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Giants
“The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off
its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His
face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild,
tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles
under all the hair.
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so
that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door and
fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a
little. He turned to look at them all.
“Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not
been an easy journey...”
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 4 The Keeper of the Keys pg.
39
“A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage,
bent forwards, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor and
unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then Harry saw a
shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage - a
shoe the size of a child's sled - followed, almost immediately, by the largest
woman he had ever seen in his life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses,
was immediately explained. A few people gasped.
Harry had only ever seen one person as large as this
woman in his life, and that was Hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch
difference in their heights. Yet somehow - maybe simply because he was used to
Hagrid - this woman (now at the foot of the steps, and looking around at the
waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. As she stepped
into the light flooding from the Entrance Hall, she was revealed to have a
handsome, olive-skinned face, large, black, liquid-looking eyes and a rather
beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck.
She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals
gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.”
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 15 Beauxbatons and Durmstrang pg.
214
“I jus' knew... knew you were like me... was it yer mother
or yer father?”
“I - I don't know what you mean, 'Agrid...”
“It was my mother,” said Hagrid quietly. “She was one
o' the las' ones in Britain. 'Course, I can' remember her too well... she left,
see. When I was abou' three. She wasn' really the maternal sort. Well... it's
not in their natures, is it? Dunno what happened to her... might be dead fer all
I know...”
Madame Maxime didn't say anything. And Harry, in
spite of himself, took his eyes off the beetle, and looked over the top of the
reindeer's antlers, listening... he had never heard Hagrid talk about his
childhood before.
“Me dad was broken-hearted when she wen'. Tiny little
bloke, my dad was. By the time I was six I could lift him up an' put him on top
o' the dresser if he annoyed me. Used ter make him laugh...” Hagrid's deep voice
broke. Madame Maxime was listening, motionless, apparently staring at the
silvery fountain. “Dad raised me... but he died, o' course, jus' after I started
school. Sorta had ter make me own way after that. Dumbledore was a real help,
mind. Very kind ter me, he was...”
Hagrid pulled out a large, spotted silk handkerchief
and blew his nose heavily. “So... anyway... enough abou' me. What about you?
What side you got it on?”
But Madame Maxime had suddenly gotten to her feet.
“It is chilly,” she said - but whatever the weather
was doing, it was nowhere near as cold as her voice. “I think I will go in now.”
“Eh?” said Hagrid blankly. “No, don' go! I've - I've
never met another one before!”
“Anuzzer what, precisely?” said Madame Maxime, her tone icy.
Harry could have told Hagrid it was best not to
answer; he stood there in the shadows, gritting his teeth, hoping against hope
he wouldn't - but it was no good.
“Another half-giant, o' course!” said Hagrid.
“Ow dare you!” shrieked Madame Maxime. Her voice
exploded through the peaceful night like a foghorn; behind him, Harry heard
Fleur and Roger fall out of their rose bush. “I 'ave nevair been more insulted
in my life! 'Alf-giant? Moi? I 'ave - I 'ave big bones!”
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 23 The Yule Ball pgs. 372-373

**Please note: You can not play a full-giant character in The World of Hogwarts.
Sorry, but we have nowhere for your character to live!**
The most obvious example of a half-giant character in Harry's world is Rubeus
Hagrid, gamekeeper and keeper of the keys at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry and professor of Care of Magical Creatures from Harry's third year at
the school. Hagrid is a main character in the books so I will not go into detail
about his appearance.
In general, half-giants appear to be much the same as normal humans, aside from
the fact that they are abnormally large. Hagrid is quoted to be twice the normal
height of a man, and is proportionally as strong. They are also quite rare (see
above) - if Olympe Maxime (Headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy) was the first and
only other half-giant Hagrid had ever met, it is a fair assumption that Hagrid was
the only half-giant in Britain at the time of the War. It is also interesting to
note that both Hagrid and Madame Maxime have black eyes.
Both the rarity and general size of a half-giant should be considered carefully
when creating such a character, but I included the particularly long quote above
to make a secondary point which I think you should take into consideration.
While Hagrid seems particularly comfortable about his existence as a half-giant
(though he doesn't exactly scream about it from the rooftops), Madame Maxime is
extremely sensitive about it.
As Harry later finds out through his friends and the poison quill of Rita
Skeeter, giants are dangerous creatures who either died or were killed off by
aurors, and as such are feared. Half-giants are obviously much gentler and more
human-like than their full-giant counterparts, however it is apparent that there
is a considerable stigma attached to being a half-giant in Wizarding society.
Your character would be suspect - people whom you had never met might be scared
of you, fearful of your temper, even angry that you are allowed to walk amongst
them. How you react IC to this knowledge is up to you, however.
Useful Links to Information About Giants
The HP Lexicon
Giants:
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/giants.html
Rubeus Hagrid:
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/hagrid.html
Olympe Maxime:
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/maxime.html
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