Is Harry a Metamorphmagus?

imamommy at sbcglobal.net imamommy at sbcglobal.net
Fri Oct 29 02:03:44 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 116661


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ginnysthe1" <ginnysthe1 at y...>
wrote:
> 
> Kim asked:
> 
> >... 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? But McGonagall doesn't need a wand to turn herself into a cat, 
> does she? So is it a spell for some and an innate ability for others?)
> <
> 
> Imamommy responded:
> 
> >Methinks we have a case of movie contamination.  The canonical 
> reference is this: 
> 
> "Pettigrew had dived for Lupin's dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his 
> bandaged leg, fell.  There was a bang, a burst of light--and Ron lay 
> motionless on the ground.  Another bang--Crookshanks flew into the 
> air and back to the earth in a heap. "Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, 
> pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin's wand flew high into the 
> air and out of sight.  "Stay where you are!" Harry shouted, running 
> foreward.  Too late.  Pettigrew had transformed.  Harry saw his bald 
> tail whip through the manacle on Ron's outstretched arm and heard a 
> scurrying through the grass."  -PoA, Scholastic, p.381.
>  
> >So no, an animagus does not require a wand to transform, but I 
> remember in the film Pettigrew *does* point a wand at his own head 
> before transforming.  I hope that helps.<
> 
> Here's Kim now:
> 
> Thanks for looking that up!  Unfortunately I'd already looked at the 
> same passage a while back and didn't interpret it the same way you 
> have.  I'd looked it up after seeing that the same scene in the movie 
> seemed to contradict what I'd thought was true about self-
> transfiguration (in this case animagus ability), i.e. that a 
> witch/wizard didn't need a wand to turn her or himself into an 
> animal.  What I read in that passage is that Peter had had the wand 
> in hand for just long enough to start the process of "rat 
> transformation" before Harry's "Expelliarmus!" knocked the wand out 
> of his hand.  I realize it doesn't say that explicitly, but I also 
> don't think there would have been a bang and burst of light for a 
> self-transfiguration spell anyway, so that part is naturally missing 
> from what's written.  And the "Too late" implies (to me anyway) that 
> Harry had been too late in expelling Lupin's wand away from Peter and 
> so Peter'd been able to transform himself back into Scabbers right 
> before.  Of course, you could argue that I was trying to make sense 
> out of the movie portrayal of that scene, so unconsciously 
> was "seeing what I wanted to see" in the book passage.  But I 
> honestly don't want to see anything that's not there or doesn't make 
> sense (if any of this stuff really makes sense... ;-)).  What I do 
> see is that transfiguration, on the one hand, is something that has 
> to be taught in a class using wands (isn't that how Peter and the 
> other "marauders" learned transfiguration in the first place?  Why do 
> you need a wand for the "small stuff" if you don't need it to 
> transform yourself?), but on the other hand, it appears at times as 
> an innate ability that doesn't require a wand.  So what I'm saying is 
> that there seem to be contradictions in JKR's writing about it.  
> After all, if it does require a wand, then cats and rats wouldn't be 
> able to turn themselves back into people, would they?  But clearly 
> they can so they don't need a wand then.  But I also think that JKR 
> had a lot of input into scene interpretation in the Azkaban movie and 
> isn't likely to have let them stick in the part where Pettigrew wands 
> himself if she thought it was flat-out wrong.  But I could be wrong 
> about that too.  Nevertheless I'm standing my ground til I see more 
> solid evidence, and have no problem with agreeing to disagree!
> 
> Kim (who says Pshew! and Sorry! for what appears to be a long-winded 
> argument to your succinct response)

imamommy:

Ok, for the sake of argument, we seem to see a lot of animagi
transforming without wands.  Firstly, when transforming back from
animal form they can't use one.  Secondly, McGonagal doesn't seem to
use one.  Thirdly, I can't ever remember a reference to Sirius using a
wand to transform; how would he ever have transformed in Azkaban? 

I guess we have interpreted the text differently.  I do think wands
would be necessary to *become* an animagus, but not to use that power
once you were one.

So, until I have further evidence, I stand my ground.

imamommy
"Then it appears we are at an impass."
The Princess Bride








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