Hagrid's Wand

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C4916
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Re: Hagrid's Wand
Reply To: [Yahoo! #4905] Re: Hagrid's Wand
Date: 7/23/00 10:43 am  (ET)

<<PS. Come on Neil, give me a hand!>>

Hmmm, okay.

(1) Ollivander says that Hagrid's wand was a good one, and Hagrid agrees,
'It was, sir, yes'.

Talking in the past tense suggests that the wand was good when it was
whole, and is now less than good. But, Hagrid could just be covering.

(2) Ollivander says to Hagrid, 'But I suppose they snapped it in half
when you got expelled?'

The use of 'they' suggests some sort of authority, such as the Ministry
of Magic, rather than an individual, such as Dippet, is responsible for
such things.

Why does Ollivander 'suppose' it was snapped in half? That's quite
a specific form of damage, which suggests that this would be normal
practice for serious misuse of magic. Otherwise, he might have said,
'I suppose it was broken up/destroyed/confiscated?'

We can probably assume that Ollivander knows the wand regulations
backwards, but the fact that he 'supposes' the observance of the
regulations, does not mean they *were* observed.

(3) Hagrid says, 'Er - yes, they did, yes' and then confirms that he's
still got the pieces.

To me, this is the behaviour of someone lying through their
teeth. Ollivander makes an assumption; Hagrid hesitates, confirms it,
and follows up with a statement reinforcing that assumption.

(4) Ollivander says, 'But you don't *use* them'.

This indicates that Ollivander assumed that the two pieces of the wand
*could* be used. However, what's the point of snapping a wand in half
if it can still be used in some way? If someone has been irresponsible,
surely the last thing you want to do is leave them with an unpredictable
tool? That would be like putting a convicted drunken driver in charge
of a car with no brakes.

Conclusion: I think it's possible, even likely, that Hagrid's wand is
still in one piece, and that he pretended to Ollivander [probably a
stickler for rules] that it had been snapped.

Neil