Magic Imitations

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 18930

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., qatet at h... wrote:
> Hello all.  
> 
> During the last few threads - the one about conjuring things and the 
> nature of magic, and the one that touched on boggarts - I've come to 
> my own few questions about the nature of magic and how it relates 
> to "real" creatures/objects.
> 
> When somebody transfigures something inanimate and makes it a living 
> creature (McG's desk to pig always sticks in my mind) have they then 
> created a real viable creature?  Does changing it back to a desk 
then 
> constitute a murder of sorts?  
> 
> The same goes for boggarts... Surely somebody out there has 
Voldemort 
> as their greatest fear.  What would happen if they were to see a 
> boggart then?  Would the boggart be capable of the same damage that 
> the real Voldemort is?  
> 
> and... the standard "hello, I've been lurking but now rear my head" 
> greeting.
> 
> Kate

That's really interesting. I've been going through both scenarios for 
the last fifteen or so minutes.

With the inanimate-animate-inanimate question, I can see how it can be 
considered murder: life is given then taken away. On the other hand, 
if this desk were made out of wood, that wood at one time was living. 
I think this calls for an "ethics of Magic" discussion. Because it 
raises the question too, is it ethical to use animal or living things 
in these magical displays. I think it was in SS that the 
transfiguration final exam included turning a mouse into a teapot or 
something like that.

It's never been addressed in the books as if the boggart has the same 
abilities as the object of fear. In nature, some animals and plants 
use mimickry to protect themselves against predators. These animals 
disguise themselves as poisonous, dangerous or innocuous things in 
order to avoid predators. I think the boggart does the same thing for 
the same reason: wizards and witches can dispel boggarts with laughter 
so they are basically boggart predators. As a matter of survival, the 
boggart will scare away the wizard.  Like the animals in nature, I 
don't think the boggarts manifest the same characteristics as the 
object of fear, other than appearances of course. The boggart's weapon 
is more psychological than anything else, IMO.

:-)Milz