Thoughts on polyjuice...

[conuly]

So, we know that polyjuice changes you more than just superficially - Crabbe and Goyle became girls (hee), Harry's eyesight improved....

Question: What happens if you polyjuice into the form of somebody who has a fatal form of, say, cancer, and you stay in that form for a while? Will the cancer progress in you and kill you? What if it was something like diabetes, and you didn't know? Could you die that way?

Question: What if *you* have cancer (or whatever)? Can you polyjuice into somebody else's shape, and just stay there forever? Would the disease come with you into this new form?

Question: If the polyjuiced person is sick when you take the sample, sick with something not part of the body, something contagious, can you pick up the disease while in their polyjuiced form, and spend an hour coughing? Can you get sick in your own form that way?

Question: What if you use an old sample to polyjuice? One from a decade ago? Would you polyjuice into the form the person was then?

Question: If that's so, couldn't that be used to extend your lifespan? You could polyjuice into your younger self, so long as you had enough samples, couldn't you?

Question: When the fakemoody polyjuiced into Moody, he lost a leg, which then regrew after the polyjuice potion wore off. What if he'd lost a limb while polyjuiced? Would that remain lost in his real form?

Comments

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

You know, sometimes I think the fandom as a whole spends waaaaaaaay more time and effort thinking about these things than JKR does.

The limb question is interesting. I'm assuming that if Moody polyjuices into someone with two legs, he'll regrow his leg. How does that affect his phantom pain? Has the wizarding world found an effective way to deal with that problem? Because my dad's remaining pain seems to be mainly neurological, so I wonder.

I'm really kind of curious as to how the wizarding world deals with neurological issues in general. Even with magic, messing around in the brain seems dodgy.

[conuly]

Even with magic, messing around in the brain seems dodgy.

Not that that should stop them or anything....

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

No, it shouldn't. Doesn't stop us either, does it. I'm just wondering what they could do, magically.

The recommended treatment now for my dad is that they use electric shocks. Apparently there's something they want to do with his spine that my dad isn't really going for.

[conuly]

I meant that sarcastically. Knowing the potential long-term effects of obliviation, I find it alternately absurd and atrocious that the ministry advocates this use quite often, to protect their secret. That's messing with the mind. Knowing the potential addictive effects of Cheering Charms, I find it insane that they teach them to 13-year-old children. And don't get me started on love potions....

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of things about the wizarding world that are incredibly messed up, actually. The Tri-Wizard Tournament springs immediately to mind, speaking of GoF.

[l33tminion]

Have they tried a mirror box?

[conuly]

There's another question.

We mere muggles know that a lot of who we are has to do with how our brains develop. No two people will have identical brains. The brain is a physical part of the mind.

I can accept that if you polyjuice into somebody, your mind itself doesn't change, at least in the short term. But does the brain? If you polyjuice into somebody who has hyper-sensitive hearing, will your hearing change? If you are clumsy because of neurological problems, and you polyjuice into the body of somebody who doesn't have those problems, who is gifted physically - will your own ability to move alter while in that person's body?

Here's the pertinant question: If your brain also alters shape somewhat, and the chemicals within the brain as well (why not), then will you suffer lasting effects if you stay in somebody else's body too long?

[conuly]

Part of the body, not mind, though that works as well.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I have to think it would have a lasting effect. I would have been interested to see what happened to Barty Crouch Jr. after he went off Polyjuice in GoF.

Crouch obviously gained the ability to use Moody's magical eye when he used Polyjuice. How much of that involved altering his brain in order to replace his normal eye with a magical one?

Also, is Polyjuice addictive?

[conuly]

That's an interesting question.

I believe that Felix Felicis is potentially addictive, and with long-term negative consequences. How long would it take, having Felix tell you what to do, for you to lose the ability to make good decisions without the potion? I believe it's addictive because, dude, all that luck?

I believe that Cheering Charms are potentially addictive - happiness? Euphoria on demand? Yay!

But something that doesn't have any direct consequences (that we know of) on the mind? I don't know.

[l33tminion]

Yup. Psychological addiction FTW.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Now there's a thought. Would polyjuice be able to be used for brainwashing someone, or changing them into a better person? Would changing into someone else and staying that way for a long time, say over a year, cause them to actually change into either a duplicate of that person or a composite?

[l33tminion]

I think it's safe to say that transmogrification magic in general doesn't have any significant effect on the mind in that "universe".

Of course, our only examples of people under the effect of long-term transformations are people who were crazy to begin with (Barty Jr., Wormtail, Voldemort), and it's safe to say the experience didn't make any of them saner.

(Although, in the case of Barty Jr., the guy he was transforming into wasn't exactly a paragon of mental stability, either.)

[conuly]

I think it's safe to say that transmogrification magic in general doesn't have any significant effect on the mind in that "universe".

Ah, but we know that when Sirius is in dog form, his thoughts are less complex. He's able to tell us this as a human.

[l33tminion]

At the very least, that seems to be temporary.

[conuly]

Is it? How temporary? We know that Sirius is aware enough of the fact to comment on it, but can we prove that his mind hasn't been altered? Look at Peter - he's described, even in human form, as being ratlike in his behaviour. Is this because he was already ratlike when he became an animagus, or did his long stay as a rat alter his behaviour? Or is it a combination - he was already ratlike, but it's been exaggerated by his time as a rat.

This applies to people who change into forms that suit them, of course. What about people who change into forms that *don't* suit him - would that alter them in a way that we can see?

[leora.livejournal.com]

I wonder if you get there muscle memory too... Physical tasks seem to be learned differently than facts are. So, if you polyjuice into say an expert piano player, how well can you play the piano? Do you get the stamina of the person you polyjuice into?

And if so, can I have some polyjuice potion. I'll just use it for a couple of hours a day, but it'd make getting housework done so much easier.

[conuly]

So, if you polyjuice into say an expert piano player, how well can you play the piano?

Interesting question... perhaps it's a skill that would come more quickly the longer you spent in that person's body? Then, question: Would you be able to retain the skill when back in your own body?

[leora.livejournal.com]

On a side note... on a good day I do actually know which their/there/they're to use.

[conuly]

*huggles* I know. I've been typo-ing so much lately myself that I don't even notice other's peccadillos. I love that word. Peccadillo. Like armadillo, but with more pecs and less arms.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Well i think you've thaught about polyjuice more than rowling did. On the whole turning into girls thing, what would happen do oyu think if say someone was concieved while a parent was under the efects of polyjuice potion? Would the rsulting offspring (given a suficient supply of hte potion to allow it to be carried to term in the case of a female) partake of the genetics of the origional parent, or that of the polijuice source.
the more i think about it it the more polyjuice seems like an extra convienent dues ex machina rather than a well thaught out idea.

[conuly]

Don't let us even bring up the subject of m-preg, please.

[(Anonymous)]

I was trying to express the reservations i had arround hte concept without having that concept raise it;s ugly head.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

You know, sometimes I think the fandom as a whole spends waaaaaaaay more time and effort thinking about these things than JKR does.

The limb question is interesting. I'm assuming that if Moody polyjuices into someone with two legs, he'll regrow his leg. How does that affect his phantom pain? Has the wizarding world found an effective way to deal with that problem? Because my dad's remaining pain seems to be mainly neurological, so I wonder.

I'm really kind of curious as to how the wizarding world deals with neurological issues in general. Even with magic, messing around in the brain seems dodgy.

[conuly]

Even with magic, messing around in the brain seems dodgy.

Not that that should stop them or anything....

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

No, it shouldn't. Doesn't stop us either, does it. I'm just wondering what they could do, magically.

The recommended treatment now for my dad is that they use electric shocks. Apparently there's something they want to do with his spine that my dad isn't really going for.

[conuly]

I meant that sarcastically. Knowing the potential long-term effects of obliviation, I find it alternately absurd and atrocious that the ministry advocates this use quite often, to protect their secret. That's messing with the mind. Knowing the potential addictive effects of Cheering Charms, I find it insane that they teach them to 13-year-old children. And don't get me started on love potions....

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of things about the wizarding world that are incredibly messed up, actually. The Tri-Wizard Tournament springs immediately to mind, speaking of GoF.

[l33tminion]

Have they tried a mirror box?

[conuly]

There's another question.

We mere muggles know that a lot of who we are has to do with how our brains develop. No two people will have identical brains. The brain is a physical part of the mind.

I can accept that if you polyjuice into somebody, your mind itself doesn't change, at least in the short term. But does the brain? If you polyjuice into somebody who has hyper-sensitive hearing, will your hearing change? If you are clumsy because of neurological problems, and you polyjuice into the body of somebody who doesn't have those problems, who is gifted physically - will your own ability to move alter while in that person's body?

Here's the pertinant question: If your brain also alters shape somewhat, and the chemicals within the brain as well (why not), then will you suffer lasting effects if you stay in somebody else's body too long?

[conuly]

Part of the body, not mind, though that works as well.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I have to think it would have a lasting effect. I would have been interested to see what happened to Barty Crouch Jr. after he went off Polyjuice in GoF.

Crouch obviously gained the ability to use Moody's magical eye when he used Polyjuice. How much of that involved altering his brain in order to replace his normal eye with a magical one?

Also, is Polyjuice addictive?

[conuly]

That's an interesting question.

I believe that Felix Felicis is potentially addictive, and with long-term negative consequences. How long would it take, having Felix tell you what to do, for you to lose the ability to make good decisions without the potion? I believe it's addictive because, dude, all that luck?

I believe that Cheering Charms are potentially addictive - happiness? Euphoria on demand? Yay!

But something that doesn't have any direct consequences (that we know of) on the mind? I don't know.

[l33tminion]

Yup. Psychological addiction FTW.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Now there's a thought. Would polyjuice be able to be used for brainwashing someone, or changing them into a better person? Would changing into someone else and staying that way for a long time, say over a year, cause them to actually change into either a duplicate of that person or a composite?

[l33tminion]

I think it's safe to say that transmogrification magic in general doesn't have any significant effect on the mind in that "universe".

Of course, our only examples of people under the effect of long-term transformations are people who were crazy to begin with (Barty Jr., Wormtail, Voldemort), and it's safe to say the experience didn't make any of them saner.

(Although, in the case of Barty Jr., the guy he was transforming into wasn't exactly a paragon of mental stability, either.)

[conuly]

I think it's safe to say that transmogrification magic in general doesn't have any significant effect on the mind in that "universe".

Ah, but we know that when Sirius is in dog form, his thoughts are less complex. He's able to tell us this as a human.

[l33tminion]

At the very least, that seems to be temporary.

[conuly]

Is it? How temporary? We know that Sirius is aware enough of the fact to comment on it, but can we prove that his mind hasn't been altered? Look at Peter - he's described, even in human form, as being ratlike in his behaviour. Is this because he was already ratlike when he became an animagus, or did his long stay as a rat alter his behaviour? Or is it a combination - he was already ratlike, but it's been exaggerated by his time as a rat.

This applies to people who change into forms that suit them, of course. What about people who change into forms that *don't* suit him - would that alter them in a way that we can see?

[leora.livejournal.com]

I wonder if you get there muscle memory too... Physical tasks seem to be learned differently than facts are. So, if you polyjuice into say an expert piano player, how well can you play the piano? Do you get the stamina of the person you polyjuice into?

And if so, can I have some polyjuice potion. I'll just use it for a couple of hours a day, but it'd make getting housework done so much easier.

[conuly]

So, if you polyjuice into say an expert piano player, how well can you play the piano?

Interesting question... perhaps it's a skill that would come more quickly the longer you spent in that person's body? Then, question: Would you be able to retain the skill when back in your own body?

[leora.livejournal.com]

On a side note... on a good day I do actually know which their/there/they're to use.

[conuly]

*huggles* I know. I've been typo-ing so much lately myself that I don't even notice other's peccadillos. I love that word. Peccadillo. Like armadillo, but with more pecs and less arms.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Well i think you've thaught about polyjuice more than rowling did. On the whole turning into girls thing, what would happen do oyu think if say someone was concieved while a parent was under the efects of polyjuice potion? Would the rsulting offspring (given a suficient supply of hte potion to allow it to be carried to term in the case of a female) partake of the genetics of the origional parent, or that of the polijuice source.
the more i think about it it the more polyjuice seems like an extra convienent dues ex machina rather than a well thaught out idea.

[conuly]

Don't let us even bring up the subject of m-preg, please.

[(Anonymous)]

I was trying to express the reservations i had arround hte concept without having that concept raise it;s ugly head.