Animagi (was: Three topics of interest - for comments

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 67682

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "elfen_dagger" <tdoyle at i...> 
wrote:
> 
> > That brings up a very good point. Do Animagi's forms
> > run in families? In other words, do cat Animagi father
> > or give birth to other cat Animagi? And what happens when
> > the parents are two different Animagi. Would their offspring
> > be able to transform into either form, would they change into 
> > a creature that was a combination of the maternal and paternal
> > animagi, or would they change into a chimera?

Is a person's Patronus always an animal? Is it always the same animal 
as their Animagus form? We don't know both the Patronus and the 
Animagus of the same person of any character. Harry's Patronus is a 
stag, Hermione's is an otter, Cho's is a swan, none of them are 
Animagi. And we don't know the Patroni of any Marauder, Skeeter, nor 
McGonagall. 

However, JKR has said that Hermione is based on herself and she has 
said that if she were an Animagus, she would wish to be an otter, so 
I'm wondering about the connection of JKR's Animagus and Hermione's 
Patronus. I would be surprised if Hermione's Animagus was an otter, 
because the Animagus form reflects the personality, and Hermione has 
the intelligence and cunning but lacks the playfulness of otters (JKR 
shows no lack of playfulness, with the puns and humor in these books).

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.

So Animagus form would run in families only to the extent that 
personality runs in families. Personality does run in families quite 
often in the Potterverse, but obviously not always. I imagine that 
Sirius's Dark relatives' Animagus forms would have been, like, 
venomous serpents and venomous spiders...

One thing I want to know, is it at all likely or even possible that a 
person's Animagus form would turn out to be a water creature, such as 
a fish, or, worse yet, a jellyfish or a sea anemone, who would die 
almost instantly upon their first successful transformation unless 
they were in a tub of water at the time? Correct water (sea water or 
fresh water) at that. 

Another thing 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?

I have a theory that a female werewolf cannot bear children because 
the monthly transformation is too hard on the fetus; she always 
miscarries because of the first or sometimes the second Full Moon 
after conception.

But that one of the MANY ways in which being an Animagus is better 
than being a werewolf is that an Animagus's fetus transforms along 
with the mother. But if she is in animal form when she goes into 
labor, it's too late to turn back human, and if she gives birth while 
in animal form, her baby is an animal, not a human. Until we found 
out that Crookshanks is part Kneazle, I thought he was McGonagall's 
son, thus explaining his unusual intelligence. (Advantage of being a 
cat Animagus: get pregnancy over with in 40 days instead of 280 days.)