[HPforGrownups] Re: Fawkes/Phoenixes/Dumbledore/ Gryffindor

[Richelle Votaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 42343

Constance Vigilance writes:

> It wouldn't surprise me at all if Dumbledore is an animagus, but my
> money is on a bumblebee. "Dumbledore" means bumblebee in obsolete
> English. We heard Dumbledore say that there are other ways of
> appearing invisible. Such as becoming very small, perhaps?

I thought of this yesterday myself.  I was looking through my new Latin
dictionary, which is quite handy for interpreting Harry Potter, by the way.
Anyway, I was considering the fact that Lupin means "pertaining to a wolf"
and Sirius is the dogstar.  Obviously Lupin transforms into a wolf and
Sirius into a dog (a black one at that).  Now I could find no connection
(yet) between James Potter and a stag and Peter Pettigrew and a rat, though
my aunt who hasn't even read Harry Potter is insiting that it's because
James Potter is noble and a stag is noble and Pettigrew "just sounds like a
rat."

Anyway, the name Dumbledore being an old English word for Bumblebee would be
so obvious that it's possible to miss the hint entirely!  Which we may have
done for quite a while.  I mean, Dumbledore' GOT to be an animagus, what
kind of transformation teacher isn't an animagus?  And a bumblebee doesn't
seem very noble and dramatic, but it would enable him to slip around to
places he normally couldn't (shades of Rita Skeeter the beetle).  That could
be quite useful.

Richelle