Harry Potter: Dumbledore Is Responsible For Hogwarts’ Most Bitter Character

Argus Filch (David Bradley) was Hogwarts’ most bitter character in the Harry Potter movies, and Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) was directly responsible for it. Filch was Hogwarts’ caretaker, but he was also a squib – a Muggle born from wizard parents (which may possibly be the case of Jacob Kowalski from Fantastic Beasts as well). Decades of being around wizard students who reminded him of his inability to produce magic made Filch a bitter man who enjoyed punishing students, almost as revenge for his shortcomings.

Dumbledore hired Filch as the Hogwarts caretaker, back in 1968. By the late 1970s, Filch had already filled at least one thousand and fifty-six boxes with punishment records. Many of these detentions were given to James Potter and Sirius Black, sometimes accompanied by Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew’s names as well. It was also Filch who confiscated the Marauder’s Map from James in the 1977-1978 school year – Filch had made it his mission to punish James Potter. By Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Filch transfers this resentment over to James’ son, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe).

By the time Harry Potter becomes a student at Hogwarts, Filch shows a sadistic enjoyment in punishing children breaking school rules, sometimes begging Dumbledore to let him hang students by their ankles. This asks a few questions about Dumbledore: the headmaster knew Filch was a squib, and he observed Filch’s extremely unpleasant behavior with the school’s students throughout decades. Why did he keep Filch around for so long? Dumbledore was a great wizard and a kind man who always valued gentleness over bitter resentment. Even with Filch’s extensive knowledge of Hogwarts’ secret passages and forbidden corridors, it makes no sense that Dumbledore would let someone punish his students so severely. Moreover, Dumbledore knew Filch was a squib when he hired him – while this job offered Filch shelter and protection, Dumbledore must have known being a squib among wizards could make Filch bitter and resentful.

Although Filch made all Hogwarts students his enemies, it’s Peeves the Poltergeist that was his archnemesis throughout his time at Hogwarts (which arguably continued even after the Battle of Hogwarts). Peeves exposes Filch’s controlling and paranoid behavior by taunting him to go after students for petty (or even fabricated) reasons. Filch blames students for Peeves’ chaos, and he blames Peeves for students’ mistakes (“You’ve gone and stolen a Triwizard clue, Peeves… Dumbledore’ll have you out of here for this, you filthy, pilfering poltergeist”). This shows precisely the constantly distraught state of mind Filch is in, something that Dumbledore surely notices.

Even Hogwarts’ students were fully aware of Filch’s bitterness coming from his inability to produce magic as a Muggle. When Ron finds his Kwikspell letter, he realizes: “If Filch’s trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, I reckon he must be a Squib. It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much. He’s bitter.” Aunt Muriel perhaps summarizes it best when she says it would have been kinder to try and integrate Filch into Muggle society. She was probably right: Argus Filch was never happy at Hogwarts, and he let his bitterness pour over thousands of students. It’s thus surprising that Dumbledore never offers Filch an exit – or a job outside the realms of witnessing magic all day – as the Hogwarts caretaker spends all his time in the Harry Potter series hating students and punishing them for his ongoing frustration.

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