Reading the Same Book as a Different Person: Hagrid

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

I've read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone many times in my life.

And for most of that time, Hagrid was Hagrid.

The giant guy with the beard. The funny one who can't keep a secret. The guy who thinks a three-headed dog is adorable and that raising a dragon in a wooden hut is a perfectly reasonable idea.

I always loved Hagrid.

But reading the book again as an adult, I realized I don't think I ever really understood him.

Because underneath everything that makes Hagrid such a wonderfully novel character is someone who quietly becomes one of the most important people in Harry's life.

And this time through, I found myself relating to him more than anyone else in the book.

A Mountain of a Man

Hagrid is built like a mountain.

But rereading the book as an adult, I realized he functions like one too.

He's enormous. Reassuring. Unmovable.

And seemingly always there.

Think about Harry's life before Hagrid arrives.

Every adult who is supposed to care for him has failed him. He's been lied to about his parents. He's been treated like a burden. He has absolutely no reason to believe that an adult offering him kindness isn't eventually going to take it away.

Then Hagrid kicks down the door.

Literally.

And from that moment forward, he's just... there.

Hagrid tells Harry the truth about his parents. He takes him into the wizarding world. He helps him buy his school supplies. He buys him Hedwig. He worries about him. He celebrates with him. He gives him advice, even when that advice is sometimes questionable.

And most importantly, Hagrid never makes Harry earn any of it.

His friendship is simply there.

As a kid, I saw Hagrid as Harry's friend.

As an adult, I see how desperately Harry needed an adult who wasn't going anywhere.

Hagrid Knows What It Means to Lose a Home

There's another parallel between Harry and Hagrid that means much more to me now.

They're both orphans.

Harry loses James and Lily before he can ever really know them. Hagrid loses his mother when he's very young and later his father, the parent who raised him.

And both of them find something resembling a home at Hogwarts.

Hagrid knows what it's like to be the kid who doesn't quite fit anywhere else.

He also knew Harry's parents. Their deaths aren't some abstract tragedy he has to explain to Harry. These were people Hagrid knew and cared about.

So when Hagrid arrives to collect Harry, he's not just picking up some famous kid he's been assigned to retrieve.

He's looking at the orphaned son of people he knew.

And he's an orphan himself.

That makes his immediate affection for Harry feel very different to me now.

Hagrid isn't just welcoming Harry into the wizarding world.

He's bringing another lost kid home.

The Man Hagrid Believes In

Then there's Dumbledore.

Harry meets Dumbledore and almost immediately sees something extraordinary in him. He's larger than life. He's wise, powerful and seemingly untouchable.

Hagrid understands that feeling better than almost anyone.

His faith in Dumbledore is practically unshakable.

And as we learn more about Hagrid, it's not difficult to understand why. When other people looked at Hagrid and saw what he was, Dumbledore saw who he was.

That distinction matters.

Dumbledore gave Hagrid a place at Hogwarts when he could very easily have lost it forever.

So Hagrid knows what it means to have someone powerful look at you when you're young, frightened and different and say:

You still belong here.

And then Harry comes along.

Maybe that's part of why Hagrid is so determined to make sure Harry knows he belongs there too.

Hagrid and His Monsters

Which brings me to something I definitely didn't appreciate when I was younger.

Hagrid loves monsters.

Not just animals.

Monsters.

Give this man the most horrifying creature imaginable and he'll immediately explain that everyone has completely misunderstood it.

As a kid, that's one of Hagrid's funniest character traits.

Now I think it's one of his saddest.

Because Hagrid knows what it's like to have people look at your parentage and decide that makes you dangerous.

He's half-giant.

To plenty of people in the wizarding world, that's enough. They don't need to know Hagrid. They know what giants are, they know his mother was one, and they've made their decision.

So of course Hagrid believes monsters can be misunderstood.

He needs monsters to be misunderstood.

He wants to believe that something can look terrifying, come from something frightening, possess instincts that make everyone nervous, and still become something good if it's treated with patience and kindness.

Maybe that's why his first instinct toward dangerous creatures isn't fear.

It's nurture.

Admittedly, Hagrid takes this philosophy way too far.

There are absolutely creatures in this world that should not be nurtured inside a wooden hut next to a school full of children.

But underneath the joke is something I find incredibly touching now.

Hagrid gives frightening creatures the same benefit of the doubt that he hopes people will give him.

Reading the Same Book as a Different Person

When I was younger, I thought Hagrid was charming because he was funny.

Now I think he's charming because he's kind.

He's a man who has experienced loss, rejection and prejudice and somehow came out of it wanting to take care of things.

Animals.

Monsters.

Harry.

He becomes this enormous, steady presence in the life of a kid who has never had one.

Maybe that's why the mountain metaphor feels so appropriate to me now.

Hagrid doesn't need to be the wisest person in Harry's life. He isn't the most powerful. He certainly isn't the person you should go to when you need someone to keep sensitive information confidential.

He's just there.

Solid. Familiar. Dependable.

A mountain of a man who knows what it feels like to be orphaned, knows what it feels like to be judged for something you can't control, knows what it means for Hogwarts to become your home, and knows what it means to have Dumbledore believe in you.

So when Harry needs someone, Hagrid does the simplest and perhaps most important thing an adult can do for a child.

He stays.

As a kid, I loved Hagrid.

It took reading the same book as a different person to understand why.