Hagrid and Mysterious Eggs

[cdayr]

No: HPFGUIDX 106761

Hi from a newbie, ready to plunge into the discussion

I have been scouring CoS in anticipation of HBP, looking for any 
unresolved threads I can see, and something recently caught my 
attention and imagination. I even went so far as to watch the 
movie again, and a small detail about Aragog really stood out to 
me and sent me scampering back to my books for the true 
details.

In CoS, Aragog reveals his origins to Harry and Ron. "I was not 
born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me 
to Hagrid when I was an egg." (CoS15) Who is this traveler? Why 
such a specific word- "traveler"? Why give a killer beast to a 
13-year-old?

This "dangerous egg from a stranger" scenario also put me in 
mind of the hooded figure in SS/PS that conveniently gives 
Hagrid another egg, the dragon Norbert, and in doing so gains 
information about Fluffy guarding the Sorcerer's Stone. I began 
thinking- could Aragog have been given to Hagrid with a similar 
motive, all those years ago? It seems a suspicious coincidence 
to me that the two moments when LV/Riddle is searching for 
something at Hogwart's (first the Chamber of Secrets, later the 
Sorcerer's Stone) a mysterious stranger appears and gives 
Hagrid his heart's desire, a Class A Non-Tradeable egg to raise 
in secret.

I assume, although it is never explicitly stated, that the 
mysterious "dragon dealer" in SS/PS is Quirrell/LV. What if LV 
knows that Hagrid might willingly talk to a nice hooded man with 
a dangerous egg because he knows he had done it 50 years 
before? Was it Riddle (in disguise) who gave Hagrid the 
Acromantula egg (not too likely, he's no traveler at that point)?
Or, 
more likely, another wizard, someone Riddle meets or knows, 
someone who has access to illegal items? Did Hagrid 
inadvertently help Riddle open the Chamber of Secrets by letting 
a secret slip in his excitement about the egg (as he did with the 
SS)? What secrets could he have known at 13? 

A side benefit of the idea that Riddle was behind or aware of 
Hagrid getting Aragog is that it would explain how he knew about 
Aragog's existence and knew he could frame Hagrid for the 
killing. Perhaps LV's plan in SS/PS was to use Hagrid and 
Norbert as scapegoats again. 

I must confess that part of my current fascination with this idea 
comes from the fact that this small, seemingly insignificant detail 
about Aragog being passed onto Hagrid by a traveler actually 
makes it, almost word-for-word, into the movie CoS. It seems a 
silly expositional detail for a screenwriter to leave in during such 
a dramatic and high-stakes scene. Did JKR hint that it should 
stay in the movie? In the interview with JKR and Steve Kloves on 
the DVD, Steve says that at least "one thing that will play later on" 
stayed in the script, implying that JKR told him to leave it in when 
he meant to cut it. Could it be Aragog's origins? Pure 
speculation, but fun fun.

So, I throw this out to you all
who is this traveler? Why would
he 
give a very dangerous egg to a 13-year-old? Are the two "egg" 
plots linked? What might this tell us about Hagrid, or perhaps 
Riddle, that might play a role in HBP? 

Ooo, and I literally just had this thought...what if it was a time 
traveler?

-CDR