[HPforGrownups] Re: Krum...an animagus?? (was Karkaroff...an animagus??)

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 45601

hickengrundler (or something like that) had asked:

> > Yes, I agree with you in general, but there is a big problem. If
> > every wizard can turn into an animal, than what's the whole animagi
> > thing about? What's the difference between able to transform myself
> > into an animal, and beeing an animagus? Also, aren't all wizard who
> > can transform themselves into animals unregistered animagi?

Heidi answered:

> It's not a problem at all. JKR addressed this in Fantastic Beasts quite
> clearly,where she said that transfiguration into an animal means that
> the transfigured person has the animalian brain - in other words, when
> Draco was transfigured into a ferrett, he had a ferrett brain, not a
> wizard's one.
>
> Also in GoF, it's implied that Krum's transformation was not a wandless
> one, and it's clear from PoA as well that the animagus transformation is
> wandless.

I amplify:

Being transformed into an animal is passive. Someone does it to you. It's
something that *happens* to you. You become an animal and do not retain your
human intelligence. (I count curses and magical diseases in this class, too,
because *they* act on *you.*)

Being an Animagus is active. It is something you *do.* You are the caster of
the spell, not the object. You remain yourself, with your intelligence, in
another shape. You do not choose the shape; the implication has been pretty
clear that your animal form in the Animagus spell is some sort of reflection
of your personality or self.

On a tangent, I am presuming the Homorphus Charm would work on both types of
transformation--the charm makes one's human form be revealed, and I'd think
it would work on any shape-changed human, whatcha think?

--Amanda