Hagrid

Rubeus Hagrid (born December 6, 1928), familiarly known by only his surname, "Hagrid," is the gamekeeper for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and also the Care of Magical Creatures professor. He is a passionate supporter of Albus Dumbledore, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and also a friend of Harry Potter. He is one of the first characters to imply that the idea of thinking of wizards and witches as "pure-bloods" and "half-bloods" is a dated concept, as a half-human half-giant he faces the very same kind of prejudices.

Hagrid is of mixed human and giant parentage, his mother is the giantess Fridwulfa and his father was a tiny wizard. When Hagrid was about three his mother left him and his father. Hagrid could pick up and carry his father by the age of six. Since giants have a reputation for being horribly brutal, and were once allies of Lord Voldemort, Hagrid keeps his parentage secret and allows people to imagine other reasons for his great size. But once, blinded by love, he revealed his secret to Madame Maxime, who though a Half-giantess herself, hid the fact by saying that she had big bones. At this time, Rita Skeeter (illegally), Harry Potter and Ron Weasley (hiding behind a bush), overheard him.

Hagrid started at Hogwarts in 1940 and was sorted into Gryffindor. During Hagrid's second year his father died. During his third year, he kept a pet Acromantula, naming the creature Aragog. During this year, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, resulting in the death of one student. Tom Marvolo Riddle, who was a prefect at the time, found Hagrid with Aragog and put the blame of the mysterious death to fall on the innocent half-giant (even though Riddle himself was the guilty person). He also accused Hagrid of raising werewolf cubs under his bed. Hagrid protected Aragog, helping him flee to the Forbidden Forest, but was shortly thereafter expelled from Hogwarts. Following his expulsion, the Ministry of Magic forbade Hagrid to practice magic and destroyed his wand. Albus Dumbledore nonetheless convinced the Headmaster, Armando Dippet, to give Hagrid the job of grounds keeper, including the magical creatures residing there. Hagrid subsequently reconstructed and continued to use his wand by incorporating it into an inconspicuous pink umbrella. It is also possible that Dumbledore reconstructed his wand via the Elder Wand as Harry Potter does to his broken wand.

Sometime after being expelled from Hogwarts, Hagrid joined the Order of the Phoenix and helped Dumbledore on important missions. During the First Wizarding War, Hagrid rescued Harry from his parents' house, after Lord Voldemort killed both James and Lily Potter in 1981 when Harry was one year old. Using Sirius Black's motorcycle he brought Harry to Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall and then brought him to Harry's only remaining family - the Dursleys.

Once Harry was accepted into Hogwarts, Hagrid was given the task of locating Harry, as Vernon Dursley continually attempted to intercept and destroy Harry's school acceptance letters. On Harry's eleventh birthday, he found Harry on the Hut-on-the-Rock and forced the Dursleys to allow Harry to go to Hogwarts. This included having Harry's cousin, Dudley grow a pig tail. In addition, he brought Harry a birthday cake - something he had never had before. Once it was decided that Harry would be attending Hogwarts, he helped Harry to find his bearings in the magical world by taking him to the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley to buy his school necessities. While in Diagon Alley, Harry and Hagrid went to Gringotts Wizarding Bank in order to withdraw money for Harry and to attend to other small errand. Hagrid was, in actual fact, retrieving the Philosopher's Stone from a high-security vault and taking it back to Hogwarts for safe keeping. In addition, Hagrid purchased Hedwig, a snowy white owl, for Harry's eleventh birthday.

Sometime in 1991, a hooded person (Quirinus Quirrell in disguise) got Hagrid drunk in the Hog's Head. Hagrid was given a dragon egg to elicit details about Fluffy, the three-headed dog Hagrid had lent to Dumbledore to help guard the Philosopher's Stone. Hagrid later assumed that Quirrell (in disguise) was a Dragon dealer. He again let slip, this time to Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, about how to calm Fluffy: one simply plays music and Fluffy would fall asleep. This allowed the trio to pursue the potential thief. Once the dragon egg hatched, Hagrid lovingly named the hatchling Norbert, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, convinced him to allow Norbert to be taken to a dragon sanctuary by friends of Ron's brother, Charlie, who worked with dragons.

In 1993 Hagrid was sent to the wizarding prison, Azkaban, when the Chamber of Secrets was reopened. It was assumed he was the one who reopened the Chamber because of the reason of his prior expulsion. He was later exonerated and released when the real culprit was found. He was able to help Harry and Ron in their quest to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets by telling them to "follow the spiders." This lead them to Aragog, the giant spider which Hagrid had kept as a pet while a student at Hogwarts and was blamed for the original attacks. After Harry killed the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, Hagrid came back in the same day at 3 o'clock in the morning, joining in the ongoing celebration of the closure of what had been a terrifying incident.

In the 1993-1994 school year, Hagrid became a professor of the Care of Magical Creatures. On the first day of class, while Hagrid was teaching his third year students about Hippogriffs. After explaining the proper way to greet a Hippogriff and choosing Harry to demonstrate, Draco Malfoy caused trouble by insulting Buckbeak, one of the Hippogriffs. Buckbeak attacked Draco, and the Ministry of Magic issued an order for Buckbeak's execution, much to Hagrid's dismay. Eventually, Harry and Hermione were able to save the hippogriff by going back in time by means of Hermione's Time-Turner.

During the 1994–1995 school year, the Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts. Hagrid was also tasked with helping Charlie Weasley and others to handle the dragons used during the first task of the tournament. Students from Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic attended Hogwarts starting in October and Hagrid was tasked with taking care of the Beauxbatons' Abraxans which drank only single malt whiskey and required a forceful handling. Throughout the year Hagrid and Olympe Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons and a half-giantess, had a budding romantic relationship including dancing during the Yule Ball. Hagrid confided in her his life story, revealing to her that he is a half-giant, assuming her to be one as well because of her massive size. She is offended by the insinuations that she is a half-giant and leaves him heartbroken.

Rita Skeeter, in her animagi beetle form, overheard Hagrid's confession and reported it in the Daily Prophet. This caused Hagrid to be embarrassed and do not wish to be Professor of the Care of Magical Creatures any longer. Professor Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank substituted for Hagrid during his absence from work. After the ordeal was over, Hagrid was convinced to come back and teach by Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. After the school year, Hagrid and Madame Maxime set out as an envoy to the giants in the north. They wished to keep the giants from joining Lord Voldemort's side in the coming war. Despite early promise , the mission was unsuccessful. About halfway through the school year Hagrid returned from his mission for Dumbledore with his half-brother, Grawp. In 1995, Dolores Umbridge was brought in as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Harry, Ron and Hermione formed the Dumbledore's Army in order to learn true defence against the Dark arts.

Hagrid resumed his teaching post, teaching the students about Thestrals. Despite their rather disgusting appearances, and the inability of most of the class to see them, Hermione found these lessons far more useful than Hagrid's typical lessons. Early in 1996, Professor Umbridge put Hagrid on probation after finding his lessons unsatisfactory to her standards. Her harsh judgement was due largely to her anti-Half-breed beliefs. The headmaster, Dumbledore was able to keep Umbridge from firing Hagrid altogether. However, once Dumbledore was forced to leave in order to shield Harry from punishment from Umbridge and the Ministry, Hagrid feared that he would be driven out by the new Headmistress Umbridge. In preparation for this, he introduced Harry, Ron and Hermione to Grawp. Grawp took an immediate liking to Hermione, whom he called "Hermy." Hagrid asked the trio to take care of Grawp in his absence. Hagrid was finally fired by Umbridge near the end of the school year. He didn't go quietly, however; before leaving, he got into a fight with her and several Ministry of Magic employees. Once Dumbledore was reinstated as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Hagrid was welcomed back to his post.

Hagrid found out that none of his sixth-year Gryffindor students chose to continue past their O.W.L. level of Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid misinterpreted this as the students not liking him, instead of his poorly taught classes. In the same year, Hagrid's once pet spider, Aragog, died and Hagrid was distraught. Hagrid, along with Harry and Horace Slughorn buried Aragog. Near the end of the school year, Death Eaters set his house on fire during the first battle of Hogwarts. He and Harry later put it out before it burned down. In the aftermath of Dumbledore's death, Hagrid was grief-stricken, having been his strongest supporter. Hagrid carried Dumbledore's body to be interred at his funeral. Later, Hagrid and Madame Maxime were seen comforting one another.

Hagrid was among the thirteen members of the Order of the Phoenix, led by Alastor Moody, to go to the Dursley house to move Harry Potter before his seventeenth birthday. The plan included having six of Harry's friends (Ron, Hermione, Fleur Delacour, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Mundungus Fletcher) taking the Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Harry to confuse the ambushed Death Eaters, with a Order of the Phoenix member protecting each of them. Hagrid was given the important task of protecting the real Harry as he rode with him in the sidecar of Sirius Black's old motorcycle. Arthur Weasley had helped Hagrid make several adjustments to the bike, including a button that produced dragon's fire, one that produced a net, and another that produced a solid wall, all behind the bike. He was able to keep the Death Eaters at bay, with the help of Harry's wandwork, but Lord Voldemort found him upon the discovery that Hagrid's Harry was the real one. In the struggle that followed, the motorcycle was torn apart and Hagrid had to dive from the bike at a Death Eater, falling a great distance to the ground. He survived however, as did Harry, successfully completing the task. Since Hagrid has a history of having trouble keeping secrets, evidently, Fleur Delacour, suspected Hagrid was the one who had unintentionally informed the Death Eaters of the plan to take him out of his aunt and uncle's house that day, although this was later revealed not to be the case.

During the summer of 1997, Hagrid was present at Harry's seventeenth birthday party. He gave him a mokeskin bag which will hold objects retrievable only by the owner. Hagrid also attended Bill Weasley's wedding with Fleur Delacour, accidentally sitting in the wrong spot (and destroying a number of chairs) before finding the correct place to sit.

Once back at Hogwarts, Hagrid continued his jobs of gamekeeper and teacher. He narrowly escaped arrest for holding a "Support Harry Potter" party in his hut by fleeing into the nearby mountains and going into hiding. He returned with Grawp for the Battle of Hogwarts, in which they fought. During the battle, he ran out onto the grounds and was surrounded by a swarm of giant spiders. He was taken as a captive by the Death Eaters. After Harry's apparent death at the Dark Lord's hands, Hagrid was forced to carry Harry back to the castle. Despite the situation, Hagrid rebuked Voldemort for Harry's death as they approached the castle and sobbed over the loss of Harry. When battle resumed, he threw Walden Macnair against the wall of the Great Hall (this may be due to the fact that he recognized him Buckbeak's would-be killer). Hagrid was among the first to approach and congratulate Harry after he killed Voldemort.

Little is known of Hagrid in the nineteen years after the Second Wizarding War. It is known that Hagrid is still working at Hogwarts at 88 years old, although it is unknown whether this is as a professor, gameskeeper or a previously unheld position. He invites Harry and Ginny's youngest son Albus to his hut for tea once he arrives at Hogwarts, just as he had done during Harry's first year. He remains unmarried.

- Harry Potter Wiki