[HPforGrownups] Re: Why Can't Hagrid Do Magic?

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 43970


> bboy_mn:
> Sorry, of course, I meant 'I was NOT trying to discredit your post'.
> Sometimes my brain and my keyboard get a little out of sync.

I know the feeling! I didn't really believe you meant the opposite, but it 
was hard to resist teasing. ;-)

> <>
> > Eloise:
> > The thing that I'm not sure I'm understanding, is who the other
> > students to whom you refer are. Were other students petrified 
> > the first time, as well as Myrtle dying? 
> 
> bboy_mn replies:
> According to Tom Riddle's diary, several students were attacked and
> one was killed when the Chamber was opened while he was in school.

Eloise:
Thanks. That was the bit I couldn't find (should have looked for the 
italics!) and it does pose problems, I agree, if we assume that spiders 
couldn't produce an effect at least extremely similar to pertification.
I think the best solution is to run with Grey Wolf's latest post about spider 
venom. Either that, or it's a FLINT. It doesn't look like JKR finds anything 
anomalous.
> 
> >Eloise continues:
> > ...heavy snip...
> > 
> > So if he (Hagrid) was only thought to have let one of his 'pets'
> loose, I don't think it's necessary for him to have been believed to
> have let the *same* creature loose the second time round.
> > 
> 
> bboy_mn - general comments:
> Tom Riddle, Dobby, Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy and presumably
> Dumbledore all believe the Chamber of Secrets really was opened last
> time. They refer to it as such, and do not refer to it as the last
> time Hagrid let one of his pets run wild.


Dumbledore believes it, but also believes in Hagrid's innocence.
Tom Riddle knew, but how much can he say without incriminating himself?
Lucius Malfoy knows, IMHO, because he has communicated with Diary!Riddle to 
hatch the plot. Dobby and Draco know by extension.

I think we should remember that Diary!Riddle is not always truthful. He tells 
about the cover up and his being forbidden to tell anyone in the same passage 
that he tells Harry that Hagrid opened the Chamber. If Dippett really *did* 
believe that Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets and set the Monster of 
Slytherin on students, then how on earth did Dumbledore persuade him to let 
Hagrid stay in the grounds?
And if the MOM were involved, as presumably they were, since Fudge knows all 
about it, why didn't they intervene?

If, as you suggest he was really a scapegoat, intentionally a scapegoat, then 
Dippett et al *knew* that someone else was responsible and Hagrid's 
punishment was cruelly severe. But if he were simply their scapegoat why did 
they think the attacks came to an end? Bit of a coincidence, Hagrid being 
expelled and the attacks stopping. There was that piece of supporting 
evidence that he was involved, after all. 

The most anomalous thing to me is that Riddle pours scorn on the idea of 
Hagrid being thought the 'Heir', when it seems clear to both of us, if from 
different perspectives, that he was not officially believed to be such. But 
then Riddle is not always truthful, as I noted above.

One interesting thing about all this is how much influence this reveals 
Lucius Malfoy to have.
If the first incident was hushed up, even to the extent of putting out a 
story about Myrtle's death, then the second could have been too. Given 
Fudge's character, one might expect him to do just that. Discrediting 
Dumbledore, Arthur, Hagrid,etc is Malfoy's agenda. McGonagall sees no option 
but to close the school, once Ginny is presumed dead. Myrtle *did* die, but 
the school carried on.
Malfoy's opinions clearly carry a lot of weight with Fudge.

Eloise


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