Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Vincent Crabbe

Overview
Vincent Crabbe is one of Draco Malfoy's cronies.

Role in the Books
Throughout the entire series, Vincent Crabbe has very little independent activity. When we first see him, he has settled into the role of first sidekick to Draco Malfoy, and with very few exceptions, he seems to have no activity separate from Draco for six years of the seven-year span of the story.

Philosopher's Stone
When Draco Malfoy introduces himself to Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express, Gregory Goyle and Crabbe are in attendance. Harry turns Draco's offer of alliance down.

The night after the first Flying lesson, finding that Harry has not, after all, been expelled, Draco challenges him to a Wizard's Duel. Ron immediately volunteers to be Harry's second; Draco selects Crabbe to be his second.

Chamber of Secrets
Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle stay at Hogwarts over Christmas. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, attempting to determine whether Draco knows who the Heir of Slytherin is, use Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Slytherins. Ron becomes a copy of Crabbe, while Harry becomes a simulacrum of Goyle. While they do fool Draco, and learn some useful things about him, they only find out that he does not know who the Heir is, either.

Prisoner of Azkaban
Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle visit Harry in his compartment on the Hogwarts Express, but are unable to take any action against Harry because of the presence of Professor Lupin.

In an attempt to scare Harry during the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint dress as Dementors, but their scheme unravels when Harry sends a Patronus to charge them down. They are caught by Minerva McGonagall, who penalizes Slytherin fifty house points and gives them all detention.

Harry later visits Hogsmeade via the secret passages and the Invisibility cloak; while there with Ron, they run into Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, who start taunting Ron, believing him to be alone. Harry, from the concealment of his cloak, starts attacking them, but in the process becomes partially visible. Harry then has to hurry back to the school in order to convince Professor Snape that he has not been out of the school.

It is mentioned that during the run-up to the final Quidditch match, between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Crabbe and Goyle repeatedly appear near Harry but end up slouching off, disappointed, when Harry proves too well protected for them to work any mischief on him.

Goblet of Fire
In this book, Triwizard Tournament is held at Hogwarts and Harry is surprisingly chosen to be the fourth champion in The Triwizard Tournament. In one potions lesson, Draco starts to taunt Harry by showing him that he has made some "Potter Stinks" badges and Crabbe along with the other Slytherins burst into laughter. Later in the year, The Yule Ball takes place, but both Crabbe and Goyle have not found anyone that wants to take them to the dance, pleasing Harry. Later on in the year, in a potion lesson, Crabbe is seen as one of the Slytherins that laughs at Hermione after Pansy Parkinson tosses a Witch Weekly newspaper to them. He also laughs even more after Professor Severus Snape sees the newspaper and reads it, which infuriates Harry.

Order of the Phoenix
As the two Beaters on the Slytherin Quidditch team, Derrick and Bole, have left, Montague, the Captain, has had to find new ones. The two he has found are Crabbe and Goyle.

In the Quidditch match against Slytherin, Crabbe hits a Bludger at Harry after the whistle, and is harangued for it by Madam Hooch. This is the precipitating event that ends up with a brawl involving Harry, George, and Draco.

It is mentioned that Crabbe is a member of the Inquisitorial Squad. When Umbridge catches Harry in her office, where he has been trying to determine whether Sirius has gone to the Ministry, she also sets the Inquisitorial Squad to round up his helpers. When they bring the helpers into Umbridge's office, it is Crabbe who is holding Neville Longbottom.

Half-Blood Prince
While Draco is working in the Room of Requirement, he believes that he requires a lookout. He forces Crabbe and Goyle to disguise themselves as first-year to third-year girls by means of Polyjuice Potion. This irritates them both throughout the year, and at one point, Harry overhears Crabbe about to argue with Draco, who cuts him off.

Deathly Hallows
When Harry reaches Hogwarts, he hears from Neville that Crabbe and Goyle are finally able to do something well. The Dark Arts classes (renamed from Defence Against the Dark Arts) now include using the Cruciatus Curse on those who have earned detentions, and apparently both Crabbe and Goyle are very good at this.

Draco later sees Harry, Ron, and Hermione entering the Room of Requirement, and rounds up Crabbe and Goyle as backup as he no longer has his own wand. When Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle corner Harry in the Room of Requirement, Harry notes that Crabbe seems to have a very soft voice for someone so enormous. Crabbe explains how they had decided to hang back, to see if they could track Harry and bring him to Voldemort for their reward. When Ron calls out, Crabbe pushes a fifty-foot pile of junk over onto him. Harry steadies the pile. When Crabbe tries to repeat the charm, Draco stops him, saying that if they wreck the room, they may lose the diadem, which results in a argument. When Hermione comes into the fight, Crabbe shoots the killing curse at her, which results in another argument between him and Draco. As part of the ensuing attempt to capture Harry, with Crabbe ignoring Draco and attempting to kill him, Crabbe creates Fiendfyre, which rapidly consumes everything in the room. Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape on brooms that are stored in the Room of Requirement, and in the process rescue Draco and Goyle, but Crabbe dies in the fire of his own making.

Strengths
Crabbe is shown in his seventh year to be reasonably talented at the Dark Arts, a subject which wasn't taught during his first six years. Though his isn't very smart, he is proven to at least have his own thoughts and opinions. At the very least he seems to be more intelligent than Goyle.

Weaknesses
Before his seventh year Crabbe was little more than Malfoy's bodyguard and thug who never showed any independent thoughts or beliefs. He also seems to have a bit of a temper as shown when he pelted a bludger at Harry after the Slytherins lost the Quidditch match in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Relationships with Other Characters
He is apparently very good friends with Draco Malfoy and Gregory Goyle, initially. This may just be an attempt to follow Draco's family's apparent power, as once Draco's family has fallen out of favour with Voldemort, he ignores Draco's instructions to a large extent in the Room of Requirement. His father (or possibly brother or uncle) was revealed to be a Death Eater when Voldemort called on him by his surname in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Analysis
Crabbe, like Goyle, is present only to fill the role of dumb sidekick. The usual "group of bad guys" in many works of fiction consists of a "brain" component, almost always one smart guy or a shrewd guy with a smart guy in the background, and a "brawn" component, one or several muscular goons who exist simply to follow the orders of the smart guy, so that the smart guy doesn't have to risk discovery or injury in order to get his dirty work done. Crabbe and Goyle are almost stereotypical brawn, while Draco is very much the brains of that particular operation. Crabbe seems to resent this slightly as in the Room of Requirement in the seventh book, he ignores Draco's orders and decides to take decisive action himself.

We have commented that Crabbe's allegiance to Draco may be based on Draco's family status. While it is true that Crabbe's willingness to take orders from Draco has faded along with the Malfoy family standing in Voldemort's councils, it is also true, as Neville notes, that Crabbe and Goyle have now found things that they are good at doing. Crabbe's acceptance of Draco's instructions may well have been partly from lack of confidence, and having found that he is good at the Dark Arts, he may now have sufficient self-confidence to stand on his own to some extent.