Despite being named by its protagonist, Harry Potter is a series defined by its supporting cast. The people around Harry are arguably more important than Harry himself, creating a larger scoped and more meaningful world with every line of dialogue they utter. How Harry perceives any given character naturally reflects not only on them and himself, but what it means to live in the Wizarding World. We see the magic of Hogwarts through Harry’s eyes, but it is only so magical because of not what he encounters, but who. This is seen n𒁃o better than with Harry’s first real magical companion, Hagrid.
The first real friend Harry makes in the series, Hagrid has had a major role since day one. He is the man who saves Harry from the Dursleys, takes Harry to Hog🧸warts, and shows to him that there is more to life than a cupboard in dreary old Privet Lane. Harry’s life is bolstered through meeting Hagrid, and so are the lives of the readers. It certainly helps that Hagrid is quite th𒆙e interesting character. While he’s never quite as front and center as, say, Dumbledore, Rowling actively develops him up until the very end, making Hagrid one of the more fascinating characters to learn about.
25 ꦇ Hagridও Doesn’t Know Cursive
Rarely does a series actually comment on the handwriting of its characters.💜 So rare, in fact, the books never actua🅺lly bothered mentioning this fact in regards to Hagrid. Rather, it’s the movies that indicate that Hagrid doesn’t know cursive. To be fair, cursive itself has been fading away in recent years, but a man Hagrid’s age probably should know it.
Evidence to Hagrid’s cursiveless abilities come from his official signature which can b﷽e found on both the main wiki and Pottermore. In place of a fancy signature you’d see from Dumbledore, Hagrid simply spells his name how a child one. It makes sense, though. He did get expelled when he was 13 years old, after all.
24 The Films Suggest Hagrid Is Illiterate ꦫ
At no point in the books is it ever indicated that Hagrid is illiterate. As far as we can tell, Hagrid is just a regular person who can read and write. You know, like a man in his fifties would✃. The movies paint a very differ𝕴ent picture, though. From as early as the first film, it’s heavily implied that Hagrid has some illiteracy issues.
Spelling's not his strong suit.
Specifically, he doesn’t know how to spell “happy” on Harry’s cake and instead spells it “happee.” It’s… not a great s🍷how of character on his part. Silly? Absolutely, but not totally accurate. In many respects, it makes Hagrid out to be stupid which any big enough fan would be able to tell you simply isn’t the case.
23 Hagrid’s Biggest Fear Is🅷 𓄧Voldemort
Boggarts can infer quite a lot about a chara♍cter. It’s an idea based off a universal truth: our fears define us. What we fear can spur us to grow or stunt us. The Boggart is a means of looking deep into a character’s psyching and analyzing, in-text, where their mind goes at their da🌄rkest place.
Perhaps fittingly, Hagrid’s Boggart manifests itself into none other than the dark lord himself, Voldemort. Given the history the two characters share, (which we’ll touch upon later,) and how Voldemort has more or less torn Hagrid’s friend group apart over the years, it’s only fitting Hagrid fear him so int🦹ensely.
22 𝓀 Hagrid Does Not Have A Pat༒ronus
On the other end of the Boggart spectrum, we have the Patronus. Essentially the spirit animals of the Wizard World, your Patronus is a manifestation of yourself atꦑ its most pure state. What your Patronus appears as says more about you than a Boggart as it is a reflection of everything you hold deep inside you.
Not everyone needs a spirit animal.
Not everyone is competent enough a wizard to have a Patronus, though. With no 🐠formal training past his third year, Hagrid naturally lacks a Patronus. He’s not the only named character in the series to lack a Patronus, but he is arguably the most important character who exp𒀰licitly lacks a Patronus and cannot manifest one.
21 ♐ ☂ Hagrid Actually Doesn't Eat Enough
Hagrid is a massive man. Or so the books lead us to believe. While his canonical height of over 11 feet certainly paints the portrait of a ludicrously larger than life man, JK Rowling perhaps did not put nearly en🗹ough thought into his weight. Where Hagrid’s canonical height is over 11 feet, his canonical weight doesn’t even touch 290 pounds.
As a result, Hagrid is ferociously underweight. With a BMI of roughly 10, Hagrid should be 𝓰an 11 foot tall twig with no muscle mass or internal organs. For Hagrid to be a healthy man, he should be over 400 pounds. But he’s not. He’s not even 300. It’s a miracle he’s even alive considering his body mass index.
20 Hagrid Is The Only Major Character To ⭕Be Expelled
Despite the fac🍌t that Hagrid’s expulsion is mentioned is mentioned fairly early in the series, it almost seems as though Rowling is setting up the idea that another character would be expelled. After all, isn’t it just a natural writing technique to knock two birds with one stone? Develop a character and f𝄹oreshadow the plot.
Hagrid's life really is not all that great.
That said, Hagrid’s expulsion is very much just a means of establishing how awful Tom Ridd🧸le is. As a result, Hagrid ends up the only major character to get expelled over the course of the se🌄ries. Not even just the course of the series, though, but in general. No one else suffers as bad a fate as Hagrid.
19 Hagrid Is A Sava⛎nt At Non-Verbal Magic
Hagrid is quite the interesting character. Despite never finishing his formal training at Hogwarts, and completely lacking a traditional wand, he can still pull off the occasional feat 🦄of magic. His umbrella may or may not work as a replacement for his wand, but that doesn’t change the fact that, more than once in the series, Hagrid actually uses non-verbal magic, an incredibly impressive feat that even the most competent wizards fail to consistently pull off. For Hagrid to pull off non-verbal magic is quite the big deal.
18 💜 Hagr♏id Is The Physically Strongest Main Character In The Series
While there are stronger characters in the series (hello every single gian𓂃t,) Hagrid is easily the strongest of the main character. Despite his weight discrepancies, Hagrid could pretty much throttle anyone in his path if he chose to do so. Of course, he’s a gentle giant so he does not choose to do so, but that doesn’t really diminish his strength. Had Hagrid finished his schooling at Hogwarts, he would not only be quite the impressive wizard, but he’d also be able to overpower any threats through sheer force of strength. Maybe it’s for the best he was expelled...
17 🔴 Hagrid Can’t Fly Broomsticks
As Hagrid never finished his Hogwarts schooling past its third year, he’s missing out on quite a few important wizarding skills. Interestingly, while broom෴ riding isn’t something all students will necessarily learn, it is implied that he did indeed try to learn the craft as Hagrid claims he can’t ride a broom because of his massive size. It does actually make a great deal of sense. Even though Hagrid inexplicably doesn’t weigh all that much more than an overweight person of an average height, he does have an incredibly long body. In turn, it would be far too difficult for him to properly balance on a b🎃roomstick.
16 The✃ Story Begins And Ends With Hagrid Carrying Harry
Before you finish typing that comment stating that the story ends not with Hagrid carrying Harry’s body, but with the ever-controversial epilogue, let’s analyze what the “story” of Harry Potter is. At its core, it is the ♊life of Harry Potter and how it intertwines with Voldemort’s. At the climax of the series, Harry seemingly loses his life.
It begins and ends with a man carrying a boy.
The story begins in proper with Hagrid carrying a baby Harry to the Dursley’s doorstep. That is the ⛎inception of the mythos. The true mythology of the narrative ends not with the epilogue, but with history repeating itself as Harry carries a seemingly deceased Harry away from the battlefield. From🍎 there, fate can be broken and Harry can end the story that tied him to Tom Riddle.