[HPforGrownups] Transfiguration Question

[Tammy Rizzo]

No: HPFGUIDX 58887

On 28 May 2003 at 19:24, freddie mac wrote:
> I think it is fairly well established that wizards cannot
> make something out of nothing.  For example, a book can be
> made out of a a glass, but not out of empty air.  Here
> then, is my question:

I (tammy) reply:
Actually, wizards frequently make something out of nothing -- whenever they 
conjure anything, it comes from nothing.  Sadly, it also returns to nothing when 
they're finished with it.  Conjuring is, by nature, impermanent.  But back to 
transfiguring . . . .


freddie mac continues:
> While wizards can change the shape of something (glass to
> book), can they change the *essence* of something from the
> original object to the new object?  This is a bit clearer
> (or more convoluted, depending on your perspective) if you
> consider living things.
> 
> A ferret (*grin*) can be changed into a human-shaped
> ferret, but can the essence of a ferret be changed into the
> essence of a human?  

I (tammy) chime in again:
Well, I don't remember WHERE it says this, though I think it was in QTTA, but my 
understanding is that, if a wizard transfigures himself into, say, a bat, so he could fly 
somewhere (NOTE:  I'm not talking about Animagus transformations here), he'd be 
kinda stuck as a bat, not having proper hands with which to wield a wand, living a 
bat's life in a bat's body until his mind forgot he'd ever been a wizard.  I feel that the 
essence you're talking about, at least when it's a human being transfigured, retains 
its original 'form', if you will, for some time, before molding itself to fit the new form.

Viktor Krum managed a poor transfiguration (or transformation?) of himself, giving 
himself a shark's head (and gills?), but he retained his wizard's mind for the 
duration.

freddie mac goes on:
> When I think about transfiguration, I have a sense that the
> outer form is changed, but not necessarily the
> inner/intrinsic aspects.  If you change a ferret into a
> human-shaped ferret, does the ferret gain human senses,
> reasoning, soul (for lack of a better term), or is the
> ferret simply reshaped into a human-like shape?

And I (tammy) reason thusly:
As for your example of a ferret gaining the essence of a human if forced into a 
human shape . . . well, I imagine that, if a ferret were human-shaped for long 
enough, and lived in human society for long enough, and the 
transfiguration/transformation was thorough enough (giving the ferret a human brain 
to house its ferret mind), the creature would quite likely develop some sense of self-
awareness over and above what other ferrets would have, and would learn how to 
avoid gross suspicion about its actual origins and fit in better, though it would 
probably never BE fully human.

That is simply my opinion, shaped by decades of reading SF/F, and it may not be 
how JKR's WW works, but I see it as a good theory.

***
Tammy
tammy at mauswerks.net