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"Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. Harry’s eyes darted downward, and what he saw made his stomach contract. There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, greyish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water...."
— A Dementor entering a compartment on the Hogwarts Express[src]

A Dementor search on the Hogwarts Express took place on 1 September 1993 in order to track down Sirius Black who had escaped Azkaban.[1]

History[]

Background[]

In around July 1993, Sirius Black escaped Azkaban in order to hunt down Peter Pettigrew. Cornelius Fudge decided to station Dementors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in case Black tried to kill Harry Potter. In September, a group of Dementors were dispatched to Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic to guard it against a possible attack by Sirius Black. [1]

The search[]

Harry Potter: "What was that thing?"
Remus Lupin: "A dementor. One of the dementors of Azkaban."
— Remus Lupin informing Harry Potter about what the Dementor was[src]
Dementors at Hogwarts Express (Adam Brockbank's Concept Artwork for HP3 movie)

Dementors boarding the Hogwarts Express

When the Hogwarts Express was en route to Hogwarts, a group of Dementors stopped and boarded the train to conduct a search part-way through the trip and began searching for signs of Black.[1]

Dementor on Hogwarts Express

A Dementor entering the compartment housing Harry Potter and some of his friends

The train became very cold and dull while they searched the train. Eventually, one Dementor found its way to the compartment housing Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and a then-slumbering Professor Remus Lupin. It slid the compartment's door aside and stood in the doorway, illuminated by the light of a now-awake Lupin's hand-held flames. The Dementor then withdrew its hand back into the folds of its black cloak.[1]

"None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go."
— Remus Lupin ordering the Dementor to leave the train[src]
Dementor on hog exp

The Dementor on the Hogwarts Express, sucking the positive emotions from Harry Potter

The Dementor then surveyed the compartment, creating an unhappy and freezing environment, feeding on human happiness and creating feelings of depression and despair in any person in close proximity to it. As a result, Harry Potter, noted for his particularly bad reaction to a Dementor's presence, began to relive the night he heard his parents murdered by Voldemort. The Dementor then started to focus on him (which Professor Lupin attributes to his being easier prey because of all the terrible things he had gone through). Harry fainted and fell out of his seat, prompting Lupin to step forward and tell the Dementor that Sirius Black was obviously not in their compartment, and that it must leave. The Dementor refused to comply, apparently eager to keep feeding on Harry Potter; realising it would get nowhere by bargaining with it, Lupin cast a non-corporeal Patronus Charm to drive the Dementor away, and the Dementor withdrew.[1]

When Dementors were searching one end of the train housing Fred and George Weasley and Draco Malfoy, Draco was so terrified he ran into the Weasley twins' compartment. When the Dementors had done their search and found no sign of Black, they left and the train continued moving toward Hogwarts.[1]

Attack at the Black LakePM

The Dementor and many others surrounding Harry Potter and an unconscious Sirius Black on the edge of the Black Lake

Throughout the rest of the year, the Dementors were presumably at Hogwarts as intended, supposedly guarding it from Sirius Black. It is unknown if they were present when many of the Dementors attacked Harry Potter on the Quidditch pitch.[2] but it is nearly certain they were among the Dementors who crowded around Sirius Black and Harry Potter at the end of the year, eager to suck out their souls, only to be driven away by Harry Potter's exceptionally strong Patronus.[3]

Behind the scenes[]

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

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