[HPforGrownups] Re: Is Harry a Metamorphmagus?

Christopher Nehren apeiron at comcast.net
Thu Oct 28 02:33:01 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 116600


On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 21:49:59 EDT, Kim scribbled these
curious markings:

<snipped my own comments>
> Now Kim adds:
> 
> I'd wondered recently about wizard flight (in another post).  Thanks 
> for sharing that quote from Fantastic Beasts.  It seems to me though, 

Eep. See the correction that I've just sent to this list about that.
It's from _Quidditch Through the Ages_, NOT _Fantastic Beasts ..._.
Thank you for indirectly alerting me to this. My caffeine intake must be
below average...

> that JKR wasn't referring in that quote to transfigurations of any 
> sort, including those that require wands or those that are innate 
> talents. I think she just meant that a wizard couldn't zap himself 
> with a wand (i.e. use a spell) and start flying around *in the form 
> of a wizard.*  And from the few examples of Tonks' metamorphmagus 
> abilities (and she's an old hand at it) in OotP, they don't appear to 
> include the ability to turn herself into the form of an animal.  That 
> would be too drastic, I think, and would be an overlap (or a kind of 
> contradiction?) of animagus ability, wouldn't it?

I'm frankly not sure of what was meant or was not meant. Though yes, it
would be an overlap -- though who's to say that there can't be such
overlaps? JKR, of course, though I have yet to encounter any such
statement. If anyone knows of one, please do correct me. :) I don't
think that it would be too drastic. But then again, I'm not JKR, and I'm
not the one who designed the rules of magic for her world. As I've
stated elsewhere, I *do* believe that it would be scary.

> On the other hand, animagus ability (which either requires a wand or 
> doesn't -- I confess to being confused about this: didn't Peter 
> Pettigrew need a wand to transform himself back into a rat in PoA?  
<minor snippage>
> could allow a wizard to fly, technically speaking.  IMO there's no 
> reason that a wizard's animagus couldn't be a bird, and since most 
> birds can fly, the wizard (in the form of a bird) would be flying.  
<more snippage>

How would he (Peter) use a wand to resume his human form? It's been
postulated here (I remember reading it, at least I think I do...) and
elsewhere I imagine that the animagus ability is something innate, and
wandless. And I completely adore your technicalities. :) They seem to me
to be exactly the sort of thing that JKR would use.

<I say goodbye to my own comments one last time>
> Kim again:
> 
> Polyjuice potion more or less works like that, doesn't it?  It's not 
> as versatile as having an innate talent to change shape, but it made 
> Barty Crouch Jr. into an apparent carbon copy of Moody in GoF. 

Ooh, very nice point. But as you say, it's not as versatile -- and as
Hermione figured out, it's also not as easy as just willing oneself to
look like someone else. Though to be honest, I really expected her to
have been more careful than that. Verification of one's ingredients is
one of the most basic, common-sense aspects of Muggle chemistry, which I
see as very similar to Potion-brewing (and of course, who's to say that
modern chemists didn't learn a thing or two from a particular expert
potion-maker or two?).

Christopher, who shall henceforth triple-proofread his posts before
sending them.

-- 
I abhor a system designed for the "user", if that word is a coded
pejorative meaning "stupid and unsophisticated".  -- Ken Thompson
-
Unix is user friendly. However, it isn't idiot friendly.







More information about the HPforGrownups archive