Firenze

Professor Firenze was a centaur, part of the Forbidden Forest centaur colony, and a Divination teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1996 to 1998.
In the 1990s, he lived with the colony in the Forbidden Forest, on the borders of Hogwarts in Scotland. In 1992, Firenze saved Harry Potter in the forest from Quirinus Quirrell, who was possessed by Lord Voldemort, forcing Quirrell to flee and carrying Harry on his back to safety. Despite his heroics, his herd saw this as a dishonourable act, as they considered themselves too great to be ridden by humans.
==Biography==
===Life with his herd===
On the night of 26 May 1992, Hagrid took Harry, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Draco Malfoy to their detention in the forest. Their task was to find out why unicorns were turning up mauled and dead. Harry and Draco later discovered a dead unicorn and a hooded figure (Quirinus Quirrell in disguise) drinking its blood. As Draco ran away, horrified, the hooded Quirrell turned to face Harry. The pain on his scar made him fall to his knees, but Firenze, coming across the scene, galloped forwards and charged at Quirrell before he could attack Harry, forcing him to flee. Harry found out afterwards, it was Lord Voldemort who, drinking the unicorns' blood while sharing Quirrell's body, tried to remain alive long enough so that he could drink the Elixir of Life and return to both his body and full strength.Realising how dangerous it would be to let Harry stay in the Forest, he let him on his back so that he could take him to safety. Bane and Ronan, two other centaurs from the colony, arrived there and, while Ronan said he was sure Firenze thought he had been acting for the best, Bane started yelling at him because he regarded it as a despicable action, because a centaur is not for humans to ride. Firenze was angered and, leaving both centaurs behind, carried Harry on his back to safety where he was reunited with Hermione, Neville, Draco and Hagrid.
==Physical appearance==
Firenze was a centaur with a palomino horse hindbody and blond human hair. He had blue eyes and looked younger than both Bane and Ronan.
==Personality and traits==
Firenze was a courageous centaur who was not as traditional or proud as most of his kind. Whereas most centaurs believed it was shameful to work alongside humans, Firenze was happy to allow Harry to ride him and became a teacher at Hogwarts.
Firenze was willing to stand up for what he believed in even if it meant defying his colony; unfortunately this resulted in him nearly being stomped to death by the other centaurs. However, after the Battle of Hogwarts, his colony acknowledged his ways as being honourable and welcomed him back.
He was friendly with Hagrid, and seemed to get on quite well with Harry Potter, who was on speaking terms with him unlike most students, who initially found him intimidating.
Like all centaurs, Firenze commonly tried to read the future in the stars, and Ron Weasley considered him to be a slightly better teacher than Sybill Trelawney, though he was still frustrated that Firenze seemed to be able to provide very little definite information.
==Magical abilities and skills==
*Divination: Being a centaur, Firenze was naturally gifted in divination. He taught the subject at Hogwarts from 1996-1998. Being a centaur, Firenze performed divination through observing planets, moons and stars, and had a low opinion of human divination, viewing it as nonsensical.
*Combat: Firenze was skilled in physical combat as he notably saved Harry Potter's life in the Forbidden Forest by charging at Quirinus Quirrell and forcing him to flee before he could attack Harry. This was especially notable as Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort at the time, which enhanced his magical powers, although Voldemort was also in a weakened form at the time. Despite getting injured in the first half of the battle, he also survived the Battle of Hogwarts with no fatal injury.
==Etymology==
*"Firenze" is the Italian name for the city of Florence. It is interesting to note that Galileo Galilei, one of history's greatest astronomers, lived out his final years there. Firenze's teaching of Divination deals with Astrology and Astronomy, as opposed to Trelawney's fortune-telling, hence this connection.
*The meaning of the name Firenze is Flower, Blossom.
==Behind the scenes==
*He is portrayed by Ray Fearon in , but does not appear in any of the later films.
*In the books, Firenze is said to have silver-blond hair and is even considered handsome by some students. In the Philosopher's Stone film, however, he has dark hair. He doesn't stay with Harry or let him ride on his back either, because Hagrid and the others appear straight away.
*It is possible that Firenze is based on the legend of Chiron, a centaur from Greek mythology who left his "wild and lusty" brethren to instead tutor heroes.
*In , Firenze is shown to have strikingly, almost glowing, amber eyes instead of blue eyes.
*Firenze is the fourth known professor to not be completely human, after Filius Flitwick (part-goblin), Remus Lupin (a werewolf), and Rubeus Hagrid (a half-giant).
==Appearances==
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