[HPforGrownups] Re: Musings on FB&WTFT

[Audra1976 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 45837

In a message dated 27/10/2002, msbonsai at mninter.net (Julie) writes:
> Sirius said when he transformed, that he had animal emotions rather 
> than human emotions so the dementors were confused.
> Sirius also said he found a way to communicate with Crookshanks, but 
> never details what it is.  
> Also the 4 ran around town in animal form, surely they communicated 
> together somehow.  So I'm wondering what they're doing?  Sign 
> language?  

Me:

First, I assume when an Animagi transforms, they turn physically into that 
animal completely.  If this is so then they would not be able to talk, as 
these animals physically don't have the capability to produce the sounds of 
human speech.
  
Second, I don't think that Animagi in their transformed state are even 
capable of thinking in human language.  When Sirius transformed into a dog, 
the Dementors could sense that his thoughts and feelings were less complex.  
This is because dogs think only in sensory impressions.  They do not think 
abstractly like humans do.  If Sirius could still think like a human in his 
transformed state, the Dementors would not have sensed any difference. 
Therefore it is evident that the dog-Sirius did not think in terms of spoken 
language, but in sensory impressions like any ordinary dog. 

Another clue is also in the same chapter of PoA.  When Peter is returned to 
human form, Lupin speaks to him as if he would not have understood their 
conversation while he was a rat: "We've been having a little chat, Peter, 
about what happened the night that James and Lily died. You might have missed 
the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed." (ch. 
19, p. 307).

Of course MWP&P communicated together somehow--the way animals communicate: 
non-verbally, by way of sounds, scents, touch, and body language. This was 
probably not too complicated.  As good friends already, they must have been 
accustomed to communicating with each other non-verbally as humans, knowing 
what one another thought and felt.

Crookshanks is at least part Kneazle.  I think it's true that a lot of 
animals are capable of detecting "bad" people, but kneazles are even more 
attuned to this.  Perhaps they have some degree of psychic ability, and it 
was in a partly physical and partly telekinetic way that Sirius communicated 
with Crookshanks.

--Audra


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