u/0011100100111000

I'm still rooting for the trio when I read the books/watch the movies, but I have a lot of sympathy for Filch. As a kid I think I had little to none for him other than maybe the occasional, "It sucks he can't do magic". However, the older I get the more sympathy I have for him.

First of all lets get the obvious out of the way. Being born into the magical world and not being able to do magic would immensely suck. It would suck way more than having a child and finding out they're capable of magic, in just about every way. Sure, in both instances you know that magic is possible and you cannot do it, however being a squib is a much worse fate. You'll be born seeing everyone around you being able to do magic, talking about Hogwarts, waiting until it is your turn, only to get older and older and gradually realizing that is never going to come. Not only that, but the utter disappointment you would likely face from your family, for something that isn't your fault. Not to mention the mockery and discrimination you would face from everyone else. Filch is the one true squib one of the two squibs we see, and he still has a likely vain hope that he'll one day be able to do magic, otherwise he wouldn't have had that Kwikspell course on his desk. It is awful.

That is bad enough. But then you have a choice when you grow of age. You either live in a foreign muggle world, or you stay in the wizarding world being but having none of the abilities everyone else has. Clearly Filch chose the latter. And that is one of the big points I want to bring up. Yes Filch is a miserable bastard (although I likely would be too), and I don't like how he relishes in punishment of students or clearly admires Umbridge... But on the other hand, imagine how much shit he has to deal with from these students. At least Hagrid is capable of magic, even if he had his wand snapped (and totally doesn't have it repaired by Dumbledore in his comically small umbrella). He was in charge of giving and overseeing punishments at Hogwarts both in the past and the present (even if the roll changed by Harry's time in regards to corporal punishment) students or going to dislike him no matter what just like I disliked the vice principals at the schools I went to for fulfilling that same role. But in this case, they can all fuck with you in many colorful and magical ways that you can't properly defend against, on top of having to MANUALLY clean the castle and their messes.

Again, I don't particularly like Filch, and I definitely dislike many things about him, but I also have a lot of sympathy for him and that has only grown since I have gotten older.