The Useless Animagus

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 53629

Psychodudneo:

> 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.  

<snip>

> To drive the point home, I hope that we finally see a long-
> awaited "Absolutely Useless Animags".  I'm talking about an animal 
> for completely and utterly unfit for whatever the Wizard had been 
> planning on doing.


I see what you're saying, but I don't think this is necessarily an 
inconsistency.
I have always assumed that animagic forms are determined by the wizard or 
witch's character or essence.

Peter Pettigrew becomes a rat because, well he *is* a rat. 
Sirius becomes a dog because he is loyal.
James became a stag because of its connotations of strength and nobility (JKR 
may also have had certain Christian symbolism in mind).
Rita becomes a beetle because she is a low creature.
Minerva? Well, I suppose she has a cat-like inscrutability.

Of course, the characteristics are those commonly ascribed to the animals 
concerned. We all know of mean dogs and rats have an undeservedly bad name in 
some ways.

Of course, names also seem to play a part. We could argue that Peter 
*Pettigrew* would naturally become smaller, that Sirius Black could become 
nothing but a black dog, that Rita Skeeter would become a creature that 
skitters about.

We can look at the names as conceits, the author playing games for her own 
amusement, or to drop clues, or we can view them as 'real' within the context 
of the books and therefore having some influence on animagic form (as 
believers in numerology would have us believe our names do on our 
characters).

Having said that, it is of course very convenient that James, Sirius and 
Peter took on the forms they did. These conveniences do tend to happen in 
books ;-) but then, look at the coincidences which happen in real life.

Caius Marcius:
>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!)

Good point.

My comment on this would be that in the passage of canon you quote (which I 
snipped) Hermione gives as her source McGonagall's teaching, rather than a 
book. If she quoted a book, I would agree - she would know everything there 
is to know. As it is, we don't know how much McGonagall imparted during a 
transfiguration class. As the Animagus trnsformation is rather advanced 
magic, it was possibly only a comment made in passing.

Hermione does also mention the need to register your animagic form, implying 
that it is fixed, as we assume it is. It seems strange to me that if you can 
*choose* your form, then you cannot choose which form to take according to 
circumstance.

Finally, convenient as it is for Rita to be a 'fly on the wall' (yes, I know 
beetles aren't flies!), it's a very vulnerable form. Would you choose that 
over, say, being a bird? Would you *choose* to be a rat? After all, 
Crookshanks was able to press the knot on the Whomping Willow. Surely a cat 
would have been able to join in what, for the sake of ease and in deference 
to long tradition, I shall call the Marauders' exploits far more easily than 
a rat.

I don't think you can choose.

~Eloise

Who thinks the most annoyingly convenient thing in canon is that not only did 
Snape mention Polyjuice Potion but that he gave the name of the book in the 
restricted section of the library in which the recipe was contained.

And would probably transform into a sloth.

    
    



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