[HPforGrownups] Re: Animagi & Personality

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

No: HPFGUIDX 14441

> Hmmm.  Interesting way to look at this.  Peter doesn't seem to have a
> killer instinct.  He'd much rather wait around for someone else to
> get the job done and then sneak in to get his scraps.

Except that Peter was the one who not only betrayed James and Lily to their
deaths, but also willingly blew up fourteen Muggles in the process of faking
his own death.  A rat can be savage when desperate, and Peter was desperate
to save his skin and implicate Sirius.

> I have a little trouble with McGonagall's potential killer instinct.

So do I.  I bet she could be scary when she's really in a focused rage, but
aside from her yelling at Lee Jordan during Quidditch games, we haven't
really seen that side of her at all.  When she came to report Barty Crouch's
death to Dumbledore she seemed to be half in shock over the horror and the
suddenness of it, and of course it wasn't as though Barty was a personal
friend of hers or anything.

> She wasn't at all happy in GoF when Moody turned Draco into
> the "amazing bouncing ferret."

He was breaking the rules, and in her own area of expertise
(Transfiguration), so I'm not surprised.  But you're right, I can't see
McGonagall as someone who would play with her enemy before killing him -- if
she'd kill at all.  Mind you, I did have a cat like that once, too -- not a
malicious bone in his furry body, and the only food he was interested in
came out of the can -- but it's out of the ordinary.
--
Rebecca J. Bohner
rebeccaj at pobox.com
http://home.golden.net/~rebeccaj