It's always seemed strange to me that more wizards don't try to become an Animagus, as it's procedure is really more time-consuming then it is actually difficult to do. But what if there was a catch to it all, something that could dissuade the majority of the population from trying the process for fear of doing it wrong?

What would this side effect be? And lets say that it differs depending on which step of the process you mess up, and how.

 

You just end up as a furry.

 

Shit, maybe that's where the first werewolf came from.

 

Firstly, the skill level:

Human transfiguration isn't taught until 6th year, after OWLs, at which point (I think) Transfiguration is optional, not a requirement. That's not to say people couldn't learn it earlier (much like the Marauders did), but that they quite possibly wouldn't have the skill required.

Think on the Weasley Shield Hats in canon, which is sixth year charm that Harry can teach, and other students can learn when motivated - it's just not something the majority of people used, so the ministry bought a bunch of these to protect their staff.

(Admittedly, the Ugandan school teaches this by age 14, but that's extended universe stuff)


Secondly, it's a pain:

(Talking of extended universe...)

You must hold a mandrake leaf in your mouth for 28 days, find dew from a hidden place, hide that bottle so you can't see it, be awake and available every sunrise and sunset until your next thunderstorm (according to the Met Office, there's around 10 a year in the UK), and then transform.

So it's roughly a two month process. You might get lucky and it's 29 days, or maybe you're unlucky and you have to wait through summer, getting up stupidly early and staying up late, to make sure to finish the ritual in late September.


Thirdly... We're not wizards, and even for wizards, what's the use?

For mobility, such as a bird, or a cheetah?
A duck can fly around 50mph + windspeed, so 100mph isn't unattainable (160km/h), for up to 8 hours. That's faster than I can get on British roads, and flying in a straight line is probably slightly quicker.

Checking the distance to work from home for me, it's 17 miles by car (taking around 30 minutes, depending on traffic), and 10 miles 'as the crow flies'. Crows and magpies can fly about 15mph, so it'd take me as a crow about 40 minutes to get to work (about 10-15 as a duck, though), depending on windspeed.

A wizard, on the other hand, can apparate. This takes approximately no time at all.
They can also use a portkey.
Or fly on a broom - assuming 30mph as a standard cruising speed, that's still quicker to get to work than driving.
Or use the floo, although that relies on a connection at the other end (but it seems locations have a semi-public one)


A combat form? Like a tiger, bear, wolf, or red-tailed hawk?
Adult wizards, working for the government, are unable to create a shield that only stands up to low-medium hexes. You don't need to turn into 500 pounds of pure muscle and rage; a disarming charm seems to work fine, or setting your opponent on fire, or stronger curses will do the trick already.
And if your opponent is a capable fighter...

Well, turning into a gorilla will definitely confuse them the first time, but is a blood boiling curse not going to kill a gorilla?

Against a muggle, you could absolutely kill them, and get away with it, in a civilian circumstance in the UK. In the US, a large animal can probably walk away from an encounter with most people if it's determined to kill them, regardless of what standard armament they carry with them.


Something unobtrusive, for sneaking? Like a bluebottle, or a domestic cat?
I can see the uses for this, actually. We do see it in HP canon, we see it in Animorphs, we've probably seen it elsewhere. Definitely a useful trick.

Planting cameras, microphones, drones, or just bribery work almost as well; as do concealment charms or invisibility cloaks (even though they're rare-ish), or more Weasley tricks like the extendable ears can do the job too. Maybe not as well as being a fly on the wall, but they're functional.


This is made worse by the fact that you don't pick your form.



Looking at it, becoming an Animagus is hard in that it requires skill, difficult in that it requires luck, and wasteful in the sense that it's not gauranteed you'll get something useful for all that time.

It's almost a mark of prestige, rather than something people do because it's useful.



This doesn't answer your "what goes wrong" but more the "why don't people do it?"

 

Please, we all know that everyone who tries in the first place is already a furry.

 

Lupin was mighty glad werewolves don't remember their time while transformed.

 

I dont think it should have side effects unless you mess up the process.

But if you do mess it up it can be problematic. Just a few possible messy results that come to mind

• Your animal form doesn't retain your human mind, meaning that it'll not only be of limited usefulness, but you also require someone there to untransfigure you if you don't want to be stuck as an animal. Meaning if you haven't told anyone about your goal of wanting to be an animagus your first transformation could be your last.
• The transformation itself goes smoothly but it's triggered by a different process than picturing your human/animal form. Maybe your trigger is falling asleep, feeling an emption like shame or maybe it's whenever you sneeze.
• The animal for you transform to is not entirely an animal wirh human parts mixed in. Think Hermione's cat form or Krum's shark-man form. Still a soft disadvantage since your normal human life is unnaffrcted and maybe you can get an advantage of it.
• You're permanently stuck as a human-animal hybrid, with the problem of the backfiring magic making it not even properly fixable using transfiguration.
• Absolute wost case is just having your mind transform permanently into the mind of the animal form without the body changing at all. Like the junior muggle minister who after a failed imperius is permanently stuck thinking he's a duck.