Hope this is the right forum. I was just wondering whether any of you think wizards would be able to talk to other animals besides parselmouths to snakes? Like to dogs, squirrels, whatever you please? I just think it's random that there is only one animal some can speak to

Since this thread isn't discussing events before book 1, it will be much happier over in the Magical Theory forum. So hold on tight to all body parts while we take a short ride there. Please continue to discuss whether or not witches and wizards could speak to other animals

*Mobilithreadus*

Happy posting

lirene
LL Moderator

Wizards can certainly communicate with other animals as Sirius can with Crookshanks, but I suspect some wizard or other would have to want to be able to speak to a particular type of animal and be powerful enough to cast a spell that would enable him to her to do so (I suspect the parseltongue ability was originally magically created).

I never really thought about this, but i think it's possible. Maybe every animal has a language, and you can learn to speak them, like Parseltongue. It's probably only common animals though. cats, dogs, owls, stuff like that. There probably isn't a Emu language or something.

I think like Parseltongue any such abilities would be very rare gifts. Birds would be a useful one for an auror type job. most people don't take notice of birds, would be good surveilance. The way it seems is you get an order of animals. Parseltongue could talk to snakes, but not other reptiles.

Oddly enough, some animals seem to understand English. Harry talks to Hedwig all the time and she seems to understand what he says. Obviously, this isn't the same thing as Harry speaking bird language and it was one way (Hedwig didn't talk back), but it was interesting to see.

You know harrydavid, you brought up a point that has mystified me ever since I started reading the HP books I've always wondered how Hedwig, and other owls understand English; maybe they understand other languages too, since wizards and witches originate from different countries.

Hagrid always had relations with many different animals in the Forbidden Forest; did he speak to them in English, or some other type of language

I was under the impression Sirius communicated with Crookshanks while he was in his dog form, rather than his human form, since it was while he was in the Hogwarts grounds (remember Harry looking out of the dorm room window and seeing Crookshanks crossing the grounds with the big, black dog?).

I always thought that was odd, too, but I attributed it to the fact that Hedwig was a magical owl. It would seem that all post owls would have to be able to not only understand spoken English, but to read written English, or else they wouldn't be able to do their jobs. How else could they know where, and to who, the letters they carried were supposed to go, if they couldn't read the names and addresses on them?



Yeah, I think that's what happened, too: Sirius was only able to communicate with Crookshanks when he was in dog form.

Yeah I always assumed that post owls could understand witches and wizards who wanted them to send post. Sirius must have a way with animals because during GoF he also used tropical parakeets to send post to Harry during his travels.

But surely dogs would speak another language to cats? So Sirius would have to understand cat-speak as well be fluent in dog-speak to communicate with Crookshanks throughout PoA.

This also reminds me of Peter Pettigrew who when in his Wormtail/Scabbers form enquired the whereabouts of Lord Voldemort in the forests of Albania by asking his fellow rats.

It was always a topic that I brought up myself. I wondered how they communicated amongst each other for the longest time.

Each animal has their own dialect that is their form of English. Hedwig's understanding, and delivery service was due to verbal communication. I think Hedgwig began to become more and more aware of the Language the more Harry spoke with her at night.

But, the thing that questioned me the most, what was Crookshanks and Sirius doing? Is Crookshanks an Animagus in Cat Form, that was constantly hidden like Scabbers? Or is it just a highly intelligent cat.

What I noticed throughout the books, is the first time that Crookshanks was introduced on the train, and Ron had Scabbers, it immediately attacked at it. Did it know Scabbers wasn't really a rat? Or was it just hungry? Also, Hermione aquirred Crookshanks from Diagon Alley, where the owner of the store said that no one wanted him, could it be that Crookshanks felt the need to find someone of the same intelligence?

Crookshanks, when meeting with Sirius who was in Animagus Form, told him the password into the Gryffindor Common, which Crookshanks stole from Neville. Does that mean Crookshanks knows English, Feline, and Canine Speech?

Jo has said on her website that Crookshanks is definitely not an Animagus. He is half cat and half Kneazle. Here are the quotes:

So, I'll go with my other theory. I thought I read something along the lines of that, but it just must be that Crookshanks is highly intelligent.

Yes, he is very intelligent. Also, Kneazles are especially good at detecting disguise and concealment. That was why he identified Scabbers as a wizard in Animagus form.

As far as I remember, Crookshanks didn't tell Sirius the password, he just stole the list that Neville left lying around and gave it to Sirius.

I always thought that a witch or wizard automatically knew the language of the animal he or she transformed in to,since it wouldn't make sense to relearn something when the Animagus is formed by the personality.Also,I would have thought the same for animals like Hedwig,born in England,so knowing english and naturally as owls or whatever animal,knowing that language too.

I think you're right about the Animagi part...it would seem pretty pointless being able to transform into an animal and not be able to communicate with others of the same species.

I was always under the impression that Animagi could communicate with each other too, regardless of the species they transformed into, though I don't know how. Otherwise, how would the Marauders have done anything together if they couldn't communicate while they were animals?

As for the owls, I'm not sure about that. Presumably, the owls that are used in the Magical World are the same kind of owls that Muggles see flying around. So, either owls can understand what all people are saying, which is a bit freaky, or there's some kind of connection between owls and magical people.

I think wizards owls are different to normal owls. JKR said in an interview that Hedwig had great magical ability.

It's like the rats in the shop in POA, when Ron goes looking for something to make Scabbers better. The rats in the cage are doing little tricks and stuff, like skipping with their tails. And the shopkeeper describes Scabbers as an ordinary, common or garden rat, which would suggest the others are magical rats.

So I think all the magical creatures that kids bring to school, their owls, rats, toads etc, must be magical creatures, just like unicorns and hippogriffs.

But how do you tell a magical animal from a non-magical one? Like, when Sirius was on the run, how did he know which birds to use to send letters to Harry? Sometimes he used the school-owls that Harry sent, so that's no problem, but one time he sent a bird of paradise, so how did he know it was a magical one that would understand what he wanted it to do?

Dunno. Maybe they use birds like that in the wizard post office wherever he was. I dunno how well known Sirius would have been in distant tropical countries. Maybe he could walk into a post office there and just send a letter like anybody else.

Like, how do you tell the difference between a muggle child and a wizard child? They both look exactly the same, but at some stage one will display magical ability. How do you tell the difference between a normal rat and a magical one? One can do tricks like skipping with it's own tail, the other cant.

I guess any animal is no different than a human in this. Some have magic in their DNA, some dont. If you have a male and a female who both have magic, then there's a good chance that their offspring will be magical. So if you have two magical owls, you can breed more.

Can't Dumbledore talk to Merpeople?

There must be a language for most animals, because can't Barty Crouch Sr. talk over 300 of them?

Merpeople aren't animals They're beings, just like goblins, or centaurs. It's sort of the same as being a different nationality, I guess, they just speak a different language.

This is an excellent observation; the Marauders as Animagi can all communicate with one another despite the fact that they transform into different species. We're told that learning to become an Animagus is very difficult and immensely complicated. Perhaps part of becoming an Animagus involves acquiring the ability to communicate with all animals, by somehow connecting with the basic animal nature within each wizard. Perhaps this occurs as a preface to discovering the particular animal they will transform into. If becoming an Animagus involves connecting to one's overall animal self, perhaps this would explain how can they communicate with a werewolf, and how Sirius could communicate with Crookshanks. Presumably then, Peter as Scabbers could communicate with Crookshanks as well. When Sirius is describing how Crookshanks had been helping him by trying to capture Peter/Scabbers and by stealing the list of passwords, he says, "'But Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it..." (POA p.364 US edition) This implies that Peter thought that Crookshanks was after him not just because cats eat rats, but that he became aware it was acting against him on behalf of Sirius. One way he could have gotten wind of the connection between Crookshanks and Sirius was if Crookshanks had communicated this to him somehow.


I agree; I think these birds were probably the native magical bird commonly used for post in whatever country Sirius was in at that time.

I think that wizards would only be able to speak to animals if they were animagis, and even than probably only the animal they change into.