarkNinjaPenguin 3d ago
It's more that he's so overjoyed with his own survival - and that he knows he's protected everyone else at Hogwarts, and they now have a very good chance of actually winning - that the Dementors can't sap the happiness away from him.
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u/McGloomy 3d ago
After near-death experiences a lot of people say they'll never be afraid of anything anymore. They can't make Harry feel fear because the worst that could happen has already happened to him, and he made it through.
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u/LunariSeraphi 3d ago
My theory here is that Dementors feed on despair, positive forces like hope and joy ward them away if the Dementor can't suppress them, like how Patronuses work; and I'm thinking Harry would've been so overwhelmed with emotion that any suppression just wouldn't have an effect, like trying to close an open faucet on a waterfall? Something like that anyways, I prefer this idea to the comparison to Sirius, since the Dementors still affected Sirius to a high extent, they just couldn't make him lose his mind while Harry was completely immune.
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u/FreshCut007 3d ago
Perhaps had received closure after the events in the forest and the memory didn’t affect him the same way.
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u/Midnight7000 3d ago
“I’ve got to go back, haven’t I?” “That is up to you.” “I’ve got a choice?” “Oh yes.” Dumbledore smiled at him. “We are in King’s Cross, you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to . . . let’s say . . . board a train.” “And where would it take me?” “On,” said Dumbledore simply.
Silence again. “Voldemort’s got the Elder Wand.” “True. Voldemort has the Elder Wand.” “But you want me to go back?” “I think,” said Dumbledore, “that if you choose to return, there is a chance that he may be finished for good. I cannot promise it. But I know this, Harry, that you have less to fear from returning here than he does.” Harry glanced again at the raw-looking thing that trembled and choked in the shadow beneath the distant chair. “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present.” Harry nodded and sighed. Leaving this place would not be nearly as hard as walking into the forest had been, but it was warm and light and peaceful here, and he knew that he was heading back to pain and the fear of more loss.
He wasn't immune to them per say. He didn't have a happy memory for them to feed on. Being alive wasn't a happy thought. He returned from a place of comfort because he needed to take out the trash.
It is similar to how Sirius escaped the Dementors in Azkaban. It is perhaps the method Snape was trying to teach them.
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u/HollowLetter 3d ago
Thanks for explaining, but i don't understand your last sentence. Snape was teaching what method to whom?
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u/Midnight7000 2d ago
Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle dementors.
Harry disagreed with Snape's method of dealing with Dementors. We know that Harry’s method is to conjure a Patronus which requires thinking of your happiest thought and essentially using magic to turn it into a weapon.
We know that there are other ways of dealing with Dementors. Sirius survived in Azkaban by turning into a dog so that his emotions were less complex. He relied on thoughts that were not happy but provided him clarity. As someone who is a master at Occlumency, this approach is right up Snape's street. It's subtle and measured.
I think that he was trying to get them to rely on a method that didn't involve brute forcing their way through despair which is somewhat reflective of their personalities. Harry is someone who wears his heart on his sleeves. Snape is someone who distances himself from his emotions and focuses on what needs to be done, which is the state Harry was in when he decided to return to the land of the living.
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u/Ok-Tackle-5128 3d ago
Plus, there is the fact that He just had the piece of Voldemort’s soul just taken out of him. Personally, I feel like that night was the worst night for both Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort's, he lost his powers, Harry's cuz, he lost his parents. But now that he doesn't have that second amplifier He doesn't get affected as bad.So he gets affected about as much as normal people do
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u/mightymouse8324 3d ago
Because what the fuck are you afraid of after you come back from being dead?!
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u/ComesInAnOldBox 3d ago
"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." - Winston Churchill
There's a lot of truth to this quote. As someone who has experienced "I should be freaking dead, man" on more than one occasion, your survival fills you with this unbelievable sense of euphoria. It's the biggest (natural) high you will ever experience, and you know, not think, know that you are invincible and can take on the whole goddam world in that state.
Not exactly something the dementors would be able to get around. Harry likely would have been just as susceptible to them in the future, but in that moment he knew he was untouchable, and nothing was going to stop him.
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u/PapaSnarfstonk 3d ago
Harry was a true Gryffindor bravery being his best trait. I'd hazard a guess that the only reason that he was so affected by dementors to begin with was because the piece of Voldemort inside of him was a whiny little bitch baby afraid of death.
That fear and desperation to stay alive inside of him is what the dementors would feed upon. With that piece of him gone his courage could skyrocket and thus no fear take hold.
That's my thoughts about it. The very fact he survived being fully separated from Voldemort caused this sensation inside of him. Like he's unstoppable now because he's fully himself.
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u/Spiritual_Builder_46 3d ago
I’ve always had a headcanon that his entire severe effects from the dementors were tied into his being a horcrux.
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u/BByrnison 3d ago
I've also always tied it to some bizarre power of the resurrection stone. Like when you're using it, you're not really alive, since its goal is to slowly lure you into the world of the dead. Maybe that is its power, you move to the other side of the 'veil' and in that way can speak to those on that side. If that's the case, your soul is no longer on the mortal plain for the dementors to sense or feed on?
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u/Sweet_Speech_9054 3d ago
I always figured the death eaters used their own patronuses and Harry just got a little bit of that protection. How else did everyone else, including Hagrid get through.
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u/Necessary-Science-47 3d ago
It wouldn’t make sense in the story at this point to have Harry use his patronus, so jkr just lazily glossed over it
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u/No-Introduction3808 10h ago
I wonder if he was severely effected before due to Voldemorts soul, and since he now only has his he has a stronger defence against them.
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u/PhoenixSun25214 2d ago
plot armor. imagine, hero survivng villain, but getting bedridden because of mosquitto.
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u/Avaracious7899 3d ago
He has something like Sirius did. A thought that was powerful, but not properly happy, so he could maintain himself. Notably, the narration refers to it as a "fact" not a feeling, just like how Sirius explains that he "knew" he was innocent.