Unicorn/Wizarding World

: Firenze: "Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"
: Harry Potter: "No. We’ve only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."
: — An important discussion regarding unicorn parts[src]
The horn of a unicorn had magical properties that made it a useful ingredient in potions, such as the Antidote to Common Poisons. In classical myths, unicorn horns had purification properties which were used to dissolve poisons. This could be why it was used in the Antidote to Common Poisons.
== History ==
There was a lively Muggle trade in unicorn horn, which they believed to have medicinal properties. However, most of these supposed horns were fake, and the few real ones that did pass into Muggle possession were useless to non-wizards.
In 1991, unicorn horns were sold at the Apothecary in Diagon Alley for twenty-one Galleons each.
In the 1991–1992 school year, first-year students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry used unicorn horn in their Potions classes.
They were also used as food additives, since Honeydukes Liquorice Wands were advertised as being free from them.
== Uses ==
* Antidote to Common Poisons
* Draught of Peace
* Oculus Potion
* Wiggenweld Potion
== Behind the scenes ==
* It is likely that under normal circumstances, horns are only taken from unicorns that have already died, since Firenze remarks that "it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn". It may also be possible that the horn can be taken without killing the unicorn, perhaps if they shed and regrow them much like deer do antlers, or that only a small part of the horn is taken from a living unicorn.
* During Medieval Times, Narwhal tusks, a single long, spiral tooth, predominantly grown by males, were believed by Europeans to be the horn of a unicorn. In addition to their value as curiosities, they were often made into cups in an attempt to take advantage of a unicorn horn's believed anti-poison properties. Because of this, northern traders like Norsemen could sell such tusks for many times their weight in gold.
: Firenze: "Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"
: Harry Potter: "No. We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."
: — A very serious question[src]
Unicorn hair was a powerful magical substance with a variety of uses, originating on the body of a unicorn. It could be used as the core of wands. It was frequently shed from the creature.
== Wandlore ==
Unicorn hair could be used in wand-making, as wand cores. Wands with these cores produced the most consistent magic, were least subject to fluctuations and blockages, were most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts, and were the most faithful of wands. However, they did not make the most powerful of wands (unless the wand wood compensated) and were prone to melancholy if mishandled. The wandmaker Garrick Ollivander made wands with unicorn hairs.
== Known uses ==
Unicorn tail hairs were also used in potions, though their exact uses and properties were unknown, although the Beautification Potion was known to contain them. This was commented on by Harry Potter during conversation with Firenze in the Forbidden Forest.
Rubeus Hagrid found that unicorn hairs could be used to bind bandages.
A recommended remedy for skin contact with Armadillo Bile Mixture was to wash the affected area with unicorn hair.
== Behind the scenes ==
* Unicorn hair is worth ten Galleons for each hair, according to Horace Slughorn. However, this may be inaccurate as he was drunk at the time, and a wand (which may contain such a hair) only costs seven. Although, as this seven Galleon price for a wand was established in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and unicorn hairs being ten Galleons was mentioned during Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is possible that there was an inflation in the price of unicorn hair during the intervening years. It is also possible the price difference between selling unicorn hair as raw material in comparison to an altered material as wand cores, and/or that a single hair may be long enough to be cut in two for use as two wand cores (most wands are 9 to 14 inches long, and obviously a core is always shorter than the whole wand).
: "The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."
: — Firenze informing Harry Potter about the nature of unicorn blood[src]
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Unicorn blood was a thick, silvery magical substance that ran within a unicorn's veins.
== Description ==
The blood of a unicorn could be drunk in order to keep a person alive. However, the act of slaying a unicorn would cause the drinker to suffer a cursed life, though the specifics of what this actually entailed were not well known. It was probably non-tradeable, since the sale of this substance was controlled by the British Ministry of Magic, making it strictly forbidden. Firenze and Harry Potter both believed that only those who had nothing to lose and everything to gain would dare drink unicorn blood.
Unicorn blood was an ingredient for a potion that creates a rudimentary body for a disembodied soul.
== History ==
: "Wormtail's body, of course, was ill adapted for possession, as all assumed him dead, and would attract far too much attention if noticed. However, he was the able-bodied servant I needed, and, poor wizard though he is, Wormtail was able to follow the instructions I gave him, which would return me to a rudimentary, weak body of my own, a body I would be able to inhabit while awaiting the essential ingredients for true rebirth... a spell or two of my own invention... a little help from my dear Nagini, a potion concocted from unicorn blood, and the snake venom Nagini provided... I was soon returned to an almost human form, and strong enough to travel."
: — Voldemort describes the rudimentary body potion[src]
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In 1992, Lord Voldemort used unicorn blood to sustain his life, until he could steal the Philosopher's Stone in order to regain his true body. As he was possessing Quirinus Quirrell and inhabiting his body at the time, Quirrell drank the blood on Voldemort's behalf. This was because Quirrell's body was dying as it is from sharing it with Voldemort's fragmented soul.
Late in the 1991–1992 school year, when Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Draco Malfoy were caught out of bounds, they were punished with detention in the Forbidden Forest. At the edge of the forest, they joined Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, who told them that a unicorn had been injured and that they were to search for it. Prior to splitting up the group, Hagrid pointed out the unicorn blood on the ground.
In 1994, Peter Pettigrew used unicorn blood along with Nagini's venom to create a potion which would create a temporary body for Voldemort, until he could regain his true body. It is unknown if producing such a potion and proceeding to use it (orally or otherwise) creates a similar curse upon the user's life. In Voldemort's case, his re-usage of unicorn blood (having indirectly consumed some two years prior) may have had a cumulative effect on the curse's potency. Voldemort's questionable degree of humanity, however, may have diluted, or even negated entirely, the efficacy of the curse.
* The unicorn was a creature that the ancient Greeks believed resided in India. Though commonly depicted in modern fantasy (as in Harry Potter) as being a horse with a single horn, unicorns in antiquity were also described as goats, wild donkeys, or some form of a hybrid creature. The concept of them being more comfortable with witches than wizards possibly stems from medieval beliefs that only a maiden could tame a unicorn. It also likely stems from how unicorns are often made to appeal to young girls.
* In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Voldemort tries to sneak up on the unicorn with a knife and fork, but is scared off by Firenze who shows him his fist. Hagrid then proceeds to care for the sick unicorn like a child.
* It is possible the author was inspired to place Unicorns within the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, based on the fact that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, where Hogwarts is located.
* The unicorn is one of the nine possible Patronus forms for Jacob's sibling. It can be achieved by having a higher Empathy stat or choosing the option "protect friends" and later, choosing "Equine" as the Patronus form.
: "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure and defenceless to save yourself, you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."
: — The properties of unicorn blood[src]
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The unicorn was a white horse with a horn sticking out of its head. An iconic creature of magic, the existence of unicorns was one of the worst-kept secrets of the wizarding world, as unicorns were inextricably associated with magic in the Muggle world.
These majestic equines possessed potent magical properties, with their tail hairs being used as the core of a wand and were designated by Garrick Ollivander as one of the "Supreme Cores", which was a distinction shared by only two other beasts.
A unicorn was one rare possible corporeal form of the Patronus Charm. Constance Pickering's Patronus took the form of a unicorn.
== Contents ==
* 1Description
* 2Uses
* 3History
* 4See also
* 5Behind the scenes
* 6Appearances
* 7Notes and references
== Description ==
Unicorn foals were born pure gold in colour. They remained so until they were about two years old, at which time they turned silver in colour. At around four years old, their horn grew in. They were fully grown at about seven years old, at which at this age they turned a shade of pure white that was so bright that it made freshly fallen snow looked grey in comparison.
Their hooves were golden (remaining so from their gold stage, the first two years of their life), and their blood was silver-blue and shone under the moonlight. It was not mentioned how long a Unicorn can live for.
Unicorns inhabited the forests of Europe, including the Forbidden Forest by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Unicorns preferred a woman's touch, but the young ones were more trusting and do not mind men as much. Unicorns are also so fleet of the hoof that they can rarely be caught by humans. They were also fast enough to outrun werewolves with absurd ease. Wandmakers such as the Ollivander family also plucked hairs from the tails of the creatures to use in wands as cores. Not aggressive without cause, but should be treated with great respect.
Unicorns were capable of moving faster than werewolves. During the detention in the Forbidden Forest in 1992, Harry asked if a werewolf could be killing the unicorns and Rubeus Hagrid replied that they were not fast enough to catch Unicorns.
Unicorns were considered pure and sacred creatures. Drinking their blood to preserve one’s life was considered a heinous and immoral crime.
== Uses ==
Various parts of the Unicorn — the horn and tail hair in particular — were used in potions. Unicorn hair in general was used for the cores of wands to wandmaking; they produce the most consistent magic, least subject to fluctuations and blockages, most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts and the most faithful of wands. However, they did not make the most powerful of wands and were prone to melancholy if mishandled, although the wand wood could compensate this. The Wandmaker Garrick Ollivander made wands with unicorn hair cores.
The tail hair could also be used as binding in bandages due to its incredible strength. The blood of a unicorn could be used to keep a person who was near death alive, thus granting the drinker immortality, but "you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips." Unicorn horn was often used as a common potion ingredient, in potions such as the Antidote to Common Poisons, Draught of Peace and Wiggenweld Potion.
The unicorn's single straight horn was used, in the Study of Ancient Runes, to symbolise the number one as a runic number symbol.
== History ==
: "The Unicorn was so brightly white that it made the snow all around look grey. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves, and throwing back its horned head."
: — Description of a majestic Unicorn in a 1995 Care of Magical Creatures lesson[src]
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Some time after its foundation in the First millennium A.D., two unicorns were used as the symbol for Hogsmeade village.
At some point before or during the 1986–1987 school year, Jacob's sibling met a unicorn at the Magical Creatures Reserve, and would often bond with and feed it.
Merula Snyde's mother owned a unicorn for a short period.
During the 1988–1989 school year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn taught fifth-year students in Care of Magical Creatures class how to handle unicorns.
During the 1989–1990 school year, Liz Tuttle was found keenly petting a unicorn in the Care of Magical Creatures paddock by Jacob's sibling. Professor Kettleburn remarked to Rubeus Hagrid that Liz was so focused on the unicorn that she would not overhear their conversation.
At least two unicorns were slain by Quirinus Quirrell so Lord Voldemort could drink their blood and return to power. Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and Fang found the corpse of one of them in the Forbidden Forest.
In 1995, fourth-year students at Hogwarts studied unicorns in their Care of Magical Creatures class, while Professor Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank was standing in for Hagrid.
Later, in the 1995–1996 school year, as part of the Ordinary Wizarding Level Care of Magical Creatures practical examination, students were required to choose from a wide selection of food the diet they would give a sick unicorn.
During the Calamity in the 2010s, several baby unicorn Foundables were being guarded by large, aggressive red snakes Confoundables, which appeared throughout the wizarding world. Volunteer members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force had to repel the giant serpents with the Exploding Charm to stun them and liberate the baby unicorns, allowing the Foundables to return to their rightful place.