Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 06:26, 17 October 2007

Template:HP character Rubeus Hagrid is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. The character is usually addressed only by his surname. Hagrid is the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, the gamekeeper and, starting in Harry's third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher there. Later in the series, it is revealed that Hagrid is also a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Hagrid was the first member of the Hogwarts staff to be introduced to Harry before he began attending the school. He was also one of the first characters to imply that the idea of thinking of wizards as "pure-bloods" and "half-bloods" is a dated concept.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hagrid is mentioned as being twice as tall as the average man (roughly 3.5 metres, 11½ feet) and nearly three times as wide but in the movie his height is mentioned as 8 foot 6 (roughly 2.6 metres). Hagrid is known for his thick West country accent.

"Hagrid", according to Rowling in an interview with The Boston Globe, comes from an old English word "hagridden", meaning to have a nightmarish night, particularly when hung over; Hagrid is known to be a heavy drinker. In Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, the word is represented as typical Wessex slang and appears in the same passage as "Dumbledore", a local term for "bumblebee".

In the film adaptations of the Harry Potter novels, Hagrid is played by Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane. Rowling has said that when writing the first Harry Potter novel, she imagined Coltrane portraying the character.

Character Appearances

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire it is revealed that Hagrid is of mixed wizard and giant parentage, his mother having been the giantess Fridwulfa, who left his wizard father when Hagrid was a baby. Hagrid has a half-brother, a giant named Grawp. Since giants have a reputation for being horribly brutal, and were once allies of Lord Voldemort, Hagrid keeps his parentage a secret and allows people to imagine other reasons for his great size (drinking a bottle of Skele-Gro when he did not need it). He has a friendly, softhearted personality and is easily driven to tears, as seen in his very first scene, when he drops Harry off at the Dursleys' in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. He is very loyal to his peers, especially Dumbledore, to whom he refers as the greatest wizard in the world multiple times. As first seen in Philosopher's Stone, he becomes extremely angry whenever anyone insults Dumbledore around him (a mistake made by Vernon Dursley, who called Dumbledore a "crackpot old fool"), indicating his fierce loyalty to him.

Hagrid was a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the same time as Tom Marvolo Riddle. Hagrid's first year was the 1940-1941 school year. Rowling has stated in an interview that Hagrid was in Gryffindor house. He was expelled during his third year, after being caught in possession of a dangerous acromantula: this already grave crime was worsened due to the belief that it was "The Monster of Slytherin," and that Hagrid had released it from the Chamber of Secrets and, either intentionally or unintentionally, allowed it to attack and petrify (and in one case, kill) other students. This (inaccurate) belief was encouraged by Riddle, the actual criminal, who had been using the true Monster (a Basilisk) to attack students, and who had framed Hagrid to avoid the school being closed.

Following his expulsion, the Ministry of Magic broke Hagrid's oak wand and forbade him from performing magic. However, persuaded by Albus Dumbledore (who at the time was Transfiguration teacher), Headmaster Armando Dippet agreed to train Hagrid as gamekeeper, allowing the boy to remain at Hogwarts. Hagrid keeps the pieces of his wand in a pink umbrella, and performs small spells from time to time; however, he is technically forbidden to do magic, and since he is not a fully qualified wizard, he is somewhat deficient in it as compared to other adult wizards. By the time Harry attends Hogwarts, Hagrid is also the Keeper of Keys and Grounds: the former, according to Rowling, means "that he will let you in and out of Hogwarts." Part of his job includes leading the first years across the lake in boats, upon their initial arrival at Hogwarts.

Throughout the books Hagrid is friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione. They frequently discover things about Dumbledore by talking to him as he has a habit of letting slip pieces of information. Dumbledore says that he would trust Hagrid with his life, and frequently asks him to carry out secret tasks. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he delivers the infant Harry to Dumbledore at the Dursley's and, years later, is tasked to bring the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and also assigned the three-headed dog Fluffy to take care of it. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he is sent to try to persuade the giants to aid Dumbledore against Voldemort. In Half-Blood Prince, he tells Harry and company about a conversation he overhears between Severus Snape and Dumbledore, in which Snape reluctantly agrees to do some difficult task for Dumbledore. In the Headmaster's funeral, Hagrid was seen carrying Dumbledore's body.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hagrid is part of the Order of the Phoenix delegation assigned to remove Harry from the Dursleys' home to the magic-protected Burrow. Hagrid takes Harry on the flying motorcycle he inherited from Sirius Black but the plan goes awry when the Order delegation is ambushed by Death Eaters. The pair narrowly make it to the Burrow after being attacked by Voldemort himself. After Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding reception, which is invaded by personnel from the Voldemort-controlled Ministry of Magic, Hagrid presumably returns to his job at Hogwarts. He is next seen during the Battle of Hogwarts, after having been driven into hiding in the mountains with Grawp to escape the new Death Eater-controlled regime at the school due to Hagrid hosting a "Support Harry Potter" party in his hut. Hagrid attempts to come to the defense of the monstrous spider Aragog's carnivorous children, which have been driven out of the Forbidden Forest by the Death Eaters and are now attacking both Hogwarts defenders and Death Eaters indiscriminately, but is carried off by a swarm of them. He later turns up, captive in the Death Eaters' camp, when Harry sacrifices himself to Voldemort. Hagrid is forced to carry Harry back to the school, not realizing that Harry has survived again, and en route accuses the watching centaurs of not doing enough to help. The centaurs soon afterward join the fray and Hagrid takes part in the second half of the Battle, ultimately felling his main nemesis among the Death Eaters, the magical-creature executioner Walden Macnair. Nineteen years after Voldemort's defeat, Hagrid is still at Hogwarts, though it's never made explicit in what capacity, and invites Harry's young son Albus to his hut for tea, just as he had once done for Harry himself.

Hagrid is less vulnerable to jinxes and spells than full-humans. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when Dolores Umbridge and some other wizards come to remove him from Hogwarts he fights back. They try to jinx and Stun him, but the spells just bounce off of him because of giant-inherited resistance to magic. Due to this, some of the potions are also ineffective against him, such as Polyjuice Potion, which is designed for human-only use. Hagrid is once again showing this resilience at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, during the Flight of the Prince, withstanding Thorfinn Rowle's powerful curses.

Family and Relationships

Grawp

Template:HP character Grawp is the giant half-brother of Hagrid in the Harry Potter books. In the film adaption of the book Grawp is completely computer-generated using a new "soul capturing" process from Image Metrics. The voice of Grawp is performed by Tony Maudsley.

First introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Grawp is brought from his mountain home to the Forbidden Forest outside Hogwarts by Hagrid. Grawp and Hagrid were born of the same mother, the giantess Fridwulfa; Hagrid's father was a wizard, whereas Grawp's was a giant. Grawp is about 16 feet (4.9 metres) tall, which Hagrid claims is small for a giant. His knuckles are the size of a cricket ball (~225  mm in circumference). Grawp was being bullied by the other giants, and this was a factor in Hagrid's decision to bring him to the Forbidden Forest. Big and dim, he only knows a few words in English and his manners are wild and unpredictable. At first he seemed indifferent to his brother's attempts to civilise him, preferring to spend his time tearing down trees.

When he first appears in the Order of the Phoenix, Grawp is looked after by Hagrid, who keeps him tied to several trees in the Forbidden Forest. However, after Hagrid leaves Hogwarts to continue his work for the Order of the Phoenix, he leaves Grawp in the care of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. Much to their surprise, when they find themselves trapped in the forest during a confrontation with the local centaur population, Grawp inadvertently manages to divert the centaurs' attention from Harry and Hermione. At the time, Grawp displays considerable distress at being unable to find his brother Hagrid, whom he calls 'Hagger'. He also remembers Hermione, calling her "Hermy" (a shorter form suggested by Hagrid because he felt Grawp wouldn't be able to pronounce the full name).

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Grawp is moved to the mountains, where he is apparently progressing much better. He also attends Dumbledore's funeral with Hagrid, much more civil and calm than before, and dressed formally. He also appears to understand emotions, at least to some extent, as he pats Hagrid's head to comfort him. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Grawp, Hagrid, and Fang go into hiding after Hagrid throws a "Support Harry Potter" party and it is implied that Grawp helped them all escape. He is the only Giant fighting against the Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts, and carries Hagrid from their hiding place to the castle on Hagrid's request (shoving him through a window in the process). This is probably borne out of a desire to protect Hagrid, as he frequently calls his name while fighting the Death Eaters. Grawp participates in the victory celebration over Voldemort's defeat (albeit from a window, since he is too big to fit into the hall), and the Hogwarts students show their appreciation by tossing food into his laughing mouth.

Hagrid and Harry

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore entrusts Hagrid with rescuing the infant Harry from his parents' house after their murder by Voldemort, and later gives him the task of locating Harry, helping him to find his bearings in the magical world and to buy his school things. Since he introduced Harry to the wizarding world, Hagrid has been one of Harry's closest friends. Hagrid constantly watches over him, and is rather protective, seeing him as a fellow orphan and outsider. Harry in turn, apart from the dangerous animal fixation, views Hagrid as one of the most important people in his life. Hagrid suffered for his loyalty to Harry several times during the series, and had to go for hiding twice to avoid prison.

Romantic Interests

Hagrid is romantically interested in Olympe Maxime – another half-giant witch and Headmistress of the French magic school Beauxbatons; it is not revealed if a romance has come into fruition. They traveled across Europe together on a mission from the Order, planning to find giants and convince them to ally themselves with the good side and with Dumbledore, but eventually parted on the journey home because of Maxime's exasperation with Grawp, Hagrid's half-brother who he had found and was attempting to bring home with them. However, she is seen to " herself into the waiting Hagrid's arms" at Dumbledore's funeral, implying that they still have an affectionate connection of some sort.

Hagrid's pets

Hagrid keeps and has kept a variety of pets, including some which the wizarding community considers impossible to domesticate. They are not always wrong.

Rowling has said that Hagrid has little interest in tamer magical creatures because of the lack of a challenge, although he has a cowardly, abeit large dog (boarhound) named Fang. Hagrid's love of dangerous magical creatures is relatively central to the plot of several books of the series. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone a hooded person (Professor Quirrell in disguise) gives him a dragon egg to elicit details about Fluffy, the three-headed dog Hagrid has lent to Dumbledore to help guard the Philosopher's Stone. Hagrid lets slip to Harry, Ron, and Hermione that the way to get past Fluffy is to play music, which allows them to pursue the potential thief. The three also assist Hagrid after the dragon egg hatches, by helping to remove the baby dragon Norbert, who is taken to live in a dragon sanctuary in Romania where Ron's older brother, Charlie Weasley, works.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he claims to be friends with Aragog, a monstrous acromantula that was supposed to be the "monster of Slytherin". In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he was almost fired for introducing hippogriffs to third-years and because one of them, Buckbeak, attacked Draco Malfoy after the boy insulted it. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Alastor Moody (impersonated by Barty Crouch Jr) suggested him to show Harry that the first task of the Triwizard Tournament would be dragons. He provided some Blast-Ended Skrewts for the third task too. Hagrid was also portrayed as dangerous because of his like of these creatures by Rita Skeeter and almost fired by Dolores Umbridge because of the same reason (in both cases, Skeeter and Umbridge associated this to his half-giant status). In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, he risked his life to recover Aragog's body to give him a "proper" funeral, and after the funeral he and Horace Slughorn got drunk, thus Harry took advantage of this situation to retrieve Slughorn's memory. Hagrid again risked his life in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trying to protect the acromantulas from harm.

Aragog

Template:HP character Aragog (c.1940 - 20 April 1997) was an Acromantula - an enormous, sentient, talking spider which made a unique clicking noise as he moved in search of prey. Hagrid raised him from an egg as a Hogwarts student, keeping him inside a cupboard. The spider's discovery was partly responsible for Hagrid's expulsion. Hagrid was caught talking to the spider in the dungeons by Tom Riddle. Riddle then alleged that the creature was the "Monster of Slytherin," and that Hagrid, by extension, had opened the Chamber and released it. In fact, the "Monster" was a basilisk which Riddle, the real Heir of Slytherin, himself had released.

After Hagrid's expulsion, Aragog lived in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid even found him a mate, Mosag, with whom Aragog had many offspring and became the patriarch of an entire colony of Acromantulas. He remained grateful to Hagrid and kept his carnivorous children from attacking him when he came to visit, but this didn't extend to anyone else (as Harry, Ron, and Fang found out in Chamber of Secrets). Hagrid had told them to simply "follow the spiders." Doing as he wished, they found Aragog and his children, who tried to eat them. They were only saved at the last minute by Ron's flying car that had been lost in the forest a few months prior. Aragog remained in the forest for the rest of his life, eventually growing weak, going blind, and dying in the Half-Blood Prince. Hagrid retrieved Aragog's body from the forest, fearing that his children would devour his body. During his funeral, Professor Slughorn bottles his precious venom and takes it for himself.

Later in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Aragog's offspring return during the Battle at Hogwarts; having been driven from the Forbidden Forest, they began to attack Death Eaters and Hogwarts' inhabitants indiscriminately.

The name Aragog comes from aranea (a Latin word for spider) and Gog (a legendary giant).

Buckbeak / Witherwings

Template:HP character Buckbeak along with eleven other hippogriffs, is introduced during one of Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes. Hagrid explains that hippogriffs are very calm, powerful giants, but are touchy creatures and demand respect. Harry successfully approaches Buckbeak, who allows him to ride him around the paddock. He still must bow on subsequent encounters, though Buckbeak apparently had taken a great liking to Harry from then on.

Draco Malfoy, in an arrogant attempt to show up his school nemesis, endeavours to approach Buckbeak as well. It becomes obvious that the Slytherin neither listened to nor cared about Hagrid's warnings about the hippogriffs' touchiness, as he makes contemptuous remarks about Buckbeak. Quickly angered, Buckbeak slashes Draco's arm with his claws. Pretending to be injured much more severely than he truly is, Draco persuades his father, Lucius Malfoy, to use his political power to sentence Buckbeak to death. Hagrid's numerous appeals fail, and Walden Macnair of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures comes to Hogwarts to execute Buckbeak. With the use of a time-turner, Hermione and Harry free Buckbeak and rescue Sirius Black from the tower in which he was being held before being handed over to the dementors. Sirius escapes with Buckbeak and flies to safety. During most of Harry's fourth year, Sirius and Buckbeak hide in a cave in the mountains above Hogsmeade. After this, they move to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, whereupon Buckbeak stays in Sirius' mother's former room.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry inherits Buckbeak, and allows Hagrid to look after him again. To avoid suspicion from the Ministry of Magic, he is given the alias Witherwings (Hagrid also calls Buckbeak by the nickname "Beaky"). A fiercely loyal creature, Buckbeak chased away Professor Snape from Harry by slashing his claws at the end of Half-Blood Prince. Buckbeak also features in the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leading the Hogwarts' Thestrals against Voldemort's giants.

Fang

Template:HP character Fang is a large boarhound who, aside from his enormous size, appears to be an entirely ordinary dog. While Fang's appearance is intimidating, he is, in Hagrid's words, "a bloody coward." Boisterous and loving with people he knows, he seems especially fond of Harry and at times, Hermione. Fang, like Hagrid, is not as fierce as he looks. He seems to enjoy licking Harry, Ron, or Hermione around the face or ears, as he is mentioned attempting to do it in many of the trio's visits to Hagrid's house.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he accompanied Harry, Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, Hermione and Neville into the Forbidden Forest to look for an injured unicorn. In the following book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he joined Harry and Ron into the forest where he was scared stiff of both the gigantic acromantula and Arthur Weasley's flying Ford Anglia.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, some escaping Death Eaters set fire to Hagrid's hut while Fang was inside, but Harry put out the fire with his wand before Fang was hurt.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Fang and Hagrid participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, though Fang's exact involvement is unknown. He is last seen running away after a shattered vase frightens him.

A boarhound is any of various large dogs, especially the Great Dane, used originally for hunting wild boars. However, in the films, Fang is portrayed by a Neapolitan Mastiff.

Fluffy

Template:HP character Fluffy is a giant three-headed dog used by Hagrid to guard the trapdoor leading to the underground chamber where the Philosopher's Stone is hidden in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. The only way to get past Fluffy is lull him to sleep by playing music.

In the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry, Ron, and Hermione accidentally run into Fluffy after running from caretaker Argus Filch. At Halloween, Harry and Ron witness Snape entering the door to Fluffy's chamber, and for the next few days he has a pronounced limp and is overheard saying "How are you meant to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?" However, it is later revealed that he followed Professor Quirrell into the chamber. Later, Professor Quirrell gets past Fluffy by playing a harp, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione use a flute that had been given to Harry by Hagrid because Fluffy falls asleep to music.

Fluffy is based on Cerberus, the three-headed dog from Greek Mythology that guards the gates to the underworld. As with Fluffy, Cerberus was lulled to sleep with music by Orpheus.

In the book, Hagrid acquires Fluffy from a Greek he meets in a pub, while in the film Hagrid says he got Fluffy from an Irish person instead. Steve Kloves says when he wrote the script it said "Greek," but was changed somewhere down the line. J. K. Rowling was asked in an interview what happened to Fluffy after he was no longer needed to protect the Stone. She said Fluffy was released into the Forbidden Forest.

Norbert (Norberta)

Template:HP character Norbert, later renamed Norberta, is a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon that Hagrid had acquired as an egg from a mysterious, hooded stranger, who turned out to be Lord Voldemort who had concealed himself in the body of Hogwarts' (then) current Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell. The Ministry of Magic classifies dragon eggs as Class A Non-Tradeable goods. Hagrid helps the dragon hatch from the egg. Norbert becomes very dangerous and much bigger in the weeks following, so Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally persuade Hagrid to give her to Ron's older brother Charlie, who is studying dragons in Romania. While helping Hagrid take care of his new pet, Ron is bitten and is in the Hogwarts hospital wing the night Charlie's friends come to collect the dragon. Harry and Hermione take Norbert up in a crate under Harry's invisibility cloak. However, Malfoy also sneaks out in the dead of night and is caught by Professor McGonagall. After Norbert is taken away by Charlie's friends, Hermione and Harry are also caught, as is Neville who was found lurking in the corridors on his way to warn them about Malfoy. Norbert is frequently mentioned throughout the rest of the series. Most of Norbert's story was cut out of the Philosopher's Stone film for time reasons.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Charlie Weasley revealed to Hagrid that Norbert was actually female, and had been renamed Norberta. Charlie notes that female dragons are more vicious than the males.

References

1. Jo Rowling interviews 1997 to the present
2. JK Rowling Interview
3. Section: Extra Stuff
4. Anelli, Melissa and Emerson Spartz. "The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part Three," The Leaky Cauldron, 16 July 2005
5. Boarhound Definition

External links

• Rubeus Hagrid on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki
• Rubeus Hagrid at Harry Potter Lexicon

• Fictional characters with superhuman strength
• Fictional giants
• Fictional schoolteachers
• Harry Potter hybrids
• Harry Potter wizards
• Hogwarts employees
• Gryffindors
• Order of the Phoenix
• Characters introduced in 1997