Aragog

"*Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent.*"
— Aragog supporting Hagrid.

**Aragog** is an Acromantula and the leader of a colony in the Forbidden Forest. He appears first in *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*.

## Biography

### Early life

Aragog was purchased in a distant land by a traveller when he was an egg. The traveller gave the egg to Rubeus Hagrid when he was attending Hogwarts. Aragog had hatched before June 1943. He lived under a box in Hogwarts Castle which was hidden in a dungeon. He didn't leave the dungeon he was kept in and never saw any other part of the castle. Hagrid fed him scraps of food.

When he was young, Aragog decided he wouldn't ever hurt a human out of respect for Hagrid. After the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Aragog could feel the presence of a Basilisk in the school and developed a natural fear of it. Hagrid begged Aragog to tell him which creature it was but he couldn't even speak the name of it.

The monster had been unleashed by a fellow student, Tom Riddle who discovered Hagrid had been keeping Aragog. To save the school from being closed down, Tom framed Aragog as the monster that had killed a girl. He tried to apprehend Aragog but he escaped with Hagrid's help amd fled into the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid was held responsible for the attacks and was expelled from Hogwarts.

### Leading a colony

Aragog found a home in the heart of the Forbidden Forest with the help of Hagrid, now the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. He later got married and had children. They cut down trees and established a colony in the hollow which Aragog lived in the center of. He suppressed a biological need to devour humans because he had deep respect for Hagrid and prevented the colony from attacking him whenever he brought them food.

Fifty years later, Hagrid was taken to Azkaban after the Chamber of Secrets was reopened. Hagrid told Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley to follow the spiders to find out the truth. Aragog was sleeping in the center of their hollow when his children woke him up to give him Harry, Ron and Fang. At the first, he told everyone to kill them but Harry told him he was a friend of Hagrid. Aragog was confused because Hagrid had never sent anyone to their colony before, but Harry explained that Hagrid was in trouble. Aragog was still confused because the Chamber of Secrets had opened decades ago. Aragog told Harry about Hagrid's innocence and revealed the student who was killed the first time. He was angry at any talk of him being the thing in the Chamber of Secrets, telling Harry it was something Acromantulas feared and wouldn't even speak the name of.

However, Aragog refused to let them go because he couldn't extend the protection he gave to Hagrid to his friends. He gave the colony permission to eat them but they managed to escape in a feral Ford Anglia. Hagrid and Aragog's innocence was later proven.

### Later life

In June 1996, Harry and Hermione Granger were luring Professor Umbridge into a trap in the Forbidden Forest and unknowingly took a route that led to Aragog's colony. A herd of centaurs intercepted and saved the group. That summer, Aragog began suffering an unknown illness and Hagrid began taking giant grubs of food to him in the hope it would help him recover. The colony was beginning to get impatient and behaved funny towards Hagrid.

In March 1997, Hagrid spent a day in the Forest reading to Aragog but he was deteriorating and failing to show any improvement in health. In April, Aragog passed away. The colony was preparing to cannibalise Aragog's body but Hagrid was able to get it out. The colony fought Hagrid for it and wouldn't hold back their craving to devour Hagrid. He was shocked to learn Aragog was the reason he had been safe in the colony. A burial was held at a deep hole that evening by Hagrid's Hut.

Hagrid asked Harry and Ron to attend Aragog's burial because he thought they knew how special he was. Ron, who had a fear of spiders, scoffed because Aragog had tried to kill them and couldn't understand how Hagrid expected them to grieve for him. Harry did attend the burial after drinking Felix Felicis. Horace Slughorn also attended after he saw an opportunity to get a piece of Aragog's valuable venom. Hagrid was devastated by Aragog's passing.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 15
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 13
3. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 18
4. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 33
5. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 11
6. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 19
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 22