Transfiguration Question - when does something think for itself?

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 58937

Mark:
 
> 
> But I'll throw another question out along these same lines:  What 
> happened when Krum turned the stone into a Dog?  Obviously it was 
> enough of a dog to distract the dragon (for a moment), but it 
didn't 
> have the "mind of a rock".  It was very "dog like".

For one thing, Cedric was the one turning stone into dog - Krum did 
something to the Dragon's eyes. But that action...

Well, let's take another matter: "never trust anything that can think 
for itself unless you can see where it keeps it's brain" - I suppose 
this stone-dog calls for something that can't think for itself - 
unlike the Diary!Riddle. I suppose talking mirrors, Marauder's Map 
etc. don't, either... (any more than the chocolate frog is real...)

And I agree on i.e. Malfoy keeping his human mind when transfigured.
McGonagall tells Moody that "We don't use transfiguration as 
punishment" - though, obviously, some others(Ministry?) do. It'd not 
be much of a punishment if their mind turned to match the animal, 
would it? Rat doesn't dislike being a rat, after all...

-- Finwitch