CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 4: The Leaky Cauldron

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189553

<snip>
> > 2. Why does Crookshanks attack Scabbers on sight? Does he sense Scabbers is evil or just that he is not a rat?
> 
> AM - I thought it was the cat-rat animosity, and didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until much later in the book that I realised Crookshanks wasn't just a cat.
> > 
> > 3. Is the conflict between Scabbers and Crookshanks meant to reflect the conflict between Ron and Hermione?
> 
> AM - Never thought of it like that. I guess, as we're talking strong opposites, it works well. <snip>

Carol responds belatedly:

There's also a little side motif going on here. Hagrid says in this same book (I forget the exact context), "People can be a bit stupid abou' their pets."  Although the comment is intended to reflect on either Ron or Hermione and the whole Scabbers/Crookshanks conflict between the two kids, it also applies to Hagrid in relation to almost every pet he's ever had (except possibly Fang). "A bit stupid" falls short of the mark in relation to Norbert, Fluffy, Aragog, and particularly, with regard to PoA, Buckbeak (as well as to future pets such as the Blast-Ended Skrewts).

I think that JKR uses pets to reveal character traits. Hagrid is absurdly sentimental about his dangerous pets. Possibly, his fanatical attachment to "interestin'" creatures (which extends to his seemingly monstrous and untameable half-brother, Grawp) results from his loneliness and his sense of being different from everyone else. Harry, in contrast, is fond of Hedwig but treats her with respect as well as affection, but he never becomes fanatical about her. Ron and Hermione fall somewhere in between, allowing the conflict between their pets to become a source of conflict between themselves and (possibly because of their mutual insecurity and discomfort with their budding attraction to each other) endangering their friendship in the process. So, yes, this conflict serves as a red herring in the plot, distracting us from the possibility that both Crookshanks and Scabbers are not quite what they seem, but it has thematic implications, too, or, rather, it serves as a means of revealing character.

Setting aside PoA and looking at the series as a whole, we can look at other characters and their pets--say, Dumbledore and Fawkes on the one hand and Voldemort and Nagini on the other--and ask what their pets and the strength of their attachment to those pets reveal about them. The same goes for the Squibs, Mrs. Figg and Filch, and their cats and even the Muggle, Marge Dursley, with her dogs. (In a sense, her fanatical devotion to her dogs parallels Hagrid's to his interestin' creatures, just as Voldemort's relationship to Nagini parallels Dumbledore's to Fawkes.)

Carol, who doesn't have time to finish her thoughts or revise this post for coherence