OOTP Chapter Twenty: "Hagrid's Tale"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Courage, my friends. If you ever feel yourself
hesitant to go on, just think of the feelings of relief you’ll get once you
reach the end of the chapter.

 

* So how big are elves’ heads if a hat intended for
them can fit Hermione? Or is she just really bad at knitting, and consequently
her hats are all over the place in terms of size?

* Oddly enough, none of the boys seem pleased at the
prospect of having to stand very close to Hermione. Perhaps because she isn’t
yet the Beautiful!Hermione she’ll be by DH.

* Nearly-Headless Nick is humming “something that
sounded horribly like ‘Weasley is our King’.” Because Ron’s so pathetic, even
his House ghost is against him.

* I don’t see why Hagrid can’t just get somebody to
magic away his injuries. There’s no way I’m going to believe that wizarding
society hasn’t yet invented a spell to heal cuts and bruises.

* Hagrid’s pretence of secrecy stops as soon as
Hermione says the word “giants”. That man really cannot be trusted to keep
secrets.

* Muggles sometimes find giants, but their deaths
are just put down to mountaineering accidents. Firstly, I doubt that being
clubbed to death by a giant would leave similar marks to falling off a cliff or
whatever; secondly, are we really supposed to believe that literally nobody
managed to escape and tell the wider world about the giants?

* Although I suppose that anybody who did escape would just be Obliviated, so
maybe not.

* Hagrid and Madam Maxime couldn’t take a Portkey
because they were being watched. Yes, because secretly turning an innocuous
object into a Portkey and then instantaneously teleporting half-way across
Europe would have been absolutely no help in trying to evade their pursuers.

* Ron is appalled at the prospect of acting like a
Muggle. What a tolerant, open-minded young man he is.

* Dumbledore told them all about giant customs,
despite Hagrid and Olympe being the ones with giant ancestors.

* It was easy to tell which one was the chief,
because he was “the biggest, the ugliest an’ the laziest.” Because those are
the qualities which giants value in their chiefs, apparently.

* Given Hagrid’s fondness for big, ugly pets, it
looks like he might have inherited a bit of their value system himself. Not
that blood’s important, you understand.

* Give the chief a gift, and he becomes your BFF.
Just like children, really.

* The giants so far seem to have an intelligence
level somewhere between that of small children and monkeys, but Karkus is
apparently knowledgeable enough of world politics to have heard of Dumbledore
and his attitude towards the giants. Right.

* Hagrid and Olympe can’t take out the Death Eaters,
for some reason. I’d have thought that picking off Voldemort’s supporters
before they can regain their old strength would be an excellent idea. Are they
worried about antagonising the giants by killing emissaries to them? But if
they do it properly, nobody will know who killed them. Or are they afraid of
provoking Voldemort? But then war’s coming anyway, and surely it would be to
Dumbledore’s advantage to provoke Voldemort into starting it before he’s fully
ready? IDGI.

* This whole Hagrid/Olympe thing is incredibly
tiresome, especially since it’s forgotten after this book and has no effect
whatsoever on the plot.

* A lot like the giants subplot in general, come to
think of it…

* Contrary to what Hagrid says, the chances of any
giants reaching England from wherever it is they’re supposed to live are
practically nil. Aside from anything else, they’re just too big and noticeable.
They can’t pretend to be humans, like wizards can, and they can’t hide
properly. They’d be found and stopped long before they reached their
destination.

* Umbridge arrives, and finally we get a break from
Hagrid’s reminisces. Thank God; I think I was starting to lose the will to
live.

* Couldn’t Hagrid just say that he got his injuries
from one of the animals in the Hogwarts grounds? It’s not like there aren’t any
dangerous creatures, after all, and it would be more believable than “I
tripped”.

* “‘Yes, as gamekeeper fresh air must be so
difficult to come by,’ said Umbridge sweetly.” Point to Umbridge there for
displaying more critical thinking skills than half the other characters put
together.

* So does Hagrid’s curriculum disregard what will
come up in their OWLs, then? Because that seems a bit unprofessional to me.

* Hermione leaves determined to save the one teacher
who everybody would be happy to go.

* And that brings us to the end of “Hagrid’s Tale”.
Now I don’t know about you, but I think I need a stiff drink after that.
Possibly some sort of counselling, too.

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

The difference between Muggle and wizarding national borders could have been interesting. Suppose the Holy Roman Empire still exists for wizards, all the principalities included - imagine the poor German Chancellor trying to keep up with them all, if they talk to him like British wizards talk to the Muggle PM. Not to mention the leaders of Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Italy... Or what about the Ottoman Empire? Did Russian wizards go for communism, or do they still have a czar, or did they switch to something else entirely? Damn, why did Rowling have to go and make wizarding politics so boring? So much potential!

If she'd followed up on the international bits in GoF, all this might have been relevant. Since Voldemort seems to have Eastern European connections (at least, he had the headmaster of Durmstrang for a while), he's potentially an international problem, so you would expect either the Ministry to ask the International Confederation of Wizards for help, or for other wizarding governments to intervene anyway. Bill/Fleur (and Molly's and Ginny's antagonism) might have been more interesting if wizarding France was pushing to get an international coalition of trained fighters (probably from the equivalents of Aurors, since I doubt they have standing armies) to go, er, "assist" the British since they obviously can't handle it themselves. Or something. Anything, really. Maybe they're mad about Dumbledore convincing Flamel to die (since he was French, originally). At least bringing in a group of foreign wizards which isn't pro-Ministry or pro-Dumbledore would have shaken things up. And Harry could be concerned at how they're trying to take over British politics "for the greater good" (could have serious downsides), and be irked that they're not respecting Dumbledore properly, but then be baffled because it isn't like he wants to support the Ministry either, and the foreign wizards did get a few DEs off the street... but then he'd have to think, and we can't have that.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Did Russian wizards go for communism, or do they still have a czar, or did they switch to something else entirely? Damn, why did Rowling have to go and make wizarding politics so boring? So much potential!

And what about the former colonies of European nations? When a country gained independence from its motherland/fatherland, did the magikal communities in those new countries create their own political systems? Did the former colonial wizards and witches decide to become independent of both former Muggle AND magikal rulers?

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

This is a fascinating point. Why is the WW more interesting when we don't have to see everything through Harry's eyes?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Rowling is too centered on her own experience, IOW Great Britain in general, Scotland in particular, to particularly care about other lands/cultures/ethnicities.

So she really doesn't give a damn about the WW in other areas of the world, whether Old World or New World.

But personally I think that in regards to the non-European Old World, there was a very long-standing tradition of magikal folk being honored by nonmagikal folk, and indeed a tradition of magikal folk being in the employ of nonmagikal rulers. I find it hard to believe that such cultures would have willing accepted the Statute of Secrecy.

As for the New World, basically it comes down to the question of what sort of magikal folk would choose to leave their home country and go abroad, and why they would chose to do so.

Just like nonmagikal folk, rarely did you have the well-to-do doing so. For the occasional second or third son of some aristocrat who decided to see if he could make his fortune in the colonies, you had thousands of people who were middleclass at best, dirt poor at worst (and the more likely scenario)...and a goodly number of people who were one step ahead of the law back home and were lucky enough to get onboard a ship headed to a colony before the magistrates grabbed them.

So I see no reason for the same demographics not to apply to magikal folk who chose to immigrate -- there may have been a handful who were well-off but decided to see if they could make money off nonmagikal fellow immigrants. But the rest would have been magikal folk who, for whatever reason, were not amongst the top levels of magikal society. Some may have even been escaping Azkaban and the Dementors.

These would have been people who would not retain any particularly strong ties/loyalty to the Ministry (if they were British immigrants) or to the Wizamagot. In fact perhaps some of the very early magikal colonists to the Americas chose to leave Great Britain when the Statute of Secrecy was enacted just for that very reason, because they didn't agree with it and wanted to go somewhere where it would be difficult at best to be enforced.

Travel and communication between Europe and the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries would have been rather difficult for magikal folk; a portkey would have to be delivered via nonmagikal sailing ship, which could take months. Ditto apparition -- one can only do it if one has a clear image of the destination in one's mind. Colonial wizards and witches could presumably apparate back to Europe for a visit, and apparate back to the Americas, but it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the MoM or the Wizamagot to perform effect law enforcement that way.

And that's assuming there isn't a distance limit on apparition.

At best, someone from the MoM or Wizanmagot could sail via nonmagikal sailing ship to a major colonial city, perhaps even set up a regional outpost. But if word got back to, say, a Ministry regional office in Boston in 1750 that some wizard was doing public magik for Muggle villagers somewhere in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, what were they going to do? The regional Ministry officials in Boston would be as unable to apparate or portkey to Tennessee as their London counterparts.

Okay, this post has rambled more than I'd planned, but it's something I've actually given a lot of thought to because I think Rowling really dropped the ball on this aspect of her WW, and I think that it would make a fascinating story to tell the "history" of magikal folk in the Americas, both native and immigrant (whether immigrant by choice or forced).

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Rowling is too centered on her own experience, IOW Great Britain in general, Scotland in particular, to particularly care about other lands/cultures/ethnicities."

True, although it makes me wonder why she chose to include the whole foreign wizards subplot. If she hadn't written about the Triwizard Tournament in GOF, and instead decided on something else to tie into Voldemort's resurrection, I doubt anybody would really bother about the lack of detail paid to foreign wizarding cultures. Maybe it's because "multi-ethnic band of allies put aside differences to fight Evil Overlord" is such a common fantasy trope, she thought she'd better include it, but didn't care enough to follow it through?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

If she hadn't written about the Triwizard Tournament in GOF, and instead decided on something else to tie into Voldemort's resurrection, I doubt anybody would really bother about the lack of detail paid to foreign wizarding cultures.

I disagree...as soon as the series became popular in other languages, readers in those countries would invariably ask "What about wizards and witches in my own country?"

It was Rowling's answer in an interview when some kid asked if there were any wizarding schools in the United States, and Rowling answered yes, "...in Salem..."

Presumably Rowling was referring to Salem, Massachusetts, and I hit the roof when I saw that answer! It shows how ignorant Rowling is regarding most, if not all, things American, and especially American history.

"Oh...witches...America...SALEM!" Blecchhhhh! :-P

Salem, Massachusetts would be the LAST place any magikal folk would build a wizarding school, even one that could be hidden from nonmagikal folks eyes! Most of New England would be a poor choice, although I can entertain the prospect of a school in the farthest reaches of Maine, close to the Canadian border.

Personally I think the U.S. would end up with more than one school, but that's just me.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I think that you are totally right here. I might not be a bestselling author, but as an aspiring author/DM even I know that it's good to think beyond the place the actual story is set in. In this case it comes off as a bit ethnocentric, which really doesn't help the creepy jingoist feel the series has already.