Join hosts Irvin, Sierra, Sophia, and guest Leah Jamison as they discuss the 14th chapter of the Harry Potter series: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
In this episode:
- Why wasn’t Ron bullied?
- The obvious HP/Mean Girls crossover
- Norbert’s real mother gets her revenge in Book 4
- What are the logistics of failing Hogwarts classes
- Hermione’s manipulative side emerges
- Ron really idolizes Charlie, to the point of memorizing laws!
- We want so much more of Charlie Weasley
- Draco is an evil man with an evil plan
Resources: Dumbledore’s Giant Mistake by Irvin
Pub’s Jukebox: Charlie in Romania by Ollivander
Quirrell must have spent the year like a video-game protagonist, doing side-quests all over the place.
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I’m not disagreeing that Ron looks up to Charlie, but have you ever talked to a 10-year-old about dinosaurs?
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To be fair to Hagrid, he tends to forget that others don’t have his ~50 years of experience dealing with magical animals, and that he’s considerably more resilient than other people (Norberta probably bit him, too, and it was merely annoying).
Besides which, he’s a single parent with a two-week-old baby. He hasn’t been working “because the dragon was keeping him so busy”, and with feedings every half hour, he won’t have been getting much sleep, either. In that state, I can understand him snapping at Ron.
That’s a good point about the dinosaurs! I absolutely was that ten-year-old. (I kinda outgrew the dinosaur obsession soon after, maybe because HP entered my life and there was only so much bandwith… I did keep the astronomy obsession though!) But I definitely think Cool Older Brother Charlie would have helped with that obsession!
Maybe this chapter is one that was least-modified from early drafts. It’s hard to see how you’d change/remove it, because you’ve then got to find another way to convey that someone got Hagrid to blab, the trio finding things out from Hagrid, and the kids getting in enough trouble to be given detention in the forest.
In some ways, it’s an early/less polished example of the author distracting you from details-that-will-be-relevant-later with “look, flashy thing!”.
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As well as characterising Hagrid (and the trio’s relationship with him), it also displays an important aspect of Draco’s character.
I agree that Draco’s target was Harry (the only one he’s personally offended by), but his poorly-thought-out plan shows that he wasn’t intending to blab and get Harry et al in trouble. He values having leverage – every time he sees them, he gets to feel superior.
Draco only got the book with Charlie’s letter on Thursday night, and he’s got no reason to actually open it (it was just an excuse to get to taunt Ron), hence his last-minute panic that sees him get in trouble, too.