The Betrayer?

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 39969

Cold hearted Joeblackish said:

Scenario:

1. Hagrid gets drunk and lets something slip, something that will 
allow Voldemort to get at Dumbledore and probably kill him.
2. Voldemort takes advantage of this and comes within about an 
inch of killing Dumbledore in whatever way Hagrid tipped him off 
to.
3. Hagrid sobers up and realizes what he's done, and nobly 
throws himself in Dumbledore's place, sacrificing himself to 
save D's life.

I love this because its totally in character for Hagrid, it still 
supports D's second chance/trusting philosophy, and most of 
all, it gets rid of that annoying clod. I really can't stand Hagrid. 
He's so boring. And such a big baby. I hope he eats it in OoP.


Naama: 

Oy! That's my favorite character you're offing, mate. <jumps into 
fray>

Based on metathinking ;-), I have to say that it's highly unlikely, 
IMO, for Hagrid to "get drunk and let something slip." It has 
happened already (PS) and JKR showed us Hagrid horrified and full of 
remorse at what he'd done. It would be ... well, boring and lacking 
in Bang to have the same thing happen twice. OTOH, I can see JKR 
using it as a red herring. That is, people (and the reader) will 
suspect Hagrid, when the real culprit will be somebody else (I just 
hope it won't involve any more illegal Animagi!).

Joeblackish:

But on the other hand, Hagrid's screwed up time and time again. 
In fact, his drinking/foolish trusting/incompetence as a teacher/et 
cetera has caused a major problem in every single book. It 
seems to be a pretty major pattern.

Naama:

Beside his big screwup in PS, when did he show himself to be 
untrustworthy? In CoS he is most unfairly thrown to Azkaban based on 
his past crime (for which, as we know, he was framed by Tom Riddle). 
In PoA, he didn't do anything wrong. I disagree with those who think 
that Hagrid misjudged in his choice of beasts for the first lesson 
and put the blame squarely on Draco and his Dad. He was - *again* - 
framed. In GoF – I really don't see that he did anything wrong. In 
telling Madam Maxime that he is half a giant? Well, he might have 
picked up a more discrete setting for doing that. But again, it was 
Rita Skeeter's illegal sneaking about that caused the harm. He should 
not be blamed for other peoples' malice.
Bad people use his unique combination of clumsiness, gentleness, 
loyalty, naivetee and too-big-to-be-allowed-ness to frame him for 
acts of viciousness that are completely foreign to his nature. In the 
next book, we're probably going to see Hagrid suffer under a new 
source of prejudice, being known as a half giant. Malfoy and others 
will no doubt jump on this opportunity to use this prejudice against 
him. 
Hagrid is the fall guy. He gets the blame and suffers for things he 
didn't do, or isn't responsible for. That is a much more important 
narrative role (IMO) than the one incident where he drank and 
blabbed. In other words, it is not Hagrid's narrative role to do 
things that harm his friends. But it *is* his "job" to suffer under 
false allegations and prejudice, but still hold strong to his loyalty 
and essential goodness.

Joeblackish:

I'm torn about the Hagrid inadvertently betraying Dumbledore 
theory. On the one hand, it seems like it HAS to happen. As 
people have pointed out before, that "I would trust Hagrid with my 
life," just SCREAMS for that plan to fail. 

Hello, Albus, could you be any less obvious about predicting 
your own death?

Naama:

Call me naïve (or Faith), but I see Dumbledore's line as a simple 
foreshadowing. Hagrid *will* be proven as trustworthy and *will* save 
Dumbledore's life. 

I just hope that he survives the ordeal <crossing fingers really 
really hard>. 



Naama