Snape Grudge Essay; Animagi and Werewolf (WAS Oops 1973, Animagi flint, )

[Cindy C.]

No: HPFGUIDX 28863

I already gushed off-list to Tabouli about her terrific Snape grudge 
essay.  Great stuff, that.  

Tabouli wrote:

>Anyway, a thought: all you fanfickers out there, at what point does 
>something stop being speculation shaded in around known facts and 
>become a fanfic?  Was my Snape biography fanfic?  >

I didn't think it was fanfic.  Now, I'm not the final authority, 
because I have read very little fanfic.  But I always thought fanfic 
was a "story," you know, beginning, middle and end.  Tabouli's essay 
struck me as "detailed, well-reasoned speculation about what's going 
on in JKR's head regarding the motivation of a character", and you 
know how I love that stuff, particularly when it adheres as tightly 
as possible to canon.  Look, I'm gushing again!

That said, (and forgive me if this was in the Snape essay, but I 
missed it) before we can attribute Snape's enmity toward Harry as 
Lily-related, we may have to explain away his nastiness toward 
Neville.  Did Snape also have a thing for Mrs. Longbottom.  :-) 
Anything to say on that, Tabouli?


Tabouli wrote:

> Back to my ol' Animagus gripes.  When animagi are injured in animal 
form, do they retain their injuries when they go back to human form?  
We seem to have conflicting evidence here.
> 
> - Wormtail bites off his own finger after his 13 Muggle murder and 
goes rat, but is ever after recognisable by his missing claw.  The 
answer here would seem to be yes (which presumably means that as a 
rat now he would have a misty silver paw!  Cool...)

I don't know if Wormtail would have a misty silver paw.  He might 
just have a missing paw.  I don't think we know if a magical 
prosthesis transforms with the animagus.  (At this point, someone 
should undertake a massive, canon-based, detailed study of what 
things transform with an animagus wizard, but I can't, as I'm 
exhausted.)

 
Tabouli continued:

> - When Lupin transforms into werewolf form and tussles with Sirius 
in dog form, Sirius is badly wounded and bleeding ("gashed across the 
muzzle and back").  However, when Sirius transforms *back* into human 
form, it appears that all of these wounds mysteriously vanish.  
Surely if man-Sirius was not only "pale as death" but covered in 
bleeding bites and scratches for the rest of the evening we would 
have heard about it.  Neither has he been werewolfed.  The answer 
here would seem to be no.>
>
> 
> OK, so perhaps you only get werewolfed if you're in human form when 
>you're bitten.  We can crush that Flint.  But how to crush the 
>other?  


I agree about the reason Sirius doesn't get werewolfed -- we are told 
werewolves aren't a danger to other animals.  As an aside (and to 
further confuse matters), if werewolves aren't a danger to other 
animals, then why does Hagrid report that Lupin says he didn't eat 
Buckbeak:  "Thought [Buckbeak] might have met Professor Lupin on the 
grounds, but Lupin says he never ate anythin' las' night."  Is the 
point of this to point out that (as others have mentioned) the 
treatment of Buckbeak is more like a human than an animal (use of 
an "executioner", due process rights afforded, etc.)?

Now, as Tabouli mentions, Sirius isn't reported to have scratches on 
his face after he transforms back into a man.  Neither is Lupin, who 
ought to bear some signs of having Sirius' claws ripping at him.  I 
would give JKR a pass on Sirius and say that she doesn't mention 
these icky wounds because she already told us about them once, so 
there's no reason to repeat it, particularly since she's trying to 
move at a fast pace in this climactic scene.  Also, based on Hagrid's 
remark, had Sirius lost his fight with Lupin, I suspect Lupin would 
have eaten Sirius, and I doubt Sirius would quickly recover from that.

As for Lupin's injuries from the fight, I really don't know what to 
think.  One would think that transforming monthly would lead to some 
rather unfortunate encounters with other werewolves and magical 
creatures that would cause injury, but there's nothing in canon.  
Maybe we'll see something in Book 5 (and 6 and 7).

Cindy