What ever happened to Mr. Norris??

[Mistress Siana]

I'm not 100 % sure of it, but I think JKR said they won't. And personally, I hope so, I would be too much of a repitition.

[Phinea Rogue]

I hope they wouldn't, or at least not all of them. But Hermione is a possibility, I can see her on working hard on something like this, becoming an animagus. Therefore - only Hermione, I hope the others wouldn't become animagi. There're already too many of them.

[Hagger 9003]

it took 3 years for the marauders to become animagi, and they were really good wizards. hermione might be a bit more intelligent, but i doubt she has the guts to do it. so many rules to break, and she would never break the law for no real reason. just for the sake of being able to turn into an animagus? i dont think so. it would make for some really interesting literature, though.

[Phinea Rogue]

But she could do it legally, with the help of McGonagall. After all, only being an unregistered animagus is illegal, not being an animagus itself.

[Un'Anima Persa]

if i were hermione, i would care more about the helpless animals that are transfigured than the house elves that want to stay where they are...

[Tanuki]

Once more, I assume Mcgonagall probably changes them back at the end of the lesson. Besides, look at some of the ingredients in potions, animals are used loads in the wizarding worlds.

[Hagger 9003]

yeh. remember, people use unicorn horn. do they actually kill the unicorn? cos to kill a unicorn is a monstrous sin, as they said in book one. also, think of all the dragon horn, skin, blood etc they use. they must be getting rare, those dragons.

[Nightcrawler]

Well, Dragons are reptiles so I suppose they shed thier skin once in a while.

As for unicorn horns, well I believe that african villagers used to use rhino horns in thier medicine all the time. This would not hurt the rhino at all, because thier horn is really just made out of thick, twisted hair. It just grows right back. Maybe the same thing happens to unicorns.

[Hagger 9003]

ok, where did u get that info, nightcrawler? horns of animals are made of ivory. very rare and valuable, and the only way to get it is to kill the animal. it doesnt grow back. its part of the skeleton. if u take the horn of an animal, it would be like cutting someones bone in half, and taking away the other half. thats why the horn is important. its the hardest bit to get from an animal. u have to kill the animal first.

sorry if i seem a bit agresive, but i dont reckon animals should be killed for a horn. just seems a bit of a waste of a life.

[Tanuki]

You're thinking of tusks, horns can be made of just about anything. Deer antlers grow back and fall off every year. I can believe that a Rhino horn is possibly made this way. The world is an amazing and wonderous place

[Nightcrawler]

Yes, Tanuki is correct. Tusks are different to horns.

However, I totally agree that it is wrong to kill an animal just so that you can play music on thier bones.

From:

http://www.auduboninstitute.org/media/e ... 0Horns.doc

Here is the deffinition of the word "horn".

Horns are bone overlaid with keratin, the protein that forms fingernails. Horns are permanent; antelopes, sheep, bison, cattle, and goats have them. Both males and females usually have horns, though there is often sexual dimorphism (physical differences) between the genders.

Yes, the word "bone" was in there, however in the rhino section it says...

[Rhino horn is] compressed hair - not horn at all. It grows throughout the rhino’s life.

So it looks like rhino "horn" is not really a horn, even though that is what it is commonly known as.
Further down it says:

the horns grow back

Unfortunetly, many poachers will still kill a rhino for its horn, because I suppose removing a horn from a dead rhino is easier than removing one from a live one. However the actual removal of the horn itself does not hurt the rhino.

[Tanuki]

now in this day and age of tranks, you can just knock it out and take it, of course you gotta run like hell when it wakes up

[Un'Anima Persa]

lol... but it must be a bit harder to get it while it is alive...

btw, it is totaly wrong to kill animals for music... BLEH!

and i dont think you should take horse hair to make violin/viola/bass/cello bows either...

[choki]

erm...you don't have to kill a horse just to get his tail hair right????

[Un'Anima Persa]

no, you don't, but i still don't think it's right to pluck it out when there are other materials that woork just as well...