Animagus vs. Transfigured (was: Lagging in Transfiguration?)

[Cindy C.]

No: HPFGUIDX 28595

Gwen,

Thanks for bring some clarity to this.  Here are my thoughts:
> 
> 1. The Animagus can only transform into one animal, and does NOT 
get to
> choose which. We can only guess that the nature of the mage has some
> determining factor regarding the type of animal. (This parallels the
> Patronus as an extension of the individual's psyche, too!)

Food for thought: what kind of Patronus is Lupin conjuring on the 
train?  Would it necessarily be a wolf?  Surely Lupin isn't conjuring 
a pitiful formless Patronus?

Also, I'm not sure that the wizard has no input on the type of animal 
he/she becomes.  Rita Skeeter might easily have transformed into a 
slug, or a weasel or hyena, but none of these animals (all of which 
are consistent with her personality) would help her spy on people.  A 
beetle is helpful, but doesn't have any strong personality 
associations.

Also, if the personality of the wizard affects the type of Animagus, 
then it seems odd that James and Peter would still trust Peter 
knowing that Peter turns into a rat.  That suggests that Peter became 
a rat because they needed someone to turn into a small animal, not 
because he is, um, basically a rat.

To confuse things further, my current pet theory is that the 
size/power of the Animagus relates to the power of the wizard, not 
the wizard's character.  So James and Sirius are big and powerful 
animals because James and Sirius are powerful and clever.  Peter is 
talentless and is a rat.  Rita is really talentless and is a beetle.  
But this means that McGonagal is less powerful than Sirius and James 
because she is just a cat.  And Dumbledore had better not turn out to 
be a bumblebee, unless he is going to be one of those bumblebees you 
see in old Godzilla movies.

> 
> 2. The Animagus can perform this transformation at will and 
presumably
> without need for a wand.
> 

Agreed, otherwise Sirius couldn't transform in Azkaban, because he 
tells us that he didn't have his wand in prison.

> 3. The Animagus *retains his thoughts and identity* while in animal 
form;
> transfigured humans do not.
> 
> In other words, the Animagus who transforms is still a wizard, 
whereas
> presumably if a wizard were to transfigure into an animal, he would 
for all
> intents and purposes BE that animal until turned back. It's also 
implicit in
> this reasoning that the Animagus transforms himself; another wizard 
must
> perform the spells to transfigure one from human to animal and back 
(or at
> least back). It should be noted that the Animagus transformation is 
still a
> form of transfiguration, though, so Remus and Sirius can use a 
counterspell
> to force Peter to return to human form. I rather think this is the 
same
> counterspell any mage would perform to help out an attempted 
Animagus
> transformation when the wizard got stuck in animal form.

I'm not so sure about some of this, but I'm willing to be persuaded.  
We have to figure out what Krum is when he transfigures himself 
(badly) in the second task.  If he is doing a human-to-animal 
transfiguration, then he would have had to have help, which is 
prohibited by the tournament rules.  Also, we know he performed the 
transformation right there by the lake with everyone watching, so it 
had to be something he could do himself.

So he must be an Animagus.  But becoming an Animagus is hard, and it 
took Sirius, James and Wormtail 3 years to do it.  Krum strikes me as 
less accomplished than Sirius and James.  If Krum starts when he gets 
the egg, he only has a few months to learn this.  If he started 
working on it years ago, it would be too much of a coincidence that 
he happened to become a shark.

So maybe Krum becomes something else entirely, something we don't yet 
know about?

> 
> Evidence for these differences include the introduction of QTTA,
> Dumbledore's, McGonagall's, and Hermione's dialogue in PoA, and the 
entire
> sequence in the Shrieking Shack. Also when Peter and Sirius 
transform in the
> forest later that night, neither has a wand.
> 
> 

Quick L.O.O.N. correction -- Sirius has Snape's wand when he 
transforms to ward off Lupin.  Peter has Lupin's wand.  Also, there 
is some chance that Peter has his own wand, which he later uses in 
the graveyard scene in GoF (don't get me started). 


One more thing I forgot to put in the original post 
(remember, "Lagging in Transfiguration"?).  The reason I think our 
trio might be way behind in learning Transfiguration is that James, 
Sirius and even talentless Peter had learned to be Animagi by their 
5th year, whereas our trio is still changing kettles into turtles in 
their 4th year.  So they'd better have a very productive 5th year to 
reach the competence at transfiguration that Sirius, James and Peter 
managed by that time.  Sorry for leaving that out.

Cindy (especially thrilled at the implication that Sirius might be 
more powerful than McGonagal)