[HPforGrownups] Re: Polyjuice, Gringotts, and Doppelgangers [WAS Gringotts Speaks Out]

[Sharon Hayes]

No: HPFGUIDX 179419

<Snipping all my bits>
Mike:
<re: lie detector tests>There was and they did. The goblins had two sentries posted at the
entrance with those secrecy detecter wands. Harry had to confund them
so they wouldn't use the wands on Hermione/Bella. Those seem to work
fine, as folks don't really care *what* the form of deception, just
that there *is* some deception being employed.

Sharon:
Of course, I had forgotten about those -- good point. Which also proves my point (with which you agree) that polyjuice only changes external appearances. My poor little mind still can't get around the DNA problem though- -that means that for the hour you were polyjuiced you would have two lots of DNA-- one for your cells and one for the foreign cells. I know it's magic and magic can do all kinds of seemingly unreasonable things, but that just seems downright dangerous. What an easy way to get a bit of someone else's DNA or stem cells, for example!  UNLESS polyjuice works like a kind of glamour spell, just giving the appearance of another person when really it is just a mask, with everything really still being your own DNA etc.

Mike:
But it's magic. They don't have a sense of being male, they only have
the appearance. If they retained all their internal organs, like both
of us think they did, then their male "bits" don't work like they
would if the had been men transforming. Those "bits" probably don't
even have any sensation to them, as in there's no there there. ;)

Sharon:
First of all thanks for replying to that Mike! I didn't think anyone would touch it with a barge pole LOL.  OK based on m y reasoning above, that polyjuice is really just a glamour spell, that would probably be right.

Mike:
Shall I tell you what a friend and I in our adolescence imagined we
would do if we suddenly changed into a member of the other sex? No,
I think I'll not. :D

Sharon:
Aw come on Mike -- maybe on the off-topic list???? ;-)