Minerva and Marvolo and Animagi

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 36677

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "elirtai" <ruben at s...> wrote:
> Finwitch wrote:
> > Dumbledore 
> > tought her how to be animagus, I think, during her third year.
> 
> That would make sense since he was teaching Transfiguration.
> Now, would that imply he's an Animagus? The question is, if
> the Animagus transfiguration is a very rare skill, can it be
> taught by someone who haven't mastered it, no matter how adept
> he/she is at Transfiguration? What do yo think?

I think Dumbledore is animagus. Being 150 he'd not be in the list of 
seven even if he is registered. After all, that list only included 
animagi on *this* century. Dumbledore probably registered before the 
first date on the list...
 
> Then, we have Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail. The three of them
> wanted to become Animagi, and the three of them suceeded (without
> 'proper' training). We have Rita too. Surely it's not a skill for
> everyone, but it doesn't seem to be that rare after all... in that
> case McGonagall didn't need anyone else once she knew enough
> Transfiguration, and it would follow there could be a lot of
> unregistered Animagi we don't know of.

That means a non-animagus could teach how - or at least supervise it. 
Dumbledore definately knew the spell that forces animagus back to 
normal... A person about to become animagus probably should learn 
*that* spell first and not do it without a person knowing it nearby, 
just in case your animagus form happens to be a fish...