Among the menagerie of characters and creatures presented to us in the Harry Potter series, one stands head, shoulders, knees, and toes above the rest,
Yes, I am talking about Rubeus Hagrid.
Hagrid is the most fascinating character, hands down, and does not get the credit he deserves from Potterheads crying over Snape (an unrepentant asshole), Dumbledore (a stupid old man who held way too much power for all the nonaction he took), or any of the other characters (besides George, goodnight sweet ginger prince).
Why you may ask, am I so fascinated with Hagrid? Good question. Let’s get into it.
Hagrid is a Rulebreaker
Hagrid does not care about the rules and I have the evidence.
- He kept the broken pieces of his wand and put them in a pink umbrella so he could still do magic.
- He gambled with perfect strangers in a seedy bar for a dragon’s egg.
- He smuggled Aragog into the castle as a second year.
- He flew a 16-month-old Harry over Britain in a flying motorbike.
Hagrid is a Pioneer
Hagrid is a pioneer of magi-zoology. Fight me about it.
Not only does he successfully take care of the magical creatures in and around his home, he has also made more inroads with other magical races than everyone else.
Magical race here is defined as a magical species with human or greater intellect and communication skills (Magical humans, goblins, Centaurs, Merfolk, House Elves, etc.).
Hagrid also created an entirely new magical species through crossbreeding! Read that again: Hagrid created Blast-Ended Skrewts, an entirely new magical creature, just because he could.
Hagrid has a third-year Wizarding education, his years as the Hogwarts Gamekeeper, and his own natural curiosity and skill and he managed to invent a new species. That is amazing! Especially in a society that still uses ink and quill, open flames for light, and the same general textbooks that Dumbledore used when he was a pimple-faced Gryffindor.
Yes, we now have the Fantastic Beasts movies to show us the splendor of magical creatures. Only…the producers and studio execs couldn’t just give us cool creatures and Eddy Redmayne. No, they had to add the Grindlewald subplot and turn the series, especially the second one, into Dumbledore apology porn.
Beyond that, I do not agree that every Ministry in the world decided to use thestral-driven carriages before Hagrid did. I call foul. Wizards are too ignorant to adore the lovable creatures like Hagrid did.
In conclusion…
Hagrid Is a BAMF
When your best friend is a 90+-year-old giant spider, you automatically get the BAMF award. In addition, he goes above and beyond every other magical in embracing and working with magical creatures.
Magical animal husbandry does exist, of course, we see this in the series. But how many of those magical care for the creatures with no regard for harvesting their magic for power or profit.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk!
