Dumbledore, Animagi, and animals

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90405

Pippin wrote:
> I think the animal companions and counterparts may represent a 
> desire or ability that's being repressed. The more developed 
> characters  have more than one animal because they are more 
> complex. 
> 
> Harry
>  the snake: his connection with Voldemort
>  the deer : memories of his father
>  the owl: knowledge (all those questions Harry doesn't let 
> himself think of, much less ask.)
> 
> Sirius
>  hippogriff: escape 
>  dog form: uncomplicated emotions
> 
> Hermione
> otter patronus: playfullness
> Crookshanks: aggression
> 
> Dumbledore 
> Phoenix: immortality
> Bumblebee: sting, ie, exercising those powers he is too noble to 
> use
>

Carol:
I personally think that we know the pets (I  can't say "animal
companions" without cringing, sorry) of the students in Gryffindor
because they're the ones Harry knows most about (how about Lee
Jordan's tarantula?), and we know the forms of the few people who are
animagi, but neither is an index of their development or complexity.
None of them except McGonagall and the possible animagus, Dumbledore,
are fully developed characters. McGonagall, Dumbledore, MWPP, and Rita
Skeeter may or may not have had pets in their school days. (Imagine if
McGonagall had a real cat as a pet, and she stepped outside with it
occasionally to, um, "let her hair down.") As for a Patronus, every
witch or wizard has one, but its identity or shape can only be
discovered if they cast the spell correctly.

All of which makes me wonder what Snape's "animal companion" (pet?
familiar?) was when he was a student. (I know you'll say a bat, though
I don't know if bats are allowed at Hogwarts as anything but Halloween
decorations. Imagine one flying along the corridors and teachers and
students screaming and running in all directions!) And what might his
Patronus be? For that matter, what's his boggart, his greatest fear?
Is it LV, which would help to explain why he hates to hear Voldemort's
name? Imagine him as the DADA teacher teaching boggarts and having LV
reveal himself to the terrified students!

In any case, he's the most complex character of all, so if the theory
that "the more developed characters have more than one animal because
they are more complex" is valid, it would have to apply to him.

Carol, who had fun with this post even though she doesn't believe the
theory