[HPforGrownups] Nagini at the Ministry (was: ...Biggest Error)

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 124154

> > > > Vivamus (snipped):
> > > > 1. No snake that has ever lived, AFAIK, could chomp on someone 
> > > > like the snake that bit Arthur Weasley.  She describes 
> the snake 
> > > > splintering bones with it's bite, which snakes' jaws are not 
> > > > physically capable of doing.
> > 
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> Quick note to Vivamus; I think you meant to say, no snake currently
> living rather than no snake that has ever lived. Is it really true
> that there never was a pre-historic snake or pre-historic snake-like
> creature who ever lived that could break bones with a bite?

Vivamus:
I suppose it depends on what constitutes "snake-like."  To me, a serpentine
aquatic dinosaur -- a super eel -- might be like that, but it would not look
like a snake to most people, and so I would not call it a snake.  Snakes
have very distinctive body motions and very distinctive head and body
shapes.  That's true of all snakes, everywhere in the world, in all of time,
as far as I know (but I'm NOT an expert.)  I suppose there are some who
cannot tell the difference between a snake and an eel (or a porpoise and a
shark, for that matter,) and so some confusion from the POV might be
possible.

Harry, however, is not ignorant of what snakes look like.  He has a natural
affinity for snakes, he had a conversation with a boa constrictor once, and
probably saw a bunch of other snakes while at the zoo that same day.  To
him, Nagini is a snake.  To me, that makes Nagini look, to all outward
appearances, exactly (or almost exactly) like a snake.  

If Nagini is in fact a real snake, there are several FLINTs in the
descriptions of her appearance and actions, regardless of whether she is a
Bushmaster or a Cobra.  If she is some kind of entirely magical creature, of
course, JKR can make her up any way she (JKR) likes.


> Also, keep in mind that this takes place in a world where Dragons,
> Sphinx, and Hypogriffs are common. Can we firmly say the no
> mythological creature fits the bill for Nagini?
> 
> Also note that there is a form of mythical legless dragon know as a
> wyrm. Could Nagini be this type of Dragon?
> 
> Further, we are dealing with a magical world; a world in which hedges
> grow 30ft high in a month, where pumpkins grow to the size of garden
> sheds, where brooms fly, where people apparate, cloaks make you
> invisible. Can we really say that Voldemort hasn't taken a common
> bushmaster (or other snake), and charmed and enchanted it into a more
> formitable snake? Or that Voldemort didn't interbreed a muggle snake
> with a magical reptile (or two magical reptiles), to create his own
> super-snake?

Vivamus:
It's possible only if you postulate that one of the magical properties of
this non-snake magical creature is that it looks and acts exactly like a
real snake, except when it is exhibiting its extraordinary powers.  (Such as
when biting Arthur.)