Animagus Transformation / Snape's Animagus (was DD as Animagus)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 182834

James:
> It seems that ones personality does take a part in the transformed 
> animal form. Sirius seems to have many of the traits of mans best 
> friend. Likewise James as a proud, strutting stag and Peter a 
> snivelling, squeeky rat. For that matter, Rita does buzz around 
> trying to pick up tidbits here and there and Minerva seems at times 
> to have the indifferent personality of a feline. So that quality 
does 
> play out to a degree in canon.
> 
> But if James had no way of controlling if he were to turn into a 
> strutting peacock, do you think he would have spent the better part 
> of three years figuring out how to become an Animagus? Similarly, 
> would Rita put herself through that ordeal if there was a chance 
she 
> would have turned into a crocodile?

Magpie:
Yes. I mean, I see no reason why not. Especially with James, since 
and his friends were becoming animagi to hang out with Remus so it 
didn't matter what form they took. Rita, too, was presumably hoping 
for a better way to spy on people. She was lucky that her form was as 
useful as it was, but many forms might have been useful. Even ones 
that were limited could be a help to her.

If you could choose what you became, I doubt Peter would have chosen 
a rat or James a stag. I think Wizards are used to not being able to 
choose this sort of thing. There's practically a dozen things about 
them that they can't control but reveal their inner selves. Which 
goes along, imo, with the rest of the world-building. Characters' 
choices show who they are, but so do lots of other things. Who a 
person really is is fairly unchanging and clear. 

-m