Fawkes

[bwerschkun]

No: HPFGUIDX 54141

On the question whether Fawkes could be the animagus form of Godric 
Gryffindor, Martin wrote:
"This raises issues of how much of the animal does a wizard become 
when in animagus form. (SNIP) Clearly an animagus bird would be able 
to fly, an animagus fish to breathe under water (Krum-shark in GoF) 
but what other powers? Could an animagus phoenix effectively become 
immortal if s/he stayed in phoenix form for ever?"

and Sarah replied:
"I think it's at least possible.  (SNIP)  As for animal/wizard powers 
bleeding into each other, I seem to recall that Sirius retained some 
of his canine qualities while in human form, though I can't back that 
up without the book here with me."

Now me:
On this issue we can look at the example of Peter Pettigrew and his 
rat animagus: At the beginning of PoA, when the kids are in the 
magical creatures shop in Diagon Alley, we learn that rats commonly 
only live for about 3 years. Yet, it later turns out that Pettigrew 
was able to live in his rat form for 12 years. In fact, Lupin even 
uses this as an argument when he is still in the process of convincing 
Ron that "Scabbers" was, indeed, "Peter". Hence, I assume that the 
animagus Pettigrew not sharing his animal form's usual mortality also 
means that a phoenix animagus would not share his animal's 
immortality... 
As for Sirius retaining some of his canine qualities while in human 
form: I also can't back it up, right now, but I think the reference is 
more of a general nature, along the lines of "resembling" the dog. 
This is also mentioned for Pettigrew, that even as a human something 
of the rat was still "lingering" in his face. I take this as an 
expression of the animal form of an animagus reflecting the respective 
human's personality (which we know it does from a Rowling interview).


Another angle on the Fawkes/Godric connection was introduced by 
erisedstraeh2002:
"I think there is strong support in canon for the theory that Fawkes 
was Godric Gryffindor's phoenix when Gryffindor was alive:
(1) Fawkes is scarlet and gold, the colors of Gryffindor House. 
Harry's wand contains one of Fawkes' feathers as its magical core, and 
red and gold sparks fly from the end of his wand the first time he 
waves it."

Me:
However, Voldemort's wand also contains one of Fawkes' feathers and 
when he and Harry duel at the end of GoF, there is green light 
emerging from Voldemort's wand, while red light is from Harry's... I 
have always wondered about this: why does Voldemort have a wand with a 
feather from Fawkes? I mean, "the wand choses the wizard" and Fawkes 
is so closely related to Dumbledore and also appears to have some 
special connection with Harry, not to mention how he repeatedly comes 
to Harry's rescue against Voldemort - why would Voldemort, the heir of 
Slytherin and deadly enemy of both Dumbledore and Harry be chosen for 
a wand containing a part of Fawkes?

Another question that has been occupying my mind for a while might 
have been discussed before, but I must admit I am too lazy to spend 
hours searching the exceedingly voluminous archives.... What is the 
story with the name "Fawkes"? I mean, there are these examples of 
characters' names being important and something of a give-away 
throughout the series (Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, "Sybil" Trelawney, 
Professor Sprout, just to name a few), I have difficulties to believe 
that a name like "Fawkes" should be chosen accidentally but also can't 
quite see where it's heading at. Many of you, who are British, will 
know this much better, but as far as I know Guy Fawkes was an English 
rebell a few hundred years ago who tried to throw over the ruling 
powers by setting fire to the parliament (or was it some government 
building?) but didn't succeed and "Guy Fawkes Day" is still being 
celebrated in England with bonfires as an expression of people being 
glad that they didn't lose their parliamentary system. Is that about 
right? So is the name Fawkes, as a mere symbol of "fire", only 
referring to the phoenix' ability to die and be reborn from flames? Or 
is there a deeper meaning implying rebellious and possibly destructive 
powers that the phoenix Fawkes is somehow connected to? And, being 
Dumbledore's pet, what would that mean for the story behind 
Dumbledore? I feel as if this was all pointing to some dualism in the 
sense of good and bad being two sides of the same coin (is this an 
existing expression in English?) and so forth, but at the same time 
both these sides, i.e. Voldemort and Harry, must be incorporated in 
Fawkes, because he gave the feathers for both their wands, and Fawkes 
belongs to Dumbledore, whom we know as the personification of the good 
side. I find this all very confusing, yet intriguing, and hope that 
same of you are able and willing to help me sort it out!

My second-ever-post to this list (the first one was about one year 
ago).

Barbara