Harry Potter: 10 Reasons Why Harry & Hagrid Aren’t Real Friends

Hagrid and Harry Potter are considered one of the most important friendships in the Harry Potter franchise. Hagrid is one of the first people to introduce Harry to the magical world and is consistently there for him throughout, or is he?

This article takes a different position on the infamous relationship. What if Harry and Hagrid weren’t such good friends after all?

10 Hagrid Forced Harry To Take Care Of A Giant

After Hagrid brought back his half-brother, Grawp, and hid him away in the Forbidden Forest, he did the only thing he could think of before being carted off by Umbridge — he requested that Harry and Hermione take care of Grawp.

It’s one thing to ask someone to take care of your pet cat but it’s a whole different matter when it comes to a deadly giant. Grawp could have easily killed Harry, or Hermione, for that matter. Hagrid never should have brought him back to Hogwarts to begin with.

9 Harry Didn’t Help With Buckbeak’s Trial

In book three, Hagrid’s beloved Hippogriff, Buckbeak, had to be put on trial after attacking Malfoy (who provoked him). Hagrid had a chance to appeal to the courts to save Buckbeak and he needed a good defense.

Both Harry and Ron completely forgot about Hagrid’s issues at the time, which he forgave, but you would think that after everything Hagrid had done for Harry, he would have at least made an attempt. Instead, Hermione was left to do all the heavy lifting (as par for the course).

8 Hagrid Didn’t Help Harry With The Dursleys Much

It would have been nice if Hagrid had raised concerns about the Dursleys with Dumbledore. He knew firsthand how terrible Harry was treated by his aunt, uncle, and his cousin. Yes, Hagrid did threaten them and it helped Harry for a while, as the adult, you’d think he could have tried a little harder.

Plus, Hagrid didn’t even tell Harry how to get onto platform 9 3/4 the first time he ever tried to get on the Hogwarts Express. That was a valuable piece of intel to leave out.

7 Hagrid Asked Harry To Do Things That Could Have Gotten Him Expelled

Hagrid repeatedly asked Harry and his friends to do things that could have gotten him expelled from Hogwarts. In the first book alone, Hagrid smuggled in a dragon and asked Harry, Ron, and Hermione to keep it a secret.

Then, Harry and Hermione had to hide Norbert and bring him to the tower to be taken away for good. But that’s hardly the only thing, Grawp was another big one and there have been repeated incidences throughout the series.

6 Hagrid Is Bad At Secrets

Unfortunately, Hagrid is very bad at keeping secrets. Sometimes that works to the benefit of Harry and the trio but it can also backfire when Hagrid lets other things slip to enemies. He essentially walks the trio through every step to get to the Sorcerer’s Stone in the first book, which could have easily resulted in their deaths.

He also accidentally betrays Dumbeldore’s secrets from time to time. He’s trustworthy as a friend and loyal, but when it comes to keeping information under lock and key, he’s not the person you’d expect to keep his mouth shut.

5 Hagrid Often Put Harry In Harms Way

Speaking of Hagrid’s inability to keep secrets, he often puts Harry in harm’s way, either by revealing more information than he should or introducing his students to a deadly array of creatures.

How many times did he host a Care of Magical Creatures lesson only to have a student fearing for their life by the end of the session or getting grievously injured? Also, back to Grawp, he could have caused a lot of danger to Harry and Hermione. Even in Harry’s first year, Hagrid took him into the forest and he also sent Harry and Ron into an Acromantula nest.

4 Hagrid Never Told Harry Anything About Sirius

It would have been nice if Hagrid had talked to Harry about Sirius to at least give him a different perspective. He didn’t know Sirius well, but he met him long enough to get his motorbike.

Hagrid was easily led astray by the other adults in his life to believe that Sirius was a killer. Even if he did think he was a murderer, he still could have told Harry about his existence so he wouldn’t be so blindsided, especially when he was young and desperate for any news about his family.

3 Harry Didn’t Respect Hagrid As A Teacher

We’ve established that Hagrid wasn’t always the most diligent of teachers, or the safest, considering the type of creatures he exposed his students too regularly, but Harry also never seemed to respect Hagrid as a professor very much.

His internal monologue often revealed that he had doubts about Hagrid’s abilities and wasn’t always very respectful of him as his instructor.

2 One Fan Theory Suggests Hagrid Is A Death Eater

There is a popular and somewhat creepy theory that Hagrid was one of Voldemort’s best Death Eaters. After all, he did “accidentally” put Harry directly onto Voldemort’s path on more than one occasion.

The odds are very slim that the theory is true in any capacity but it’s fun to consider and see how it could potentially play into the series. He has regularly encouraged Harry to break school rules and at times, his personality is also inconsistent, potentially hinting at something sinister beneath the surface.

1 Harry Never Took Care Of Grawp

Even though Grawp was clearly a dangerous addition to the core Harry Potter characters and there’s no way Hagrid should have brought him back or expected two teenagers to take care of him, the fact remains that Harry made a promise to watch out for him and never really did.

Harry never made time to check in on Grawp, even just in passing. He had good reason to avoid him, but considering his supposed loyalty to Hagrid, one would think he might have made more of an effort.

About The Author

Madison Lennon
(211 Articles Published)

Horror Junkie. Blogger. Fiction Writer. The main things I care about in life can be found on a screen, film, television, video games, add horror into the mix and I’m in love. I write for several online sites and am currently working full-time as a freelance entertainment writer!

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