Fawkes' Age, "Wormtail" vs. Pettigrew, and Dumbledore as an Animagus

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 54303

Martin wrote:

> From the interview it seems JKR named him Fawkes as a link to Guy 
> Fawkes. Guy Fawkes died in 1606 inferring that Fawkes the phoenix 
> can be no older than about 387 years (if CoS is set around 1993).

Now me:

Just because JKR has implied that she named Fawkes the phoenix after 
Guy Fawkes doesn't mean that Fawkes the phoenix has to have been born 
(for the first time) after the death of the real Guy Fawkes.  I still 
maintain that we have no idea how old Fawkes is, and since phoenixes 
can live to an "immense" age in JKR's canon, Fawkes could be old 
enough to have once been Godric Gryffindor's phoenix (or animagus, 
depending on what you'd like to believe).

I originally wrote:

> So Voldemort may be afraid that the DEs will turn on Pettigrew if 
> they knew it was Pettigrew, so he's decided to call 
> Pettigrew "Wormtail" and let the DEs believe that Pettigrew is 
> still dead.

and Becky responded:

> The DE's will abide by whatever Voldemort decides concerning the 
> fate of this follower. And he is also in a position to
> simply tell them know Peter did NOT betray him. So protecting 
> Pettigrew from Voldemort's followers has now become a moot point 
> really.

Now me:

Now that Voldemort has regained his body, yes, I agree that 
protecting Pettigrew from the other DEs has become a moot point.  
However, since Pettigrew was a crucial part of Voldemort's plan to 
regain his body and to regenerate using Harry's blood, I believe it 
was important to Voldemort to keep his identity hidden, especially 
from Barty Crouch Jr., who, in his own words, has stated: "if there's 
one thing I hate more than any other, it's a Death Eater who walked 
free."  Pettigrew walked free, so in order for Pettigrew and Crouch 
Jr. to work together to implement Voldemort's regeneration plan, it 
is quite possible that Voldemort needed to hide Pettigrew's identity 
from Crouch Jr. in order to keep Crouch Jr. from killing Pettigrew.

Now that Voldemort has been returned to his body, however, he has 
less of a need to keep Pettigrew's identity hidden.  Which leads me 
to speculate on what might happen when (and if) Voldemort "breaks 
open" Azkaban and sets the DEs free – Voldemort might just feed 
Pettigrew to his enemies.

Leigh wrote:

> We all seem to think that Dumbledore is an animagus <snip>

Now me:

Not all of us do!  I don't!  I think Dumbledore has powers that we 
have yet to find out about (such as how he can make himself invisible 
without an invisibility cloak), but I don't believe he's an animagus.

~Phyllis