Redeeming Hagrid was Rewriting OotP

[psychic_serpent]

Pippin wrote:
> > Sirius, who told Harry to judge a man by how he treats his 
> > inferiors, 

Prophetic words from Sirius, when you think about it.  Harry should 
indeed have paid attention to the way Sirius treated Kreacher--not 
to mention the fact that Sirius sorts people in categories with 
names like 'inferiors.'  Although Sirius was a somewhat sympathetic 
character at the time he said this, in GoF, a closer examination of 
what he said makes him seem far LESS sympathetic.  And more than a 
little hypocritical, once we see him interacting with Kreacher.

Heidi:

> 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. 

Hagrid is another interesting Sirius doppelganger, like Harry 
himself.  Both were falsely accused of having done something that 
ended in death for someone (Hagrid and Aragog being blamed for 
Myrtle's death) which in turn resulted in each of them not being 
allowed to do magic and having their emotional growth somewhat 
stunted, since Hagrid was no longer a student and therefore no 
longer interacting with his peers, just as, emotionally, Sirius is 
probably still in his early twenties, rather than mid-thirties.
Both of them were also in Azkaban for something they didn't do 
(although Hagrid came back before the end of CoS).  

Sirius and Hagrid have both been parent-figures for Harry, although, 
interestingly enough, I think Hagrid's relationship to him is more 
motherly and Sirius' more fatherly.  Hagrid baked for Harry and 
provided a comforting womb-like refuge for him--a home away from 
Gryffindor Tower; when he invites Ron and Hermione there, it's like 
he's bringing his friends home to meet his mum, and when Malfoy 
insults Hagrid early in the first book, it's like he's INSULTING 
Harry's mum.  (Which means it's hardly unsurprising that he doesn't 
take well to Malfoy.)  Also, when Hagrid delivered Harry to Surrey 
(a childbirth metaphor, I believe) he behaved a bit like a mother 
who'd just given birth being forced to give up her baby for 
adoption.  

Both Hagrid and Sirius, oddly, were lacking in the mother department 
(a murderous giantess seems about equivalent to Mrs. Black, IMO), 
and Sirius made a big point of saying that it was James' MOTHER who 
welcomed him into the Potter home, not James' father. (When Sirius 
moved out, he was looking for a new mum.)  

I think this may show that Harry's search for a mother may soon move 
to the fore of the series and become more important than his 
previous search for a father--and the fact that JKR is slowly 
leaking information to us about Lily and her sister, and 
simultaneously depicting James as a fallible human plays into all of 
that.  It also brings us back to the fact that Lily is the real hero 
of the first fall of Voldemort--her sacrifice saved Harry and 
defeated the Great Dark Wizard.

I think OotP represents a change both in Harry's attitude toward 
Sirius and toward Hagrid--they sort of switch places.  Pre-OotP, 
Hagrid was in fact more important to Harry than one would believe 
from reading OotP.  Harry was somewhat disconnected from Sirius by 
necessity, first by dint of believing that Sirius had betrayed his 
parents, then because Sirius was still on the run and they really 
couldn't spend much time together.  

Harry's going back and forth (in OotP) on which parent figure is 
more important to him feels very much like a real teenager waffling 
on whether his mother or father is 'cooler.'  It is a time in life 
when a child is likely to 'choose' one parent over the other, which 
inevitably results in a good deal of pain for the rejected parent.  
This is another reason why Hagrid struck me as more 'motherly' than 
Sirius--and his taking care of his 'little' brother also contributes 
to that motherly image.  In a way, Sirius and Hagrid were also 
partners (dad and mum) in Harry's metaphorical rebirth as a Muggle 
(his delivery to Surrey) since Sirius provided the motorcycle and 
Hagrid actually got Harry there.
 
> 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.

I think that the reason why I assumed, pre-OotP, that Hagrid would 
be the one to die was because that switch between him and Sirius had 
not yet taken place.  Hagrid was formerly important enough to Harry 
that his death could have impacted him the same way that Sirius' did 
in OotP--and I had already decided that a death like that would 
eventually show up in the series, after reading GoF.  Cedric's death 
simply seemed like a warm-up and far greater grief for Harry seemed 
inevitable.  

However, you'd really have to re-write the entire book, I believe, 
to negate that switch and make it plausible for Hagrid to stay in 
that role, rather than just re-writing one tiny part.  It just 
doesn't ring true, I think, when you consider everything else in 
OotP, plus the additional information we're given about Hagrid's 
near-invulnerability.  Pre-OotP, we also didn't know about that, and 
Hagrid-as-victim seemed far more plausible as a result.

The story has become almost Oedipal, without the sexuality being 
literal (as it never is with JKR).  James, Harry's literal father, 
had already died, and in OotP he died for Harry again when the 
perfect, noble father was revealed to be something of a bully.  His 
substitute father, Sirius, died literally, but in truth that death 
(to Harry) had begun metaphorically very close to the start of the 
book when Harry had the opportunity to spend more time with Sirius 
and find out that he was also not perfect, that he did not always 
agree with Sirius and that sometimes he was annoyed by him and found 
him hypocritical.  This is a classic relationship between a father 
and teenage son before the son decides that he needs to break away 
from his father's influence to mature and become his own man--
especially a father displaying so many undesirable traits that will 
only hinder the boy in fulfilling his destiny.

Only by breaking away from ALL of his fathers can Harry embrace the 
legacy of his mother and defeat Voldemort, I believe.  It's possible 
that JKR didn't have to kill Sirius literally--it could have 
continued to be metaphorical.  But she didn't choose metaphor this 
time--unless you believe, as I do, that Sirius' death represents the 
parts of Harry that are similar to Sirius dying (of necessity) and 
that, afterward, the new Harry will be reborn from Sirius' ashes.  
(There are phoenix metaphors all through OotP.)  

Hagrid, OTOH, is for me an inadequate substitute for the dead father-
figure.  He has many similarities to Sirius but is far too 
motherly.  IMO, after OotP, being one (metaphorically) with his 
mother has become Harry's goal, and will ultimately prove to be the 
path to Voldemort's destruction.  His mother's love saved him and 
love has already provided Harry with a very powerful weapon against 
Voldemort, one which he cannot understand or fight.  I expect mother 
figures--including Hagrid, Petunia, and Mrs. Weasley--and mother-
love to be of utmost importance in the concluding books of the 
series.

--Barb