“ | A pity they let the old punishments die. Was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons. God I miss the screaming. | „ |
~ Filch's sadistic joy of disciplining students. |
“ | You've... murdered my cat. [...] I'll kill ya... I'LL KILL YA! | „ |
~ Filch threatening Harry upon seeing the petrified Mrs. Norris believing he "did" it before being stopped by Dumbledore. |
Argus Filch, more commonly known as Mr. Filch, is a supporting character in the Harry Potter series. He is the Caretaker of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a job which he has maintained for several decades.
While his duty is primarily the care of the castle, duties that include custodian work as well as security, Filch is greatly interested in, and enjoys, dishing out punishments to the students. While the old ways of severe, and violent punishment were eliminated by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Filch lamented this, and was all too eager to continue them again during the cruel reign of Dolores Umbridge over the school. He is the archenemy of the poltergiest Peeves.
He was portrayed by David Bradley, who also played Walder Frey in Game of Thrones, Solomon in the Doctor Who and Brother Joseph in World Without End.
History[]
During the Chambers of Secret incident which some students including Hermione Granger and his cat been petrified by the Basilisk, he blames Harry Potter for the attack instead. His actions against Harry also made Rubeus Hagrid to become worried and very hostile to Filch until he finally realized that it was the Basilisk who did really petrified his cat and the other students.
It should be noted however, while Filch was generally a very unpleasant person and quite the sadist, even more disturbing considering his cruelty was aimed towards those underage, he was still ultimately loyal to the school. He assisted in the evacuation of the students during the Battle of Hogwarts, and even took part in the Battle himself. When the Battle was over, he immediately returned to his caretaker duties, and was seen cleaning up the massive mess left behind in the Battle.
Personality[]
Filch was one of the most unliked members of Hogwarts staff by the students. Sour, cruel, cantankerous and just generally unpleasant, Filch was always angry about something and was quick to blame the students (to be fair though some students enjoyed making his job harder). Perhaps he had a major chip on his shoulder due to being born a Squib, and part of him was jealous at the life of wonder and magic students got to experience that he never could. Filch was also a major sadist, to the point he enjoyed hearing the screams of students being disciplined by the draconian and brutal old ways before Dumbledore banned them when he took office. When the sadistic and unfathomably evil Dolores Umbridge forcefully took control of Hogwarts, Filch became her right hand man, overjoyed with the cruel and torturous punishment she constantly dished out to the students.
All that being said, Filch wasn't entirely without any redeeming factors. His loyalty to the school was never questioned, and he obeyed all orders given to him by his superiors among the staff and carried them out to the best of his ability. He helped evacuate Hogwarts during the final battle against Lord Voldemort and even directly took part in the battle itself, being injured in the process. In the direct aftermath following Harry's victory, he then immediately went right back to work, trying to clean up the catastrophic mess the battle left behind.