Harry Potter Question

[marti2003]

Photographs and portraits in the Harry Potter universe move about. To the best of my knowledge, all photographs can do is scream (because they shriek when Sirius smashes the glass in his mother's house as they are throwing them away), and figured in portraits can speak and move from portrait to portrait

Comments

[gafennec]

1) I think the portraits are themself magical so that they can only be created upon death. (At least for the Headmasters of Hogwarts.)

2) I guess if somebody had painted/created a portrait of Sirius Black he could break the veil and talk to Harry, etc. But I think the protrait has to want to talk to do so.

And I think because of the nature of the portraits (see 1 above) that you can't talk to your portrait. Or alternatively the portrait is inanimate until death.

[marti2003]

This makes sense.

I was going to ask it on the forums on Mugglenet, but I don't want to make an account. xD

[gafennec]

*HUG* Granted it was all guess work on my part. :)

[cuprohastes]

Actually, the paintings talk. The fat lady in pink who is over the entrance to the Gryffindor common room asks for the password, for instance. And in Order of the Phoenix, one of hte paintinggs is always rather vituperative. Dumbledor uses some of the paintings as informants too.
Additionally, when Harry gets a Dumbledore card in his box of chocolate frog, it wanders around (Dumbledore is missing the second timehe looks at the card). Additionally, the pictures in the newspapers are all mobile, doing more or less what they were doing when the photo was taken - waving, posing, etc.

[marti2003]

That's what I'm saying. Paintings talk. Photos only move.

So obviously, you can't talk to a photograph of yourself. Can you talk to a painting of yourself?

[cuprohastes]

Oh, sorry, I mis-read the statement. Sorry. It's early *looks at clock: 1pm* er, well, relatively early... ish. Sort of. My brain apparently thinks it is anyway.

[marti2003]

Pish posh! It's 8:14 AM here. And I have not slept. xD

<3

[zowch]

I've always sort of been under the impression that the photo or portrait is the person. Thus all the talk about how you can't expect them to hang around all day and why they aren't there sometimes. Thus, were you to attempt to talk to a portrait of yourself, it wouldn't work, as you would be there standing in front of the portrait and thus unable to appear in it.

That said, I think it's also a fairly reasonable assumption that in order for the magic to work, the person has to be present. Don't get me wrong, I want Sirius back as much as the next guy. <3 Sirius.