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Chapter 15 HP

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76 views4 pages

Chapter 15 HP

Uploaded by

ella
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 15

Summary
Filch takes Harry, Hermione, and Ron to Professor McGonagall’s office to be punished. She
accuses them of concocting the whole dragon story to lure Malfoy out of bed and get him into
trouble. As punishment, McGonagall deducts fifty points from Gryffindor for each of the three
wrongdoers. Harry is horrified that his house will lose 150 points. When the bad news is
circulated the next morning, Harry quickly falls from his pedestal as Quidditch star. He considers
resigning from the Quidditch team, but Wood convinces him that doing so would be useless.

Harry resolves not to get involved in any more suspicious activities, but a week later he
overhears a conversation in which Quirrell appears to give in to someone, presumably Snape, as
if Snape is pressing him to do something. Harry and his friends try to figure out what to do, but
they cannot come up with a plan of action. Harry, Hermione, and Neville are told to report to
Hagrid that night for their detention. When they show up, they are surprised to find that detention
will be held in the surrounding Forbidden Forest. Malfoy, who has also been given detention,
objects to being forced outside like a servant.

Hagrid points to some traces of unicorn blood on the ground and explains that they will be going
into the forest to find out what has been harming the animals. They split up into two groups:
Harry and Hermione with Hagrid, Neville and Malfoy with Hagrid’s dog, Fang. They penetrate
deep into the forest. Harry sees signs that the other group is in trouble, but Hagrid discovers that
Malfoy has merely been playing tricks on Neville. Hagrid sends Harry off with Malfoy, taking
Neville along with himself. Harry and Malfoy come across a mysterious cloaked figure drinking
the blood of a recently killed unicorn. Malfoy and Fang run away, leaving Harry alone. A
centaur named Firenze rescues Harry and carries him back to Hagrid. On his way back, Harry
learns that the cloaked figure was Voldemort and that he was drinking unicorn blood to sustain
himself until he could obtain the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Analysis
Death makes a sudden and violent appearance in these chapters. The spectacle of the dying
unicorn that Harry glimpses in the forest is shocking not only because it is the first instance of
death that we actually witness, but also because the unicorn is a symbol of innocence and purity.
The murder of a unicorn, a harmless and delicate creature, displays death not as a natural process
in the cycle of life, but as something wrongful and horrid. The death appears to be even more
evil when we find out that the unicorn has died so that an evil being may live and that the wicked
Voldemort drinks the unicorn’s blood to sustain his own life while searching for immortality.
Voldemort has flown in to steal something that does not belong to him, as his name reminds us:
Vol de mort means either “flight of death” or “theft of death” in French. Both names suit the
unjust death he brings.

The spectacle of Voldemort’s exchange of death for life in the forest is important for Harry
personally because he is the only one who witnesses it. We are reminded of another, much earlier
moment of life and death in Harry’s experience, also spent in the presence of Voldemort: the
moment when Harry’s life was saved in infancy while Voldemort killed Harry’s parents. In
medieval Europe, the unicorn was often a symbol of pure and selfless womanhood. Like Harry’s
mother, the unicorn dies protecting her baby son, perhaps even giving up her life so that her baby
can live. Harry’s investigation of the Hogwarts mystery is bringing him closer to his parents,
unwittingly bringing their killer, Voldemort, to some sort of justice.

Chapter 15 Quick Quiz


Top of Form

1 of 5
How many points does McGonagall dock the three students for sneaking out at night?
 Ten each
 Twenty-five each
 Fifty each
 One-hundred-fifty each

2 of 5
Where do Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Draco serve their detention with Hagrid?
 In the library
 In the Forbidden Forest
 In the dungeon
 In the greenhouse

3 of 5
What substance has been spilled on the ground leading into the forest?
 Centaur blood
 Dog drool
 Unicorn blood
 Spider slime

4 of 5
Hagrid’s dog ___ accompanies the students while they search the forest.
 Bob
 Killer
 Cujo
 Fang

5 of 5
Who is Firenze?
1. A Hogwarts student
2. A centaur
3. A vagrant
4. A giant

Chapter 15
1. Why did Harry, Hermione, and Neville get detention? They were out at
night taking the dragon to the tallest tower and got caught. P. 243
2. Where did Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy go for detention? The
forbidden forest p. 249
3. What did Hagrid want them to find? A hurt unicorn p. 251
4. Who was drinking the unicorn’s blood? Voldemort p. 259

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