(TBAY) The Biggest of the Hedgehogs

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 40453

Leon asked (about Hagrid not clapping for Moody's Big entrance):

> Sorry, just read that chapter to the kids last night. Hagrid and 
>Dumbledore are the only two who clap for Moody. Everyone else is 
>too shocked to move.  I'll quote you the part if you need it, but 
>you get the point.

Oh, thank *goodness*!  Someone *caught* that!  I was starting to 
*worry* for a minute there!

See, I *planted* that little error in my post *on purpose.*  As you 
all know, sometimes Yahoo eats posts.  In fact, sometimes my posts 
get no response *at all* on the list -- like they don't even *exist* 
or something -- which always makes me wonder if maybe they just 
didn't make it to the e-mail and digest readers.  Or maybe I am the 
only webview member who can actually *see* my posts or something.  

So I have taken to planting a wee little canon error in my posts, 
just so someone will point it out and I will know my post has been 
received.  ;-)

And as Leon suggests, that little canon isn't even all that 
important.  Obviously, Hagrid *has* to applaud for Moody's 
entrance.  Dumbledore is sitting right there, and Hagrid knows on 
which side his bread is buttered.

Nice work, Leon!  ;-)

Naama wondered:

> a) If Hagrid was one of the DE at the graveyard, Harry would have 
> noticed the incredible hulk. 

and Leon challenged:

> Um... forgive me for saying this but, how exactly would Harry have 
>missed that one? In the words of Harry Chapin, "6,000 munchkins and 
>a troll".
 

Oh, this isn't a problem *at all* if you read the graveyard scene 
very, very carefully.  Every inch of Hagrid was there, all right.  
Ready and willing so serve his Evil Master.  Let's have a quick look:

"The air was suddenly full of the swishing of cloaks.  Between 
graves, behind the yew tree, in every shadowy place, wizards were 
Apparating.  All of them were hooded and masked.  And one by one 
they moved forward . . . slowly, cautiously, as though they could 
hardly believe their eyes.  Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for 
them.  Then one of the Death Eaters fell to his knees, crawled 
toward Vodemort, and kissed the hem of his black 
robes.  'Master . . . Master . . . ' he murmered.  The Death Eaters 
behind him did the same; each of them approaching Voldemort on his 
knees and kissing his robes, before backing away and standing up, 
forming a silent circle, which enclosed Tom Riddle's grave, Harry, 
Voldemort, and the sobbing and twitching heap that was Wormtail."

Well, would you *look at that*!

JKR takes great care to specify that the DEs were difficult to see 
when they first apparate into the graveyard.  They turn up "in every 
shadowy place," not right out in the open where Harry can see them.  
In fact, they show up "behind the yew tree" -- a yew tree, I submit, 
large enough to hide a half-giant?

Ah, but they don't stay in their shadowy, concealed places, do 
they?  They wish to kiss Voldemort's robes.  But do they march right 
up to Voldemort?  No, they do not.  For some reason, some curious, 
nefarious reason, JKR is quite explicit that the DEs approach 
Voldemort *on their knees*!  Boy, that would make it mighty 
difficult to pick out a half-Giant if everyone were kneeling and 
groveling one by one before Voldemort, don't you think?

Geez, can she be more *obvious* about how she is trying to hide 
Hagrid's bulk there?  They even *back away* on their knees!  JKR is 
working so hard to conceal Evil!Hagrid that she inadvertently writes 
some *slapstick* there!  I mean, grown men look silly enough 
crawling, but they look downright *ridiculous* crawling backward, 
don't you think?

Then, just be make sure, she is explicit that the DEs form a circle 
around Harry, who is still tied to a headstone and *cannot see a 
single thing behind him*!  Oh, no, JKR doesn't want us to *guess* 
whether Harry can see behind him.  She tells us flat out that he 
cannot:  "Harry couldn't make a sound, nor could he see where 
Wormtail had gone.; he couldn't turn his head to see beyond the 
headstone; he could see only what was right in front of him." 

Sheez, she did everything except drop a *footnote* there, didn't she?

Oh, I know what you're thinking:  "Harry should have recognized 
Hagrid's voice."  Ha!  JKR took care of *that* little problem, too, 
didn't she?  "Some of the Death Eaters he passed in silence, but he 
paused before others and spoke to them."  Oh yeah.  Harry would have 
recognized Hagrid's voice.  Hagrid knew it and Voldemort knew it.  
So Voldemort said nothing to Hagrid for good reason.

That JKR can be so *thorough* when she is hiding something really 
*Big*, wouldn't you say?

Don't worry, though.  When Hagrid pushes Dumbledore off of that 
catwalk into a river of molten lava, it will be a suicide 
mission.  'Cause I just *know* Hagrid is going to die in OoP!  ;-)

Cindy