Animagi and Alkatraz Alzcaban

[Audra1976 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 45911

Melody:
> Hey, I'm all for covering Sirius.  

Who isn't?  Alright, let's see how much we can agree on here,

Melody:
If it was just an emotion shield, then the dementors could still feel a body 
slip out the prison front door.  They can still sense the animal emotions.  
But since they
thought he was weak and insane, they could not understand how a weak, insane 
prisoner could get out.

Me:
I say the key quote from Sirius is "It's so much harder for them to sense 
animal emotions that they were confused."  By transforming into a dog, Sirius 
was able to get his feelings on an animal wavelength that was "under the 
Dementors' radar," so to speak.  The Dementors didn't get suspicious.  They 
assumed that Sirius was still human, but just didn't have enough sense left 
to form a happy thought, therefore they could no longer feed on him, and he 
was very low on their sensors, so much so that the Dementor didn't even sense 
him leaving.  

I think we agree up to this point.  The argument is whether the brain 
physically transforms to the animal's or remains human.  Indulge me in my 
case once more...

Melody:
> Black was able to convince the dementors he was not of
> sound mind, so they assumed he was no threat.  By that deception, he
> was able to sneak out.  Since the dementors cannot see, they did not
> know a prisoner left.  

Me:
Okay, "convince the Dementors he was not of sound mind," you say?  As I see 
it, this view can only jive with your shrunken human brain theory in one of 
two ways.  1.) Sirius actively exercised control over his emotions to 
purposely fool the Dementors into perceiving him as unsound, or 2.) there is 
something about the dog body that filters the emotions differently, as in 
possibly Amanda's Vatican-inspired light-through-a-colored-glass idea.

Either of these would cover Sirius's explanation, and well as McGonagall and 
Skeeter's capabilities while transformed, so I can see now how the shrunken 
human brain theory coukd be plausible.  I just still don't subscribe to it.  

One reason is that the actual shape of different animals' skulls wouldn't 
conform to the proportions of the human brain, which, for one thing, has a 
much larger forebrain than most animals.  The shrinky-dink brain would have 
to shrink even smaller in size to fit proportionally in the animal skull, and 
jostling around at strange angles.  I'm not even getting into the problems of 
the rest of the nervous system that would have to go along with the brain.

A second reason (and I'm sorry I don't remember who it was that brought this 
up already) is that having a shrunken human brain, the Animagus would miss 
out on some great advantages of some animals' brains--extraordinarily 
developed senses of smell, sight, hearing, balance, etc.  These are not only 
perks, but in most cases essential brain functions to be able to survive as 
that animal.

Melody:
> I just get caught on the mechanics of how a human mind can be concealed and 
> yet also used behind an animal mind.  

Mmmm...magic?  ;)  ...I'm relying on mind/brain duality.  In my concept, the 
"mind" is an ethereal substance, separate, but connected the physical 
"brain."  

Audra 


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