The Useless Animagus

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 53624

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "psychodudeneo" 
<psychomaverick at h...> wrote:
> Something's been annoying me.  Wizards aren't allowed to choose 
their 
> Animagus form, although one would hardly be able to tell this from 
> the books.
> 
> Every Animagus we've seen so far has been perfectly adapted to that 
> wizard's needs.

Let us consider this passage from GoF, Chap. 26, when the Trio are 
desparately searching for a way for Harry to breathe underwater. As 
is usually the case when one is exhausted, one's worst character 
traits come to the fore: in Hermione's case, her pedantry:

"I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face-down, on 
Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts.  "I should've learned to be an 
Animagus like Sirius."

An Animagus was a wizard who could transform into an animal.
"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!"  
said Ron.

"Or a frog," yawned Harry.  He was exhausted.  

"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register 
yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down 
the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas & Their Solutions.  "Professor 
McGonagall told us, remember... you've got to register yourself with 
the Improper Use of Magic Office ...what animal you become, and your 
markings, so you can't abuse it
"

"Hermione, I was joking," said Harry wearily.  "I know I haven't got 
a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning...."

We can assume that Hermione knows as much as anyone who is not an 
actual Animagus about the Animagic process. She takes Harry very 
literally at this point, lecturing him about the length of time it 
would take to learn the Animagic arts, the bureaucratic hoops that he 
would have to jump through, etc., without realizing that Harry is 
merely joking.  What she does not challenge in Harry's comment is 
that he could decide to become a frog or a goldfish if he so 
inclined: she doesn't declare, in her full ultra-nitpicking mode, 
that Harry would not have the choice as to whether he would become a 
sea-faring critter. I take this as canonic evidence that Animagi are 
able to select the creature whose form they adapt (and I have the 
filk to prove it!)

http://home.att.net/~coriolan/students/marauders.htm#Whatever_Creature
_We_Deem

   - CMC