Snape, Hagrid and Animals

[Marianne S.]

No: HPFGUIDX 143704

Sydney wrote: <Snip> I love Hagrid to pieces, but saying what happened
was Malfoy's fault doesn't stand up. If I put a 13-year-old with no
experience up on a dangerous horse, and rattled off a list of
instructions, and the kid got bucked off for not managing the reins
exactly right-- that is MY fault, not his, and few parents or courts
of law would disagree.


Marianne S:
The thing is, while Hagrid may have been a bit over-eager to start
things off with a bang, he was able to model for the students and
the class had already witnessed how to follow the hippogriff
 directions properly. Draco DELIBERATELY CHOSE to not follow those
directions. I have no doubt that Draco did fully understand the
directions, but he either thought he was above them or that Hagrid 
was exaggerating. When he "painfully" discovered that Hagrid was
correct with his directions, Draco's pain was probably more on his
pride than actual physical pain (though he seems a bit of a "wuss"
in my opinion, and he was able to milk it in order
to get Hagrid and Buckbeak punished, get people to do his work in
potions,  and get himself and his team out of a quidditch match 
simply to inconvenience everyone.