Snape, Hagrid and Animals

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 143686

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Magpie" <belviso at a...> wrote:

<snip>

> What Malfoy did: Try to show off in a class with dangerous animals, 
> for which he got hurt.  Happen to not be listening during that ten 
> seconds when Hagrid said, "Don't insult 'em or it's the last thing 
> you'll do."

Oh, it's not *that* innocuous; Malfoy 'happens' to not be listening 
(a delightfully obscure passive construction) because he and his 
friends are off "talking in an undertone"; Harry gets the distinct 
impression that they were plotting to disrupt the lesson.  Impossible 
to tell whether Harry's impression is correct, but this speculation 
about intent is actually in the text, as opposed to our own 
completely external speculations.  This is at the beginning of the 
lesson, where Hagrid is listing off Things That One Must Know.  It's 
not quite like losing your thread of thought during the course of 
listing 15 prepositional-object verbs in the middle of class.  

There is an air of intent about the talking, and that's why I think 
responsibility adheres tightly to Draco for the whole thing.

<snip>

> He's not actively evil, but I don't know...when does that stop 
> mattering? 

At least in how it falls out to me, my perceptions of what I think 
JKR is writing, I think the lack of active intent matters quite a 
bit.  It's indisputable that Hagrid does harm, but it's completely 
without malice--and I suspect that JKR plays the card of making the 
*actual* harm that he does fairly slight precisely because of that.

Magic has this amazing way of being able to divine, and be responsive 
to, actual intent.  Nice literary device, that.

-Nora admits to dozing off a little during said list of prepositional-
object verbs