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

[buster at dnahelix.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20340

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Caius Marcius" <coriolan at w...> wrote:
> --- 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

Here's a theory:  Perhaps the 'intelligence level' of an Animagi in 
animal form could be relative to their skill of the transformation, 
so the better one is at the process the more one's intellect is 
retained.  ITC, McGonagall and Skeeter might be better at the 
process than perhaps Sirius is.

This could be one of the reasons why it is such a difficult skill to 
develop and would also make it more dangerous.  If an untrained 
wizard attempted to turn into an animal and then only possessed the 
intellect of that creature (like a bug) then how would he or she know 
how to change back???

-Beau

"Never trust anything that can think for itself,if you can't see 
where it keeps its brain."