This article appears to simply be a fan's interpretation without any sources. 98.182.42.245 08:13, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
- Well, the 'sources' are not really an specific statements from the books though i suppose i could add them. Historically and throughout the books animals have been 'used' in this way. This is why students bring animals to Hogwarts in the first place. You don't think they just want a student to have a 'pet', do you? And why just a toad/owl/cat etc? And why do these animals do the 'bidding' of wizards, or rather work with wizards for magic? There's historical reasons for these and that's what the article is about. Mafalda Hopkirk 16:04, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
- I don't recall the term "familiar" ever being used in the series to refer to animals kept by witches and wizards. Yes, there are parallels between the magical pets of Harry Potter and the familiars of folklore, but since JKR has never explicitly introduced these magical pets as "familiars," I think it's original research to state that this is what they're intended to be. It would be like stating in the werewolf article that werewolves can only be killed with silver bullets because this is a recurrent element in fantasy fiction. I don't see a problem with keeping this article if we limit its content to an out-of-universe exploration of folklore that might've inspired elements in the HP books. But we'll need to be careful to avoid presenting familiars are a canonical concept. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 02:53, 26 July 2009 (UTC)