Harry and Hagrid

[Hans Andréa]

No: HPFGUIDX 107035

Hi Iris,

I've been studying your post for some time. I was going to reply to the
group, but now I find I can't really add much. I think you are totally right
in what you say, but we're not supposed to send "I agree" posts.

What you have said has not only added great value to my post but has
deepened it with good insight and perception. 

All I can do now is thank you profoundly for your valuable post. I have a
special folder called, "wonderful posts", and I will file it there.

Recently I sent you another email in which I asked a couple of questions. If
you could find time to answer them I'd be grateful.

Warm regards,

Hans


Your theory doesn't sound crazy to me.
First, because I think it's logical if Harry's story ends `at 
Hagrid's': Hagrid is the one who introduced `literally' Harry in the 
series, when he brought him to Privet Drive. To us readers, it 
started `with Hagrid', so It would be normal if it happened to 
finish `with Hagrid', or at least, with Hagrid's function.
Second, though he seems to have a subaltern job, Hagrid is in a way 
the true master of Hogwarts, because, as you pointed it, he's the 
Keeper of Keys and Grounds. Dumbledore, far from considering Hagrid 
as a subordinate, treats him as an equal. And that idea appears 
since the very first chapter of the series, when he says to Mac 
Gonagall: `I would trust Hagrid with my life'.
Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard of the time and he declares 
that he would be ready to use Hagrid's protection. There couldn't be 
a better evidence of his consideration towards his Keeper of Keys 
and Grounds.
Of course, we can object that Hagrid is not as wise and powerful as 
Dumbledore. Many of his interventions in the story are amusing. He 
doesn't seem very serious.
We mustn't forget what hides behind that humble appearance: Rubeus 
Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, as he introduces 
himself in the first book (PS/SS, UK edition p 40). Sounds like a 
nobility title, doesn't it? 
Hagrid is the one who owns the secret to enter the magical world. He 
is the one who makes the new students enter the castle. He also owns 
the keys of Hogwarts. Better: he keeps them. Just like a baron keeps 
a fief for his king. Even if he doesn't seem to realize himself, 
even if the others consider him as a servant, a simple gamekeeper, 
Hagrid is in a sort of way the lord of Hogwarts, his protector.
One last thing, but it may be consistent if it's true that JKR 
writes referring to Alchemy: `Hagrid's first name is `Rubeus'. If we 
believe what John Granger wrote in his article `The alchemist them: 
Harry Potter and Alchemy' (sorry, I don't remember when it was 
published, but there's a message in the HPfGU archives that gives 
the link to reach it), `Rubeus' comes from `Rubedo', the Red Work, 
the third and most important phase of the Great Work, that leads to 
the achievement of the Stone. JKR doesn't use that first name 
currently, and she doesn't use either the title of `Keeper of the 
Keys and Grounds' to explain what Hagrid is really. Simply because 
the Red Work is the most secret of all. As for Hagrid's `servant' 
condition, it could deal with the true nature of the Stone: it's not 
an achievement in itself; it's only a servant which sole aim is to 
help the world to improve.
Another evidence of Hagrid's connection to the Rubedo phase? Well, 
he's the one who brings to Stone to Hogwarts. He declares in the 
Leaky Cauldron (in PS/SS) that he has come to Diagon Alley because 
he is `on Hogwarts business'. He has come to help the Stone and 
Harry find their way to Hogwarts. In that single little sentence, 
apparently so anodyne, JKR gives us an amazing summarise of what a 
true Alchemist is: he's the servant of the Stone, and the protector 
of the one who starts his initiatory journey, the Apprentice. And 
it's `Hogwarts business', because the school is the alchemical cell 
where the Stone and the Apprentice have to meet.  
Talking about Harry, and about the first book of the series: I'm 
quite sure we have in this little book all that we need to 
understand the whole story. JKR gives us the keys, but we don't 
always know she does. Just the way she lets us believe that Hagrid 
is just a `servant' at Hogwarts (note that when she presents him as 
a servant, she uses Draco Malfoy, one of the characters who are 
supposed to be `wrong' because they `support' the Dark Side).
Now, what do we read in PS/SS, chapter 9? We read Harry's first 
flying lesson, the lesson that will give him the possibility to 
become a Seeker. A Seeker, that's precisely what an Apprentice, what 
an Alchemist is. But before he becomes a Seeker, Harry is afraid of 
being expelled because he disobeyed Madam Hooch's orders. While she 
makes him follow Mac Gonagall, sure that he will get expelled, JKR 
writes these lines:
"He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay as a gamekeeper. 
Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant."
Maybe those two lines are more than just a narrative detail. Maybe 
they tell us what Harry really has to become: a servant. The exact 
contrary of Voldemort.  And that way, he will succeed where 
Voldemort has failed, mislead as he was with his illusory dreams of 
power.
In Alchemy, he who works and serves is always more powerful than he 
who rules and gives orders.


Amicalement, and hoping I'm not too confusing,

Iris




	
	
		
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