Why didn't Sirius need his motorbike anymore?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157728

Sue wrote:
> >
> > This is an odd scene, because it's inconsistent with the first
scene of HPPS, in which Hagrid says he's borrowed the motorbike and
had better get going because he has to return it. I personally think
it's just a glitch that was never fixed.
> 
Random832 responded:
> 
> This was 'fixed' in later editions from "I'll be takin' Sirius his
> bike back." 	to "I best get this bike away." - see
> http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences.html
> 
> I actually think the original version works better if we assume that
Hagrid didn't "know" Sirius was guilty of betraying the Potters. The
reason given for changing it was 'This sentence didn't fit very well
with the way the character of Sirius was developed as the series
progressed.' which tells me that JKR didn't know she was going to have
Sirius be accused/wrongly-accused/whatever at the time she wrote this
chapter. (I don't doubt that she had everything planned out to some
degree, but it's possible that she hadn't put a name to the character
she planned for PoA yet)

Carol asks:
But doesn't the Bloomsbury edition still say (as the Scholastic
edition I have does) "Young Sirius Black lent it to me" (SS Am. ed.
14)? That line would have to be kept in (I hope!) because it
introduces Sirius Black and foreshadows his role in PoA (which I think
was planned from the beginning). I originally thought, when I read the
conflicting version in PoA, that time and anger and too much to drink
distorted Hagrid's memory of the events at GH in PoA and "lent" became
"gave." In SS/PS, he would have viewed Sirius simply as the Potters'
friend and Harry's godfather; in PoA, he "knows" that Black is a
"murderin' traitor." Perceptions tend to color memories, at least the
subjective versions in people's heads as opposed to the objectve
version in a Pensieve, and I thought that he had subconsciously
revised the events to fit his revised perception of Sirius Black.
(Either that, or JKR had forgotten what she'd written in SS/PS.)

Whether the motorcycle was lent or given, Black must have ridden it to
GH to find out what was happening, and when he discovered that Harry
was alive, he must have intended to fly away with him on the
motorcycle. When he realized that Hagrid wasn't going to give Harry
up, he decided to go after Wormtail instead, a job for which the
motorcycle wasn't required. "Lent" suggests that he expected to return
 and take his bike back. "Gave" suggests a grimmer view, probably an
intention to kill Wormtail (and be arrested for murder) or be killed
himself. The addition of "I won't be needing it any more" (PoA,
paraphrased) certainly suggests that it was given rather than lent,
and that Black didn't expect to survive the encounter with Peter. That
could reflect a revised view on JKR's part of what happened between
Black and Pettigrew, but I think it actually reflects a clearer
understanding of Black's mindframe. He *wouldn't* have lent the
motorcycle to Hagrid, cheerfully optimistic that everything would work
out all right. He would have given it to him, knowing that, one way or
the other, he wouldn't be needing it any more. Even on the off chance
that he survived without being arrested, the motorcycle would, as
Hagrid points out in PoA, be too easy to trace.

Carol, wondering whether "lent" has been changed to "gave" in the
Bloomsbury edition (and/or recent reprints of the U.S. edition) since
"I best get this bike away" doesn't remove the original reference to
Sirius Black (which IMO ought to be kept)