polyjuice question.. (Long & Confusing)

[ck32976]

No: HPFGUIDX 40045

 James wrote:

> If one assumes that we are dealing with similar ideas to those of 
> homeopathic magic (as opposed to sympathetic magic), as is implied 
by 
> the whole taking a hair of the intended person thing, then one has 
> two possible ways of looking at it.


This is all a bit over my head, as I have never been much into 
magical theories in an 
archeological/homeopathic/sympathetic/practical manner. (I have, 
however always loved magical stories and ideas in books, movies and 
my imagination) Okay, so, I've strayed a bit from what I'm trying to 
say, sorry! : )
As I was saying, although this theory is a bit over my head, I find 
it rather interesting, and I'll try to comment.  If I'm way off the 
mark, please let me know...

<Snip a nice explanation of homeopathic magic>
James again:
...
>I rather believe the idea is still that the hair 
> in the polyjuice carries some of the spirit of its original owner 
and 
> so you can become like them (I'm not even sure hair carries DNA so 
I 
> went with a "theory of magic" solution).


Yes, Hair does carry DNA, well the hair follicles do...


> If the spirit of the person who you transform into is with you 
whilst 
> you are transformed (as could be argued by the fact you take on 
their 
> physical appearance) then the link formed from person B's hair will 
> be to person A (so that is who you transform into).

I don't think that I understand this part... From the explaination, I 
would think that you mean that since person A has transformed into 
person B, the link would be to person B (the original owner of the 
hair...), but you go on to say that it would be person A.  Am I 
confused, or is that an error (It is so hard to keep up with all this 
person A, B & C Stuff...I'm sorry I started it) Let's say for ease of 
understanding that 
                    person A= "Crouch Jr." 
                    person B= "Moody," and 
                    person C= "Snape"

So if "snape" tries to tranform into Moody, but takes a hair 
from "Crouch!Moody", Are you saying he'll turn into "Crouch" 
or "Moody"? I think that you are saying he'll turn into "Moody", is 
that right.

> However, if one assumes that you retain your own spirit during the 
> transformation then the homeopathic link will be to person B, 
> regardless of their outward appearance.  This would also apply to 
> animagi, you would transform into the person, not the animal, no 
> matter what they looked like when the hair was obtained.

In this scenario, I think that your explaination points to the link 
being to "Crouch", because he has retained his own spirit even though 
his appearance is that of "Moody", right?

> I rather think that the second scenario is more likely as I tend to 
> associate something's "spirit" with their essence, or whatever, and 
> not their outward appearance.  

I think that this makes quite a bit of sense, but I think an argument 
can still be made for a link between "Snape" and "Moody".  Although 
we know that the spirit of "Snape" will be retained, because all 
instances of polyjuice use show us that the person who is trasnformed 
still thinks as they would, not as the person who they transformed 
into would; I think of the hair (or whatever) as being a link to the 
the person in their Transformed state.  I guess that's why I really 
like Corinth's theory:

>Perhaps person C would turn into person A turned into person B. In
>other words, they would take on the appearance of person B for the
>remainder of person A's hour, and then turn "back" into person A for
>the remainder of his or her own hour. After all, if Polyjuice Potion
>is able to detect every aspect of a person's appearance from just one
>hair, then it would probably be able to detect both the original and
>tranformed characteristics of a person from the same hair. 


Well, I'm back to square one. I can understand both sides. (Which 
explains why I am a notoriously poor decision maker!) 

>-Corinth, who just discovered this group and is thrilled to learn
>she is not the only person who obsesses over details of a fictional
>universe.

Welcome, Corinth!

>James (who is vaguely worried that his use of the word "ass" in his 
>last post could get him into trouble, and hastens to point out he is 
>using it in the English sense - meaning donkey - and not the 
American 
>sense - meaning posterior. He genuinely does believe Lockheart is 
asinine though)


Carrie-Ann (who has sent her head spinning with all of this, and 
would like to apologize in advance if her use of the fictional 
scenario of "snape" trying to become "Moody" through "Crouch!Moody" 
wasn't the correct way to go about things, but she couldn't think of 
another way!)