NATURE OF PATRONUSES

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 156418

Sue wrote:
<snip> 
> I am convinced that Snape's Patronus is a spider because he is a spy.
> (There's a little  clue in the riddle of the Sphinx in GoF.) <snip>
> I believe he is a spider because his whole life revolves around 
> playing a secretive double life.
> 
> From the conversation DD had with Harry at the end of PoA I believe 
> we can safely deduce that the animagus and patronus form are 
> identical. I think it was on this list that I suggusted that the 
> enigmatic professor is also an animagus.  Imagine the usefulness of 
> being such a small, unobtrusive animal.  For a spy, to be a spider 
> would be a wonderful asset. At the end of Chapter Four in HBP a 
> spider makes a tiny appearance and casts an interesting meaning on 
> the conversation DD has with Harry.  Perhaps the Weasleys had a 
> powerful protector they didn't know about when Harry came to stay.
> 
> IMO by the end of Book Seven (if he survives, please, Jo...) Snape's 
> patronus will have morphed into something else because his life will 
> no longer be centered around being a spy.  Perhaps and owl? 
>
Carol responds:
While the spider/spy idea is interesting, I'm not sure that we have
any evidence that Snape has an Animagus form, and if he does, a bat
form would be just as useful and in keeping with the "large swooping
bat" imagery that has been used to describe him since SS/PS.

However, I'm not at all sure that the Animagus form, which reflects a
wizard's essence (Sirius as a Grimlike dog, Peter as a rat, Rita
Skeeter as an insect pest) is the same as his (or her) Patronus, which
is his spirit guardian, as JKR states directly on her website, and
IIRC, Lupin says something similar in PoA. Harry's Patronus is his
*father's* Animagus form, which is not his own essence but James's. (I
feel like I'm talking in circles here, sorry.)

Can you quote the canon that you interpret as indicating that the
Patronus form and the Animagus form (if any) are identical? Wouldn't
that mean that your Animagus form would change when your Patronus
does, and Tonks's Animagus form (which I don't think she has learned
to use) is now a werewolf? Not good!

Also, I can't think of anyone whose Animagus form *and* Patronus form
we know. Surely McGonagall's Patronus form is not a cat or Rita
Skeeter's a beetle? And imagine Peter Pettigrew casting a rat Patronus
when he was an Order member! (I rather think that Dumbledore's
animagus form was a dumbledore/bumblebee, possibly a white one, rather
different from his Phoenix Patronus.)

Carol, who thinks that Snape's Patronus form is somehow connected with
Dumbledore, but his Animagus form, if any, reflects his brooding,
secretive self