Holy hell! I just woke up from a fever-induced dream and staggered downstairs to grab my laptop because somewhere between moaning and groaning, I realized something!
Harry’s worst fear?
It isn’t Dementors!
And I know what you’re thinking, “Ah, marauders4evr, you must still be feverish because the Boggart turned into a Dementor.”
Yes, yes, but what if it didn’t turn into a Dementor because of Harry? What if it wasn’t Harry’s soul it studied before reacting?
What if it was Voldemort’s?
Think about it. The man has absolutely no ability to feel love, happiness, etc. He would have no way to defend himself, no way to cast a Patronus. It would swoop down and suck out the tiny bit of soul he had left.
This goes right along with that popular post that the real Dementors were feeding off of Voldemort’s worst memory: October 31st, 1981, the night he was ripped from his body and essentially ‘killed’.
The bit of soul that was inside Harry retained that memory.
And if the Dementors had a hard time distinguishing between the two souls then I bet you anything that the Boggart did too.
I mean haven’t you always wondered why a freaking Dementor popped up to scare Harry James Potter, the boy who in a span of two years was told that his parents had been murdered by a serial killer out to get him and that he had killed that serial killer, a boy who had faced a troll, a boy who had nearly fallen to his death, a boy who had watched a man eat a unicorn and drink its blood, a boy who had confronted the aforementioned serial murderer on the back of his professor’s head, a boy who had watched people close to him become petrified, a boy who had spent months wondering (dare I say worrying) if he was to blame, a boy who had battled Tom Riddle’s memory and a giantass snake, a boy who had just found out that there was an escaped convict out to get him?
Even Remus remarks that Harry’s alleged “worst fear” is strange.
That’s because Dementors aren’t his worst fear at all.
They’re Voldemort’s worst fear. And the Boggart reflected that.
