Use of Hagrid's name/Knowing Tom Riddle

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 97970

Having sat back and cogitated (cogitating on a Sunday? Sharp intake 
of breath!) for some time about Hagrid's name and his connections 
with Tom Riddle, I shall now try to pull together a few disconnected 
thoughts.

In connection with him being know by Tom Riddle, who was a couple of 
years or so above him, my mind went back to my own schooldays. When I 
was 11, I went to a grammar school in Battersea, South London. It was 
a day school and there were about 500 pupils from the First Year up 
to the Upper Sixth.

Obviously, most of my contacts were with guys in my own year - my own 
class - but I got to know a number of older pupils by sight and name 
and they would have known me. Why? Because there were areas where our 
lives overlapped. We may have lived in the same area. I certainly 
came to school on the same bus as one of the prefects at one period 
of time. We may have shared the same pursuits. I belonged to the 
Chess Club and the Debating Society among others and later on I 
joined the Cadet Corps. So, there were older pupils who I knew well 
enough to speak to. Later again, when I was in the Sixth Form and 
became a prefect myself, I got to know younger pupils' names perhaps 
because they were a pain in the backside or again through school 
activities.

What about names? Close friends would be addressed by their first 
names or nicknames - I was known as "Scot" by one or two friends who 
didn't know the difference between a Scots accent and a North country 
one(!!!). Otherwise, surnames were used.

Some of you will have guessed that my full first name is Geoffrey - 
which I detest; I have used the short form as long as I can remember. 
It used to be a joke when I was teaching that, if I went into the 
school office and was greeted by the secretary as "Geoffrey", my 
reaction would be "OK, what have I done this time?" Friends at my 
church still do this occasionally as a joke to gently wind me up.

So, what is this to do with Hagrid? Someone suggested that Hagrid, 
like Tonks, dislikes his first name. I wonder whether, in fact, Tom 
used Hagrid's first name to wind him up and get him annoyed or upset. 
In other words, it's not an expression of friendship or acquaintance, 
it's Tom getting a kick out of getting at someone.