Talking porttraits/photographs

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 104062

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mrflynn6" <mrflynn6 at y...> 
wrote:
> I looked in the VFAQ and did a search and didn't find anything on 
> this, so hear goes:  
> 
> Why can people talk with portraits and not photographs?  Why not 
have 
> a portrait done of Harry's parents (or anyone for that matter) so 
> Harry can converse with them?  Obviously the previous Headmasters 
are 
> important people, but the what about the Fat Lady and all the 
other 
> portraits in the castle and other places?  Could Harry have 
portraits 
> done of Sirius and hang one at the headquarters and one his dorm 
room 
> for information about the progress of the Order?
> 
> 
> Just an odd though after rereading the series, again.
> 
> mrflynn

Well, you've hit on just one of the things that hopefully JKR will 
explain in her HP encyclopedia that we all hope she will publish 
after book 7. Anyway, I would assume that a witch or wizard would 
have to sit for a portrait, and that some sort of spell would be 
cast to transfer a semblance of the subject's personality to the 
painting (see Mrs. Black in Order). If someone did a portrait of 
Lilly and James now I don't think that Harry would be able to talk 
to them, because there'd be no live subject to get the personailty 
from. Photos on the other hand, are seemingly just moving, enchanted 
pictures that are developed in a special potion to allow the 
subjects to move. So presumably a Muggle roll of film developed in 
the right potion would produce moving pictures as well. Though as 
evidenced in both Order (when Percy walks out of the family photo) 
and CoS (when Harry tries to escape the picture of him and Lockhart) 
the subjects retain some rudimentary knowledge of their real person. 
So, yes there are some inconsistencies. Anyway, just two knuts...
Meri