Crookshanks

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93599

"smtopliff" wrote:
> I have always held the belief that Crookshanks is more than just
part Kneazle. I always wondered whether he was the pet of the Potters 
(Lily and James and young Harry). I have wondered if Crookshanks was 
involved in some sort of Switching Spell the night of Voldemort's 
attack.  Simply put, I wonder if Lily or James is stuck as 
Crookshanks.  Why those thoughts?
> 
> First, our introduction to Crookshanks comes in POA when he lept
onto the pet store counter at attempted to attack Scabbers/Pettigrew.
Ron gave no indication that this was commonplace--such as a "not
again!" comment, which leads me to reason that Scabbers has not
usually been a target prior to that incident. Hasn't been an issue in
SS/PS or COS. How did Crookshanks know Scabbers was really Pettigrew?
 He might have recognized him like Sirius did when he saw the photo in 
the Daily Prophet. 
> 
> Second, the shopkeeper at the pet store commented that Crookshanks 
had been there for ages...how come? (p.60 POA) Aren't Kneazles 
favorites of small children and other wizard families?  And why was 
the comment made--if you were trying to sell a cat/Kneazle would you 
make that comment?  NO! You want the buyer to think it's killing you 
to part with such a wonderful pet.  Hmmm.
> 
> Third, how come Crookshanks is hanging out with Sirius the dog in 
POA? (p.303)Harry viewed the two of them together when he was gazing 
out the window of his room-- How'd they hook up in the first place?  
Does Crookshanks--and other pets of Hogwarts students for that matter-
- make a habit of wandering the grounds at night?  At the end of 
the book, Sirius revealed that he gave Crookshanks the letter to 
deliver to the Owl Office to purchase Harry's Firebolt.  Even 
assumimg that in the WW animals can communicate on a different level 
than animals in Muggle society, this is atypical of behavior of other 
animals in the WW.  Even owls arent portrayed communicating with 
other species on the level Crookshanks and Sirius the dog did, and 
they understand where to go and what to do when given orders and 
mail.  
> 
> Still haven't resolved the "Lily and James came out of the wand in 
> the graveyard" issue, but I'm working on it.


Carol:
Let me start with your last observation first. James and Lily are
dead, just like Cedric, Frank Bryce, and Bertha Jorkins. The Priori
Incantatem sequence proves that definitively, IMO. Also JKR has said
frequently in interviews that Harry's parents aren't coming back. It's
important to the story line that Lily, in particular, be "properly
dead." Otherwise her self-sacrifice is nonexistent. As for James, if
he were somehow to have survived, despite all the evidence to the
contrary, wouldnit it be in his own "proper" animagus form, as a stag?

As for Crookshanks, I think his unusual intelligence is sufficiently
accounted for by his being part Kneazle (as JKR herself has stated in
an interview). Rather than being an animagus himself, he seems to be
extremely suspicious of animagi, first Scabbers and then Sirius. (I
don't quite understand how, but Sirius indicates in PoA that he was
able to communicate with Crookshanks and convince him to become his
friend. My guess is that he transformed into a man in Crookshanks'
presence, probably in the Shrieking Shack, and talked to him in that
form. Crookshanks does seem to understand what's being said by the
humans around him.) So Crookshanks' friendship with Sirius is not an
unusual cross-species friendship between cat and dog but an altogether
normal animal-human relationship with Sirius the man, which extends to
Sirius in dog form. Also note that, at the end of PoA, Ron holds out
his new owl (the future Pigwidgeon) for Crookshanks to sniff and says
something like, "What do you think? Just an owl?" and Crookshanks
indicates by his calm reaction that, yes, Pig is not an animagus but
just an ordinary owl. 

With regard to the pet shop, I don't think Crookshanks knew that
Scabbers was Pettigrew, only that he was not what he seemed, and like
a feline sneakoscope, he detected devious behavior or a devious nature
beneath the seemingly harmless rat exterior. And Hermione's reaction
to him, IMO, fits right in with her crusade for house-elf rights. She
felt sorry for him and wanted to rescue him. The pet shop owner would
have played up that angle (the poor thing has been around for years
and no one wants him) just to be rid of Crookshanks.

I do think that Crookshanks is interesting and will play more of a
part later, but I don't think he's an animagus, expecially not the
animagus of a character we know to be dead.

Carol