Hagrid's Bio for After Survivor
HP Lexicon is the best source of canon data that I've heard of Hagrid's data.
Info and book quotes are here.
My Hagrid is a simple man with complex motivations. He's self-effacing and honestly sees most wizards and witches, even his own students as much greater and better than he is because he's lived with the horrible reality of being a half-giant in a bigoted human wizard society since his world collapsed at the age of 13. It was at that time that he, Tom Riddle, and Minerva McGonagall were all Hogwarts students and Albus Dumbledore was the Trangsfiguration Professor. Hagrid was falsely accused, convicted, and punished for a manslaughter he had nothing to do with. He knew he was innocent. Albus was also convinced of it. Yet he suffered for 50 years before he was cleared and vindicated. His outlook is shaped by this occurrence in his youth. He missed out on his Hogwarts education, on forming the bonds of friendship with his Gryffindor housemates and schoolmates, and on becoming a respected member of wizarding society; although Minerva must have taken Dumbledore's lead and treated him kindly.
Hagrid's Gryffindor bravery shows itself in his utter lack of fear when it comes to magical creatures. Due to his giant blood he's impervious to a lot of spells as well as physical damage that would stop cold or even kill a lesser being. It's easy to imagine him wading into any fight no matter how dangerous, or how overwhelming the odds.
His weaknesses are drinking, gambling, and gossiping. He tends to take people at face value, like he would an animal, trusting until that trust is proved misplaced, which almost always happens too late. He approaches strangers as well as friends like he would an animal, full of confidence and smiles and sweet words, hoping to calm and reassure. Unfortunately, his size and strength often work against him and inspire fear. He's pretty much of a loner due to circumstances rather than preference. He's really quite sociable and has found acceptance in most of the pubs in wizarding UK. Thus the drinking and card games.
He is the logical choice for the Order's ambassador to the giants. His first trip with Olympe was an exciting adventure, but now it just depresses him horribly because there are so few giants left and it just stirs up bad memories of his childhood. The HP Lexicon mentions Hagrid as a member of the Order, offering his mission to the giants. He doesn't attend any meetings at 12 Grimmauld Place, but he was the one to bring baby Harry from the ruins at Godric's Hollow. Dumbledore trusts his loyalty though perhaps not his discretion. I see Hagrid as a gofer for the Order. Trusted with errands but not burdened with secrets.
He can be assumed to have had a liaison with Madam Maxime after the GoF, but then we don't hear much of her in OotP. I'm a slasher, so in my universe, he and Olympe had a falling out, probably due to her being of such a high station and living so far away. My Hagrid is bi. He mostly just wants love and sees it as a rare and precious thing. As my Hagrid joins the game (9/2/04) he is very depressed about the break up with Olympe and lonely for any sort of companionship, not daring to hope to find a lover.
Hagrid has a special hatred for MacNair because he nearly killed Buckbeak. He holds a special fear of Lucius Malfoy because of the strings he has pulled at the Ministry against Hagrid, getting him sent to Azkaban over the CoS affair, which brought up all the 50 year old memories of being falsely accused over the same things, having his wand broken, etc. The thought of Voldemort simply unmans him, probably the only thing to do so, because he's seen the evolution from Tom Riddle to Voldemort, been intimately aware of his evil since day one, and like bad horror flick, he just keeps coming back..
Physically, yes he's huge and referred to as fat, but I see him more as a big linebacker, just an impossibly huge man, but in proportion. In order to facilitate romance - I posit that his cock, while impressive, isn't that much bigger than the 2% of the normal human males who have huge dicks. And thus, he can have sex with normal sized people. Hagrid, my friends, is a size queen's wet dream!!!
There once was a giant from Nantucket
So big, he drank from a bucket
His schlong was so strong
It bonged the school gong
And everyone, they had to duck it.
On the Giants from OotP:
20-25 feet tall
80 left summer after GoF
Gurg is the chief, the biggest and ugliest and laziest
Hold the gift high and keep your eye on the Gurg
Giants like magic but absolutely hate having it used against them.
"A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings."
Olympe saved Hagrid with the conjunctivitus curse.
Polish border and then Minsk are the last places mentioned before they get to the giants' hideaway. (So the mountains could be in Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, or Russia. I've assumed the mountains are outside Minsk, for ease.)
Here's what the Lexicon has on Giants:
The race of Giants now lives mostly in remote mountain areas, but there was a time when they were a force to be reckoned with in the Wizarding World. The Giants allied themselves with Voldemort in the 1970s and were responsible for many of the worst incidents of killing and torturing, especially of Muggles. A great many of the Giants were killed by Aurors and the rest fled.
Hagrid's mother was a Giant named Fridwulfa (GF). Olympe Maxime is also part Giant.
Famous vicious giant: Hengist of Upper Barnton (fw26)
Full-blooded giants are about twenty feet tall. (GF24)
Gifford Ollerton, who lived in the 1400s, was a famous giant-slayer.(fw26)
Interesting fact:
Like Rowling, Hagrid does not like cats.
EDIT:
Hagrid's Expertise
Magical Creatures. This is Hagrid's life's passion, his calling. He was dealing with an acromantula (Aragog) very successfully at the age of 13. Acromantulas have the MOM classification of XXXXX which means "known wizard killer/impossible to train or domesticate". As such, it's quite logical that Hagrid trusts his own knowledge and experience about magical creatures over that of the Ministry, or anyone else. He's been dealing with magical creatures for about 60 years. He is expert in this field and if anyone asks him about a creature, he will have something authoritative to say. If the creature in question is dangerous, he will become intensely curious about it and want to see it and have one of his own. Magical creatures are his life, dangerous magical creatures are his passion. He's also the resident expert on the Forbidden Forest, having lived in its shadow and walked its paths for 60 years.
The Oaf
In the books and movies, Hagrid gives an impression of a lovable bumbling oaf who can't even say the name Voldemort, who gets a student hurt by a hippogriff, who had his wand broken at age 13. Under this veneer of clumsiness and incompetence, I submit that he is actually extremely nimble and knowledgeable. He's big as a house and yet moves comfortably through a world where every last thing is sized too small for him. He constantly reins in his strength and has to be conscious of his size. As for the Draco incident, he had just instructed the students in the proper way to handle a hippogriff in a Care of Magical Creatures class. Draco is a smart kid, yet he did the exact opposite of Hagrid's instructions. So who is actually clumsy and incompetent?
His habit of spilling secrets comes from his an inability to dodge confrontation. He deals with animals with forthrightness. They see exactly what they get., they can't be fooled, so he doesn't even try. With humans he has to practice subterfuge and think much more about the consequences of his actions. With animals consequences are immediate and mostly irrevocable. With humans consequences may take years to manifest. Hagrid feels more comfortable with the animal way of doing things.
Playing the Hagrid's character, I have Fantastic Beasts by the computer (as well as all JKR's books!) and if a creature isn't in there, I'll make something up, drawing on my own experience with animals as well as my slant toward Eastern mysticism and Western paganism.
Info and book quotes are here.
My Hagrid is a simple man with complex motivations. He's self-effacing and honestly sees most wizards and witches, even his own students as much greater and better than he is because he's lived with the horrible reality of being a half-giant in a bigoted human wizard society since his world collapsed at the age of 13. It was at that time that he, Tom Riddle, and Minerva McGonagall were all Hogwarts students and Albus Dumbledore was the Trangsfiguration Professor. Hagrid was falsely accused, convicted, and punished for a manslaughter he had nothing to do with. He knew he was innocent. Albus was also convinced of it. Yet he suffered for 50 years before he was cleared and vindicated. His outlook is shaped by this occurrence in his youth. He missed out on his Hogwarts education, on forming the bonds of friendship with his Gryffindor housemates and schoolmates, and on becoming a respected member of wizarding society; although Minerva must have taken Dumbledore's lead and treated him kindly.
Hagrid's Gryffindor bravery shows itself in his utter lack of fear when it comes to magical creatures. Due to his giant blood he's impervious to a lot of spells as well as physical damage that would stop cold or even kill a lesser being. It's easy to imagine him wading into any fight no matter how dangerous, or how overwhelming the odds.
His weaknesses are drinking, gambling, and gossiping. He tends to take people at face value, like he would an animal, trusting until that trust is proved misplaced, which almost always happens too late. He approaches strangers as well as friends like he would an animal, full of confidence and smiles and sweet words, hoping to calm and reassure. Unfortunately, his size and strength often work against him and inspire fear. He's pretty much of a loner due to circumstances rather than preference. He's really quite sociable and has found acceptance in most of the pubs in wizarding UK. Thus the drinking and card games.
He is the logical choice for the Order's ambassador to the giants. His first trip with Olympe was an exciting adventure, but now it just depresses him horribly because there are so few giants left and it just stirs up bad memories of his childhood. The HP Lexicon mentions Hagrid as a member of the Order, offering his mission to the giants. He doesn't attend any meetings at 12 Grimmauld Place, but he was the one to bring baby Harry from the ruins at Godric's Hollow. Dumbledore trusts his loyalty though perhaps not his discretion. I see Hagrid as a gofer for the Order. Trusted with errands but not burdened with secrets.
He can be assumed to have had a liaison with Madam Maxime after the GoF, but then we don't hear much of her in OotP. I'm a slasher, so in my universe, he and Olympe had a falling out, probably due to her being of such a high station and living so far away. My Hagrid is bi. He mostly just wants love and sees it as a rare and precious thing. As my Hagrid joins the game (9/2/04) he is very depressed about the break up with Olympe and lonely for any sort of companionship, not daring to hope to find a lover.
Hagrid has a special hatred for MacNair because he nearly killed Buckbeak. He holds a special fear of Lucius Malfoy because of the strings he has pulled at the Ministry against Hagrid, getting him sent to Azkaban over the CoS affair, which brought up all the 50 year old memories of being falsely accused over the same things, having his wand broken, etc. The thought of Voldemort simply unmans him, probably the only thing to do so, because he's seen the evolution from Tom Riddle to Voldemort, been intimately aware of his evil since day one, and like bad horror flick, he just keeps coming back..
Physically, yes he's huge and referred to as fat, but I see him more as a big linebacker, just an impossibly huge man, but in proportion. In order to facilitate romance - I posit that his cock, while impressive, isn't that much bigger than the 2% of the normal human males who have huge dicks. And thus, he can have sex with normal sized people. Hagrid, my friends, is a size queen's wet dream!!!
There once was a giant from Nantucket
So big, he drank from a bucket
His schlong was so strong
It bonged the school gong
And everyone, they had to duck it.
On the Giants from OotP:
20-25 feet tall
80 left summer after GoF
Gurg is the chief, the biggest and ugliest and laziest
Hold the gift high and keep your eye on the Gurg
Giants like magic but absolutely hate having it used against them.
"A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings."
Olympe saved Hagrid with the conjunctivitus curse.
Polish border and then Minsk are the last places mentioned before they get to the giants' hideaway. (So the mountains could be in Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, or Russia. I've assumed the mountains are outside Minsk, for ease.)
Here's what the Lexicon has on Giants:
The race of Giants now lives mostly in remote mountain areas, but there was a time when they were a force to be reckoned with in the Wizarding World. The Giants allied themselves with Voldemort in the 1970s and were responsible for many of the worst incidents of killing and torturing, especially of Muggles. A great many of the Giants were killed by Aurors and the rest fled.
Hagrid's mother was a Giant named Fridwulfa (GF). Olympe Maxime is also part Giant.
Famous vicious giant: Hengist of Upper Barnton (fw26)
Full-blooded giants are about twenty feet tall. (GF24)
Gifford Ollerton, who lived in the 1400s, was a famous giant-slayer.(fw26)
Interesting fact:
Like Rowling, Hagrid does not like cats.
EDIT:
Hagrid's Expertise
Magical Creatures. This is Hagrid's life's passion, his calling. He was dealing with an acromantula (Aragog) very successfully at the age of 13. Acromantulas have the MOM classification of XXXXX which means "known wizard killer/impossible to train or domesticate". As such, it's quite logical that Hagrid trusts his own knowledge and experience about magical creatures over that of the Ministry, or anyone else. He's been dealing with magical creatures for about 60 years. He is expert in this field and if anyone asks him about a creature, he will have something authoritative to say. If the creature in question is dangerous, he will become intensely curious about it and want to see it and have one of his own. Magical creatures are his life, dangerous magical creatures are his passion. He's also the resident expert on the Forbidden Forest, having lived in its shadow and walked its paths for 60 years.
The Oaf
In the books and movies, Hagrid gives an impression of a lovable bumbling oaf who can't even say the name Voldemort, who gets a student hurt by a hippogriff, who had his wand broken at age 13. Under this veneer of clumsiness and incompetence, I submit that he is actually extremely nimble and knowledgeable. He's big as a house and yet moves comfortably through a world where every last thing is sized too small for him. He constantly reins in his strength and has to be conscious of his size. As for the Draco incident, he had just instructed the students in the proper way to handle a hippogriff in a Care of Magical Creatures class. Draco is a smart kid, yet he did the exact opposite of Hagrid's instructions. So who is actually clumsy and incompetent?
His habit of spilling secrets comes from his an inability to dodge confrontation. He deals with animals with forthrightness. They see exactly what they get., they can't be fooled, so he doesn't even try. With humans he has to practice subterfuge and think much more about the consequences of his actions. With animals consequences are immediate and mostly irrevocable. With humans consequences may take years to manifest. Hagrid feels more comfortable with the animal way of doing things.
Playing the Hagrid's character, I have Fantastic Beasts by the computer (as well as all JKR's books!) and if a creature isn't in there, I'll make something up, drawing on my own experience with animals as well as my slant toward Eastern mysticism and Western paganism.