Is Harry a Metamorphmagus?

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 116543


Vivamus wrote:
" JKR has already said that none of the three (Harry, Ron, Hermione)
will become animagi -- but could Harry be a metamorphmagus?   He did,
after all, make his hair grow back, which one could argue is changing
his shape.  Tonks also told him that being a metamorphmagus was not
only hard, it was based on an inborn ability -- as with parseltongue."

Del replies :
I personally don't think that Harry is a Metamorphmagus.

My main argument is that he hasn't shown any sign of it since we've
known him (I'll discuss the hair-regrowing incident later). Quite
often Harry has wished that he could change something in his
appearance. For example, as Tonks immediately pointed out, there have
been numerous times when Harry wished he didn't have his scar. There
are also all those Dudley clothes he has to wear and that are quite
simply horrible. Not to forget his hair, that he sometimes wishes
would simply lie flat. But none of those things ever happened.

Of course, it could be that he hasn't *started* showing signs of his
ability. It could be, but somehow I doubt it. Tonks had apparently
mastered her own gift quite well by the time she left Hogwarts. That
to me indicates that she must have known about it for quite a while,
maybe right from her childhood. I doubt she would have discovered it
in her very last years at Hogwarts and yet managed to master it so well.

So what about the time when he regrew his hair ? Well, that could just
be exactly what it looks like : accidental magic. But it looks just
like Metamorphmagic, you'll say ! Agreed. But maybe JKR hadn't created
the Metamorphmagi when she wrote her first book. Or maybe she forgot
about that detail when she introduced us to Tonks and didn't realise
what it would remind us of (Mark Evans, anyone ?) Even worse : maybe
she *did* remember about the incident, and she *intended* to make us
wonder (in other words, she planted a red herring and she's now having
some fun at our expense :-) ) ?

Or maybe you're right, my red herring is actually a true blue clue,
and Harry is a Metamorphmagus. It could be. But it would take away
from my fun of trying to figure out who is the real unknown-to-us
Metamorphmagus, and what it will mean to Harry ;-)

Del