[HPforGrownups] Animagi and human thought (WAS: Transfiguration)

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 41747

Lara quoted QTtA (my emphasis on brain portion):
>" No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form.
>Those few animagi who transform into whinged creatures may enjoy
>flight, but they are a rarity. The witch or Wizard who finds him- or
>herself transfigured into a bat may take flight, *but having a bat's
>brain*, they are sure to forget where they want to go the mment they
>take flight."


Nik:
>This section caught my attention the first time I read that book. This 
>doesn't make sense to me. Based on the animagi we have seen so far in the 
>series, I have always had the impression that they've all retained their 
>capacity for human thought processes. The above quote implies that they 
>should lose that. 

I think you've probably mis-interpreted here.  AFAIK, the accepted interpretation of that passage is that 

a)Wizards cannot fly unaided unless they are transformed into an animal with the ability to fly (either through being an animagus or being transfigured).

b)The Animagus Transformation is *special* and differs from a mere transfiguration (like when someone got transfigured by their friend into a skunk -- or was it a badger? -- in CoS) in that Animagi retain all (or most, Sirius does say that his emotions were "less complicated" as a dog, which helped him escape the dementors) their human "brain-power" (for lack of a better word), and transfigured wizards do not. 

The point, I think, of adding this information to the passage about unaided flight is to inform the reader that:

a) Wizards can't just transfigure themselves for flight (building on the necessity of the flying broom).

b) I also think this was JKR's not-so-subtle way of explaining why, if the Animagi Transformation is supposed to be so difficult, one of McGonagalls students was able to *accidentally* transfigure his friend into an animal.  The explanation being, of course, that the Animagi Transformation is *not* just the transfiguration of human to beast -- which, it seems, isn't all that difficult to do, but is not very helpful (at least not for the tranfiguree). 

laura


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