OoP: Defending Hagrid

[joywitch_m_curmudgeon]

No: HPFGUIDX 63399

There are certain misguided people here who have called Hagrid names 
such as "moron" and "idiot."   Some of these people can be excused 
because they are still grieving over Sirius Black.  (Great filk, 
Marina, BTW.)  Others of these people are simply wrong, wrong, wrong 
and they know it.

Several people have expressed the opinion that Hagrid is an "idiot" 
because he likes large, scary, dangerous monsters.  I want to point 
out here that every single one of Hagrid's large, scary monsters has 
not only wound up doing nothing more than scare and threaten but not 
actually injure anyone, but has actually provided useful information 
or services to our heroes.

My evidence:

1.  OoP -- Grawp the Giant.  So, you think Hagrid was an idiot for 
bringing Grawp back with him.  Who, exactly, was it who rescued Harry 
and Hermione from the centaurs?

2.  GoF -- the Blast-Ended Skrewt.  OK, these were not particularly 
useful.  But they didn't do any real damage, either.  And they, er, 
prepared Harry for the ordeal of the third Triwizard Task.

3.  CoS -- Aragog.  The giant spider provided important information 
to Harry and Ron about the goings-on at Hogwarts.

4.  SS/PS -- Norbert.  If it weren't for the fact that Harry figured 
out that Hagrid was tricked into revealing Fluffy's weaknesses by the 
guy who gave him the dragon egg, Harry would never have figured out 
how to get in the chamber.

So, in each book, Hagrid's monsters serve a purpose, and do far less 
damage than a number of the evil humans in the story.

--Joywitch, who can feel Jenny breathing fire