[HPforGrownups] Re: Do the Dead Walk?

[Silverthorne Dragon]

No: HPFGUIDX 89006

{Sylvia}

I'm pretty sure he was lying when Harry asked what he was doing in
Knockturn Alley in CoS.  His explanation that he was looking for a
Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent doesn't sound convincing to me.  Can't
prove it, of course, just feel he had some other (not necessarily
bad) reason for being there


{Anne}

Or else that was not the ONLY reason he was there.....after all, he did
produce the repellent later in the book.

The slug repellent might have even been the 'excuse' he was given by Dumbly
to explain why he was there without revealing his 'other' chore.

It's not a lie....not just the whole truth. And, since he wasn't telling ALL
of the truth, he did his normal Hagrid number of falling over his own words
to avoid letting slip about the second chore. And we all have seen Hagrid
flustered when he's trying to keep from telling the whole truth (or tries
hiding it). In this case, perhaps he remembered, just in time, that whatever
chore number two was, it was something Dumbly told him under NO uncertian
terms that he should relate to Harry and Co (another reason for seeming like
he's hding something), and catches himself just in time (for once). He then
relates what Dumbly TOLD him to relate to anyone who asks--which is that
he;s looking for slug repellent--which is still the truth, just not the one
he's hiding.

So, Hagrid gets a second chore to help hide what he's doing for
Dumbly...that way, it satisfies his habit for slipping up and telling the
truth, as well as helps to short circuit his habit of telling the
'important' truth once he's asked...


Anne