D's Crouch question - Clothing cop-out

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 24981

Cindy wrote:

 >When Harry says he left Crouch with
 >Krum, Dumbledore immediately asks, "Do
 >you know if anybody else saw Mr.
 >Crouch?"

 >How strange!  More natural would be
 >"Was anyone else there?"  As JKR
 >writes it, it sounds like D is worried
 >that lots of people will know Crouch
 >is on the grounds.  Hmmm.

I read it as a fear that someone is going to try to kill Crouch--that 
D. saw coming exactly what did happen, at least once he heard that 
Crouch was behaving strangely. 

Tabouli wrote:

> Animagi are common figures in fantasy novels (as I mused a couple of 
months
> ago), and every time a fantasy author decides to toss a couple into 
the plot,
> they hit that age-old problem of What To Do About Their Clothes.  
Arguments
> about "but it's Magic!" aside,

I really don't think it's a cop-out; I do think "but it's Magic!" is 
an adequate explanation.

These are magical transformations.  A full-grown man turns into a rat 
and we don't ask where all the extra mass has gotten to.  Another man 
turns into a dog and we don't ask how he generated all that hair.  The 
Animagus transformation is not a chemical reaction, in which every 
molecule has to be accounted for.  Why are wands, clothing, and 
glasses any harder to explain than Pettigrew's extra 180 pounds?

Amy Z

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 "He's friends with that dog," said Harry grimly.
              --HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
                (naturally-occurring Tom Swiftie)
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