My Tribute to Robbie Coltrane Anthony Robert McMillan OBE (30 March 1950 – 14 October 2022)
Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling.
From the Harry Potter Books series - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 14
In 1993 Hagrid was sent to the wizarding prison, Azkaban, when the Chamber of Secrets was re-opened. It was assumed he was the one who reopened the Chamber because his expulsion from Hogwarts was for the same occurrence. Even with Dumbledore backing Hagrid, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge insisted on taking Hagrid anyway. So on the same night Dumbledore was asked to step down as Headmaster by the school governors, Hagrid was escorted to Azkaban. However, he was able to help Harry and Ron solve the mystery surrounding the Chamber, by advising them to "follow the spiders."
Following the spiders led them to the lair of the Acromantula (giant spider) Aragog and its hive in the Forbidden Forest. the Acromantula believed to have attacked students during the 1942-1943 school year, and his family. Though Harry and Ron barely escaped the encounter with their lives, they managed to obtain some valuable information over the course of their conversation with Aragog: the monster within the Chamber had nothing to do with Hagrid, and the girl it had killed in the 1940s had died in a bathroom. Harry was thus able to find the entrsnce to the Chamber of Secrets, slay the basilisk within, and destroy Tom Riddle's diary.
As it turned out, the actual perpetrator had been the person who had turned Hagrid in in 1943. Hagrid was exonerated and released from Azkaban. He returned to Hogwarts and joined in the ongoing celebration of the closure of what had been a terrifying incident, accidentally knocking Harry and Ron face-first into their plates of trifle when he cuffed them on the shoulders.
- Dumbledore : [discreetly talking to Harry and Ron knowing they're under the cloak] You will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.
- Lucious Malfoy : Admirable sentiments. Shall we? Fudge?
- Cornelius Fudge : Come, Hagrid. Well?
- Hagrid : [discreetly talking to Harry and Ron] If, uh, if anybody was looking for some stuff, then all they'd have to do would be to follow the spiders.
[pause]
- Hagrid : Yup. That would lead 'em right. That's all I have to say.