Sirius/Tonks

[dorapye]

No: HPFGUIDX 94104

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "drjuliehoward" 
<drjuliehoward at y...> wrote:
> > 
> But Tonks is a metamorphmagus.  Why, then, the "Animagus" Black?

dorapye:
Okay, sorry, I haven't been able to keep up with this thread 
completely (time constraints - I know, lame excuse, but true!), 
however, I just wanted to add my own interpretation of this line 
from Bellatrix.  

Someone somewhere up thread offered the suggestion that an animagus 
may be despised amongst the Wizarding community, for the ability to 
transform themselves into a dumb beast.  I wonder...the ability to 
transform into a 'familiar' is an age-old witch art...

I understand Bellatrix's description of Sirius as 'the Animagus 
Black', as it is, making her excuses for not realising that the 
prophecy orb had been destroyed, as an attempt to explain to LV that 
she was fighting a very powerful wizard, an Animagus no less, and, 
of course, this took up all her time and attention during the battle.

She is attempting to excuse her dereliction of duty to LV's 
objective by 'bigging up' the duel she was engaged in at the time - 
with the *powerful* Animagus Sirius Black.

I know other list members have questioned whether Sirius is indeed 
anything above the ordinary in wizarding terms, but we do have in 
canon descriptions of his brilliance at Hogwarts, and how he and 
James were, academically, top of their year.  

On top of that, we can infer from Sirius's attempt to fool LV with 
the Secret Keeper switch that he certainly believed he could lead 
the DEs a merry dance and that he was a match for any of them 
(though perhaps not LV himself, even if he was an arrogant and 
reckless young man). 

I think 'the Animagus Black' is not Bella's effort to disparage 
Sirius and therefore dismiss her triunph in dispatching him through 
the Veil, but her attempt to remind LV that she was fighting a 
fierce duel against a recognised powerful foe and explain why her 
attention was diverted from the orb.

dorapye