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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182835

Carol earlier:
> > 
> > <snip> 
> > At any rate, maybe the reason that the WW has so few Animagi
(registered or otherwise) is a combination of related factors. 
> > <snip>
> > Similarly, you don't know what you'll become and consequently may
not want to waste years of your life learning to acquire a form that
may be loathsome or useless. Imagine becoming an elephant or a whale
or a goldfish or, as JKR says in separate interviews, a slug or a warthog.
> 
> Mike:
> The beauty of freeing yourself from taking JKR's interviews as canon
is that in this kind of discussion, you are disencumbered by her 
conflicting interviews vs. your canon interpretation. Unless I've 
misremembered, nowhere in the books does it say that one has no choice
in the form ones Animagus takes. <snip>

Carol responds:

True. But unlike some of her interviews, these don't conflict with
canon, either. I'm inclined to believe, simply because we see only one
Animagus form per Animagus, in contrast to an apparently infinite
variety of Metamorphmagus forms for Tonks (Okay, I'm not sure that she
could transform into a man, and I'm not sure what would happen if she
tried to transform while she was pregnant, but she certainly can
choose her hair, her nose, her age, and apparently even her body build
and other features. That's very different from the single,
recognizable, animal form--complete with missing toe for
Scabbers--that we see with animagi.)

Mike:
> 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.

Carol:
I think it does more than "play out to a degree in canon." I think
that it's the determining factor. In contrast to the Patronus, which
is a protective spirit and often seems to reflect someone other than
the caster, I think the Animagus form reflects the essence of the
Animagus's personality. Rita Skeeter *is* an annoying, buzzing insect
at heart, a pest. Dear little Peter really *is* a rat in the worst
sense of the word. (Sorry, poor little Squeaky, whom I helped bury
last week. No offense intended to good little ratties!) Sirius
actually has a "barking laugh." He seems more himself as a
dog--happier, freer--than as a man. I'm not sure about McGonagall--I
think that in SS/PS, JKR simply associated witches with cats and
thought that it would be cool to have a cat transform into a woman.
But, yes. The Animagus form reflects the personality. I would go so
far as to say that the personality *determines* the Animagus form. I
very much doubt that Peter *chose* to transform into a rat, given the
connotations associated with rats (dirty, sneaking, etc.), and he must
have felt secretly that his Animagus form reflected on his physical
inferiority and inferior status in the group, but once they found uses
for him, such as pushing the knot on the Whomping Willow, which
arrogant Prongs with his rack of antlers and hoofed feet and large
body couldn't do, he may have felt better, hiding any rattish
sentiments and jealousies even from himself. (Just speculating, of
course!)

Carol: 
> 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?

Carol:
I'm quite sure that it never occurred to James that he would turn into
anything other than some magnificent animal. Interesting that his
Animagus form was only useful for running around in the forest with a
werewolf (and the streets of Hogsmeade late at night). Unlike Sirius's
and Peter's, it wouldn't have been useful as a disguise. Deer, after
all, are shot by hunters. Hm. I wonder if that's symbolic, too. He was
a lot more vulnerable than he thought he was.

As for Rita, her name and nature give away what she'll turn into. She
might have feared that she'd turn into a mosquito, but I'm pretty sure
that she knew or sensed that she would turn into something that would
enable her to pry and spy. Like WPP, she was highly motivated.

Carol:
> > And if your Animagus form, unlike your Patronus, reveals your
inner self, do you really want to know, and want others to know, what
that form is?
> 
> Mike:
> That's another good reason for believing that one has some degree of
control of the form one takes. IOW, why would anyone attempt this 
transformation, knowing the dangers and difficulty involved, if one
had no choice whether ones form would be useful, or worse, insulting?
<snip>
 
Carol:
I think that, knowing the dangers and the risk of becoming something
that you don't want to be (Let me think? What's skinny and has bad
vision? Whatever it is, I'll keep my human form, thanks!), not to
mention that you're supposed to register, informing the Ministry of
what kind of animal you turn into, including the markings, most people
would be deterred from making the effort. BTW, "what kind of animal
you turn into," complete with markings, seems to indicate that every
Animagus is distinct and that there is only one per customer. If you
could choose between a rat and anything else, why would you choose a
rat? And even a stag, despite being magnificent, is not a very useful
Animagus form.

Mike: 
> But this brings up another question, which I'm pretty sure was 
discussed previously, but I'm still wondering about. If, when Krum 
fished the beetle/Rita out of Hermione's hair he tried to squash it in
his hand, could he? Can you kill a witch/wizard in her/his Animagus
form as easily as you could kill a real animal of that species? What
do y'all think? I think not, that there must be some sort of magical
protection, but I'm not sold on that position after Hermione captured
Rita in that jar. <snip fun stuff on Animagus!Snape>

Carol responds:
I think that their sole protection consists of turning back into
themselves. Scabbers/Wormtail caught in a rat trap could probably
rescue himself from a rat trap (with some pain and difficulty) by
transforming into Peter, but if Prongs were shot by a hunter,
good-bye, Prongs.

Remember the fox that Bellatrix kills? "Only a fox. I thought,
perhaps, an Auror.) So even if the fox had been an Auror Animagus, it
would have been killed, but it would apparently have transformed back
into its (his or her) human self as it died because the Animagus spell
would have ended.

Carol, who would be among the majority of Witches and Wizards who
choose not to make the experiment