Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Philosopher's Stone/Chapter 15
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Chapter 15 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The Forbidden Forest
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
When Filch hauls Hermione and Harry up before their head of house, Professor McGonagall, she already has Neville in front of her for being out and wandering the halls so late. Neville says he was on his way to warn Harry, which leads Professor McGonagall to believe that Harry and Hermione had made up this story about the dragon specifically to lure Draco out into the halls at midnight, in the hopes of getting him detention. She assigns detention for all three of them, and penalizes each of them fifty House points. (She had earlier penalized Malfoy twenty points and given him detention.) In one night, Harry has been involved in an action that bumped Gryffindor to the bottom of the standings in House points. He resolves not to get involved in anything else except schoolwork, and to avoid anything that might cost more House points.
Detention takes place about a week before exams. Filch meets Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Draco in the Entrance Hall, and takes them down to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid tells them that something in the Forbidden Forest has been killing unicorns, and tells them that they are going to separate into two parties, and follow the trails of unicorn blood from a wounded unicorn in hopes of finding what it is, and if necessary put the unicorn out of its misery. Hagrid, Harry, and Hermione will be one party, Draco and Neville, with Fang (Hagrid's boarhound), will be the other. They separate. Hagrid hears something unexpected, a sort of slithery sound, but can't find what caused it. Hagrid's party then meets with Ronan the centaur. Ronan makes a few remarks about astronomy, and the party is then joined by Bane, another centaur, who also comments on astronomy. Hagrid leaves the centaurs, then Hermione sees red wand sparks, and Hagrid runs off to investigate, leaving Harry and Hermione standing on the path.
It turns out Draco had frightened Neville, and he had panicked and sent up the sparks. Hagrid, figuring Harry would be harder to scare, re-groups Harry with Draco and Fang, taking Hermione and Neville. After about an hour, Harry and Draco find the unicorn, dead. Then they hear the slithery noise again, and a hooded figure appears and starts drinking the unicorn's blood. Malfoy and Fang run away. The hooded figure starts advancing on Harry, whose scar starts searing with pain.
A centaur appears and chases away the hooded figure. He introduces himself as Firenze, tells Harry that the forest is not a safe place for him, and offers him a ride back to Hagrid. Ronan and Bane gallop alongside, angry at Firenze for allowing a human to ride him "as if he were a common mule", and also for interfering with the portents of the heavens. Firenze departs with Harry, saying that he will fight the evil, even alongside humans if he must.
As they head back to Hagrid, Firenze explains that unicorn blood will keep you alive, "even if you are only an inch from death", but it will be a cursed sort of half-life. Harry wonders why that would be better than death. Firenze says maybe the hooded figure is waiting for something stronger, that will restore him to full life. Harry realizes that this means the Elixir of Life, a product of the Philosopher's Stone, and comes to the conclusion that the hooded creature is Voldemort, who is probably only somewhat alive, as Hagrid had said back in July. They reach Hagrid at this point, who lets the students return to the castle. Harry then tells Ron and Hermione what has been happening overnight, and they conclude that Voldemort is now just waiting for Professor Snape to get the Stone, and then will reappear to kill Harry.
There is one last surprise in the night: when Harry reaches his bed as dawn nears, he finds his Invisibility Cloak, neatly folded, with a note: "Just in case."
[edit] Analysis
In this chapter we have learned that it is quite likely that Voldemort is still alive, even if only just, and that he is taking measures to return to life. We are also introduced to the Centaurs who inhabit the forest, and get a taste of their feelings about humanity and Wizard-kind. In particular, we can see, even after exposure to only three centaurs, that there are clearly factions among them, those like Ronan and Bane who would have nothing to do with Humans, and those like Firenze who are willing to put aside their feelings about "inferior races" for the good of all involved.
This is also our first introduction to the Forbidden Forest and the creatures that live in it. We can guess at this point that the Forbidden Forest will play at least some role in the remainder of the story.
There is one other, small point of interest. Harry's Invisibility Cloak is returned to him by apparently the same person who had originally given it to him for Christmas. We recall that Harry and Hermione had left the Cloak on the top of the Astronomy Tower. The Astronomy Tower will be in fairly frequent use, as Astronomy students do their practical work there; it would be a reasonable assumption, in fact, that there would be a class up there every clear night. Wizards being subject to the same foibles as any other humans, we can safely guess that it is unlikely that the Cloak would have been returned to Harry if a student had found it. So whoever had found it must be an adult, one who is either commonly up on the Astronomy Tower during daylight, or else is singularly aware of everything passing in the school. The person in question must be a teacher, as no student would have been able to borrow the Cloak from Harry's father, but we cannot yet be certain which. We can, however, rule out Professor McGonagall, as Harry recognizes the handwriting as having been the same as on the initial note, and does not recognize it as hers, though a note from her accompanied his broom in September. While we, as readers, are beginning to suspect that the "oddly spiky" handwriting might be Professor Dumbledore's, Harry does not feel himself to be important enough to merit that level of attention from the school's Headmaster, and so dismisses the possibility.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
- Ronan and Bane both comment that Mars is shining brightly. Mars is the Roman god of war. Are these comments meant to foreshadow upcoming events in the wizarding world?
[edit] Greater Picture
We will shortly find out that the unidentified figure who is killing the unicorn is, in fact, Quirrell. The actions of Quirrell, who we will later find out is entirely under the control of Voldemort, show that Voldemort will stop at nothing to regain his power. He shows no remorse for killing the unicorn, and indeed, shows no remorse for any of his actions that lead to others' deaths. Given that his soul has been split into pieces and stored in horcruxes, Voldemort is not quite human. While his physical appearance in a later book would seem to bear out his lack of humanity, we should bear in mind that Voldemort's physical appearance is likely something that he chose himself: as the self-proclaimed heir of Slytherin, and thus with great affinity for snakes, Voldemort very likely has chosen to model himself physically on a snake. We will find out that he didn't always look like a snake, even after he had started creating Horcruxes.
