Rubeus Hagrid

Template:HP characterRubeus Hagrid (born December 6, c. 1928)^[1] is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling, usually addressed only by his surname. Hagrid is the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, the gamekeeper and the Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hagrid is twice as tall as the average man and nearly five times as wide. He loves animals and magical creatures, particularly those that are unusual or dangerous. Rowling has said that Hagrid has little interest in tamer magical creatures because of the lack of a challenge, although he has a cowardly boarhound named Fang.

He is one of the first characters to imply that the idea of thinking of wizards as "pure-bloods" and "half-bloods" is a dated concept. Hagrid is known for his thick West country accent.

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 in the role.

His name, Rubeus, has two meanings in Latin, one meaning "red" or "reddish", and the other meaning "of the bramble" both accurate descriptions of his appearance. "Hagrid", according to Rowling in an interview with The Boston Globe,^[2] comes from an old English word "hagridden", meaning to have a nightmarish night, particularly when hungover; Hagrid is known to be a heavy drinker. (see hag)

Hagrid was the first member of the Hogwarts staff to be introduced to Harry before he began attending the school.

Positions held

• Keeper of Keys and Grounds, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• Hogwarts Gamekeeper
• Professor of Care of Magical Creatures
• Member, Order of the Phoenix

Background and role

It is revealed, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that Hagrid is of mixed human 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. The fact that people who know of his heritage misjudge him as dangerous may contribute to Hagrid's steadfast inability to recognise the truly dangerous nature of dragons, Acromantulas, and the like, all of whom are feared much like giants are.

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.^[3] 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 Chamber of Secrets and, either intentionally or unintentionally, allowed it to attack (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.^[4] 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".^[5] Part of his job includes leading the first years across the lake in boats, upon their initial arrival at Hogwarts. The latter is self-explanatory. The latter jobs have not been specifically stated as part of the gamekeeper position.

Hagrid's love of dangerous magical creatures is central to the plot of 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 again lets slip, to Harry, Ron and Hermione, about how to get past Fluffy (by playing 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.

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. 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, where Snape reluctantly agrees to do some difficult task for Dumbledore.

Hagrid is romantically interested in Olympe Maxime – a fellow half-giant and Headmistress of the French magic school Beauxbatons; but so far it is not clearly revealed if a romance has come into fruition.

Hagrid is also known for his dubious skills at cookery. He has baked rock cakes that have the texture of their namesake.

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. Harry in turn, apart from the dangerous animal fixation, views Hagrid as one of the most important people in his life.

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.

Aragog

Aragog (c.1942-1997) was an Acromantula - an enormous, sentient, talking spider which made a unique clicking noise as it 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 by Tom Riddle, the real Heir of Slytherin, talking to the spider in the dungeons; 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 himself had released.

While Aragog started as Hagrid's pet, after the expulsion he lived in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid even found him a wife, 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 (this service didn't extend to anyone else, as Harry, Ron and Fang found out in Chamber of Secrets). Aragog remained in the forest for the rest of his long life, eventually growing weak, going blind, and dying of natural causes after an illness in Half-Blood Prince.

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

Fang

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.

A boarhound is any of various large dogs, especially the Great Dane, used originally for hunting wild boars [6]. However, in the films, Fang is portrayed by a Neapolitan Mastiff.

Fang's name may owe something to one of Farmer Maggot's dogs in The Lord of the Rings — also called Fang.

Fluffy

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, 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.

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 by 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

Norbert is a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon which Hagrid acquires as an egg and hatches himself. The Ministry of Magic classifies dragon eggs as Class A Non-Tradeable Goods. After hatching, he becomes very dangerous and bigger in the weeks following, so Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally persuade Hagrid to give him to Ron's older brother Charlie, who's studying dragons in Romania. Most of Norbert's story was cut out of the Philosopher's Stone film for time reasons.

Buckbeak/Witherwings

Buckbeak is a hippogriff.

Buckbeak is sentenced to death by the Ministry for Magic, following an attack on Draco Malfoy during a Care of Magical Creatures class taught by Hagrid. The attack was provoked by Malfoy's disrespectful behaviour towards the beast. Before he can be executed, Buckbeak is rescued by Harry and Hermione, and he flees into hiding along with his new caretaker, Sirius Black.

As with all hippogriffs, Buckbeak is fond of eating small mammals, including ferrets and bats.

After Sirius's death, in the sixth book Harry inherits Buckbeak, along with the rest of his godfather's possessions. Harry decides to give the hippogriff back to Hagrid's care, although he is rechristened as "Witherwings" to hide his true identity from the Ministry.

References

• ^[1] "JKRowling.com Archives: Birthdays" from MuggleNet
• ^[2] "Extra Stuff: Wands" from the J.K.Rowling Official Site