In defence of Hagrid

[deborahhbbrd]

No: HPFGUIDX 128768


Dudley and his curly tail have been on people's minds and in their
posts lately. I'd like to run a couple of ideas past the group ...

Yes, I'm sure we are meant to be cheering Hagrid on, based on our
experience as readers. We are familiar with all the bullying, ill
treatment and misery associated with Harry's stay at PD, and we have
every reason to dislike Dudley intensely.

Naturally, if we deplore a child bullying and ill-treating another
child, we cannot in any way endorse an adult bullying and ill-treating
a child. And Hagrid is a daunting figure even without his ability to
hand out tails at will. But this, I think, is the crux... at will?

The isolated examples of magic that we've seen so far, excluding the
Hogwarts letters, have all been done by Harry, and have all been
unintentional. Under the influence of an intensely powerful emotion -
usually fear, sometimes frustration, once even love - Harry lands on
the school roof or frees a snake from a zoo cage. (Isn't that the
point of the snake incident? Harry identifies with the snake's sad,
deprived, imprisoned life, and off it goes to its ancestral forest.
Dudley in the cage is a side effect.) So, in the presence of someone
with magical talent, magic can be rather like static electricity; not
usefully channelled along wires or wands, but capable of collecting
and discharging where conditions permit.

Hagrid first threatens Uncle Vernon with his umbrella, but that is
all. He does not actually use it - though given the great love and
loyalty he feels for DD, this must have taken considerable self
control. The power not used on Vernon was not able to dissipate - it
had built up like static electricity and when he moved the umbrella
away, it earthed itself on Dudley. There need not have been any such
intention on Hagrid's part. If he was thinking something like "What a
pig!", that would have been sufficient for the magic to give Dudley a
porcine feature. (Lucky for Dudley that he wasn't thinking: "What a
load of old rubbish!".)

And if Petunia had been in the way, then perhaps her ears - so useful
for finding out what the neighbours are up to - might have moved up
her head and become enlarged, pink, triangular flaps? 

Deborah, pleased with herself but prepared to be refuted!