Flamel /Dumbledore - Animals souls - App. of Lessons

[Kara]

No: HPFGUIDX 45081

 
bboy_mn comments:
>>> Of course, I believe that Nicolas Flamel is alive and well. To a
nearly 700 year old man, 'getting your affairs in order' could take >
10 or 20 years, maybe more.<<<

I, too, believe that Flamel and the stone will be brought up in future
books. JKR seems very good at setting things up, and I think it will
come up again. Perhaps Flamel is one of the "old crowd", even?

Grace comments: 
>>> Dumbledore tells Harry that Flamel has enough Elixir to get his
affairs in order. Perhaps the same could be said for Dumbledore
himself.  The stone has been destroyed and now these two wizards are
aging at the normal rate and Harry notices the aging taking place on
Dumbledore. In that light, I can see Dumbledore dying in a future
book.  Not through battle or an encounter with Voldemort or a DE - but
by the process of dying from old age,  too tired to carry on.<<< 

That's a good point, I had never considered that Dumbledore also took
the elixir. I always had a feeling Dumbledore would die by the end of
the series. Call it an ominous feeling, mixed with the fact that the
elder mentor character always tends to die by the end of a story. So
much so, that a friend of mine says they think he -won't- die because
it seems too obvious. Anyhow, I never considered that he might die of
old age... if there is going to be one final big battle, I wonder if
he would before or after? (I would presume after).

Does anyone else have any theories on who might not make it to the end
of the series, and why?

Veronica commented:
>>>* Cedric turned the rock into a dog for the sake of distracting the
dragon during the first task, but was anyone concerned for this dog
being offered up as a sacrifice to the dragon?<<<

I don't remember anyone acting concerned, but I don't have my copy of
GoF here to check. I think perhaps it doesn't gain a real awareness,
beyond just basic functioning, because it's really just a rock. And
therefore, no matter how long the rock remained a dog, it isn't a
-real- dog. It might act like one, and look like one, but it truly
isn't. I know transfiguration can be temporary, considering the ferret
incident. Does McGonagall ever say it can be permanent? I'm assuming
it could be, if you chose to leave the object transfigured. I would
think transfiguring something is just changing the shape.. like a
shapeshifter. It isn't replacing it. 

Then you have the case of "Moody" transfiguring Draco into a ferret.
Now.. a ferret is alive just as a human, so it's not quite the same.
But was Draco reduced to the simple mind of a ferret while he was one?
 I've read in other books about characters getting changed into
animals by magic, and their state of mind becomes that of the animal.
(Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling, for instance - when Alec gets
turned into a stag, his mindset turns into that of a stag...  of
course this is a completely different series, but makes for a nice
comparitive.) It's still them, but their brain changes into that of an
animals.. so how much of their awareness is really there? A rock
doesn't have brains, a soul... and while you can transfigure something
(the dog) to have a brain, I don't think you can make a soul (unless
it just comes automatically with the living creature). 

>>1. Why do some animals have *more* soul than others?<<

I think a better word for this might be personality.. or intelligence.
Perhaps they're magical animals? Like Hedwig, not a normal owl
(because a normal owl wouldn't make a good pet, and couldn't deliver
messages the way the wizard's owls do).

>>* Animals are created from inanimate objects--do they get a soul in
the process?<<

But where would the soul come from? Unless it comes automatically,
like I mentioned before.

GulPlum comments:
>>>Er, my daughter currently has a death grip on HPPS so I can't
look it up verbatim, but when Harry and Ron were late for
Transfiguration class, wasn't McGonagall in cat form on the desk
when they came in? And she transformed back into human form in
front of the class. It happened within the first couple of weeks
of school because Harry and Ron were still getting lost trying to
find their way around. She suggested turning them into a watch
and a map. That, I believe is the animagus changed that Barb is
referring to above, not the change at 4 Privet Drive the night
they dropped Harry off with the Dursleys.<<<

Don't you hate not having the books to check? ^^ I believe this scene
only took place in the movie, I looked up their first class with
McGonagall and it's very brief... she gave them a talking to, saying
transfiguration was comlex and dangerous, transfigured her desk into a
pig and back.. and then they tried transfiguring a match into a
needle. (pages 133-134)

~ Kara (who is now very confused about souls... hehe)