Aragog (Harry Potter)

> He had known Hagrid to present a vicious baby dragon with a teddy bear, seen him croon over giant scorpions with suckers and stingers, attempt to reason with his brutal giant of a half-brother, but this was perhaps the most incomprehensible of all his monster fancies: the giant talking spider, Aragog, who dwelled deep within the Forbidden Forest and which he and Ron had only narrowly escaped four years previously.
>
> Harry Potter in his sixth year thinking about Hagrid's friendship with Aragog, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

**Aragog** (c. 1942–***20 April*** ***1997***) was an Acromantula owned by Rubeus Hagrid. Like the rest of his species, Aragog had a taste for human ***flesh*** and was able to communicate with humans with speech. In his youth, he was the size of a ***Pekingese*** and near the end of his life was about the size of a small ***elephant*** with an eighteen-foot leg span.Template:Pet-Character
Aragog had a wife, ***Mosag***, and was the leader of a large ***Acromantula colony*** composed of all of his sons and daughters. During his life, Aragog was accused of being Slytherin's Monster, although the monster was really a Basilisk. Ironically, all spiders feared the Basilisk, as it was their mortal enemy.

## Biography

### Early life

> I come from a distant land. A traveller gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg.
>
> Aragog, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Aragog was originally brought as an ***egg*** in a distant land and came to ***Great Britain*** in the pocket of a traveller. Somehow, the egg came into possession of Rubeus Hagrid, who at the time was a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After Aragog hatched from it, Hagrid kept him in a cupboard in one of the school's dungeons, feeding him scraps.

### Opening of the Chamber of Secrets

> They believed that *I* was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets.
>
> Aragog, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

   In 1943, Tom Marvolo Riddle, a descendant of Salazar Slytherin who would later become Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber of Secrets and unleashed the resident monster, the Serpent of Slytherin, upon the castle to exterminate its Muggle-born population, those who were "unworthy" to study magic. Aragog was framed as being the monster and Hagrid was accused of being Slytherin's heir. Several students were petrified in the school after the monster were unleashed. But when one of its victims, Moaning Myrtle, died in a bathroom, it motivated the school's governors to consider closing the school. Tom, who considered Hogwarts his only home, found out about Aragog after discovering the young Hagrid tending to the Acromantula, and realised he could use Aragog as a scapegoat for the monster's rampage. Tom came to capture the creature, but Hagrid helped Aragog escape to the ***Forbidden Forest***. Hagrid was later punished with expulsion from the school for his alleged role in the attacks and for this course of action. Aragog, meanwhile, was sent to live in the ***Forbidden Forest***.
Hagrid, though expelled, was assigned the position of Gamekeeper at Hogwarts, by the intervention of Albus Dumbledore (who suspected his innocence), thus allowing him to stay in contact with Aragog. Hagrid would visit Aragog now and then, bringing him food. On one particular visit, Hagrid brought Aragog a female Acromantula he could hopefully mate with, ***Mosag***. The two Acromantulas started a large ***colony*** comprised of their children. Sometime later, Aragog became blind.

### History repeats itself

> ...Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent.
>
> Harry Potter, after speaking to Aragog and barely surviving an attack, while realising that Aragog was also innocent, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In 1993, Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk was unleashed on the castle again. This time, however, the rampage did not result in any deaths, only the petrification of several muggle-born students. Once again the governors considered closing the school due to the attacks. Governors of the school once again accused Hagrid of being the Heir of Slytherin. Hagrid vaguely told Ron Weasley and Harry Potter to "follow the spiders," but couched this advice in a statement to ***Minister for Magic***, Cornelius Fudge, as they were both hiding under Harry's invisibility cloak. Though reluctantly, the two decided to continue their investigation of the monster, and follow the spiders like Hagrid had indirectly told them. This led them into the ***Forbidden Forest***.

   Arriving at Aragog's Lair, they encountered Aragog and his colony. Aragog revealed to them of Hagrid's innocence, the discovery of Myrtle's body in the bathroom and added that he was not the Chamber's resident monster but however gave them a small clue of it; the monster was born in the castle unlike him and that his species never speak nor mention its name or anything about it as they fear it above other creatures, in no small part due to her malicious nature. He only revealed that the creature in the Chamber was ancient. Aragog told the two that while he showed mercy to Hagrid, he would not deny his many children fresh meat—even if they were Hagrid's friends. However, thanks to the Flying Ford Anglia, Aragog's children failed to eat the two boys, as they both escaped the forest by flying away in the enchanted car. After this, Harry and Ron actually found the real monster was in fact a Basilisk, and the real heir, Tom Riddle, who was of course none other than the Dark Lord Voldemort.

Ron and Harry's encounter with Aragog and his colony made Ron's boggart manifest in the shape of Aragog, due to his arachnophobia and general fear of the Acromantula eating him.

### Physical description

> And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was grey in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.
>
> Harry and Ron witnessing Aragog for the first time in his lair, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In 1993, Aragog was described as being roughly the size of a small ***elephant***, with a grey and black hairy body, with milky white eyes, as he was blind. However, it was likely his eyes were formerly black.

## Personality and traits

> Go? I think not. My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid.
>
> Aragog offering up Harry and Ron as food for his children, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

   Aragog had a close friendship with his former owner, Hagrid. He admitted that it would have been his instinct to try to attack humans, but he restrained himself out of respect and gratitude for Hagrid, and unlike the Basilisk herself, he never personally harmed a human in his life. He was presumed to be a good father to his many children, understanding their taste for human flesh and allowing them to attack and eat anyone they wanted when they were hungry. Hagrid was the only human that Aragog stopped his sons and daughters from attacking. One such case of this was when Ron Weasley and Harry Potter found Aragog, however, this was more than likely an act of parental care as opposed to anger or hatred as Ron comes to think. However, the two managed to escape by sheer luck, as the Weasleys' enchanted Ford Anglia emerged to extract them from the danger.

> We do not speak of it! We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times.
>
> Aragog's fear of Basilisks, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Aragog, like all spiders, feared Basilisks (though the personality of the Basilisk lurking in Hogwarts was most likely a contributing factor), and would not speak of one, not even to Hagrid himself, even though he had asked him about the creature many times. The way that Aragog would not speak their name or of them was similar to the way that wizards and witches (amongst other creatures like house-elves and ***goblins***) would not speak Voldemort's name, or discuss him even obliquely any more than was absolutely necessary, which was appropriate since he himself commanded the creature in his youth.

## See also

* Acromantula
* ***Forbidden Forest Acromantula colony***
* Rubeus Hagrid's pets

## Etymology

* Aragog comes from the words "Ara" which comes from "arachnid", which is the class spiders belong to. "Gog" and "Magog" are biblical names.
* Possibly derived from the Greek word "agog", meaning "leader", from which the modern English "demagogue" is an iteration.

## Behind the scenes

* In Template:COS, Aragog was voiced by ***Julian Glover***. The film also changed his dwelling in the castle from a cupboard to a treasure chest-like box.
* In Template:COS, Aragog was a massive animatronic creature. ***Rupert Grint***, the actor who plays Ron Weasley, is afraid of spiders just as much as his character is, and said the scenes with Aragog were easily the scariest scenes to film.
* An error in the accusation against Hagrid for having unleashed the monster from the Chamber of Secrets is that an Acromantula cannot petrify or kill with its stare, unlike a Basilisk

## Appearances

Template:Imagecat

* Template:COS Template:1st
* *Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban* (film) Template:Boggart
* *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* (film) Template:C

## Notes and references

Template:Reflist

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Template:COS
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Template:COS
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Template:COS
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Template:COS
5. ↑ Template:COS
6. ↑ "About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com," Scholastic.com, 16 October 2000 at Accio Quote!
7. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban* (film) - An Chapter 007
8. ↑ 3 things you didn't know about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Vogue, 22 April 2020