Polyjuice Properties

[OliveOil_Med]

We all know that the Polyjuice Potion is for human transformations only, and does not work for animals. But what about humaniod creatures, such as centaurs or merpeople? Would a Polyjuice Potion work for transforming into creatures such as these, or would it be as useless as trying to use the potion to transform into a cat or a dog?

[inspirations]

No - I can't see this happening somehow. We saw what happened to Hermione the first time she used the potion, and though similar species, I think you would end up with a scaly face (or something similar).

Idea - maybe you could make a variation of the potion, so that it would transform you into an animal, or humaniod creatures, but not humans. Just a thought.

[Inverarity]

What we know about Polyjuice Potion:

It can give you characteristics of a different species, if not transform you into that species (Hermione turning into "catgirl").

It can alter your mass (within reason), and it can also alter more than just your appearance (Crabbe and Goyle turning into girls in HBP).

So, while it seems unlikely that the standard Polyjuice recipe could let you turn all the way into cat -- or a centaur or a merperson or anything else radically outside the human norm -- Animagi certainly leave open the possibility that that is not too extreme an effect for magic to accomplish.

So if you want to use that idea in a story, I'd say an advanced, more difficult and dangerous version of Polyjuice potion that lets someone turn into a completely different species is not completely unbelievable.

[leahsm2]

We all know that the Polyjuice Potion is for human transformations only, and does not work for animals. But what about humaniod creatures, such as centaurs or merpeople? Would a Polyjuice Potion work for transforming into creatures such as these, or would it be as useless as trying to use the potion to transform into a cat or a dog?

That would depend on the elements of the Polyjuice Potion and how it reacts on the body, I would assume. If you are of the opinion that the polyjuice potion interacts with the DNA, then I would assume that it wouldn't work so well because the elements would be too different, but if it is actually working in some sort of tandem with the magical elements inherent in magical creatures, it might actually work, but then you'd probably have to do some scientific experimentation with Muggles, which is generally frowned upon

(I'm goofy, but I love these wacky questions!)