Hermione, Winter's Tale and plot clues

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 44588

 > Judy Ellis responds:
   Sirius' 
> name might mean "black dog," but you could NEVER have guessed on 
> first reading it that he was an animagus because the first time we 
> see Black’s name is at the beginning of SS/PS (Chapter 1)  
Rowling 
> had not yet revealed that there was any such thing.  The 
correlation 
> comes as hindsight after we learn about animagi.   

That isn't true. Although we heard the word animagus not until 
Prisoner of Azkaban, we already saw in the very first chapter of 
Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone a witch, who can transform 
herself into an animal (McGonnagal as cat). So we knew that the 
phenomen exists, although we didn't know, how many wizards/ witches 
are capable to do so. However, I must admit, I didn't thought about 
Sirius as the Black dog, till the moment, he revealed himself. That 
was because I didn't know that Sirius was the name of the dog star. 
However, Lupin being a werewolf is really very blatant, in my 
opinion, and from the first moment I read the name I was sure he is 
either a werewolfe or a wizard who can turn into a wolf.
Hickengruendler