[HBP] Why didn't Voldemort Modify Hagrid's Memory?

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 190188

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Cassandra Wladyslava <cassandra.wladyslava at ...> wrote:
>
> First off, I'm sorry if this has already been discussed. In fact, I'd be
> surprised if it hasn't been.
> 
> I was just listening to HBP (The Stephen Fry Ver.). Voldemort modified
> Morphin's memory to make him think he had killed the Riddles and Hokey the
> House Elf to make her think she had killed Hephzibah Smith, but didn't
> modify Hagrid's memory to make him think he had set Aragog on the
> muggle-borns/opened the chamber of secrets.
> 
> Any thoughts as to why?

Geoff:
I've gone back to Cassandra's original post to bypass the various views put 
forward, not because I'm ignoring them but because the post is getting a bit 
unwieldy.

My own personal interpretation of this is that Riddle didn't modify Hagrid's 
memory because he just didn't want to and he could get much more 
satisfaction and sense of power by leaving him as a misused and helpless 
victim.

If you look at real world dictators, they want (or wanted) to have power and 
many of them wanted to express that power in differing ways: to eliminate 
opponents by killing them; by often torturing and humiliating them before 
killing them; by removing their source of power but leaving them alive so 
that they are always reminded of what they have lost and of flaunting their 
power over those who have fallen from grace and also by ensuring that anyone 
raising opposition or threatening to become a rival is removed in such a way 
as to make others think twice about similar action.

Some of Hitler's actions spring to mind in the list I have made. After the failure 
of the Stauffenberg bomb plot in 1944, many of those put on trial had their 
belts and braces taken away so that while standing, they had the minor 
humiliation of having to hold their trousers up. He was ruthless in removing 
colleagues like Ernst Roehm, whom he felt offered a challenge to his leadership. 
There were leaders who were rulers only in name and were kept as mere puppets; 
and so the list goes on.

Riddle was like this. He did not just want power; he wanted it to be seen; to flaunt 
it. We see this in his treatment of Hagrid.

It is interesting the way in which JKR reveals what went on. The first hint comes in 
PS:
'He (Hagrid) cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.
"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - 
not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow 
yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons  I was so keen ter take 
on the job -"
"Why weren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
"Oh, well- I was at Hogwarts meself but I -er -got expelled ter tell you the truth. 
In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything"'
(PS "The Keeper of the Keys" p. 48 UK edition)

So from the start, we know that Hagrid has a secret. Ollivander again refers to this 
in the visit to Diagon Alley and seems to suspect that Hagrid is keeping something 
from him - we already know that Hagrid's umbrella is unusual.

Now in COS, we see two faces of Tom Riddle. We see him with Armando Dippet 
playing to the Headmaster's sympathy with his request not to return to the 
Orphanage during the holidays and his subtle comment; 
'"Sir - if the person was caught... If it all stopped... "
"What do you mean?" said Dippet....
...Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?"
"No, sir," said Riddle quickly.
But Harry was sure it was the same sort of 'no' that he himself had given 
Dumbledore.'
(COS "The Very Secret Diary" p.184 UK edition)

And then, after the brief meeting with Dumbledore, the different, power wielding, 
bullying manipulative forerunner of Voldemort emerging in his treatment of 
Hagrid.

We know that he engineered the expulsion of Hagrid whom he despised and 
looked down on, vide his comment in the Chamber: 
'"So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain 
your trust"
"Hagrid's my friend," said Harry, hie voice now shaking. "And you framed him, 
didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but -"
Riddle laughed his high laugh again.
"It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. well, you can imagine how it looked to 
old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless 
but so brave, school Prefect, model student; on the other hand, big, blundering 
Hagrid, in trouble every other week...."'
(COS "The Heir of Slytherin" p. 229/30 UK edition)

This was one way in which Riddle used and reinforced his power.

And then:
'"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore , seemed to think that Hagrid 
was innocent...
...Yes, I think that Dumbledore might have guessed. Dumbledore never seemed 
to like me as much as the other teachers did..."'
(ibid. p.230)

Riddle used his power of twisting the truth and manipulation to get his own 
ends and Hagrid was bustled out with no chance to try to disprove the 
accusation. Dumbledore, I suspect, did not carry enough clout to help, other 
than  getting Hagrid kept on in a non-academic position. This smacks to me 
much of the "Sirius" affair when he was bundled off to Azkaban with no formal 
hearing after Peter Pettirgrew framed him.

This is what Riddle wanted. He didn't want Hagrid to believe he had done this; 
he wanted the guy to know that he had been the subject of Riddle's power and 
left high and dry. It was an early example of the future Voldemort's wish to 
show off and demonstrate his ability to control events and reveal what he could 
do. A  later classic case of this, which backfired spectacularly on him, was in the 
graveyard at LIttle Hangleton (in GOF)bwhen Voldemort, in one of those asinine 
moments which also afflict real world dictators, decided that a demonstration 
of his power over Harry would be not just to kill Harry while he was tied to the 
tomb but set up a duel to prove to his followers that he was invincible and that 
even his supposed nemesis was no match for the great power that he wielded.

And how the wheels came of that!

No. I believe that the way he treated Hagrid was calculated to show to his peers 
and, as we see later in HBP, his Professors, just what he is prepared to do to 
gain power over everyone and everything - including death itself. 

Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad" 
Euripides