Animagi/Fred, George and a new FLINT?

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 67788

Rita the Catlady:> 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.)>

***
There are some things about the Animagi question that bother me. 
Most of them come up in PoA. 

'That's not a rat' croaked Sirius Black suddenly.
'What do you mean - of course he's a rat - '
'No he's not,' said Lupin quietly. 'He's a wizard.'
'An Animagus,' said Black, 'by the name of Peter Pettigrew.' 
(PoA, Bloomsbury hardback, p255)

Now this explained a lot to me. Peter *isn't* a rat. (This is not a 
pipe...) He's a representation of a rat. His lifespan well surpasses 
that of a rat, and he is able to comprehend that Sirius is loose, 
and what this means for him - in fact, he is able to follow and 
comprehend human speech, something which a rat's brain couldn't 
possibly cope with. We have canon for all this information. His 
human form, and his clothes, including pockets and any item that 
were in the pockets (waves to the "Where did Pettigrew's &!*^%$@ 
wand go?" people), still exist in some secondary space. However, 
whenever someone elses looks, touches, or otherwise interacts with 
him, he appears to be a rat. He has assumed the form of a rat, but 
is not a rat. Therefore, the Animagic (?) transformation is not 
genetic. The child of a cat Animagus isn't an Animagus itself, 
because from all we know of the Animagic process, a person must 
*become* an Animagus. The pregnant human form, along with fetus, 
exists in this hypothetical other space. It's an artificial process 
which does not interfere with a person's genetics in any way, right?
Well,
 '...I could transform in my cell... become a dog. Dementors can't 
see, you know...' He swallowed. 'They feel their ways towards people 
by sensing their emotions...they could tell that my feelings were 
less - less human, less complex when I was a dog...' (PoA, p272)
And again:
'...it's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they 
were confused...' (PoA, p273)

ARGH! It doesn't make sense. Peter-as-Animagus and Sirius-as-
Animagus appear to have completely different experiences. While 
Peter-as-Scabbers finds a wizard family to take him in in order to 
know what's going on: "'Keeping a ear out for news, weren't you 
Peter?'"(p271), which implies potential for human facilities, Sirius 
claims that his emotions were those of an "animal"?. There are some 
huge discrepancies here. Sirius and James as Animagi must have 
retained enough of their human brains to know that they had a moral 
responsibility over Remus the werewolf, morals being something 
particular to humans. Perhaps the Animagic transformation only 
affects the physical form and emotions? Rats are capable of feeling 
fear - but fear sustained over a long period of time, combined with 
knowledge of the source of that fear? Isn't that a more human 
comprehension? 

Oh - a little bit of petrol on the long-dead flames of the "Peter's 
Pocket" debate: *Lupin* picks up Harry's Invisibility Cloak, puts it 
in his pocket, transforms into a werewolf all night and then 
delivers it safely back to Harry. Where does that pocket go? Popular 
depictions of werewolves tend to show them running around Hulkishly 
in the ripped remainders of the clothes they had been wearing pre-
transformation. All PoA mentions is that Lupin's body "lengthens" - 
however, as he is able to "curl up as an ordinary wolf" after taking 
Snape's potion, this would seem to suggest that there is something 
Animagic about this kind of transformation too. Although he's not on 
the register - as Hermione would have noticed - which suggests that 
the WW doesn't consider werewolves to be Animagi.

Hmm, may have just yabbered myself into a tangle here. Anyway, 
second half of the post - I think I have a FLINT! In PoA, Fred and 
George receive their OWL results before the end of the term in which 
they sat them, whereas HRH have to wait until the holidays for 
theirs. However, as I've been ignoring all topic headings which 
say "OWLS - Flint", as I assumed they were just an endless rehashing 
of the old "how come Percy and Bill got seventy-four OWLS between 
them and Hermione only sat ten?", I might have just irritated a lot 
of people. Sorry about that.  
 
Kirstini. Thesis obviously going swimmingly. Supervisor not very 
happy.