Hogsmeade/Animagi/Werewolves/sidesaddle/

Sun Jan 12 16:25:04 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 49670

Jazmyn wrote:

<< Also, who said that its the only wizard village? >>

Hermione. "Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" asked Hermione keenly. 
"I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain 
--" "Yeah, I think it is," said Ron in an offhand sort of way.

Dmitri Douglas wrote:

<< Once they finally master the spell, do they get to pick what 
animal they become?  >>

JKR has confirmed in interviews that the Animagus doesn't get to 
choose his/her animal form, but instead the animal form is a 
reflection of his/her personality.

http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/October_2000_Live_Chat_Americ
a_Online.htm
Q: Does the animal one turns into as an Animagi reflect your 
personality?
JKR: Very well deduced, Narri! I personally would like to think that 
I would transform into an otter, which is my favorite animal. Imagine 
how horrible it would be if I turned out to be a cockroach! 

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript2.htm
Q: If you were Animagus, what kind of animal would you be?
A: I'd like to be an otter -- that's my favourite animal. It would be 
depressing if I turned out to be a slug or something.

People often try to argue that Animagi *must* be able to choose their 
forms, because the Marauders needed to be two animals big enough to 
control a werewolf and one animal small enough to press the Willow's 
button,and Skeeter needed to be a very small flying object, but I 
don't buy that. The Marauders did *not* need to be two animals big 
enough to control a werewolf for their *original* plan, which was 
simply to hang out with Remus in the Shrieking Shack -- they had to 
be non-humans because werewolves are filled with frantic blood-lust 
for humans, but they could have been kittens and bunnyrabbits as long 
as Remus remembered they were his friends and didn't mistake them for 
food. And if they didn't need to have one small animal, as they 
*could* have used a long stick to press the button, as Pomfrey did. 
Steve bboy_mn explained in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/49504 why Skeeter 
probably didn't CHOOSE to be a bug.

I want to know, what happens if a person who has become an Animagus 
goes over the whole training again, from scratch, will heesh get 
another animal form? Can a person who is a werewolf become an 
Animagus? with an animal form other than wolf? Can a werewolf who is 
an Animagus with an animal form other than wolf avoid turning into a 
wolf monster at Full Moon by turning into hiser animal before the 
moment?

Maria wrote:

<< what happens if a female werewolf becomes pregnant ... from a man 
or from a wolf? Maybe you can get werewolf cubs ... >>

It's one of the many pieces of information that have annoying been 
left out of the Muggle edition of FABULOUS BEASTS, but I believe that 
a female werewolf who gets pregnant doesn't stay pregnant longer than 
a month, or *maybe* two months, because the transformation from human 
to wolf and from wolf to human is too stressful on the fetus.

I have absolutely NO canon for the following, but I believe that one 
of the MANY ways in which being an Animagus is better than being a 
werewolf is that a female Animagus's fetus transforms safely along 
with her. Whether she bears a human or an animal baby depends on 
which it form she's in when she gives birth. So it would be wise to 
avoid transforming when one might go into labor any day now. 

Sasha the Slytherin/Gryffindor has lately had a sig shipping 
Minerva/Crookshanks. My problem with this is that I used to 
believe that Crookshanks was Minerva's *son* (I forget why I gave 
it up when JKR explained that Crookshanks's specialness is that he's 
part-Kneazle). I figured she spent her entire pregnancy in cat form 
to get it over with in 42 days instead of nine months, but didn't 
transform back to human in time. 

Melody wrote:

<< Are werewolves insomniacs one night out of the year? >>

Huh? Do you mean the one (or whatever) night a month that they're in 
wolf form?

<< Does a witch ride a broom side saddle?" >>

1) If they did, wouldn't JKR have mentioned it when describing 
Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and Cho in their Quidditch matches? 2) in 
Muggle popular culture (e.g. Halloween decorations), witches ride 
broomsticks astride, 3) the reason Muggle ladies used to ride 
side-saddle is because they were wearing long dresses with skirts too 
narrow for them to spread their legs over an entire horse; this may 
not apply to broomsticks, which are much narrower than horses, and a
any way it would not be a gender difference for the magic folk, as 
wizards and witches both wear robes, 4) speaking of gender 
differences, anatomically it would be more logical for WIZARDS to 
ride their brooms side-saddle.  

JOdel wrote:

<< I think that unless Rowling is simply putting words into Fudge's 
mouth because someone needed to say it, and he happened to be there, 
(and the private lives of the poor, tragic, young Potters was tabloid 
news long enough for everyone to know these details -- which doesn't 
seem to be the case, since it is apparantly NOT widely known that 
Black was supposed to be their Secret Keeper) >>

Here's the canon:
****************************
"You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers!" chimed in 
Professor Flitwick. "Inseparable!"

"Of course they were," said Fudge. "Potter trusted Black beyond all 
his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was 
best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to 
Harry. Harry has no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea 
would torment him."

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" 
whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Worse even than that, m'dear...." Fudge dropped his voice and
proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that 
the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was 
of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of 
useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and 
Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, 
You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them 
that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."
****************************

I've always figured that that was information that Fudge had gotten 
through his Ministry job. Either he read the paperwork on the case, 
or he was present when Dumbledore gave his testimony. In 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/49442 
Elkins explains how Dumbledore may have given his testimony to the 
same kind of council to which Karkaroff ratted out his friends. Young 
Fudge could have been some kind of usher or note-taker serving the 
council if he was too lowly to be a member of the council. 

At least the USA PoA says 'evidence' rather than 'testimony': "I 
myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the 
Potters' Secret-Keeper." To me, this suggests one or two officials 
interviewed him without ceremony. Fudge could have been one of those 
officials.