When we think of wealthy individuals from the Harry Potter story, there are a few people and all wizarding families that come to mind. First and foremost, the Malfoy’s. A wealthy, pure -blood wizarding family known for their influence in the wizarding world and their affiliation with dark magic.
The Malfoy’s built their immense wealth in 1066 when their distant ancestor, Armand Malfoy, arrived in England with William the Conqueror. Next up, we’ve got the Lestrangers. Another wealthy, pure -blood family whose immense generational wealth only doubled upon intermarriage with another pure -blood family, the Blacks.
The old goblin obeyed, pressing his palm to the wood, and the door of the vault melted away to reveal a cave -like opening crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins and goblets, silver armour, skins of strange creatures, and a skull still wearing its crown.
And finally, we’ve got the Potters. Harry Potter’s wealth in the Harry Potter story is certainly no secret, and we’re exposed to it as early as the Philosopher’s Stone, when we’re first introduced to Vault 687 and Gringotts.
Harry has piles and piles of gold, and his immense wealth is mentioned time and time again throughout the Harry Potter story. As it turns out, the Potter family fortune started with the founding patriarch of the family, Linford of Stinchcomb, a revolutionary potioner that began to amass riches in the Potter name.
Following him in the family business was Flemont Potter, Harry’s grandfather, who had all sorts of success of his own. And it seems like these few wizarding families, who touted generational wealth that had been amassed by their ancestors before them, are the only examples of rich wizarding families in the Harry Potter story.
But what if I told you there was a man out there far wealthier than all of these families combined, and that he lived in a run -down old shack on the Hogwarts grounds? Enter Rubeus Hangrid. Today we’re going to be exploring the Harry Potter theory that Rubeus Hangrid was secretly wealthy, wealthier than them all.
Before becoming a Hogwarts employee, Rubius Hagrid first went to the school as a student. He began his studies in the year 1940, just two years after Voldemort himself, and initially proved to be quite a promising young wizard.
However, unfortunately for Hagrid, the school at this time was in a bit of a state of chaos. Students were mysteriously being petrified on a consistent basis, and no one knew how or why it was happening.
However, it’s later revealed that Tom Riddle was responsible for the atrocities at the school after opening the Chamber of Secrets. And when a student was finally killed, a witch -hunt began to figure out who exactly was responsible for the crimes.
Riddle, who was concerned school would be closed, then threw Hagrid under the bus and framed him, explaining that the attacks were the doing of Hagrid’s acromantula, Aragog. Unable to point the finger at anyone else, Hagrid was eventually held responsible for the attacks and subsequently expelled.
However, he was allowed to continue working at the school at the request of Albus Dumbledore. It was in the year 1943 that Hagrid began his formal training for the position of game keeper at Hogwarts, at that time working under the existing senior game keeper, Og.
And what this means is that Hagrid has been an employee at Hogwarts since the 40s, marking 48 years of employment by the time Harry starts attending the school. But now you might be wondering, what does all of this have to do with Hagrid secretly possessing stacks and stacks of gold galleons?
Well, there are a number of things to consider here, starting with perks. Like I mentioned before, by the time Harry starts attending Hogwarts, Hagrid has been working there for nearly 5 decades. And what this means of course, is that Hagrid has earned an annual salary from the school for nearly 50 years.
Salary is a major determinant of your ability to save, as it dictates the amount of disposable income available after necessary expenses have been paid. But I’m pretty sure Hagrid doesn’t even know what expenses are, because his job is riddled with perks.
His free housing and a cozy cabin on the school grounds eliminates housing expenses, allowing him to allocate more of his earnings towards savings. He also has access to free food, either through the school’s provisions, or his own hunting and foraging, which further reduces his cost of living.
And when we take a look at some of the items in Hagrid’s possession, it becomes pretty clear that he’s not a big spender. Topping the list are his moleskin overcoat, boots, chipped dishware, old boots, ugly tie, crossbow and barrel.
It’s clear that he’s not a big spender. Basically, with no need to spend money on rent or groceries, Hagrid is in a unique situation where he’s able to save pretty much all of the money that he earns.
And when all of that saving compounds over a 50 year period, you’re looking at some pretty serious cash, especially if it’s been invested properly. Now you might be wondering, Hagrid’s saved for 50 years, but could his salary really have been that substantial?
Enter Albus Dumbledore. In the books we aren’t given a whole lot of context or information on how much Hogwarts professors might get paid, however, I’ve actually wrote a blog on this in the past where I theorized, with some supporting information, that Hogwarts professors make a little bit more than their muggle equivalents, plus all of the perks of the job like room and board.
Based on this information alone, 50 years of salary would still amount to a considerable sum of cash, however, I think that Hagrid actually earned a lot more than his peers, and the reason for this is his unique relationship with Albus Dumbledore.
At just 13 years old Hagrid was unfairly treated by the Ministry of Magic, and barred from performing magic. And had it not been for Albus Dumbledore, who stepped in and helped Hagrid get a job, he would have been put in a really tough spot.
With no magical education and a complete barring from performing magic, it’s unlikely that Hagrid would have been able to secure a job. The reason Dumbledore stepped in was because he knew that Hagrid was innocent, and I suspect that, in response to Hagrid’s poor treatment, Dumbledore would have wanted to make up for the situation as much as he could.
This started with helping him to get a job. But by the time the mid -60s rolled around, Dumbledore had become headmaster, which put him in the unique position of determining what his professors, employees, should be paid.
And when this time finally came, I suspect that Dumbledore would have given Hagrid a considerable boost in pay in order to make amends for the wrongful adversity he faced in the past. We know that as headmaster, Dumbledore was incredibly fair.
He even offered to pay Dobby, who would have worked for free, 10 galleons a week. Professor Dumbledore offered Dobby 10 galleons a week and weekends off, but Dobby beat him down, miss. Dobby likes freedom, miss, but he isn’t wanting too much, miss.
He likes work better. But for the man he trusts his life with, I suspect the pay increase would have been significant. More Clues Now that we’ve established that Hagrid likely stockpiled a generous salary for many years, next I want to take a look at a number of clues which suggest that Hagrid had quite a nonchalant attitude towards money, valuable things.
An attitude that someone with, oh I don’t know, a vault full of gold would have. In no particular order, here they are. Just before Aragog’s burial, Harry bumps into Slughorn, and when Slughorn learns of what Harry is up to, he notices an opportunity to collect some acromantula venom.
Slughorn ends up drunk at Hagrid’s hut and says the following,
it seems an awful waste not to collect it, might get 100 galleons a pint.
100 galleons in the wizarding world is a lot of money. The Weasley twins used 1000 galleons to open up their shop, so surely 100 100 is nothing to scoff at.
And who knows how many pints of venom there are? Yet Hagrid doesn’t appear to be even remotely interested in collecting the venom. Sure, this could just be because he was grieving the loss of Aragog, but it could also be that 100 galleons just wasn’t a lot of money to him.
The next clue is that Hagrid seemed to have valuable objects strewn about his cottage that he didn’t even blink twice at. In one passage, it’s mentioned that Hagrid had a whole skein of unicorn hairs just laying around.
He was looking up at the ceiling from which a number of brass pots hung, and also a long, silky skein of bright white hair.
That’s never unicorn hair, Hagrid.
Oh yeah, said Hagrid indifferently. Gets pulled out of their tails.
They catch it on branches and stuff in the forest, you know.
But my dear chap, do you know how much that’s worth?
I use it for binding and bandages and stuff if a creature gets injured, said Hagrid, shrugging.
It’s dead useful. Very strong, see.
And next we’ve got to consider Hagrid’s unusual relationship with Gringotts. In the Philosopher’s Stone, Hagrid describes Gringotts as the safest place in the world for anything you want to keep safe, except maybe Hogwarts.
Their security is supposed to be top notch. Yet, when Hagrid shows up with Harry and just a singular key, the Gringotts goblins don’t seem to bat a single eyelid or show a moment of hesitation when letting him in to not one, but two vaults.
And what this could suggest is that Hagrid was a bit of a high roller, their nonchalant attitude being a reflection of the knowledge that Hagrid had his own vault with an immense amount of treasure inside.
Another clue in the same chapter is when Hagrid reveals that he hates riding the Gringotts carts. This could be a clue that he has ridden them quite a lot in the past, to his vault full of gold. The final clue pointing to Hagrid’s potential wealth is the extravagant gifts he gives Harry over the course of the books.
These include a unique snowy owl to make up for 10 years of missed birthday presents, a fanged wallet as a 5th year Christmas gift, and a mokeskin pouch for his 17th birthday. The fact that no other student at Hogwarts is known to have a white snowy owl could suggest that they may not be within reach for the average wizard or witch, an expensive and hard to acquire gift that only someone with considerable wealth could procure.
Giving someone a wallet as a gift seems like something that someone money minded would do, and the mokeskin pouch Harry receives is supposed to be incredibly rare, therefore probably expensive.
Mokeskin. Hide anything in there and no one but the owner can get it out, they’re rare then.
For someone with chipped dishware and old boots, he’s handing out some pretty extravagant gifts. Black Market Dealings Throughout the books, Hagrid consistently demonstrates an uncanny ability to acquire and handle rare and illegal magical creatures.
Because of this, I think that Hagrid may be secretly wealthy from his involvement in the black market trade of magical creatures and materials. Dragon eggs? Hagrid’s got them. Three headed dogs? No problem.
The fact that Hagrid is able to consistently acquire new and illegal creatures could be an indicator that he has black market connections. There’s also the fact that he’s somehow able to purchase these creatures.
I’m no expert, but massive three -headed dogs can’t be cheap. Furthermore, Hagrid’s ability to care for these creatures, despite the associated costs and risks involved, implies a level of financial stability that goes beyond his humble gamekeeper salary at Hogwarts.
To me, this raises questions about the true source of his wealth, and the potential dealings that may be fueling his ability to acquire and maintain such exotic creatures. Why else would Hagrid hang around in Nocturne Alley?
Something tells me that it’s not to get flesh -eating slug repellent. What do you think? Could Hagrid be a secret millionaire? Which pieces of evidence seem most convincing to you? Let me know down in the comment section below.
