Vincent Crabbe is one of Draco Malfoy’s friends at Hogwarts, a thickset and extremely mean-looking boy with a pudding-bowl haircut. He and Gregory Goyle are usually seen flanking Draco Malfoy, like bodyguards.
Like Goyle, Crabbe is tricked by Harry and Ron into eating cakes laced with a Sleeping Draught. Harry and Ron bundle Crabbe and Goyle into a cupboard, taking some hairs and stealing their shoes in preparation for using the Polyjuice Potion.
Crabbe attends the Care of Magical Creatures lesson and, alongside Draco Malfoy and Gregory Goyle, works with Buckbeak. When the Gryffindors blame Draco for Buckbeak's attack, Crabbe and Goyle turn threatening.
Crabbe helps Malfoy, Marcus Flint and Goyle in the attempt to sabotage Harry at the match, pretending to be a Dementor. He is given detention when they are caught, and has fifty points taken from Slytherin.
Crabbe accompanies Malfoy and Goyle to the Shrieking Shack. Along with the other two boys he is splattered with mud by an invisible Harry while Ron looks on in hysterics. While Crabbe is blundering around, trying to locate his attacker, one of his big feet gets caught in Harry's Cloak, revealing Harry's head. Along with Goyle and Malfoy, Crabbe runs back down the slope towards Hogsmeade at breakneck speed.
Crabbe attempts to pick up the white ferret, Draco Malfoy, after Professor Moody Transfigures him, but freezes when Moody notices through his magical eye.
Crabbe attends the Care of Magical Creatures lesson with his fellow Slytherin students. When the Blast-Ended Skrewts escape from their boxes and rampage over the pumpkin patch, Crabbe flees into Hagrid's cabin with the other students, barricading themselves in for safety.
Crabbe stands with Malfoy, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson outside the Potions classroom, sniggering heartily at the article about Harry's 'Secret Heartache' in Witch Weekly.
Crabbe stands behind Draco Malfoy in the doorway of Harry, Ron and Hermione's compartment on the Hogwarts Express. He leers at the trio as Draco taunts them about the events at the end of term. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle are hit simultaneously by several jinxes performed by Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George, and lie slumped, unconscious on the train floor. Crabbe is hit with a combination of the Jelly-Legs Jinx and the Furnunculus curse, which causes little tentacles to sprout all over his face.
Crabbe attends the Apparition lesson in the Great Hall. He and Goyle have a whispered argument with Draco Malfoy as the students assemble, which ends when Professor McGonagall tells Malfoy to pay attention. Crabbe continues his argument with Malfoy during the lesson, asking his friend how much longer his task will take. He and Goyle are angrily told to do as they are asked and keep a lookout for Malfoy.