Canon contradicts itself on that point. Thus, I have no opinion on it. I don't agree with Nocturnesthesia, but I don't disagree with him either.

I would, however, contest the idea that a giant would have the ability to resist it. A fully grown dragon, maybe. A Nundu, almost definitely, and an adult Basilisk, probably. But not a giant. Also, it's flat-out stated that the Patronus is the only magic that can work against Dementors, so they're another almost definite. The same might be true for the Lethifold.

 

I can't remember canon that well - where does it say only the Patronus can effect Dementors?

 

I'll go look it up so I can provide a sauce. I'm pretty sure Lupin said it in book three. The Patronus charm is the only magic that actually works on them.

 

I don't think he ever said that it was the only thing that worked. He said that there were certain defences that one could use when he was talking to Harry about them, and then the only thing he taught him was the Patronus charm, but I don't think it was ever stated explicitly that there were no other methods.

 

Didn't find what I was looking for, but I found something else instead. Rowling mentions in an interview that Dementors cannot be destroyed by any means. That means that the Killing Curse would have no effect on them, thus providing at least one confirmed, direct, non-Harry Potter contradiction to the idea that it can kill/destroy anything.

Apparently, when Lupin said that there are ways to protect against them, he meant it literally. They can be protected against, but there's nothing you can actually do to go on the offensive. The best you can do is aggressively ward them off with the Patronus, which is apparently the best (and currently the only known) way of dealing with them.

The interview video is fifty minutes long. I'm listening to it now while doing something else, so I can give an exact citation for when she says it. No need in more than one person having to sit through it.

 

That she says that Dementors cannot be destroyed does not necessarily mean that a Dementor can't be killed. If we take Dementor's as Rowling's representation of depression, its very possible that a Dementor can be killed,
but Dementors as whole will always manifest where there is significant sadness/depression/pain/etc.

If this was true, then it could give a bit of justification for Azkaban. The Ministry maintains it as a convenient source of super-concentrated depression so the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures doesn't have to go hunting around Britain for newly manifested Dementors.

 

You're splitting fine philosophical hairs, and I think you know it.

If you want to be a word lawyer, all Lupin said is that there are ways to protect yourself against them. He never said anything about fighting back or attacking. If you're going to run that logic, then by Lupin's word alone, we can call them unaffected by the Killing Curse, and I can stop watching this (quite frankly boring) video.

 

Lord Raine, as much as it might look like Nefar is being a pedantic word lawyer, he's actually not. He's suggesting that it would fit JKR's way of doing things to have it that Dementors can individually be killed, but that as a race they are continually forming/re-forming, as a metaphor for depression.

Which, by the way, is not a way I've thought of them before, and I quite like it. Makes a lot of sense.

 

Grammatically, there is a rather significant difference between:

Dementors cannot be destroyed.

And

The Dementors cannot be destoryed.

The former refers to each individual Dementor, the latter to the group as a whole.

 

Moral of the story: You can destroy a dementor, but you can never destory a dementer.

 

To paraphrase a FF.net reviewer of my story Incorruptible, if you want to destroy - or even destory - a Dementor, you need hydrochloric acid. It's clearly the perfect solution, and as such this perfect solution exists, the Dementors can in fact be destroyed/destoryed.

Bam, MattSilver'd.

 

Well then C4. Solution for every problem.

 

NUCLEAR BOMBS.

 

In HBP she says they are breeding. The fact that they can breed almost guarantees that they can be destroyed otherwise they would eventually take over through weight of numbers.

I agree with the notion that they just manifest and disapate with the emotion of an area. Dementors that were "born" in Voldemorts rain of terror will starve in the aftermath.

 

Don't be silly, Matt. To destory a Dementor you need to hit it with the Dursleys' dining room table.

 

Why do I sense that this came from MoR, somehow?:facepalm

 

While they may not be able to be destroyed. They could still die of natural causes like old age. Or maybe dementors get stds from soul fucking a giant. However, I would think that if they could breed they would have a normal life cycle that ends. Of course, maybe the dementors eat the new dementors.

I dunno, I would agree though if they didn't die somehow, there would be just too many of them.

 

Then again, Dementors 'breeding' may just be a metaphor for them multiplying out of depression.

 

Rowling said Dementors can't die of old age somewhere. I distinctly remember that from somewhere. She said something to the tune of "they are immortal in the sense that they cannot die from old age."

I stopped watching about halfway through. I've got nothing better to do, so I'll pick up where I left off.

 

POA first chapters are now unlocked. Hope they are better than the second half of CoS, they seemed rushed and not as interactive as the first. I still have less than 100 points.

1000th post!