Revised: Polyjuice Potion: Gender?

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 42897

> Yoris wrote:
> > 
> > Just a VERY SMALL note on DNA transformation
> > 
> > Polyjuicing in HP series is CANON BASED, NOT DNA-transformation:
> > scars and lost legs and lost eyes are NOT in your DNA, but Crouch 
jr.
> > got them anyway when he converts to Mad-Eye Moody :)
> > 
> > Yoris

Grey wulf replied:
 
> I think you have misunderstood what I meant with DNA-
transformation. 
> This concept is that you turn into an exact copy of the person 
you're 
> polyjuicing down to their own DNA, which is the most improtant 
detail 
> from a sexual/reproduction point of view. I assume that all other 
> details are also identical, including things that are not detailed 
in 
> the DNA code (like, for example, the digital prints). In fact, your 
own 
> example of scars and lost legs seems to point to the DNA-
transformation 
> more than illusion-based.
> 
> How can this be? Well, an illusion cannot, traditionally, hide 
matter; 
> that is, if you're impersonting Moody, but still have both legs, an 
> illusion will make the missing one look and feel like the woden 
leg, 
> but it cannot make it disapear so you can wear Moody's real woodden 
> leg. Same goes for the eye. Of course, this inmediately presents 
any 
> number of logical problems (like: what if you're fatter than the 
one 
> you're impersonating?), which traditionally are ignored with a 
> convenient "it's magic", which is why I didn't discard the illusion-
> based PP. 
> On the other hand, DNA_transformation changes ll and every cell in 
your 
> body to make them equal to the ones of the impersonateed person. 
This 
> is way you "grow" into the other person: the cells change when the 
> potion starts to develop. If you prefer, it can be called 
> "cell"-transformation instead of DNA-transformation, if it's 
clearer 
> that way. Thinking about it, however, I DO like the DNA (or cell) 
> transformation better than illusion-based, but there isn't enough 
canon 
> for me to choose one right away.

I myself think it's not DNA-based - because things that come via 
accidents and experience are NOT in DNA. Things like the lost eye, 
for example. Copy each cell as it is -- well, it might - except for 
the fact that cells in your body are not in stasis. Cells die and are 
born every day. All DNA is included in the hair, though, so it does 
have some basis. However, if Fred got injured while playing Quidditch 
and George did not, they could use polyjuice to "heal" Fred 
temporarily using George's hair. Since they're *identical* twins no 
one would know the change... That matter does exclude DNA - the twins 
have identical DNA.

No, it's not illusion either - because illusion could not use Magic 
Eye. Crouch Jr. *did* use it. It does make a perfect copy. Perfect in 
all except in mannerisms, knowledge etc. This is also reason why 
Crouch had to keep Moody alive. Because if you use *Dead* person's 
hair in polyjuice, you die, too. Magic can't heal death - so you'd 
stay dead even after the hour was gone. Spells dealing with mind 
don't pass - as knowledge doesn't...
 

> Haggridd wrote:
> 
> > He mentions two cases. In 
> > one pregnancy, the fetus would die when the polyjuice potion wore 
> > off.  I guess it would be theoretically possible for a pregnancy 
to 
> > continue to term and deliver, if the polyjuice was taken 
throughout 
> > the pregnancy, as Barty Crouch, Jr. took PP throughout the 
> > schoolyear.
> 
> I though quite a bit about this, but if the PP works in the DNA- 
> transformation hipothesis (sp?), the next time the pregnant man!
woman 
> took the PP, he!she'd be taking it from someone who is *not* 
pregnant, 
> and thus the new body would not be ready to carry the child. Maybe 
not 
> within the next hour, but posibly about one month later (or so), 
when 
> the fetus becomes attached to the uterus, and the placenta is 
> established. It's difficult to tell were the mother stops and the 
child 
> starts during the pregnancy, but I'm sure that the mother must be 
> prepared in some way or another to carry a baby, which in this case 
> would not happen, and thus a misscarriage would happen.

The womb prepares itself each month - as long as she is of fertile 
age. If the egg is not fertilised when it fastens on the womb's 
thicker layer, the layer comes out as menstrual blood. If it is, 
placenta and the baby begin to grow. The placenta is partly fetus and 
partly mother - but they *are* separated, even though they are very 
close. Placenta gives mother's body a hormonal signal.

Speaking of polyjuice... the fetus is dependant of it's mother, but 
all the time separated. A man or woman taking polyjuice would not 
copy pregnancy.

Finwitch