Shapeshifter? Options

[LaLaLuna]

I was thinking on this last night,and wondered if Slughorn was a Shapeshifter.

Animagi is a person able to take an appearance of an animal. Metamorphamagus is defined as a person born able to change their appearance at will whether animal or another person's image.

Can Shapeshifters become anything - as in an animal or non-living objects? Illusions can easily fool Muggles, but to a Magical person's eye, can an illusion be that good? DD must have known Slughorn was (or might be) because it took even him some time poking around(literally) to find Slughorn in that cottage.

So what do you all think?

[Hermione Granger...]

Really good question. I'm not sure about that. I mean, there are animagus' for animal transfigurations, Metamorphmagus for changing human looks so why not shapeshifters for changing into things? Hmm, I'd say that would make sense, but as a shapeshifter one can assume that you can change into any shape, so I'd say that you would be able to change into animals and other humans, but it's a question of how J.K. Rowling defined 'her' kind of shapeshifter, you know. Shapeshifters turn up in several fantasy novels and each seems different in special kind of ways. Maybe it's a question worth asking her...

EDIT: On my journey back home yesterday I read PoA and there Hermione explains that boggarts are shapeshifters and that they can take every form (depending on what you fear the most, so I'd say that boggarts are sort of 'limited' in their abilities, for they can't really choose what to become, it depends on the opposite person, really. If sb is scared of a doll - it'll become a doll, and if sb is scared of lions, it'll become a lion - see? So boggarts could (theoretically) use any possible shape. They are forced to assume a certain shape - that's why the boggart-Snape ended up in woman's clothes. Slughorn on the other hand can change appearance at will without this condition to choose the most frightening thing. Maybe there are other restrictions that we don't know of, because they are simply not mentioned in the book. So I'd say there are many different types of shapeshifters - Boggarts (they can change into anything as long as it frightens the opponent), Metamorphmagus (who can change their looks at will, but they cannot change into animals and things, as far as I know) and animagus' (poeple change into animals, but they cannot change into any other - they have to choose one and once they have chosen, there's not correcting the decision). So why shouldn't Slughorn be another type sth like a shapeshifter, who can just disguise himself as things? I though as good as possible about this and I hope I helped you a little. Keep that question in mind, though, you might bump into J.K. Rowling and then you can ask this question.

Excuse my misspellings if there are any, it's 3:38 am and I can neither think nor write properly anymore. Sorry 'bout that.

[Aoi]

I definitely think it's likely that he is some kind of shapeshifter. Like you said Hanna, I find it hard to think of anything else that could've fooled Dumbledore for such a long time. If he didn't just put his wand to his chest and transformed himself into an armchair (I think it was), but then how had he planned on becoming human again?

But I recall an interwiew with JKR where she said that you didn't choose which animal you'd be able to transform inte when you became an animagus, so if there are similar shapeshifters who change into things, my guess is that that would work in the same way. So if so, Slughorn only chose that he wanted to be a shapeshifter, not that he wanted to be able to transform into an armchair...

(I have to say I wouldn't really understand those who chose to transform into a piece of furniture or soemthing when you could be an animagus and tranform into an animal, lol)

[Hermione Granger...]

As far as I know you are able to choose the animal - after all Pettigrew 'chose' to become a rat for this way he could duck under the Whomping Willow's branches and touch that knot that makes the tree immobile. Lupin was bitten - he didn't have the choice, but he's no animagus. And Sirius and James chose a big dog and a stag so they could 'control' Lupin in his werewolf-form. That should proof it - they decided to become animagus' to accompany their friend Lupin in his hardest time - and if they would have not been able to choose and they would've become things like a rabbit a mouse and a cat - that wouldn't have helped Lupin very much, would it?
But after choosing, you can't change your mind - better reread it in HP3 for there you find what I just told you. I think it's where they're in the Shrieking Shack ,where Lupin tells the trio his and Sirius' story which includes Harry's father and Pettigrew.

[Aoi]

Yeah you might be right, I haven't read PoA in a while. I just remember that interview I read with JKR where she talked about it and I thought she said that you couldn't choose in the first time... But I might have misinterpreted though. I don't remember exactly what she said and as you say, it does make sense as all the Marauders became animals that fitted the purpose. What I thought was that you became an animal that fitted you, like Pettigrew already was kind of rat-like and Rita Skeeter was like an annoying insect buzzing around...

[Hermione Granger...]

They chose handy animals - Rita needed a possibility to spy on people - a bug is perfect for that

[LaLaLuna]

EDIT: On my journey back home yesterday I read PoA and there Hermione explains that boggarts are shapeshifters and that they can take every form (depending on what you fear the most, so I'd say that boggarts are sort of 'limited' in their abilities, for they can't really choose what to become, it depends on the opposite person, really. If sb is scared of a doll - it'll become a doll, and if sb is scared of lions, it'll become a lion - see? So boggarts could (theoretically) use any possible shape. They are forced to assume a certain shape - that's why the boggart-Snape ended up in woman's clothes. Slughorn on the other hand can change appearance at will without this condition to choose the most frightening thing. Maybe there are other restrictions that we don't know of, because they are simply not mentioned in the book. So I'd say there are many different types of shapeshifters - Boggarts (they can change into anything as long as it frightens the opponent), Metamorphmagus (who can change their looks at will, but they cannot change into animals and things, as far as I know) and animagus' (poeple change into animals, but they cannot change into any other - they have to choose one and once they have chosen, there's not correcting the decision). So why shouldn't Slughorn be another type sth like a shapeshifter, who can just disguise himself as things? I though as good as possible about this and I hope I helped you a little. Keep that question in mind, though, you might bump into J.K. Rowling and then you can ask this question.

I had to read this several times because at first I thought you were suggesting Slughorn was a Boggart. Boggarts are entities that come into existence, sort of like Peeves(a poltergiest built on hyper energy of the students), but is built by stress and fear. You can almost call them "fear demons". They're the things that go "bump" in the night. But Slughorn is a man - a wizard.

I did wonder how he, Slughorn, would change himself back, but then I remembered in HBP the sixth year students practiced silent spells where if their wands were on their person, they could perform any spell. But it doesn't explain why he chose an armchair...maybe animal transfiguration was too difficult for him.

As to Metamorphamagus, Tonks was able to do partial animal tranformations. Go back to the Christmas scene or possibly the summer scene in OotP when Tonks was making Hermione and Ginny laugh with the pig noses and such she was doing at the table.

This is something I suppose I will have to ask JKR if I ever bump into her

[Hermione Granger...]

aaah yeah, the pigsnout - I completely forgot about that, but you're probably right. Those are probably just for small parts, but not for the whole body - still a question worth asking JKR^^