Animagus

[Wendy St. John]

No: HPFGUIDX 79449

 jazmyn <jazmyn at p...> wrote:

> I have a theory on animagus.  I believe a wizard with any 
reasonable > skill in transfiguration can turn into any animal they 
have practiced > at.  What defines an Animagus is the ability to 
turn into an animal AT > WILL, meaning without a wand.   With a 
wand, they could turn into other > kinds of animals, but the animal 
form they are most specialized in, is > their 'animagus form' and 
they can switch back and forth between this > form at will, with or 
without a wand.

Now me (Wendy):

The only problem with this theory is that we have canon which 
indicates that someone transfigured into an animal does not retain 
his or her human mental faculties. Whereas, it seems clear that 
someone in their animagus form does, at least to great degree 
(McGonagall reading the map, for example, as well as various 
comments made by Sirius). Sirius did say that his emotions were 
different in his animagus form, but he still appears to be able to 
think as a human.

Here's what "Quiddich Through the Ages" says about animal 
transfigurations:

"Those few Animagi who transform into winged creatures may enjoy 
flight, but they are a rarity. The witch or wizard who finds him- or 
herself transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but, having a 
bat's brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the 
moment they take flight."

This indicates to me that there is a substantive difference between 
Animagi transformation and transfiguration more than just the 
ability to do it with or without a wand.

Having said that, I will admit to being confused by Krums' partially 
successful shark transfiguration during the second task in GoF. If 
transfigured humans have the brains of their animal forms, why 
didn't the transfigured Krum go on a feeding frenzy? This is 
contradictory with what we're told in QTA. Maybe the fact that the 
transfiguration *was* incomplete allowed Krum to retain his capacity 
for human thought. Perhaps if he'd transfigured completely into a 
shark, this would not have been the case? 

Hopefully we'll learn a bit more about this later, but for now I 
lean towards the conclusion that transfiguration into an animal is 
not actually a useful thing that wizards and witches would want to 
perform upon themselves in most cases. 

Hmnh. In trying to answer a question, I've only brought up a new 
question, haven't I? Funny how often that happens around here! ;-)

Wendy