Fluffy's new home

[sunnyskywalker]

I was searching Accio-Quote for something else entirely when I stumbled across a reference to Fluffy's whereabouts after Year 1:

[Y]ou tend to find at Hogwarts that, erm, anything that's dangerous ends up in the forest ... so that's where Fluffy was released, so he's roaming round in the forest ...

Exactly how many dangerous things has Hogwarts released into the Forbidden Forest over the years? We know about Aragog and Mosag. The Ford Anglia might count, and Grawp. Now there's Fluffy. But that wouldn't be enough to make a trend. So...what else?

Is that where the Blast-Ended Skrewts ended up after the Triwizard Tournament? Were the Thestrals another of these "dangerous" releases? Have Hagrid and maybe Kettleburn spent fifty years tossing new creatures into the ecosystem? (We're probably lucky Norberta didn't end up there.) Do students regularly raise dangerous pets and abandon them in the Forest once they get too big?

No wonder the centaurs don't trust humans...

Also, we know Hagrid introduced Mosag so Aragog wouldn't be lonely. Did he sneak a Mrs. Fluffy while we weren't looking?

Comments

[chantaldormand]

"oooo I wonder what happens if I do this?" Is pretty much how I got in to most scientific (or close to scientific) subjects, so I can attest it's useful approach. Heck even nowadays I use it when I'm out of ideas :)

But the difference between "oooo I wonder what happens if I do this?" and "the testing group should be this big..." shows civilizational difference. The second one tends to have more rapid development than the first one. Which doesn't speak well for Statue of the Secrecy in the XXI century

[sunnyskywalker]

Yeah, they are going to have some trouble. Even if they can switch to a more organized testing mindset, it's going to take time and cultural upheaval.

And I think a big part of their problem is that they simply have a much smaller population than we do. The total world population of magic-users strong enough to control wands consistently is probably in the hundreds of thousands, maybe the low hundreds of thousands. Even if they could switch to a scientific experimentation mindset instantly, how many of them will be good at solving complex magical problems and inventing society-altering magic? Of those, how many can afford to do that instead of working in a Diagon Alley shop to pay the rent? Against our staggeringly larger population and thus staggeringly larger number of people inventing stuff? Yeah, they're in trouble.

long time no see, folks!

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

"...I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed at just how destructive to the local ecosystem Hagrid can be."

Or how his "Ooo magical creatures are misunderstood" stance is taken so surface-level by so many fans, who wouldn't hesitate to think of how Hagrid and Newt would be friends. Newt would in fact be HORRIFIED at the lack of self-awareness that Hagrid has as a magical creatures handler Remember, that much as Newt espouses "Humans are the most dangerous animal," he knows that some of the creatures inside his TARDIS-Suitcase are dangerous -- When Jacob got bitten by that thing, Newt blithely told him about how the venom would kill him before administering the antidote*. Hagrid would totally want to set an Obscurus free because freedom, too.

*Honestly, Hagrid's lack of self-awareness is like that scene in "Airplane!" where that guy is being absolutely mauled by the big dog, and the lady of the house is like "Oh stahp it!--Isn't he an adorable scalawag?"