Fair points, though a failed Patronus Charm wouldn’t always produce a Dementor if it only happened with a certain subset of wrong kinds of thought. I’m not sure why anyone might be making an attempt to cast a Patronus with a negative thought, but maybe if they use a happy thought that is at its core selfish or harmful to others? In which case, learning to cast the charm would tend to produce a new Dementor every so often as people experiment with finding a suitable memory or thought to use.
As for your last point, I suppose it would only make sense if the Dementors aren’t created at the place in which the failed casting occurs. This might be an explanation of why the Dementors seem to be concentrated at Azkaban… fail to cast a Patronus and something produces a Dementor there. Although I don’t think this is right because it seems too complicated, and I seem to recall something saying that wizards gathered/herded the Dementors to their nest in Azkaban.
Alternatively, the initial product of the failed Patronus Charm is undetected or unrecognized and only later grows into a Dementor. But if all the Dementors are rigidly controlled by the government, you might expect them to notice new Dementors being created outside their control even if it isn’t obvious what is creating them.
This might be an explanation of why the Dementors seem to be concentrated at Azkaban… fail to cast a Patronus and something produces a Dementor there. Although I don’t think this is right because it seems too complicated, and I seem to recall something saying that wizards gathered/herded the Dementors to their nest in Azkaban.
There’s also the fact that Azkaban is a small isolated island in the middle of a storm-swept sea. If by some accident of magical geography it happened to be the place where all Dementors naturally spawned, the probability of someone coming across the island AND discovering the Dementors AND living to tell the tale to the government is pretty low.
But if all the Dementors are rigidly controlled by the government, you might expect them to notice new Dementors being created outside their control even if it isn’t obvious what is creating them.
Has it been established that Azkaban accounts for all Dementors? I can’t remember any conclusive evidence in either direction.
My inference is based on the complaints Dumbledore makes about getting permission to bring a Dementor to Hogwarts and then having to explain its disappearance. You’re right, though, it implies that the Ministry makes a firm accounting of the Dementors in Azkaban or otherwise under its control, but it doesn’t really say anything about all Dementors everywhere.
Again the ghost of that statement about the wizards herding them all to Azkaban rises up… I don’t remember if that statement claimed ALL Dementors had been moved there or if it was just all the ones in Britain. I don’t even remember if that was a statement from canon or HPMoR or how reliable the speaker is.
they are considered national possessions, Harry, weapons in case of war.
Ah. I made an assumption here, but from this I got that they kept their Dementors in reserve so that they would not lose an advantage that their enemies had. But an equally applicable interpretation would be that they did not want to lose an advantage that they had over their enemies.
Keeping that in mind, however, I would rather doubt that other governments would allow Britain to have such an exclusive advantage, not when the weapons are all held out in the middle of the ocean. Though that assumes that all of the other governments don’t have their own exclusive weapons...
Fair points, though a failed Patronus Charm wouldn’t always produce a Dementor if it only happened with a certain subset of wrong kinds of thought. I’m not sure why anyone might be making an attempt to cast a Patronus with a negative thought, but maybe if they use a happy thought that is at its core selfish or harmful to others? In which case, learning to cast the charm would tend to produce a new Dementor every so often as people experiment with finding a suitable memory or thought to use.
As for your last point, I suppose it would only make sense if the Dementors aren’t created at the place in which the failed casting occurs. This might be an explanation of why the Dementors seem to be concentrated at Azkaban… fail to cast a Patronus and something produces a Dementor there. Although I don’t think this is right because it seems too complicated, and I seem to recall something saying that wizards gathered/herded the Dementors to their nest in Azkaban.
Alternatively, the initial product of the failed Patronus Charm is undetected or unrecognized and only later grows into a Dementor. But if all the Dementors are rigidly controlled by the government, you might expect them to notice new Dementors being created outside their control even if it isn’t obvious what is creating them.
There’s also the fact that Azkaban is a small isolated island in the middle of a storm-swept sea. If by some accident of magical geography it happened to be the place where all Dementors naturally spawned, the probability of someone coming across the island AND discovering the Dementors AND living to tell the tale to the government is pretty low.
Has it been established that Azkaban accounts for all Dementors? I can’t remember any conclusive evidence in either direction.
My inference is based on the complaints Dumbledore makes about getting permission to bring a Dementor to Hogwarts and then having to explain its disappearance. You’re right, though, it implies that the Ministry makes a firm accounting of the Dementors in Azkaban or otherwise under its control, but it doesn’t really say anything about all Dementors everywhere.
Again the ghost of that statement about the wizards herding them all to Azkaban rises up… I don’t remember if that statement claimed ALL Dementors had been moved there or if it was just all the ones in Britain. I don’t even remember if that was a statement from canon or HPMoR or how reliable the speaker is.
It’s just the ones in Britain, I understood.
Ah. I made an assumption here, but from this I got that they kept their Dementors in reserve so that they would not lose an advantage that their enemies had. But an equally applicable interpretation would be that they did not want to lose an advantage that they had over their enemies.
Keeping that in mind, however, I would rather doubt that other governments would allow Britain to have such an exclusive advantage, not when the weapons are all held out in the middle of the ocean. Though that assumes that all of the other governments don’t have their own exclusive weapons...