[HPforGrownups] Hagrid/the Chamber/the Monster

[Sherry Garfio]

No: HPFGUIDX 49907

bboy_mn wrote:
> Seeking people's opinion on whether the Staff at Hogwarts and the
> Ministry thought Aragog was the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, or
> it  they thought that is was Hagrid and Aragog all along, and the this
> Chamber of Secrets business was, as they had suspected for decades,
> just a bunch of nonsense.
<SNIP>
> So, you opinion- Aragog was the Slytherin monster, or it was Aragog
> instead of the Slytherin monster? 
> 
> What say you all?

I think they all assumed that it was Aragog instead of the Slytherin monster -
all except Dumbledore, of course, and maybe McGonagall.  I get this impression
from McGonagall's explanation of the "legend", in which she says that the
legend is assumed to be false, but she doesn't ever say that *she* thinks it's
false.  She says that the castle has been searched many times and nothing has
been found, which is a nice way of telling ickle children not to worry, the
world is fine and dandy, when the adults know darn well that isn't true.  I
also get this impression from Dumbledore's statement after Colin gets it that
the Chamber has been opened *again*.  Add to that his trust in Hagrid, which
implies that he knows that Hagrid was innocent of all but poor judgement and
making the wrong enemies.

Okay, that explains why I think Dumbledore and McGonagall knew the truth.  As
for the MoM and Dippet, Aragog was a nice easy explanation, and it didn't
require acceptance of the fact that the Heir of Slytherin was involved.  Hagrid
is expelled and his wand broken, so now he's harmless and we can all go back to
believing that the Chamber doesn't exist.  Because if the Chamber *does* exist,
then there's a chance that it could happen again, and the MoM doesn't want to
believe that.  Also, Aragog grew a *lot* in the 50 years since Hagrid was
expelled, so he couldn't have been 1000 years old (okay, 950) and be as small
as he was when he was discovered.  So Aragog couldn't have come from the
Chamber; therefore, since it was assumed that Aragog was responsible for the
attacks, the Chamber wasn't involved, and probably doesn't exist, which is a
nice comfortable thing to believe.  The Mudblood aspect was just coincidence. 
Since the attacks stopped as soon as Aragog was removed, obviously Aragog had
been the cause.  Sounds like the infallible logic of a politician to me <g>.

As for how Acromantulas kill, I don't recall what it says in FB, and the
Lexicon doesn't say (venom?).  The fact that people were being petrified rather
than killed in CoS confused everybody, and the reason was that people weren't
getting the full effect of the Basilisk's stare.  Could be that in Dippet's day
they just assumed that Aragog hadn't gotten a good hold on the petrified
students, so they also didn't get the full effect.

You would think, however, that those students would have talked after they were
restored ("No, it was a snake, not a spider"), unless their memories of the
attacks were erased by the petrification.  I don't recall Hermione saying
anything about her actual attack; she knew it was a Basilisk already, but she
never says anything about actually seeing it in her mirror.  Anyway, seeing how
the Trio's accounts of the events in PoA and GoF are discounted by adults other
than Dumbledore, the students who claimed they were attacked by a snake may
have been ignored at the time, since they already "knew" it was Aragog and
these kids were likely confused.

Sherry, rambling with renewed enthusiasm after yesterday's announcement, and
giggling over the mental image of McGonagall doing a "happy dance" in her
office after seeing Harry catch the Remembrall...


=====
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."

      -Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

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