The Hogwarts Legacy Spell That Could Solve The Secret Behind Its Cats

The "Harry Potter" franchise is full of upsetting moments, like Voldemort drinking a unicorn's blood and Dumbledore's fateful battle with the Inferi. There is one element to the series, however, that weirds out film and book fans alike: those sneaky Animagi. For those not in the know, an Animagus is a wizard who can transform into an animal, and not all Animagi use this skill responsibly. As some players have spotted in "Hogwarts Legacy," one of the in-game newspapers details the story of a woman who turned into a cat in order to spy on her neighbors. 

To those who pet every cat they see: there's a good chance you're probably petting some random mangy old dude from
HarryPotterGame

This raises all sorts of questions about the cats in "Hogwarts Legacy," of which there are many. As players go about their day, attending classes and fulfilling one fetch quest after another, they can also stop and give some much-needed pets to Hogwarts' stray felines. But what if not all of these cats are what they appear to be? Some players have encountered all kinds of weird things while petting cats, like some that vanish without a trace right before getting ear scratches. Sure, this could be chalked up to another random glitch in the game's code, but what if it's indicative of an Animagus in hiding? After all, the devs have internally tested a mechanic that lets cats fire off Unforgivable Curses, so who's to say some of these cats couldn't be wizards in disguise?

If only there were a spell that could clear up any of these concerns! Oh, wait...

Fans of the "Harry Potter" series might recall that the concept of an Animagus posing as a pet is not a new concept, no matter how horrifying it might seem. In the franchise's third installment, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," it is revealed that Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, is not at all what he seems. Scabbers is actually Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew, a traitorous wizard who defected to Voldemort's side and gave the dark wizard information which led to death of Harry's parents. Pettigrew spent years hiding as a normal rat, no doubt giving Ron some wild trust issues once his ruse was revealed. The villain's cover was blown when he was hit by a reversal spell from Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Though the exact canonical name of this spell is unknown, its use establishes that it's possible to forcibly draw an Animagus out of hiding. 

Thanks to that aforementioned newspaper headline, it's a bit difficult not to think about the potential phony cats and dogs trodding around the Hogwarts grounds, and how easy it might be to expose them — if only the game's developers had included this spell. Oh, well. Maybe in the sequel!