[HPforGrownups] Re: Animagi reproducing?

[Silverthorne]

No: HPFGUIDX 90633

{SnapesRaven} 
I don't intend to imply any animagus pairings here... I just wonder.  
Just for fun (and to make your head spin), imagine what would happen if a wizard in animagus form accidentally mated with an animal of the species they turned into.

{Carol}

I'm not sure how far I want to go with this idea given that the HPgseries is (at least in theory) intended for children, <<<Anne goes *Snip*>>> But your theory could plausibly account for the origin of centaurs (an animagus in horse form and a real horse). It seems
preferable to the alternative (a horse and a woman or a mare and a man). Ugh.


{Anne}

I have to agree with Carol on prefering to say an animagus horse in form and a real horse mating as an explaination fir centaurs than...um...bestiality as the explaination for any human-animal mixes creature wise. I also kinda want to steer away for the most poart from considering whether wizard/animal mating took place between shape shifted animagi and animals...and to further add, I would also have to say that I doubt that is how Rowling sees the centaur race having formed (if she even thought about it). 

Since centaurs were a genetically viable race all on thier own in the Greek myths, and Rowling thus far only seems to tweak the original forms of the myths and folkloric creatures for her own use, I don't see the necessity of saying centaurs came from some poor shapeshifted animagus mistaking the family plow animal for his or her human mate after a drunken night on the town, so to speak...^^;

However, I am interested enough in shapeshifting to wonder about things such as whether or not a preganant animagus could shift without the risk of miscarriage. Would the body accomidate a non-shifting fetus, or would the strain cause the mother to void it? Or would the child, since fetus and mother are sharing thier blood supply, nutrients and other things, shift with the mother? (This would assume that the child would, by default, probably be sharing the same genetic code that enables the mother to shapeshift.)

To go one further (although this possibilty definitely catapaults the theory way out of the pg to pg-13 range the series is written in, and into the part I sort of really don't want to think about--at least not for the sake of a 'childs' series), when an animagus is shapeshifted, does it actually re-write its genetic code so that it is not just the form, but the DNA that changes? In which case, then I would guess that yes, animagus COULD conceivably...er...conceive...off spring with a totally different species. But then we're back to the first question...when mom changes, does the child change also, or does the change in the womb's environment cause the body to reject it? The same question goes for a child with only one animagi parent...how does the genetics from the non-shifted affect the fetus's ability to keep up with mom if she shifts...is there the possibility that the mother CANNOT shift if she's pregnant (some sort of genetic fail safe that keeps her from doing so. so that she doesn't run the risk of loosing her child)? All intersting things to wonder.

Of course, since this is, at least on the surface, a children's series, I suspect the possibilities are not likely to be considered by Rowling, except in passing, perhaps (as it was with the mechanics of how Hagrid's mother and father managed to mate--how COULD a 6 foot man manage to mate with a 15 foot or larger woman and manage to conceive?). Since most kids probaly would not bother to wonder about such things (unless they are a biology buff)...she probaly doesn't think it necassary to explain or even acknowledge. (Most kids probably would go "Your dad/mom was a what? Cool!--Or--"'ick!!' how did (the wizard parent involved) stand to do THAT?!"--, and then get on with the rest of the story...lol.

Anne
**also surprised to be disccusing in this thread**


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]