Sorting Out The Norbert Mystery (WAS What constitutes HP cannon?)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 39250

David wrote:

> Hi, Milz, welcome back!

Ditto!

David (imagining how the Norbert managed to stay in the M***e):

> CC: Can we lose the Norbert escape scene, it's too long?
> JKR: OK, if you must, so long as Harry still meets the centaurs in 
> detention.
> CC: OK.  Is it OK for Hagrid to say Dumbledore made him send N 
away?
> JKR: Yes, that won't contradict anything important later on.

Can I just say that Norbert is just *killing* me?  I found the 
Norbert episode in PS/SS superfluous at best.  Then, in a Very Long 
M***e, they spent valuable time dealing with the Norbert subplot, 
for no apparent reason.  Almost like JKR decided it *couldn't* be 
cut or something.

I can't help but think that Norbert is going to be Important in 
future books, but I can't quite nail down how and why.

Ah, but the text seems to provide quite a number of clues.  There is 
the bizarre description of "Norwegian Ridgeback" in Fantastic 
Beasts:  "It has been known to attack most kinds of large land 
mammal and, unusually for a dragon, the Ridgeback will also feed on 
water-dwelling creatures.  An unsubstantiated report alleges that a 
Ridgeback carried off a whale calf off the coast of Norway in 1802."

Hmmm.  What an unusual description of Norwegian Ridgebacks like 
Norbert!  

Let's see.  There is a lake on the Hogwarts grounds.  Hagrid may 
take care of creatures in the lake, and he escorts first-year 
students across the lake.  There are life forms like the Giant Squid 
in the lake.  Hagrid is a very large land mammal.  Indeed, Hagrid 
might be right around the size of a whale calf.

So if you add it all up, it is clear that Norbert will re-enter the 
Hogwarts grounds and will attack the Giant Squid.  Hagrid will 
attempt to protect the Giant Squid.  Norbert will carry Hagrid off 
instead and rip him limb from limb high on a mountaintop somewhere.  
Harry will weep.

What?  Hey, what do you want from me?  This is my instinctive 
reading of the text.  If JKR didn't want me to read it this way, she 
should have written it differently.  Her intent is meaningless to 
me; *I* get to decide what the text is telling us.  And the text is 
telling us that Norbert is going to take out a beloved fictional 
character pretty soon.

<nods with great satisfaction>

Cindy (seriously frustrated by the Norbert Mystery but nowhere close 
to solving it)