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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182847

Magpie wrote:
> <snip>I have no trouble believing MWPP went forward for years
without any idea or control about their animal forms. The unknown
could have just made it all the more intriguing. <snip>

Carol responds:

Exactly. This is Sirius and James we're talking about. Not only would
they take it for granted that their Animagus forms would be perfectly
adapted for running around with a werewolf on full moon nights, the
risk involved (getting caught, getting trapped in an animal form,
going to class with antlers <eg>) made it all the more exciting.

As Sirius reprovingly tells Harry in OoP when Harry doesn't want to
risk getting Sirius arrested by meeting him in Hogsmeade, "You're less
like your father than I thought. The risk would've been what made it
fun for James" (OoP Am. ed. 305). 

I think that applies to becoming an Animagus (and running with a
werewolf) as well. As for Sirius, as I recall, he later went after
Peter to murder him, got sent to Azkaban, broke out of prison to
commit the murder he'd been arrested for, went on the run with a
stolen hippogriff, came back to England when he was much safer abroad
and lived as a dog in a cave. I don't think that the risk of turning
into something other than a dog (surely he, the handsome Sirius Black,
wouldn't turn into a slug or a louse) would have deterred him. Nor do
I think that the thought of failure ever crossed their minds except as
part of the risk factor that made it all exciting.

Carol, who thinks that determination and the will to succeed, along
with a gift for Transfiguration, enabled them to become Animagi (and
help Peter become one) *because* they were undeterred by the risk