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- What Happens to Unregistered Animagi?
- Known Unregistered Animagi
Becoming an Animagus in Harry Potter is quite rare. It is a fascinating magical ability that requires a lot of knowledge, practice, and skill, and therefore not many wizards are able to achieve this impressive feat. Since transforming into an animal uncovers endless possibilities, all Animagi are required to notify the Ministry of Magic about their status. However, not all of them do so, and there are a few unregistered Animagi roaming around the wizarding world without the Ministry’s knowledge.
Any wizard able to transform into an animal at will is known as an Animagus. This acquired skill needs to be closely monitored by the Ministry so those who acquire it don’t misuse their powers. The Harry Potter series introduces a handful of wizards with this incredible ability, but many of them are breaking the law by remaining absent from the Ministry’s registry. If any of them were to be caught by the magical authorities, they would face severe consequences. Who amongst the known Animagi in the series are unregistered?
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What Happens to Unregistered Animagi?
Unregistered Animagi, unlike those who share their status with the authorities, choose to remain hidden and avoid the close monitoring and strict rules imposed by the Ministry, keeping their abilities secret. These rules are due to the Animagus spell being quite difficult and dangerous to perform, since it can be performed without a wand. Another reason is to ensure that wizards don’t use this ability for any illegal activities. The Ministry’s registry only has seven names, which makes Animagi incredibly rare, and likely means that several others are not performing this magic legally. Minerva McGonagall, who can transform into a tabby cat, is the only registered Animagus featured in the series; the other six are unknown. Not notifying the Ministry about their Animagus status can have severe consequences for a wizard, both magical and legal.
[…] the Ministry of Magic has insisted upon a register of Animagi, for there can be no doubt that this kind of magic is of greatest use to those engaged in surreptitious, covert or even criminal activity.
The consequences of being an unregistered Animagus are serious, the most common one being a sentence in Azkaban. It is unknown how much time someone would have to serve for being an unregistered Animagus. Since the ability is quite uncommon and hard to master, there have not been any recorded cases of illegal Animagi being caught by the Ministry. While serving a sentence in Azkaban seems a bit too harsh of a punishment for simply acquiring an incredibly difficult skill, the wizarding law system has been proven to be far from fair on more than one ocassion.
Known Unregistered Animagi
|
Known Animagus |
Animagus form |
Played by |
First appearance |
Last appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Rita Skeeter |
Beetle |
Miranda Richardson |
Goblet of Fire |
Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (appears in photographs) |
|
Sirius Black |
Black dog |
Gary Oldman, James Walters (teenage version), Rohan Gotobed (child version) |
Prisoner of Azkaban |
Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (appears as a ghost) |
|
Peter Pettigrew |
Rat |
Timothy Spall, Charles Hughes (teenage version) |
Philosopher’s Stone (as Scabbers), Prisoner of Azkaban (as himself) |
Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (appears in flashbacks) |
|
James Potter |
Stag |
Adrian Rawlins, Robbie Jarvis (teenage version), Alfie McIlwain (child version) |
Philosopher’s Stone (appears in visions) |
Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (appears as a ghost) |
Since the ability is incredibly rare, most Animagi in the series are unregistered. The first name that comes to mind is likely one of the Marauders: Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter, who became Animagi during their years at Hogwarts after discovering their friend and fellow Marauder Remus Lupin was a werewolf. They decided to learn this difficult skill in order to keep Remus company during his transformations, since werewolves are dangerous to humans but don’t attack other animals. During every full moon, James, Sirius, and Peter would transform into their respective animals and make their way through the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack so their best friend wouldn’t be alone.
It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong—
Peter Pettigrew, the most infamous Animagus, spent 12 years as his animal form of a rat. After betraying Lily and James Potter and framing Sirius for his crimes, he transformed into his rat form and went into hiding, later finding his way into the Weasley household, where the family, unaware of his identity, re-named Scabbers. He was Ron’s pet during his first years at Hogwarts, before Sirius and Remus unveiled the truth about his crimes and his identity. An instance where being an unregistered Animagus was helpful is the case of Sirius Black, who escaped from Azkaban and managed to infiltrate the Hogwarts castle in his animal form of a black shaggy dog.
[…] he yelled for the whole street to hear that I’d betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself — and sped down into the sewer with the other rats…
The other known unregistered Animagus is sensationalist reporter Rita Skeeter. Known for her controversial stories and always being in the right place at the right time, people couldn’t help but wonder how she managed to get all that juicy information. While this revelation isn’t featured in the films, in the Goblet of Fire book, Hermione discovers that Rita Skeeter is an Animagus and can transform into a beetle, which is the secret behind her problematic journalism. Hermione threatened to expose Skeeter to the Ministry, which would have resulted in her imprisonment in Azkaban. However, even the fear of being exposed as an unregistered Animagus alone was enough for her to comply with Hermione and stop writing for a year.
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.
It can be assumed that there are more unregistered Animagi, or wizards and witches who have tried developing the ability, since being able to transform into an animal can be a great advantage and a disguise in many dangerous situations. Animagi remain one of the rarest and most interesting kinds of magic in Harry Potter, and there may be many more of them hiding in plain sight in the wizarding world.
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