Rubeus Hagrid: Biography, Tenderness and Secrets

Rubeus Hagrid is the first person to tell Harry he is a wizard, and the first to treat him like someone loved. He is huge, clumsy and has an even bigger heart. What stands out most is what moves us most: his inability to see harm in anything he loves.

Who he is

He is Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts and later teaches Care of Magical Creatures. He is half-giant, and says so himself in Goblet of Fire. He was expelled from school as a teenager, accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets, and Dumbledore kept him on as gamekeeper. He loves dangerous creatures, and the more dangerous, the more he loves them.

Key moments

• Philosopher's Stone, ch. 4: he bursts into the hut on the rock, hands Harry his letter and tells him he is a wizard. He also brings him a birthday cake.
• Philosopher's Stone, ch. 14: he raises Norbert, a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon, in his wooden hut.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 15: Harry and Ron discover Aragog, the giant spider Hagrid raised in secret.
• Prisoner of Azkaban, ch. 16: Buckbeak's sentence, which Hagrid takes in tears.
• Deathly Hallows, ch. 36: he carries Harry's body out of the forest, convinced he is dead.

Relationships

With Harry, an almost fatherly love. With Dumbledore, a blind loyalty that is mutual: in the first chapter Dumbledore says he would trust Hagrid with his life. With Ron and Hermione, a warm friendship. With Grawp, his giant half-brother, a responsibility he takes on alone. With Aragog, an affection he finds hard to explain.

What almost nobody notices

In Philosopher's Stone (ch. 4), Hagrid does magic with a pink umbrella, and the pieces of his broken wand are inside it. He was expelled and forbidden to cast spells, but he keeps it and uses it to give Dudley a pig's tail. It is a very Hagrid way of obeying and disobeying at once.

And in Order of the Phoenix (ch. 20), he tells how he went to ask the giants for help on Dumbledore's orders. What he leaves out is what it cost: he came back covered in wounds, with a half-brother who barely speaks and whom he has to teach how to behave.

Do you protect those nobody else protects? Take the house quiz, or read Gryffindor House Explained: What Nobody Tells You.