[HPforGrownups] Re: Hagrid and Magic

[Britt Rossiter]

No: HPFGUIDX 132171

smilingator wrote:

<< snip >> More likely though, I think JKR may have made a blooper. I mean, if it's okay for him to TEACH at a school for wizards, I would think it'd be okay for him to use a little magic!  << snip >>


brossiter responds:

Depends upon what he's teaching, which in Hagrid's case is Care of 
Magical Creatures, which might involve a fair amount of brute force and 
aminal knowhow, but little magic.  I think the reason Hagrid isn't 
allowed to use magic is because he isn't properly trained, regardless of 
his record being cleared.  After all, just because one reaches the age 
of 16 (in the U.S.) does not mean one automatically can receive a 
licence to drive - one needs to learn how first.  Maybe Hogwarts offers 
remedial courses, or Hagrid could enrol in a Kwikspell course.  :) 


smilingator wrote:  

<< snip >> What always struck me odd about this was that Harry received 
a letter accusing him of using the Hover charm in CoS when it was in 
fact Dobby. It seemed to me that the owl mail system (which could find 
Harry wherever he was at the beginning of SS/PS) is much more accurate 
than the MoM and its monitoring of underage magic. << snip >>

brossiter responds:

I think that the fact Harry keeps being discovered regarding his "use," 
or suspected use, of underage magic is a factor of his being so closely 
monitored, as compared to other wizards, as evidenced by Mrs. Figg's 
presence in the neighborhood, etc.  Though there is not much canon to 
support this, I strongly suspect the MoM was aware of not only the 
prophecy, but its connection to Harry and Harry's placement at Privet 
Drive by Dumbledore, and as a result has somehow devised a way to 
monitor magical activity occuring at No. 4 Privet Drive a lot more 
closely than that occuring elsewhere.  (Remember, Fudge knew pretty 
quickly that no other wizards resided in Little Whinging - "We've always 
monitored that fairly closely...")  The fact that the MoM messed up in 
CoS regarding who actually performed the hover charm is, IMHO, JKR's 
softening us up to the notion that the MoM is far from perfect, 
frequently gets the facts wrong, and is not to be trusted, a lesson 
driven home hard in OotP.

smilingator wrote:

<< snip >>  Along the same lines, how did Lily get away with "turning teacups into rats" as Petunia described in Ch.4 of SS/PS? Were students not monitored back then (although the Decree banning Underage Wizadry was written in 1875) or was Lily not considered underage? And I'm sure Fred and George have been doing a little magic of their own over the
years. If anyone should have been expelled for using magic illegally, it should have been those two (though I would never want that to happen to them!)

brossiter responds:

Again, it's a question of how closely Harry is monitored compared to Lily Evans, and Fred and George Weasley.  JKR has actually answered the question about turning teacups into rats on her website; she states that Petunia was "exaggerating a little," but also that Lily did get "a few warning letters."  Nothing in Canon suggests that Fred and George Weasley haven't gotten any warning letters.  The Weasley twins do, however, live in a household with numerous wizards, and this house in a part of the country where other wizarding families exist, both of which differentiate it from Little Whinging.  In light of these differences, it would be unreasonable for the MoM to make any assumption that ANY magical activity occuring at the Burrow would be a potential Statute of Secrecy violation.  (Then again, it's been a long time since one could use the phrases "MoM" and "reasonable" in the same sentence.)