Hagrid & Bellatrix: To Be a Bottom Bitch

Hagrid is not as good as we all think he is. Yep, I'm saying it!

Now is Hagrid pure unadulterated evil? No. But as I was one of the people who believed that ONE of Harry and Ginny’s children should have been named after him (Ruby). I’m faltering slightly on that opinion after reminiscing over Hagrid’s life and deeds before and during VoldyV’s (Voldemort) crimes against humanity. His gentle giant charm aside, I am looking at him sideways due to the similarity of his actions and Bellatrix’s actions plus the lasting damage they caused. If I missed any lore/history, I am so sorry. I did my best to search and connect plot points to reasons that the characters are alike and/or suck.

Quick recap on Hagrid. He is a half-giant wizard. His mother was a giantess who abandoned him and his wizard father. All was fine as he seemingly had a happy life and was accepted into Hogwarts. With his seemingly misguided love of nature and its creatures, He was expelled from Hogwarts due to Tom Riddle aka VoldyV pinning the Chamber of Secrets Basilisk attack on Hagrid’s Aragog, an acromantula aka a big ass spider. Dumbledore having his suspicions and a 10-step ahead plan, made Hagrid a groundskeeper to Hogwarts with his broken wand in his umbrella. He always kept an eye on Tom Riddle afterwards. We all know how that turned out. Which leads to example one:

1)      Hagrid is the reason the Forbidden Forest became exponentially more dangerous due to the acromantula colony.

As mentioned before, Hagrid received, without much explanation, Aragog’s egg while still a child and a student of Hogwarts. He possibly did not know what it contained until it hatched but still hid and kept it. He isn’t the brightest because I don’t know how he was going to keep that pet OR bring it home since it kept growing and eventually became huge with an 18-foot leg span.

Due to the death of “Moaning Myrtle”, a muggle born student in 1943 and Tom Riddle’s discovery of Aragog all the pieces lined up to hide his evolvement, hide the chamber, allow him to come back at later time to “finish the job”. Hagrid was expelled. Aragog escaped to the Forbidden Forest. The Ministry of Magic and the school were happy that everything was “solved” and didn’t think to look for clues as for Salazar Slytherin’s heir and potentially a parseltongue has everything to do with snakes not spiders. But they were able to get rid of the “mixed unpure blood” from the school and away from access to magic.

Eventually he becomes a groundskeeper for Hogwarts and lives on the outskirts by Forbidden forest and the school. We do not know how public the knowledge is of Hagrid’s expulsion and “crime”. Has he been on the land and under Dumbledore’s will- I mean protection all of this time? Most likely that is so. Hagrid also found a female acromantula Mosag, to be a WIFE for Aragog. ONE big ass spider in the forest wasn’t enough. Now there is an entire colony bred, uncontrolled, and hard to get rid of due to danger level and skills needed located a forest near a school full of children. One of the MANY dangers outside and inside of Hogwarts. How he got either egg/spider is beyond me seeing as that item is classified as illegal and do not trade under the Ministry of Magic.

There is no connection or media detailing that he knew of or admired Newt Scamander. Any information about why Hagrid was the was he was or what else he did with his time outside of the main story would be appreciated. Why did he love magical creatures? Was he just less afraid due to his size and durability? He is just a minority coded character who is discriminated against, falsely criminalized, and works in a lower position in society due to his giant heritage and lack of education. Would Hagrid have kept up his obsession had he remained enrolled in Hogwarts? Is he the Neville Longbottom of his generation? Or would he have been expelled anyway because of Aragog? Aragog was only “loyal” and good to Hagrid due to him being raised and cared tenderly for. But his children and wife only listened to Aragog while he was alive about sparring Hagrid or  “friends of Hagrid” in Hagrid’s presence. Otherwise it was on sight, hot ‘n ready for suppertime.

Sidenote. I do believe Hagrid’s backstory was a retcon or just a bad coverup to why interspecies mixing did not occur more often or the only acceptable form was from veela and male humans. Other humanoid mythical creatures are merely mentioned like vampires but are not given any more information about. If Veela are only women how do they reproduce more pure Veela? She who shall not be named portrayal of goblins and house elves is abhorrent. It goes to show how nasty she is and how ridiculous wizards are at attempting to gatekeep “wand magic and the inhumane treatment of other species/races in pursuit of dominance. If Hagrid could perform magic “without a wand” but non-humans can, how would she explain them not using spells, whether or not they could attend/work at Hogwarts, or just their roles in “magic society”. Poorly, if detailed at all.

Any who! Now in the Forbidden Forest are centaurs, unicorns, werewolves, hippogriffs, thestrals, trolls, giants, acromantula and more oh me oh my! At this point I get why the centaurs did not want to give Hagrid a break. Did they know about Aragog this whole time??? Everything is VoldyV’s fault. What else did Hagrid bring in and out of the forest?

2)      Grawp, Hagrid’s Brother, another resident of the Forbidden Forest.

How Grawp, the full giant half-brother, came to be with Hagrid after also being kicked out of his tribe for being small, I don’t know. Also Fridwulfa, BITCH maybe it’s you who can’t have children to giant standards? Have you ever thought about that? We know what your FIRST man looked like.

At the most convenient time ever of Dumbledore leaving Hogwarts/going to Azkaban and then Hagrid being sent there soon (AGAIN) decided to tell his child friends if they could look after his half-brother while being monitored by a crazy cat lady and VoldyV’s clique being on the loose and after Harry. What was going to happen if the worst happened? And believe me things were starting to take a turn for the worst! Hagrid dies or the school becomes controlled by other evil entities? Thankfully Grawp was self sufficient but another thorn in the side of the residents of the Forbidden Forest. Grawp came in clutch by the end of Order of the Phoenix with his snatching of Umbridge and then the centaurs finishing the job. He had a very small role in the series from that point on. Onto another one of Hagrid’s great ideas.

3)      Lucius Malfoy was right; Draco Malfoy was wrong: About the hippogriffs.           

Dumbledore decided to give Hagrid a job after the previous Care of Magical Creatures professor retired with no prep or guide on how to teach children. On day one he brings a creature that demands respect in front of 13-year-olds. What could possibly go wrong? Draco Malfoy provoked it and got slashed a little bit. Hagrid chooses the hands-on approach versus teaching and reading about creatures to then show in person. Since a magizoologist/ magical creature related career is not too popular or respected as per Molly Weasley’s attitude with Charlie’s career choice and Newt Scamander’s whole debacle during the Fantastic Beasts series, this choice was always a bad idea. Sure we wanted Hagrid to have a normal life or access to things since we weren’t too privy to racism against giants and magic use by non-wizards/mudbloods but he did endanger those students.

Malfoy that little shit, deserved it but due to Lucius’ power and money went above and beyond to get justice for his son because of that “dangerous animal”. The odds themselves were unfair due to Lucius position in the Ministry, his money, adults not believing children and the lack of systems in place to successfully deal with magical creatures. The committee was mentioned during POA and Charlie deals with dragons but outside of wizard government and schooling, the Harry Potter verse doesn’t do a good job in showing more culture and practices from the Wizarding World outside of racism/classism. Our job opportunities that are not Hogwarts, the MoM, or writing at various publishing of communications. Thankfully, Harry and company did the thing and were able to save both Sirius and Buckbeak.

Hagrid knew he messed up because they studied worms and read outside the remainer of that year and they had a substitute teacher. Dumbledore did all he could to help as well as remind Hermione of her time turner and make sure Hagrid didn’t lose his home or likelihood. Just adding to the debts that Hagrid owes to Dumbledore in order have willing underlings to do his bidding across the board prior to VoldyV’s rise in the second wizarding world when he tried and succeeded in recruiting the giants.

4)      Hagrid is easily duped.

He can’t hold water. He is a great plot driver. Anytime the gang needs information they know they can let Hagrid drink himself stupid or he will accidentally slip up and have the trio loose trying to solve grown people’s problems. I wonder why Dumbledore still tells him ANYTHING. OR is that all apart of the plan for this child raised for slaughter. Dumbledore literally doesn’t start being forthcoming with Harry until OOP after Sirius’s death but even then he leads Harry blindly about the Horcruxes and doesn’t mention the fact that he himself IS ONE.

Speaking of Sirius, while he was innocent and was not proven until his death, Hagrid almost gave Harry to him the night Peter Pettigrew set up him and the Potters. Based on the way the plot was set up, Harry was physically better off but would have been better emotionally with Sirius. Hagrid’s awareness of his surroundings for multiple situations plus the ones not mentioned are highly lacking.

Professor Quirrell with VoldyV on the back of his head gambled a dragon egg to Hagrid in order to get to the sorcerer’s(philosopher’s) stone only wearing a hooded cloak for disguise. Hagrid not having forethought to who this covered stranger was or why he was asking about Hagrid about a three headed dog (FLUFFY!) that just so happens to be the first line of defense for the stone! But hey we got Norbert (actually Noberta), a developing friendship for the trio and we had a little cameo from Charlie. Fluffy’s origin is hilarious as well. He got him from a Greek man, let Dumbledore borrow him to protect the stone and then was going to release him to the Forbidden Forest. Thankfully, Dumbledore sent the dog back to be properly cared for but could you image one or more of three headed dogs and a colony of spiders?

The Good, the Bad, and the Bellatrix

Harry and company run on fumes of information to decipher what they are supposed to do, destroy, and finally finish off VoldyV with the help of Snape and others. Hagrid cared for Harry very deeply. He was emotionally supportive of Harry when other adults were not. To a degree, Harry did not reciprocate all of that respect and care. Consciously or not, Harry was embarrassed of and for Hagrid. He felt obligated to visit, speak to, and help Hagrid. If Hagrid knew what Dumbledore’s full plan for Harry was, would he have aided him? Or only worked for Harry’s protection? Harry and Hagrid had their “I open at the close” moment as Hagrid brought Harry to the Dursleys that fateful night to then carrying Harry’s “dead body” after VoldyV struck him down as per the plan.

This is an Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore hate page. I still love him a teeny bit. Honestly, he essentially did was Grindelwald’s plan was but the opposite and more covert without murder or the erasure of non-pure bloods. He did not fix those problems either, purposefully or not. He gained the elder wand. He gained power and respect within the institutions instead of destroying them to make his own world in “the greater good’s” image. He did not try to make himself the most important person or visually in charge of the entities. Dumbledore’s influence and the weight of his opinion to people was astounding. The Order of the Phoenix is like Grindelwald’s Alliance or VoldyV’s Death Eaters in purposefully assembling an army or underlings. Which leads to the most loyal of followers: Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bellatrix Lestrange is a pure blood supremacist and dark witch. Inheriting madness and supremacy values from her bloodline, she was an easy recruitment for VoldyV. She seemed to be in love with him or at the very least admire him intensely. Quiet as it is kept VoldyV WAS attractive back in the day and before the multiple Horcruxes. Did his appearance immediately turn inhuman or was it gradual? When it was mentioned his looks flashed monstrous versus consistently after his resurrection. He would have been mid 40s to early 50s during the First Wizarding War. He still should have been attractive then or at least during the Death Eater recruitment process. Why did we not get more information about the 1st Wizarding War aside from the prophecy or the ending with Harry’s involuntary involvement?

Despite her feelings or loyalty towards VoldyV, Bellatrix checked off all but one pure blood ideals and appropriate actions. She was accepted into Slytherin house at Hogwarts. She married a pure blood, Rodolphus. Her feelings towards muggles/muggle borns and upholding wizard supremacy among humans aligned with the Death Eaters, which she joined. She cut off blood traitors including family. She did not fulfill her only obligation for continuing the sacred 28 bloodline, she did not have children with her pureblood husband. I did not read nor do I consider The Cursed Child canon.  Bellatrix thrived in this environment continuing her torment of others evolving it to murder and torture under VoldyV’s name and goals.

It is unknown what exactly were her crimes and body count but it can be assumed with great certainty that it is HIGH and violent. Her most infamous deed that sent her to Azkaban was the torture and use of an unforgivable curse on Neville Longbottom’s parents, Fred and Alice. She used unforgivable curses as her bread and butter and would do anything to get information as seen at Malfoy Manor with Hermione. Since the pool to be respected or approved by Voldemort’s standards were very low and dwindling due to avoiding inbreeding and marrying muggle/muggleborns/lesser magical families, I would say her harm count is minimum at least 100 people killed or maimed including Tonks, Sirius, Dobby et plus.

Bellatrix is revered and rewarded for her efforts. She has VoldyV’s respect and status among the Death Eaters for never denouncing her master and continuing to do his bidding. Her love and devotion is not returned, however. Her opinions were not taken into consideration, like her distrust of Snape, by which she was right. She was trusted to do her job, his bidding, and nothing else. She was brushed off at any attempt of comfort or physical touch, which is why I don’t believe they were hunching at a time or if ever. He wanted longevity not lineage. VoldyV was paranoid, worried about gaining control, and his horcruxes being discovered and destroyed. All in all she died for her cause, was correct with her suspicions, and was briefly mourned by her master prior to his own demise. In her eyes, she was no doubt successful and proud of the damage she caused.

Hagrid is to Dumbledore as Bellatrix is to Voldemort.

Hagrid’s heart was always in the right place but his mind sure wasn’t. He was a good and successful minion to Dumbledore. He did not question Dumbledore. He would not let anyone slander his name in his presence. Anything Dumbledore needed Hagrid would jump and obey without question. He almost went to Azkaban again for Dumbledore in OOP due to his leaving for giant missions. Was he so even so much a friend as much as a buddy to drink in front? Hagrid’s near blind faith in Dumbledore is also not reciprocated. However, he reaped more benefits than Bellatrix. As not to beat a dead horse, I’ll describe those qualities that have him resemble Bellatrix.

Hagrid was the go-to errand boy compared to Snape being a complete double agent. In the beginning he got Harry to and from the Dursleys. He picked up the sorcerer’s (philosopher’s) stone from Gringotts’s Bank. Whatever information Dumbledore was comfortable Harry hearing, he received. “Ah shouldn’ve said tha’,”  As it grew closer and closer to Harry’s “Kill by” date, Hagrid usefulness shifted to using his identity and allegiance to Dumbledore to get the favor of the Giants. Eventually his place in wizard society nearly ended as all members of Order of the Phoenix and other “traitors” had to go into hiding or stay quiet as VoldyV took over Britain. Harry’s involvement and responsibility increased until he was doing Dumbledore’s orders on his own with the help of the trio only. Hagrid’s final transport of Harry led to the demise of VoldyV.

Ironically, Hagrid is like the Tony Stark of the Wizarding World as a weapons smuggler and avenger. What could I possibly mean by that? While Hagrid only had limited magic due to a broken wand and little education, he could only do so much. He is not a genius or prodigy like Hermione. But all of Hagrid’s “toys” have come in clutch at some point in time for the plot, defense, or saving someone. As much as Hagrid put others in danger, his creatures bulked up defense. Entering the Forbidden Forest and exiting unscathed would require skill, knowledge, and luck. Much like Tony’s actions lead to the Skovia Accords and solved problems they caused.

Noberta allowed Harry to use his invisibility cloak, meet Charlie, and introduce Harry to dragons which would show in Goble of Fire. Fluffy was the first guard of the stone and first instance of many of retrieving information from a tipsy or blabbering Hagrid. Aragog was the sole witness to Hagrid’s false crimes and discovering what Hermione’s pipes note meant. The acromentula is the best unintentional defense one could ask for to inhabit the surrounding forest of the school in case any one would want to sneak through physically instead of apparating as close to the school as possible. Aragog’s final good deed was his venom aided Harry in getting the correct memory from Slughorn.  Buckbeak and hippogriffs are majestic creatures. Buckbeak protected and helped Sirius and Harry fiercely as well as be transportation. Hagrid helped Harry cheat in the Tri Wizard Tournament due to his groundskeeper job by showing him the dragons. His creatures were showcased in the tournament in the final round. Lastly his brother Grawp was semi domesticated enough to be of service to Hagrid and reside in the forest.

While Dumbledore didn’t explicitly say anything about equality or advocate for the better treatment of nonwizard or half-blood magical beings, like Hermione with S.P.E.W., he treated everyone with dignity based on how he acted or spoke to them. House elves refused to get paid for their work, only Dobby was paid.  After losing his sister, Ariana, due to his beliefs and ex-boyfriend, he changed his mind on what the greater good was to him. By his talent, rise in society due to his achievements, and stopping Grindelwald, people looked towards him as a beacon of hope and strong member of the wizarding world. When dangers or concerns came about people had more expectations from Dumbledore than the Minister for Magic. He incurred loyalty, a following, and admiration worldwide.  Whether he knew if he had much use for Hagrid at the time, it is unsure, but from Hagrid he received blind loyalty.

As Dumbledore used his influence to fight for Hagrid’s position and livelihood he created a debt that cannot be repaid. As a half-giant, Hagrid was consistently undermined and his position threatened at Hogwarts due to racists reacting to his presence, pinning crimes onto him or overreacting to his actions/mistakes. Not to kick him while he is down but was it always overreactions? In Hagrid’s mind could he have been insecure that if he defied Dumbledore he would be removed from Hogwarts or worse lose a “friend”.

In what could be another separate piece: Could one correlate VoldyV’s presence or activeness to Hagrid’s shenanigans/near homeness. I.E., being close to in age and proximity to each other’s energies or plans lead to Hagrid’s ability to be in society and have a means to live. Four Horcruxes(Harry, Diadem of Ravenclaw, Gaunt Ring, & Tom’s Diary) entered/remained on Hogwarts grounds at different locations and different times over the course of Harry’s school years. He tied his fate to Hagrid’s when he framed him for the murder of Moaning Myrtle just like when VoldyV went after the Potters. Also I wish we knew how a horcrux or splitting the soul is done. Allegedly it is horrible and she only told like one person, her editor. Like it couldn’t be reminiscent to Buffalo Bill or necrophilia??? I don’t know.

To wrap up this long theory rant, I believe Hagrid knowingly or not has between 20 to 60 or more injuries/deaths due to his connections with creatures and the Forbidden Forest. While he was intentional with his obedience to Dumbledore, Hagrid was careless when it came to the care and maintenance of magical creatures unlike Newt Scamander. Hagrid intentionally or not made himself  and the grounds more dangerous due to his arsenal of creatures he bred and surrounded himself and others at Hogwarts with. His Death Eater equivalent is Bellatrix Lestrange due to their levels of commitment, danger, and usefulness to their masters. Truly they were the bottom bitches one could ask for, like Dumbledore or VoldyV.