Hagrid's odd behavior (was: CoS scene)

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 80326

Maus:

>Good question, why does Hagrid answer the door with a cross-bow?! 
>Surely it wasn't meant for Dumbledore and Fudge. 


Eloise:
No. Obviously not Dumbledore (I hope).

But Hagrid was a frightened man at this point. He must have known that he 
would be under suspicion. I don't think that he'd go out of his way to threaten 
the Minister with a crossbow (would he have expected to have been arrested 
personally by Fudge, anyway?), but he might well have been expecting arrest and 
been prepared to resist. I don't think he was surprised that he was being sent 
to Azkaban (horrified and hoping against hope that it might not be so, but he 
knew immediately where he was being taken). I suspect he thought he had little 
to lose.

Maus:
>And as Entropy so nicely pointed out, Hagrid did also turn up in 
>Knockturn alley in the beginning of the book. Hagrid tells Harry he 
>was there to buy some Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent to protect the 
>school cabbages. But when Ron almost burps up slugs over his precious 
>pumpkins, he quickly pulls Ron back. If he'd bought slug repellent 
>wouldn't he have used it to protect his pumpkins? Pumpkins he put so 
>much effort in, and was so proud of. Suddenly Hagrid is starting to 
>look very suspicious. 

Eloise:
Previous discussion in this group has focussed on exactly what Flesh-Eating 
Slug Repellent *is*. Is it repellent for *flesh-eating slugs*, and if so, whose 
(or what's) flesh are they eating? Would they, in fact attack *pumpkins*? Or 
cabbages? Or is it just a good name and a little inconsistency has crept in 
here?


Maus:
>Then there is also the business with Lockhart. According to Hagrid, 
>Lockhart had been giving him advice on getting kelpies out of a well. 
<snip>
>If Lockhart wasn't giving advice on kelpies, what was he doing at 
>Hagrid's cabin? It does seems that he was trying to help him with 
>something: '"It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing!" 
>Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid. <snip>


Eloise: 
Lockhart is, IMHO, simply being Lockhart. And JKR is simply inserting a 
little vignette to illustrate further his character. He's showing off. Being his 
usual insufferable self, bolstering his own ego and reputation by proffering 
unasked for and unwanted advice.
And a little later we are shown that Hagrid isn't taken in for one minute 
when he independently proffers the same opinion as Ron that what he says in his 
books is untrue.

I think that JKR is using the Knockturn Alley incident as a little bit of 
misdirection. She's hinting that yes, there *might* be something a bit dodgy 
about Hagrid (as if we didn't know that already, buying an illegal dragon egg for 
a start). Even Harry and Ron think that he released the Monster of Slytherin 
at one stage. She's inserting some doubt into our minds right there at the 
start of the book. Perhaps the fact that she has him say that *flesh-eating* slugs 
are ruining the *cabbages* is deliberately there to make it sound like he's 
covering for himself.

We know (or we trust) that Hagrid isn't into the Dark Arts. But he *does* 
regard as harmless pets what the rest of the wizarding world regards as monsters. 
He *isn't* averse to raising illegal creatures, or, apparently, with the 
Screwts, experimenting with the illegal crossing of creatures. I think it's quite 
in character that he might have been in Knockturn Alley "just looking" or with 
an eye out to acquiring some other exotic "pet" that wouldn't be available 
through more mainstream magical suppliers. Of course he had to make up an excuse 
for being there. But if Flesh-Eating Slugs are normal magical creatures, then 
surely the repellent would be available from the apothecary, or some other 
shop in Diagon Alley?

Perhaps the Flesh-Eating Slugs themselves are some "pets" of his that he's 
having problems with and being unpleasant sounding things, perhaps they 
themselves were acquired from Knockturn Alley.

~Eloise


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