Hagrid's odd behavior (was: CoS scene)

[mightymaus75]

No: HPFGUIDX 80355

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, eloiseherisson at a... wrote:
> 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?

Because of the cabbages I kinda assumed Hagrid was talking about 
*flesh-eating repellent*. Which, I know, doesn't make sense either. 
Perhaps the flesh eating is just a side-effect of an extremely potent 
slug repellent, or perhaps it's the brand name of a whole line of 
Flesh-Eating products?   

 
> Eloise: 
> 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

I'm willing to believe that the whole slug business is a Red Herring 
planted to make us think Hagrid is in fact the one who opened the 
Chamber of Secrets (why is that secrets, *plural*, anyway?). But 
usually JKR clears these sort of things up at the end of the book. 
Like Percy's girlfriend in CoS, Hermione's use of the Time-Turner in 
PoA, Ludo Bagman's gambling debts in GoF, Rita Skeeter's animagius 
ability in GoF. The fact that this wasn't cleared up always kind of 
annoyed me, a bit like a splinter stuck in my brain.

Combined with the cross-bow incident, and his claim that Lockhart was 
giving him advise on how to get water demons the size of a horse out 
of a well, it all seems a bit strange.

-Maus