DD an animagus?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90386

"Janet Anderson" wrote:
For all we know, Dumbledore is a *registered* Animagus, right there 
for anyone to see who wanted to look it up.  And Hermione, who can 
certainly  keep a secret, might not have mentioned it, either because
she thinks it  might be an important piece of information to have up
her sleeve, or because Dumbledore or McGonagall asked her not to.
> 
Jim Ferer responded:
> I like that explanation. It's the most plausible one to me. Hermione 
> would absolutely keep a secret if asked.  I never warmed up to the 
> idea that Hermione looked up all the animagi registered *this 
> century,* and didn't find him because DD was registered the century 
> before - it seemed like such a loophole, and you'd think any list of 
> animagi would include the ones *still living.*  OTOH, there are 
> hypotheses that could explain why DD didn't register or that his 
> registration was a State secret:
> 
> ** DD didn't register for the same reason Rita Skeeter didn't, 
> although his motives were purer: he gathered intelligence this way
on LV, and Grindenwald before him.
> 
> ** He did register, but the Minister at the time (not Fudge) agreed 
> to keep it secret.  Fudge may not even know, which at the time of
OoP would have been a good thing.
> 
> There's no evidence for any of it, but it seems to make sense.

Carol:
Or maybe animagi weren't required to register in the old days
(pre-Grindelwald). IIRC, the werewolf registration law is new. Doesn't
Percy indicate that it was instituted by Crouch? In any case, children
seem to have been able to practice magic at home when Lily was at
Hogwarts (unless Petunia is making up stories about frog spawn and
rats turning into teacups and I don't see why that would be the case),
so the laws appear to have become stricter in recent years (unless you
count exceptions for Aurors allowing them to cast Unforgiveable Curses).

Anyway, I agree that there must be some reasonable explanation for
DD's being an unregistered animagus, if indeed he is one. And again,
all we have as evidence is his name, the presence of wasps in various
scenes, the precedent of Rita Skeeter, and DD's ability to become
"invisible" if he chooses. It's one way of accounting for his
near-omniscience regarding Harry, with fewer complications than the
time-travel theory, but there may be other explanations as well.
Anyone else have any ideas?

Carol