Cormac McLaggen

Cormac Bio & Life

Early life

Although little is known about McLaggen’s early years, it seems that he was raised in a prominent wizarding household because his uncle Tiberius held a position of importance inside the Ministry of Magic as well as was friends with Rufus Scrimgeour, Auror Office Director and subsequently the Minister for Magic. At least once, Tiberius traveled to Norfolk with Bertie Higgs and Scrimgeour to hunt Nogtails.

Hogwarts years (1990–1997)

Early years

In 1990, when Cormac McLaggen first began his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he was placed in Gryffindor, the same house that Katie Bell was assigned to. Cormac was an accomplished Quidditch player and played the Keeper position. He was also an accomplished broom flyer.

Sixth year

When McLaggen was a sixth-year student at Hogwarts in 1995–1996, to prove his bravery, he ate a kilo of poison Doxy eggs on a dare . Because of this reckless choice, he was unable to play Quidditch for the Gryffindor  team, which was very important to him. Gryffindor needed a new Keeper at the start of the 1995-1996 school year due to Oliver Wood’s graduating in 1993-1994 and the cancellation of all the Triwizard Tournament Quidditch matches.  Since McLaggen was  still hospitalized for the egg poisoning during the trials, Ron Weasley was promoted to the position of Keeper.

Seventh year

McLaggen was on the Hogwarts Express the following year, which was his last, when he was introduced to Professor Horace Slughorn.  McLaggen was extended an invitation to join the Slug Club as a result of his well-connected uncle Tiberius.

McLaggen sought to make the Gryffindor Quidditch team shortly after the start of his seventh year, but he was only able to make  four of five saves. This was as a result of Hermione Granger using a Confundus Charm on him after she overheard him making offensive comments about Ginny and Ron and  Weasley. McLaggen was very angry and urged the team leader Harry Potter to give him a second chance, but Harry declined, therefore Ron was once again awarded the job of keeper because he outperformed McLaggen in saves.

In December, McLaggen went with Hermione, also a member of the Slug Club, to Professor Slughorn’s Christmas party. However, his night did not go as planned since Hermione had only asked him to go to get back at Ron for taking Lavender Brown out, which he only did to get back at her. McLaggen drove Hermione crazy by talking too much about himself, bragging about how good he was at Quidditch, and also being too romantically forward. She spent most of the night avoiding him by talking to Harry and Luna Lovegood. Later, after Hermione had left the party,  McLaggen questioned Harry as to whether or not he had seen Hermione and Harry said he had not. 

In Gryffindor’s second game versus Hufflepuff in March Ron was hospitalized so Harry Potter had to use McLaggen as his backup goalkeeper. Harry had his concerns about his new teammate during the week building up to the game. Despite his skill, McLaggen was a bully who incessantly tried to tell Harry how to play the game and disparaged the other players’ skills. The game was a complete catastrophe since McLaggen spent far more time trying to instruct the other players than really watching the rings, which allowed the opposition to score a number of goals. He tried to teach Jimmy Peakes how to strike a Bludger after taking a Beater’s bat from him, but instead of teaching him, Harry was knocked off his broomstick and broke his skull.

With a final score of 320-60, the event was arguably Gryffindor’s most humiliating defeat ever. While still in the hospital, Ron told Harry that he believed McLaggen’s furious teammates “might well have dealt with him” prior to you getting out of here… After Ron’s recovery, Cormac was permanently dropped from the team and Ron took over as Keeper.

Repeat year

Cormac had to repeat his last year of education. Upon the Death Eaters boarding the train, he made the foolish statement that his father would find out about it, but they totally ignored him. Cormac became a member of the resurrected Dumbledore’s Army in order to defy Death Eater instructors Amycus Carrow and Alecto.  Later on, he took part in the Battle of Hogwarts and somehow managed to survive. 

Physical appearance

McLaggen was a wire-haired, hefty boy. When angered, his face would flush red. During the 1996 team tryouts, Harry Potter  exclaimed McLaggen is so large he could probably cover all three goal posts without ever moving. 

Personality + Traits

McLaggen embodied the worst qualities of the classic Gryffindor traits—he was aggressive, haughty, and self-righteous. Although bold, he was reckless as opposed to selfless. In addition, he had a high sense of entitlement, was haughty, and was pushy. Hermione Granger claimed that McLaggen was very pushy, impolite, and inconsiderate when making amorous approaches. He was rude and inconsiderate of others, talking only about himself. Hermione stated that even Grawp (Hagrid’s half-brother) was more polite than Cormac.

McLaggen also had a nasty temper; for instance, Harry Potter believed that when he refused his demand to allow him another Quidditch tryout, he may punch him.  He was also known to shift blame, for example stating that Ginny Weasley didn’t shoot at Ron Weasley (her brother) properly during the Keeper tryouts. When Harry was pushed to use McLaggen as a backup goalkeeper, McLaggen turned out to be a lousy teammate and goalkeeper in general. Instead of focusing upon what he was supposed to be doing during the game, he spent more time delivering unsolicited observations about others.

Despite all his flaws, Cormac showed himself to be a brave and honorable person by fighting alongside his peers during the Battle of Hogwarts even with having no obligation to do so and by serving as a leader in Dumbledore’s Army along with Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley during Lord Voldemort’s rule over Hogwarts.

Magical abilities and skills

• Flying:Cormac was a very skilled and gifted broomstick flyer, and in his seventh year became a reserve Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team demonstrating his exceptional Quidditch talents.
•  Duelling: Cormac was a very talented duellist, having bravely fought the Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts and survived. To have endured such a brutal and deadly combat, he would have needed to be exceedingly skilled with Martial magic.

Relationships

Hermione Granger

McLaggen first met Hermione Granger during his seventh year while they were both Slug Club members. It was apparent Hermione thought McLaggen was conceited and highly disagreeable. When Hermione overheard McLaggen disparaging Ginny and Ron Weasley during Quidditch tryouts, she struck him with a Confundus Charm without his knowledge. 

When Hermione and Ron later argued about Ron’s relationship with Lavender Brown, she sought to make him jealous by inviting McLaggen to Professor Slughorn’s Christmas party, choosing the person she felt would anger Ron the most. Since McLaggen was infatuated with Hermoine he readily agreed, but much to her dismay, he spent the majority of the evening bragging about himself. He was very provocative with her beneath the mistletoe, compelling Hermione to ditch him and sought out Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood in order to evade him for the rest of the night. He was quite irritated when he couldn’t find her. While McLaggen was interested in a romantic relationship with Hermione, she thought him to be a pompous buffoon.

Harry Potter

The first time the two met was in 1996, when Professor Slughorn questioned both of them. Even though they lived in the same Residence, Harry intensely despised McLaggen. They later reconnected during tryouts when Harry was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. It appeared McLaggen erroneously assumed he would have a leg up because both he and Harry were members of the Slug Club.

After Ron Weasley outscored McLaggen in saves, McLaggen charged that Ginny Weasley did it on purpose to help her brother. He became enraged and complained to Harry about it, but Harry firmly dismissed the charge. Harry thought for a moment that McLaggen could very well punch him.  Later that year McLaggen temporarily filled in for Ron.  Because he spent so much time giving Harry advice on how to play the game, telling his teammates what to do and knocking Harry out rather than blocking goals, Gryffindor lost the game.

Cormac also didn’t like Harry as he was Hermione Granger’s best friend (whom Cormac was infatuated with). Harry and Cormac also represented distinctly different facets of Gryffindor. Cormac seemed to represent the bad aspects, like smugness and self righteousness, while Harry seemed to represent the good parts, like honor, valor, and a willingness to put others before himself. But both of them seemed to have a bad temper.

Ron Weasley

McLaggen and Ron Weasley had an instant loathing for one another when they battled for the position of Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in 1996. McLaggen claimed that Harry Potter, the team Captain, favored his friend, whilst Harry considered that Ron was simply the superior player and McLaggen was much too cocky to be a good player.

Ron loathed McLaggen, so Hermione Granger asked him to accompany her to a Christmas party hosted by Professor Slughorn, and much to Ron’s chagrin, he did. He was even more irritated when McLaggen stepped in as Keeper when he was poisoned, but was quite pleased when it didn’t go well.

Etymology

Cormac is the name of several characters in Irish folklore and history, notably Warrior King of Ireland, Cormac Mac Airt and exiled Prince of Ulster, Cormac Cond Longas. The name is most often translated as “charioteer,” but it can also be interpreted as “raven,” a bird linked with combat in Celtic mythology. This could be a reference to McLaggen’s combative nature. The name can alternatively mean “son of defilement,” derived from the Gaelic corb, “defilement,” and mac, “son.” 

From the Book (Behind the Scenes – Fandom)

• Freddie Stroma played the role of Cormac McLaggen in both the two-part movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 

• Cormac appears on the Hogwarts Express returning to school in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’s Room of Requirement, but in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince novel, Cormac is in his final and seventh year, however, it wasn’t ever mentioned in the film. It’s likely that he was struggling in his studies requiring him to wait a year because he was continually coming up with new Quidditch tactics in his senior year. Another theory is he was going back to Hogwarts to complete his N.E.W.T.S. test as all exams were postponed the year prior due to Albus Dumbledore’s passing.

• Cormac participates in the Battle of Hogwarts and makes an appearance in the movies as a soldier in Dumbledore’s Army.
• In the movie version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Cormac receives a month of detention for puking on Snape’s shoes (an incident that never happened in the book), thanks to Harry’s deception that the dragon tartare he was eating was actually dragon testicles, or “dragon balls,” as Harry called them.

• Before the Quidditch match, there was supposed to be a scene in which Ron confronts Cormac, but it was cut from the final cut of the film. They never showed this part of the movie in public.

• It’s not clear if he and Harry are in the same year in the movies. It’s possible, but not likely.
• Because the Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor was left out of the movie, he never knocks Harry out.

• Cormac appears to be less annoying in the movies than he is in the books.

• Those who haven’t read the books may find it difficult to understand why Hermione holds such little regard for him and his love for her given that he joined the DA and appeared to be a somewhat decent character in the movies, despite being a little arrogant.

• Cormac has multiple cameos but no lines in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Harry Potter: The Character Vault
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite