Redeeming Hagrid was Rewriting OotP

[heiditandy]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
> Grawp, unlike Norbert, Aragog, Buckbeak or the Skrewts, is a 
> Being. "any creature that has sufficient intelligence to 
understand 
> the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the 
> responsibility in shaping those laws." Even the Death Eaters 
> acknowledge that Giants are capable of reason; you don't 
> negotiate with beasts.
> 
>   Grawp's situation is comparable to that of the young  Helen 
> Keller. He is capable of reason but unaware of what is 
> considered civilized behavior and has no means of 
> communication other than  violence. He is not a monster, except 
> that he's been treated as one.
> 
> Why should  Grawp be considered less worthy of Harry's help 
> than Buckbeak?  
I don't think that "less worthy" plays into this at all, and I'm not 
sure how or why you jump from Steve's comment, and possibly my 
agreement, that Hagrid behaves less than sensibly in parts of OotP 
to theorizing that Grawp isn't worthy to live. 

It's just that Hagrid didn't handle things as sensibly as he could 
have, regarding Grawp. 

I admit, I may be misremembering the book here, but I did just 
listen to the bit of OotP when Firenze told Harry to tell Hagrid 
that his attempt was not working, and I don't think that Hagrid had 
spoken with Dumbledore before bringing Grawp back to the forest 
either. I'm not suggesting that Hagrid, or anyone else, should've 
tried to *kill* Grawp, and I am sure that JKR will have some use for 
the giant later in the series, and that's why he had to be in the 
forest, but had Hagrid been more sensible, he could have organized 
things better. 

There is a very big difference between "dead" and "located 
elsewhere" and I think you're skimming over it in the leap you made 
in your last post. 

> Is it the same reason that  clever handsome 
> Sirius, who told Harry to judge a man by how he treats his 
> inferiors, is thought more worthy to survive than guileless, ugly 
> Hagrid, who doesn't think anyone has to be ashamed of what 
> they are?

Wha? Huh? Are you trying to say that my post yesterday, and 
ancillary fic, were created out of some sort of presumption that 
Sirius is more worthy to live than Hagrid? 

Excuse me? Now, that is a rather enormous leap. 

I played with the story and gave it the resolution I did because I 
wanted to still include a death that *would* be devestating to Harry 
in the moment - I don't think he would've been quite as hysterical 
if, say, Moody or Tonks had died, and it's not like Molly was 
*there* at the time - but would have had less reprucussions on his 
future. 

Through the first half of OotP, he misses Hagrid when he's not 
there, but he has no desperation to connect with Hagrid, other than 
a concern for his general well-being. Hagrid is a friend, to be 
sure, but Harry doesn't cling to him in the same visceral and 
desperate way that he attaches himself to Sirius - he didn't even do 
so during Book One, when Hagrid played the role of his saviour from 
the Dursleys. 

I didn't revise it so Hagrid would be dead because he's ugly, or 
because he's guileless, or for any reason OTHER than the fact that I 
happen to think that his presence is not as useful to Harry, going 
forward, as Sirius' would've been. And I mean useful in the 
emotional sense.