An animagus is a wizard who can transform into an animal, reflecting their inner nature. The Ministry of Magic regulates them, but unregistered animagi exist. While in animal form, they retain human abilities and may communicate with animals. Legal registration would destroy their advantage.
In the Harry Potter universe, an animagus is a wizard who can transform into an animal. The magic required is quite complex and can go wrong if the wizard is not skilled enough to handle the transformation. As a result, the Ministry of Magic regulates animagi, requiring them to register, although a number of unregistered animagi are clearly documented in the books. While in animal form, the animagus retains many human abilities, but also becomes more animal-like.
The form an animagus takes is not determined by the individual wizard. Rather, the animal form reflects part of the magician’s inner nature. Over the course of its life, an animagus can apparently assume only one animal form, although it is possible that this can change under immense emotional stress, just as a Patronus spell does.
Extremely advanced magic doesn’t require the use of a wand, as demonstrated by several transformations accomplished without one in the Harry Potter books. Also, the wizard’s clothing seems to be stored somewhere while he is an animal, because wizards are clothed again when they revert to human form. In the third book of the series, a charm is shown that forces a wizard to assume human form. If the amulet is used on a real animal, the animal will not be affected.
It appears that while an animagus is in animal form, it may be able to communicate with animals. This is demonstrated in many of the books, when the animagi gather or exchange information with other animals. The wizard’s brain and cognitive processes also appear to have slowed down slightly. This distinguishes an animagus from a wizard who has been transfigured into animal form, as transfiguration appears to cause the wizard to have an animal brain.
When an animagus registers with the Ministry, he must provide information about the form of the animal taken and its signs. Supposedly this helps the Ministry track down the animagi to make sure they are not engaged in illegal activities. The only recorded animagus known in the books is Minerva McGonagall, who transforms into a tabby cat. Numerous unrecorded animagi including Sirius Black, James Potter and Rita Skeeter are also documented, and there may be more. In all of these cases, the animagus has an advantage that legal registration would destroy; for example, Rita Skeeter transforms herself into a bug to spy on potential subjects of the article.
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