NonReader NonUnderstanding...

[Halbarad of the Dunedain]

I have not read any of the Harry Potter books, and if I ever do it probably wont be too soon. Yet I have seen all three films, and so I am sure that I am missing a lot of information that may be integral to the whole story. I liked the films and I wanted to post a thread that people could voice the major and important missing sceans from the book to the films. Not what you liked and didn't like about the cutting of the film but real, important, missing events that are rather important. Also I wanted to keep this thread open for questions that a NonReader would need to ask. Questions like my first;
1. In the third film Harry is being attacked, along with Sirius, by the... Nazgul looking things. He see's across the lake a figure that he says looks like his father. Yet, maybe im retarded but I see a deer! So if it really is a deer than what is the significance!? Why a deer? Why say it looked like his father!?

[sirigorn]

Okay...this is something that really should have been put it, for people like you how haven't read the books. Harry's father, Sirius, and Peter Pettigrew (the other guy in the Shrieking Shack that looked like a rat) are animagi. Animagi are people that can turn into a specific animal at will. They can't choose this animal, it's like your totem or something. But anyway, when they were students at Hogwarts they found out that one of their best friends (Remus Lupin) was a werewolf and they wanted to make it better for him. Of course humans can't go near werewolves, or they'd get bitten and then they'd be a werewolf as well. But animals can. And so can animagi in their animagus form. So they all became animagi, which, mind you, is illegal and highly dangerous. Well, it's not illegal really but they need the Ministry of Magic to supervise it because it's so dangerous and they way they did it, in secret, was illegal. But anyway, they are now animagi. Sirius became a big black dog, Peter became a rat and Harry's father, James, became a stag. So that's why Harry said it was his dad. Does that explain it well enough?

~Siri~

[BeardofPants]

Harry saw himself across the lake in the future, casting a patronus spell to save Harry in the past. The patronus is shaped like a deer, cos his father was an animagus who could change into a deer. Ye should read the books!

[sirigorn]

Oh right...I was so busy explaining about animagi and why it was a deer that I forgot to mention that fact. But anyway, you really should!! They are very good!

~Siri~

[Halbarad of the Dunedain]

Eventually I will read them, im just really busy right now. Getting ready for a Japanese class, math classes(I suck at math), and a lot of other things for college. Not to mention working and getting ready for Law School! So... J.K. Rowlings huge books are a little daunting for me at the moment. Anyhow, how did they become Animagus? Is it a choice like the LotR half Elven? Or is it something hereditary? Considering Sirius and potter are related?

[sirigorn]

What? No, they're not related...where did you get that idea?
Anyway, they become Animagi by some long difficult dangerous magical process...that's all we really know about it. But it's not hereditary or anything. You can choose to become one, but then you have to go through the long process, and if you do it legally, then the Ministry has to supervise it and everything. Also, I think that JKR said that your patronus (the thing that chases away the dementors, which are the weird Nazgul-like flying things that aren't supposed to fly...) and your animagus form is the same. I could have sworn there was something on her offical site, but I can't find it anywhere...

~Siri~

[BeardofPants]

Sirius is Harry's godfather, and friend of Harry's father James. Both were animagi. To become one sounds like an arduous process, and dangerous, therefore only a few can likely manage it, and it's supposed to be all under close supervision. There are steep punishments for animagi that are not registered.....

[Halbarad of the Dunedain]

I was reading the "Why not Snape?" thread and I am now wondering what are the Death Eaters? Or maybe, who are the Death Eaters?

[azalea]

The Death Eaters (DE) are Voldemort's "army" of followers. I'm sure they'll start giving that info in the next movie. I don't want to say too much more because of possible spoilers.

I will say that I have a theory, which some may already consider fact, but not having many people to discuss HP with, I have no idea. Or it could be pure bunk. Anyway, in the books, it is mentioned or hinted several times that Voldemort hates and/or fears death more than anything. I think he has been on a major death-avoidance quest (kind of like Annikin!) for a long time, and that he has been so intent on immortality that he was somehow able to avoid getting killed when he attacked Harry originally.

I think that the term Death Eater came about either because they have joined him in his quest to seek immortality themselves, or he somehow has them helping him personally to stay alive. In any case, it's like they joined him with a promise of immortality, or because they believe in the cause of finding ways to make onesself immortal. Perhaps their hatred of non-pure wizards has to do with that. Perhaps way back when, wizards had very long lives (maybe that's why Nick Flamel was so old to begin with), but their interbreeding with Muggles caused the lifespan to be reduced. That's all just a theory, though.

[Radagast The Brown]

I've never actually thought about it, azalea.

It makes sense though. I can't really see any other reason - I just excepted the name as it is... like Dementors. Bu, the question is... did Voldemort seek for immortality when he established the group of 'Death Eaters'? Was it his intention at the time? I thought it was more to rule the magical world.

[Pytt]

i also think it has more about his need for ruling the world, rather than his immortality. but when i think about it, maybe it is a mix.
to rule the world, he certainly need followers, to take care of leser enemies, and gather more followers.
but if he wanted immortality, he would certainly not do it himself, when he could get som other minion to do it for him, like getting the philsophers stone, for an example.
if i was about to go to war against a whole world, i would certainly gather some followers, as many as possible.

[Halbarad of the Dunedain]

Okay so now I'm really confused. If Snape is a member of Voldemort's "Army" the Death Eaters, why in The Sorcerer's Stone, would Snape be at odds with Professor Quirrell? If Voldemort is a part of, or in alliance with, Quirrell why would he defend Harry at the Quittich match? Why in a sense attack Voldemort and defend against him?