Sirius/Tonks

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93677

Kathy Kingwrote:
> 
> One of the most confusing statements in Oop, for me, was when
Bellatrix says 
> that she was busy fighting the Animagus Black. (pg. 812) Well, Black's 
> animagus form was a big black dog and we know she was not fighting a
big 
> black dog. So what did she mean by animagus? This started me
thinking and looking. What if Bella new she was not fighting the true
Sirius Black but some animagus *form of Black?

Carol:
An animagus (= animal-magus) is so-called because he (or she) can turn
into a particular animal (just one animal). If Sirius were in his
animagus form, he'd be a black dog. He has no other "animagus form."
He can't turn into another person as a result of this ability, which
required at least three years to learn, and Tonks indicates elsewhere
tha using spells or potions to transorm your appearance (she doesn't
say "to turn into another person" is a complicated process, which
there would be no time (and IMO, no reason) to attempt. We don't even
know that Tonks herself can change into the form of another real and
living person (note that all of her disguises so far have been female
and they haven't been other characters). Also, I can't imagine why she
would want to exchange bodies and apparent identities with a man who's
wanted for murder. And the zeal with which Sirius fights Bellatrix
suggests (to me) a long-standing hatred which Tonks (though Bellatrix
is her aunt) couldn't possibly share, having been only a child and not
a member of the Order when the Longbottoms were tortured.

Kathy: 
> These questions made me think of Sirius's second cousin Tonks who is
capable of changing her appearance at will, a metamorphmagus. (pg. 52)

Carol:
For the record, she's his first cousin once removed. His own child, if
he had one, would be Tonks' second cousin. (Not that it makes any
difference to your argument, but I like to keep relationships
straight. Rather like Harry with quidditch terms. :-) )

I don't think a few similar common expressions are sufficient evidence
for a theory like this one. (Maybe there's some significance to Ron's
sudden tendency to call Harry "Mate" in OoP, but I'm not going to base
a theory on it.)

I think that Tonks will become more important in future books and that
her skills as a metamorphmagus will be put to more interesting use
than they were in OoP, where they were merely introduced, but that
can't happen if she's the one who fell through the veil. I also don't
think that JKR would cry over the death of such an insignificant
character, and it would be pretty shabby of her to make Harry feel so
much pain for nothing. Also, the fact that Sirius didn't appear in the
mirror at the end of OoP indicates that he's truly and "properly" dead.

In short, I think it's likely that Harry will encounter a portrait of
the animagus as a young man and somehow communicate with that to learn
more about the Prank, etc., but I don't think we'll find that Sirius
is still alive.

Carol, who doesn't want any more polyjuice potions or mistaken
identities, much less "dead" people brought back to life