Padfoot's Breed

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Rowling never specified what breed of dog Sirius' Animagus form was, and 'a bear-like black dog' doesn't do much to narrow the field of possibilities. However, if we assume that the transformation closely reflects the wizard's personality, and perhaps reinforces it, I think I might have identified our mystery breed.

Meet the Russian Newfoundland, also called the Moscow Water Dog:

http://www.easypetmd.com/doginfo/moscow-water-dog

The result of a breeding experiment crossing Newfoundlands, East European Shepherds, and Caucasian Shepherds to create an all-purpose work and rescue dog by the Soviet Army during the 1950's, the Russian Newfoundland is now extinct.

What was this breed like while extant?

"This new breed proved to be an excellent swimmer, as well as a vigilant, trainable and intelligent shoreline sentry dog, and well able to withstand arctic temperatures and freezing water."

Strong swimming skills and high tolerance of freezing water - escaped from Azkaban by swimming the North Sea.

Intelligent - his teachers acknowledged him as bright, however much trouble he caused. The Marauders' Map is nothing to laugh at either.

Vigilant – before he was addled by Dementors he was certainly more attentive than James during their assault on Snape.

Trainable – this is the crux, isn't it? We don't know much about the dynamics between Sirius and James, but Peter was able to play him like a harp, and even Remus could control him when he bothered to exert himself. So, it seems that he was eminently manageable by those who knew him well and who he considered 'pack.'

And the Moscow Water Dog was infamous for being very selective about who they would acknowledge as pack, and how hostile they were toward strangers.

How hostile?

"...when set loose to rescue a panicked and drowning sailor, it was the breed's nature to swim straight to them and attack them in the water. A terrifying experience for the victim, who if they did not drown fighting off the dog would then likely try and drown the dog in order to defend themselves from the onslaught of gnashing teeth."

I'm sure those Muggle policemen in the prequel could sympathize deeply. As could Snape, and Kreacher, and....

In summation:

"As it would turn out, the Russian Water Dog was too much working dog and not enough rescue dog, the breed was aggressive and took very poorly to strangers, regardless of whether they were drowning or on land."

Yes, I believe that fits Sirius rather well.

Comments

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

How many students do we know the grades of to compare their general classroom performance against their OWL scores? Hermione, IIRC, consistently had top marks except in her DADA practical 3rd year, and her OWL scores were largely in line with that performance (the unfairness of Harry having been allowed extra-credit not withstanding). Harry and Ron though seemed to skate through most of their classes largely with A's and the occasional E, even through 5th year. Come OWL exams, they both managed E's in most of their subjects. The jump in Harry's potions grade was even more jarring - going from P's and D's to an E. Just being more relaxed without Snape in the room shouldn't have been enough of a difference to cause such a jump in performance.

Perhaps the older faculty have continued to use the same grading standards they were familiar with and haven't realized how much easier the grading is on the OWLs and NEWTs. Improvements in grades might be attributed to students' having studied well for the most important tests even if their normal classwork didn't receive the same diligence. This impression would be bolstered if most students did start to improve their class grades, at least incrementally, as OWLs/NEWTs approached.

Anyone advancing to NEWT level classes would be self-selected for interest in the subjects they were taking, and would presumably put more effort into maintaining the quality of their work. This would make it harder for the older faculty to spot how many students were receiving passing marks higher than they would have under the old standards.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Well, we know that Hermione was best in her year first year (Lucius twitted Draco about it). Minerva said in "Career Advice" that Harry was doing A work in her class but she thought he was capable of #. And, wanting to be an Auror, he indeed did begin buckling down for the first time in his school career.

And all of the kids from WW families would receive strong encouragement to do the same--those exams determine their futures.

So seeing improvement in 5th year wouldn't be that uncommon.

OTOH--we know that at least 3 teachers allow kids with O OR E into their NEWTs calasses--if the exam grades aren't publicly released, just Pass/Fail, then only the Head of House might know which of the students taking their NEWT classes had recieved which grade.

Slughorn, for instance, might be under the impression that he has 11 E students plus Harry in his class, not 10 O's plus Harry and Ron. And note that Ron's performance is so dismal that he doesn't even remember his name.....