[HPforGrownups] Unregistered Animagi

[Danger Mouse]

No: HPFGUIDX 60950

With only a couple days to go, Michaelkgidlow wrote:

I have some theroies on which of the animals are really human.

Me: 
I am entirely, totally, and completely opposed to JKR putting any more than *one* animagus in the remaining Books, unless it is absolutely essential to the overall plot. Is anyone else annoyed by this kind of stuff? I've just found it rather distracting and far too random... for animagic, which is apparently very rare and difficult to do, we've seen FIVE unregistered animagi + McG. I am a *huge* fan of the books. I *adore* JKR, her writing style, her characters, and everything else people enjoy reading and analyzing in the Harry Potter series. Yet, this kind of repeated Deus Ex Machina just blows my mind. <end rant>

Michaelkgidlow writes:
I have long suspected that Mrs. Norris is a Animagi. It seems very weird that a cat would have a name with "Mrs." as a part of it. After all, "Mrs." implies that there is a "Mr." somewhere. Just a thought...
   
Me: 
God (read JKR) only knows what Mrs. Norris' backstory is... for all we know, the cat my Art History teacher calls "striking" is just a weird variety of cat in the vein of a kneazle. I admit that she could be an animagus, but why not just be a smart cat--the only friend Filchy-boy has? Why would a witch decide to spend her entire life as a cat (unless she de-cats in private...)? Magic gone terribly awry? Why, in a state of shock in CoS, would he call Petrified!Norris a cat and not his lover or by her real name or what have you? I dunno... I just read Mrs. Norris as being a weird kind of cat, not a woman. But who knows... I might eat my words in a few days...

Michaelkgidlow continued:
I would be very surprised if Crookshanks does not turn out to be a animagi. He certainly is a very smart cat, and he sure knows his way around Hogwarts. The ginger hair also suggests that he may some how 
be related to either the Weasleys or the Evens (since Lily is said to have had ginger hair). 

Me:
Quoting Fantastic Beasts: "The Kneazle was originally bred in Britain, though it is now exported worldwide. A small cat-like creature with flecked, speckled or spotted fur, outsize ears and a tail like a lion´s, the Kneazle is intelligent, independent and occasionally aggressive, though if it takes a liking to a witch or wizard, it makes an excellent pet. The Kneazle has an uncanny ability to detect unsavoury or suspicious characters and can be relied upon to guide its owner safely home if  they are lost. Kneazles have up to eight kittens in a litter and can interbreed with cats. Licences are required for ownership as (like Crups and Fwoopers) Kneazles are sufficiently unusual in appearance to attract Muggle interest."
And so you see, Crookshanks, part-kneazle according to PoA, is definately not a human, unless, of course, it's some sort of wacky plot on the part of the MoM, Dumbledore, etc, to get an animagus at Hogwarts to supervise the Gang. But there's a looooot of canon to the contrary, that writes off Crookshanks' most notable qualities (intelligence, appearance) to Kneazle heritage. Then again, never say never, as JKR just might throw Animagus!Crookshanks at us... I just don't see it as likely, nor do I particularly want it to happen.

Moving write along, Michaelkgidlow pointed out that:
Neville's toad, Trevor, might be an animagi. I remember the 
name "Paddock" appearing in one of the books, and "Paddock" is an old 
English word for "toad". I'm not so sure on this one though, but it 
is interesting that he keeps running away from Neville, much the same 
way Scabbers ran away from Ron in book 3. Could there be someone at 
Hogwarts that Trevor is trying to avoid?

Me:
Again, not so likely... I'm not sure where you saw Paddock, and though the root does come from "padde" which means toad, it could also be a fenced in area... perhaps Mr. Paddock, wherever he's mentioned, is actually an animagus stable... : O )             Sure it's interesting that Trevor hops around, but that's what toads do, isn't it?  

Michaelkgidlow continued:
This may sound crazy, but I believe the great Dumbledore is an 
animagi. I read somewhere that "Dumbledore" is an old English word 
for "bumblebee". Could it be that Dumbledore can change into some 
kind of flying insect? That would explain his seeming omniscience of 
everything that goes on in the school (since no one would notice a 
small insect flying around the school). Also, Rita's last 
name, "Sketter" is a shortened form of mosquito, but Rita was a 
bettle. So maybe Dumbledore isn't a bee, but he is some kind of 
flying insect.

Me: 
This is the one character I see being a soon-to-be-revealed animagus. He's an ex-transfiguration teacher and widely acclaimed as the most powerful wizard of the age. If McG can do it, if a Daily Prophet reporter can do it, and 4 students can do it, Dumbledore absolutely can. I wholeheartedly agree. Maybe he is a bee, but I'd like to see him as a bear, or something normally vicious like a white tiger. I think it'd be pretty cool to see the grandfatherly old man we all love transform into a big (cuddly?) Bengal tiger under pressure. 

Michaelkgidlow thought about:
Mrs. Figg's cats. We all know that Mrs. Figg is going to be 
playing a prominant roll in future books, so I suspect that at least 
some of her cats are animagi, and she may be one herself. Maybe her 
purpose in repeatedly showing Harry her cats was so that he would 
recognize them. Perhasps Crookshanks was one of her cats at one time. 

Me:
Again, I don't think so... If JKR is going to use animagi again, I hope it will be done very sparingly. I just don't see Mrs. Figg or her cats being animagi.

Finally, Michaelgidlow said:
I'm probably wrong on most of these, but who knows? Anything is 
possible in Harry Potter's world.

Me: 
I do agree. JKR could pull anything, but we've seen a lot of intelligent magical creatures that possess human-like qualities, such as Buckbeak, Fawkes, the leprechauns, a sphinx, and the merpeople, as well as ones that we haven't seen, such as vampires and hags, but they aren't animagi. I just hope this tool is used rarely...

Alright, it's late, so I'm off to bed to dream about waiting in line at Barnes and Noble,
-Dan

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