Skip to main content

Why didn’t James Potter and the rest of the Marauders register as Animagi?


James Potter and co became un-registered Animagi in their school years. Presumably they didn't say anything about it for 2 reasons: first, it would prevent them from spending full moons with Moony; and second, it went against their rebel-without-a-cluecause nature.


It seems that being an unregistered Animagus is dangerous (Hermione implied in OotP that Rita Skeeter would go to Azkaban, as her blackmail).



"Otherwise, as you very well know, I will inform the authorities that you are an unregistered Animagus. Of course, the Prophet might give you rather a lot for an insider’s account of life in Azkaban.”



So, why didn't they register as Animagi after graduation, when James went "respectable" under Lily's influence and they no longer needed to hide their spending time with Lupin?


They could simply say they JUST learned to become Animagi; to avoid being accused of being unregistered during their school years.



Answer





Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong — one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it.



From that it sounds like it may be like learning to drive in the real world. You have to apply for a license/permit so that you can actually begin the process of learning (under the supervision of somebody who is already qualified), then later on pass a test to prove that you're capable of doing it safely.


In that case it likely wouldn't be an option to just turn up one day claiming that you've suddenly learnt to be an Animagus. It's a particularly difficult bit of magic, not something anybody (except perhaps Dumbledore) is going to master overnight. To do so would have raised a lot of suspicion and resulted in some uncomfortable questions from the Ministry.


Lupin also shares his personal reasoning for not telling Dumbledore about the others' abilities at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban:



Lupin’s face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice.


“All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I’d betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I’d led others along with me… and Dumbledore’s trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. ..."



Even if the other three Marauders had "gone legit" I think Dumbledore would have seen through it, even if nobody else had, knowing those four as well as he did. Lupin may still have had reservations about implicitly admitting that he'd betrayed that trust.



And one final consideration: It appears they went almost straight from Hogwarts to joining the Order of the Phoenix, so becoming registered Animagi likely wasn't a major concern for them at any point prior to James' death.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...