5 Wild Theories That Turned Out To Be True

In the third book and film, «Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,» Hogwarts students learn about dementors firsthand when the evil creatures show up at the castle to hunt for escaped wizard convict Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). Normally, they guard the wizarding prison Azkaban — from which Sirius, who’s actually innocent, escaped — but despite misgivings from Hogwarts’ headmaster Albus Dumbledore, they spend Harry’s entire third year floating around and bumming everybody out.

These soul-sucking, depression-causing creatures are dangerous to all wizards — and Wizarding World reveals that wizards took advantage of dementors breeding at the remote fortress that later became Azkaban. As Rowling explains, former Minister for Magic Damocles Rowle overhauled the wizard prison industrial complex with Azkaban and got rid of plans for a prison elsewhere: «Sadistic by nature, Rowle … insisted on using Azkaban. He claimed that the Dementors living there were an advantage: they could be harnessed as guards, saving the Ministry time, trouble and expense.» 

Rowle’s successor Eldritch Diggory tried to undo this move, but apparently, it was no use. «Diggory established a committee to explore alternatives to Azkaban, or at least to remove the Dementors as guards,» Rowling writes. «Experts explained to him that the only reason the Dementors were (mostly) confined to the island was that they were being provided with a constant supply of souls on which to feed. If deprived of prisoners, they were likely to abandon the prison and head for the mainland.» Azkaban doesn’t just keep prisoners locked up … but keeps dementors away from the wizarding population.