OoP: Defending Hagrid

[jenny_ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 69118

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
  
> Would it be selfish to ask if  the 15 year old Bobby Fisher would 
> mind taking on a few of the neighborhood kids at chess? Should 
> Mozart have been kept from playing the piano in public? Should 
> young Thomas Edison have been kept from tinkering? Should 
> Joan of Arc have stayed home and tended her knitting? Harry is a 
> genuine prodigy -- the rules are different.> 
> 
> Harry can't be a normal kid, but he can learn to use his powers 
> responsibly. Hagrid is the only person in OOP who sees that, 
> and I say, good for him!>

Yes, Harry is definitely a prodigy (I'll compliment him at any 
opportunity), but I still don't even agree with the examples that you 
gave.  While it may not selfish to ask a 15 year old Bobby Fisher to 
play chess with other kids, it would be selfish to expect him to do so 
for no other reason than to free up the teacher who was volunteered to 
play chess with them in the first place.  Harry is a busy kid and has 
plenty on his mind to boot.  He doesn't need Hagrid's tears, 
incompetencies and blind eyes for giants to add to his list of 
responsibilities.  

I am not even sure why you think Hagrid is the only person in OoP who 
sees that Harry can use his powers responsibly.  Obviously, everyone 
in the DA classes agree, as does Sirius and Lupin, to name a few 
others.  On top of that, who cares if Hagrid does see Harry's powers 
for what they are?  That means Hagrid should be able to rely on Harry?  
That is grossly unfair.

The last thing I'll say is that I don't always believe that Hagrid 
comes to his own conclusions about Harry to begin with.  One of the 
moments where I actually loathed Hagrid was at the end of GoF where 
Hagrid says he believes that Voldemort is back, not because Harry told 
him so, but because Dumbledore believes it.  I have to wonder what 
Hagrid thought all by himself.

--jenny from ravenclaw **************************