Magic Rats vs. Magi Rats

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 53625

This passage from Chapter 4 of PoA prompts some meditation:


A pair of enormous purple toads sat gulping wetly and feasting on 
dead blowflies. A gigantic tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell was 
glittering near the window. Poisonous orange snails were oozing 
slowly up the side of their glass tank, and a fat white rabbit kept 
changing into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping 
noise. Then there were cats of every color, a noisy cage of ravens, a 
basket of funny custard-colored furballs that were humming loudly, 
and on the counter, a vast cage of sleek black rats that were playing 
some sort of skipping game using their long, bald tails.

The double-ended newt wizard left, and Ron approached the counter.

"It's my rat," he told the witch. "He been a bit off-color ever since 
I brought him back from Egypt."

"Bang him on the counter," said the witch, pulling a pair of heavy 
black spectacles out of her pocket.

Ron lifted Scabbers out of his inside pocket and placed him next to 
the cage of his fellow rats, who stopped their skipping tricks and 
scuffled to the wire for a better took.

Like nearly everything Ron owned, Scabbers the rat was secondhand (he 
had once belonged to Ron's brother Percy) and a bit battered. Next to 
the glossy rats in the cage, he looked especially woebegone.

"Hm," said the witch, picking up Scabbers. "How old is this rat?"

"Dunno," said Ron. "Quite old. He used to belong to my brother."

"What powers does he have?" said the witch, examining Scabbers 
closely.

"Er --" The truth was that Scabbers had never shown the faintest 
trace of interesting powers. The witch's eyes moved from Scabbers's 
tattered left ear to his front paw, which had a toe missing, and 
tutted loudly.

"He's been through the mill, this one," she said.

"He was like that when Percy gave him to me," said Ron defensively.

"An ordinary common or garden rat like this can't be expected to live 
longer than three years or so," said the witch. "Now, if you were 
looking for something a bit more hard-wearing, you might like one of 
these --" [end quote]


OK. We have these high-tech magical rats with all sorts of enhanced 
ultra-rodent powers for sale vs. poor old boring Scabbers who betrays 
not the faintest trace of magic. Yet of course we now know that the 
magic rats are, whatever their powers, just rats, whereas Scabbers 
was none other than Hogwarts alumni Peter Pettigrew. Since Peter was 
a wizard (albeit not an especially brilliant one), why didn't Peter 
display magic powers in his rodent incarnation? 

Two theories:

(1) Peter was so terrified that he would be found out as an Animagi 
in hiding, that he refrained from showing any of his magical 
abilities. This might have explained his withdrawal short-term, but 
not long-term: since magical rats live significantly longer than 
ordinary rats, the non-magic Scabbers extended life span should have 
called some attention to itself....

(2) Part of the trade-off when a human wizard relinquishes human form 
is that he also relinquishes his magical powers when in animal form 
(save for the power to resume human form). This seems more likely to 
me: e.g., the human Sirius Black could have used an Expelliarmus 
spell to disarm the Trio, whereas Padfoot could have done nothing 
other than what a humungous black dog could have done(e.g., leap up 
on them). So, I will argue, that when Peter transformed into 
Scabbers/Wormtail, he lost most of his magic powers. Not till he 
resumed human form, and had his wand again, could he exercise his 
full magic powers.


   - CMC