Rita Skeeter Bug-Brain (was: Rita Skeeter Bug)

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 20326

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Stephanie Roark Keener" <sdrk1 at y...> 

On the subject of Ms. Skeeter - how did she do all of that insider 
reporting with the brain of a bug?  JKR is pretty inconsistent about 
this, but it is often implied that an Animagi lose at least some of 
their human-level intellectual capabilities. Sirius Black fools the 
Dementors by changing into a dog: "They could tell that my feelings 
were less -- less human, less complex when I was a dog... but they 
thought, of course, that I was losing my mind like everyone else in 
there, so it didn't trouble them."  Mr. Kennilworthy Whisp at the 
beginning of QTA tells us that, "[The Animagi] who finds..
[themselves] transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but, having 
a bat's brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the 
moment they take flight."

OTOH, McGonagall seems fully aware in her feline guise, and 
Pettigrew's squeaks and attempts to escape while in his Scabbers 
identity certainly indicate he knows exactly what the score is. 
Perhaps this has to do with the relatively larger mammalian brain.  
But if a bat-Animagi can't even be expected to remember to go from 
Point A to Point B, how much more limited is the near-microscopic 
insect brain going to be in action?

   - CMC