Werewolves and full moons

[pica_scribit]

I know there isn't really any canon evidence on this one way or the other, but I'd love to hear people's speculation. We know that werewolves only seem to transform once a month, presumably on the night when the moon is closest to peak fullness. But what if peak fullness occurs within a few minutes of twelve noon? Would a werewolf transform both

Comments

[shyfoxling]

The division of one day into the next at midnight is quite arbitrary. I think it might make more sense to reckon sunrise to sunrise or sunset to sunset as a "day" for this purpose; then you could clearly identify one period where the moon was fuller than on the two on either side, whether you wanted to restrict to night or not.

The scene descriptions near the end of PoA make it sound like the werewolf has to actually be touched by the moonlight, but that doesn't make sense; in that case all Remus would have to do is stay indoors. Perhaps the moment of peak fullness simply happened to coincide with the clouds moving and the moon shining down as they came out of the Shack that night, and if it happened during the day he would transform during the day? But then there'd be no way he wouldn't be noticed being "smuggled" down to the Shack as a student, would there? Remus's descriptions make it sound like it was always by night. It's kind of self-contradictory. Perhaps it's always at night, after moonrise, at the moment of peak fullness or closest to, if that moment is actually in the daytime?

Remus isn't very clear about the length of time involved in "[waiting] for the moon to wane again", but he speaks of using an excuse of going home to visit his sick mother, so it sounds like the better part of a day, or more, not just a matter of an hour or so. It is perhaps notable that he talks about the transformation wearing off when the moon wanes, not when it sets.

Sorry, I'm not being very helpful here, am I? This sounds like it might be one of the things JKR didn't think through, and just sort of always pictured it being at night even though that's not literally true (like how she has September 1st be the same day of the week more than one year in a row).

Lunar eclipses - if the transformation doesn't require the touch of moonlight, I'm not sure how it would be any different? And in any case there is still light reaching and being reflected from the moon in an eclipse, which is why they are often rusty or copper colored and not completely dark.

[pica_scribit]

Perhaps the moment of peak fullness simply happened to coincide with the clouds moving and the moon shining down as they came out of the Shack that night, and if it happened during the day he would transform during the day?

When the moon is full, it is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, which means it is at its highest point in the sky near midnight, and tends to rise when the sun is setting, and vice versa. In June, in Scotland, when that chapter takes place, sunset happens very late indeed. Around 9 or 10 PM, depending on how far north Hogwarts is.

Perhaps it's always at night, after moonrise, at the moment of peak fullness or closest to, if that moment is actually in the daytime?

But if peak fullness happens around noon in the timezone in question, then the moon would be equally full both on the night before and the night after, would it not?

he speaks of using an excuse of going home to visit his sick mother, so it sounds like the better part of a day, or more, not just a matter of an hour or so.

I assume (as seems pretty common in fanon) that he is in wolf form from moonrise to sunrise/moonset, whichever night is closest to peak fullness, but then would need the day to rest and recover before returning to the dormitories.

Thanks for engaging with my personal obsession. I think maybe I think about this stuff way too much....