Is Harry a Metamorphmagus?

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 116535


> Kim here, with questions and comments:
> 
> First, Vivamus, where did you find out that JKR said that the 3 kids 
> wouldn't become animagi?  I believe it -- just wondered where you 
> heard or read it.

I'm afraid I can't pin it down, exactly, as it was too long ago, but I'm
quite sure I read it, and I'm fairly sure it was a direct quote.  I think it
was after POA came out, and she was being questioned -- perhaps in an online
"meet the author" chat -- about whether Harry, Ron and Hermione would also
become animagi, and I seem to remember that she flatly stated that none of
them would become an animagus.  It's pretty unusual for her to make a flat
statement like it, and I remember wondering at the time if it wasn't a red
herring for something else.  This was before GOF, of course, so it was a
while back.

As soon as I met Tonks, I wondered if this was what Harry would become, just
because it was interesting like an animagus, but "not an animagus."  Harry
growing his hair back didn't occur to me as evidence for it until later.

> Second, in the case of Harry's parseltongue ability, it wasn't 
> inborn, so maybe some abilities can be transferred from wizard to 
> wizard.  Unless it was only a fluke because of the backfired spell 
> that Voldemort cast at Harry, so maybe ability-transfer isn't likely 
> to happen any other way than by accident.  Anyway then it would make 
> sense that Harry had some other innate ability besides being really 
> good at flying a broom.

Well, we know that DD told Harry that he can speak parseltongue because V
could speak parseltongue, but how certain can we be that DD is infallible in
this?   In any case, it doesn't really matter, because parseltongue is still
a generally-inborn talent, even if Harry got his through the curse that
failed.  
 
> So I too agree that Harry could be a metamorphmagus since he's done 
> it before, but just didn't know that's what he was doing at the 
> time.  Although, wonder why he hasn't demonstrated the ability lately 
> (or has he?)  What other way could he show metamorphmagus ability 
> than growing his hair or changing hair color (like Tonks)?  Lots of 
> possibilities there, I'd guess.

That's a good question.  The unfocused unconscious magic seems to happen
when the wizard is extremely upset or stressed, doesn't it?  So it wouldn't
happen in the normal scheme of things.  It also has to fit into something
that makes sense from his point of view.   If Crabbe and Goyle were about to
beat him up, for example, it just wouldn't occur to him to be bigger than
them -- that's *too* strange.

How about this?  Harry likes a girl who happens to be taller than him, but
somehow, when they get real close, they are always the same height.  Harry,
of course, never notices this.  Or he notices, but the girl doesn't.
 
> I think transfiguration-like abilities (i.e. animagi, metamorphmagi, 
> Polyjuice Potion) are some of the most interesting aspects of JKR's 
> books.  Hope we'll get to see more of these "deceptions" in the last 
> two books.

I agree, and me, too.

> Cheers, Kim (chuckling at the image of an even-more-peeved-at-Harry-
> than-usual Snape)

Can you imagine the look on Snape's face if something nasty happens to Harry
and it just goes away before Snape can gloat?

V