Random Parseltongue questions

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 24199

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., katzefan at y... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Natalie" <natabat at c...> wrote:
> > One last thing. Do you think there is such thing as a 
> Parseltongue for an
> > animal other than serpents? Obviously, it wouldn't be called
> > Parseltongue....
> > 
> > Natalie
> 
> That's an interesting point. JKR may not have mentioned it 
> because she (I think) likes occasionally to see how wide awake 
> her readers may be, and it wasn't (at least in this instance) as if 
> the reader would miss something major if they missed this. I'll 
> be interested to see, though, whether it comes up again in a 
> future book.

I have wondered this before as well - and have two related 
questions.  How does Sirius communicate with Crookshanks?  We know 
that Crookshanks is part Kneazle - does this enable him to understand 
humans?  Considering that most of the time Sirius was in his company 
he was a dog and therefore couldn't speak - how did they communicate 
in this instance?

Animagi:  When they are transformed as an animal, can they 
communicate with other animals of the same species?  I seem to recall 
that Pettigrew could communicate with rats when he was trying to find 
Voldemort, so presumably Sirius can talk to dogs etc.  Is this the 
case?

We have discussed before that wizards don't choose the animal into 
which they transform, but that the animal chooses the wizard.  This 
bears up pretty well when looking at the animagi we know about and 
looking at their various characteristics, although I would have made 
Rita Skeeter a cockroach, not a beetle.   Does this mean that they 
have a particular affinity with that particular animal, and if so, is 
it too much of a stretch to imagine that they can communicate at all 
times with that particular animal and therefore be that animal's 
equivalent of a Parselmouth?   Of course, it could be a moot point if 
my above proposition is correct, because they could transform in 
order to communicate at any time, anyway.

Where does this leave Harry?  He is a parselmouth and therefore has 
an affinity with snakes - does this mean he would want to be one as 
an animagus?  I doubt it somehow.

Catherine