The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 30

[slowfox]

Y'know, it was only the end of GoF where Harry gives his Triwizard winnings to the Twins, but it feels as though it was a long time before now, when he finally tells Ron and Hermione that he's Weasleys Wizard Wheezes' anonymous backer.

Harry's not really feeling the lurve this chapter - he's needled by Hermione's nagging about Occlumency, and he has a go at Ron's lack of Quidditchability in retaliation for the latter's indiscretion over mentioning Harry's night-time mutterings to Hermione:

"I dreamed I was watching you lot play Quidditch," Harry lied brutally. "I was trying to get you to stretch out a bit further to grab the Quaffle."

Ron's ears went red. Harry felt a kind of vindictive pleasure; he had not, of course, dreamed anything of the sort.

Just how strong is Hagrid?

"Yeah," said Hagrid heavily. "Well, angry doesn' cover it. Ruddy livid. If I hadn' stepped in, I reckon they'd've kicked Firenze ter death -"

"They attacked him?" said Hermione, sounding shocked.

"Yep," said Hagrid gruffly, forcing his way through several low-hanging branches. "He had half the herd on him."

"And you stopped it?" said Harry, amazed and impressed. "By yourself?"

"Course I did, couldn't stand by an' watch 'em kill 'im, could I?" said Hagrid...

When Harry and Hermione finally get to meet Grawp, he's tied down by ropes, yet Hagrid explains that he's perfectly able to feed himself: Birds an' deer an' stuff.... Presumably in untethered fashion, 'cos I can't imagine too many animals walking obligingly close to a restrained giants' mouth.

It's Magorian who helpfully imparts to us the Centaurs' code that dictates that they don't slaughter 'foals'. This is scant consolation to Hermione:

"Calm down!" she said feverishly. "A giant! A giant in the Forest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons! Always assuming, of course, we can get pasy the herd of murderous centaurs on the way in and out! I - don't - believe - him!"

As compensation for missing out on the Grawp action with Hagrid, Ron does at least get to win the Quidditch Cup, which is one thing from the Mirror of Erised ticked off, at least.

I s'pose the important bit in this chapter is that Hagrid's no longer welcome in the Forest, and the only reason he escaped this time is because he had 'young' with him. Of course, to set up why he's no longer welcome in the Forest, we have Grawp, but I think that Grawp's mostly incidental in OotP, isn't he?

The story inches forward - we know that Harry's still having visions about the Ministry, and that the tide is turning against Umbridge within the school. Harry and Hermione have made a pact with Hagrid to try and look after Grawp in his absence, and one assumes they're going to rope Ron into that venture too.

But there's no real Umbridge news, no Voldemort threat, no Ministry action; Hagrid mentions 'doing stuff for the Order' in passing, but in terms of the book's overall plot, we move forward relatively little.