Highlights
- Voldemort’s concern of dying drives him to go to excessive lengths to keep away from it, comparable to splitting his soul and ingesting unicorn blood.
- Unicorn blood is extremely invaluable within the wizarding world as a result of it could possibly grant immortality, however at a horrible price.
- Voldemort depends on unicorn blood to maintain his weakened kind and regain energy, exhibiting his desperation to cling to life.
In an interview in 2005, Harry Potter creator J.Ok. Rowling defined {that a} character as fearsome and evil as Voldemort is guided by a really human concern on the core: “Voldemort’s concern is dying, ignominious dying. He thinks that it’s a shameful human weak point, as you understand.” That is demonstrated all through the collection, when he goes to nice lengths to extend his life and even turn out to be immortal. From splitting his soul into seven items to buying the Elder Wand, Voldemort “went past regular evil” to realize energy and, therefore, conquer dying.
Though dying is a distinguished theme within the Harry Potter collection, it solely makes a quick (but sudden and disturbing) look within the first installment. After Lily Potter sacrifices her life to avoid wasting her son, Voldemort’s Killing Curse rebounds and seemingly obliterates his physique. He spends the following decade in a kind that’s “lower than spirit, lower than the meanest ghost”, till he lastly meets Quirinus Quirrell in Albania, who may also help him restore his physique. That is the primary time Voldemort is seen dishonest dying, and the truth that he depends on unicorn blood to protect his life units up the story’s theme of how reaching immortality comes with undesirable penalties.
What Does Unicorn Blood Do?
In accordance with Improbable Beasts and The place to Discover Them, unicorns are one of many worst-kept secrets and techniques of the wizarding world as they’re generally related to magic within the Muggle world. Just like how they’re usually depicted in fashionable fantasy, unicorns within the Harry Potter lore are described as pure and highly effective creatures. They possess potent magical properties: the hair from their tail has been named as one of many ‘Supreme Cores’ of wands by the famed wand-maker, Garrick Ollivander, and their horn is usually used as an ingredient in sure potions (such because the Antidote to Frequent Poisons). The blood of a unicorn, nevertheless, is much extra invaluable — which is why slaying a unicorn is taken into account a “monstrous” act. Thick and silver-blue in shade, a unicorn’s blood can grant one immortality, even when they’re “an inch from dying”. Nonetheless, because the drinker has killed a defenseless creature for this function, they are going to be pressured to reside “a half-life, a cursed life”, from the second the unicorn’s blood touches their lips. Whereas it’s unclear what this entails, the severity of the repercussions is continually highlighted within the collection: “The blood of a unicorn will maintain you alive […] however at a horrible worth.”
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fireplace, the Demise Eater Peter Pettigrew additionally makes use of unicorn blood (together with venom from Nagini, Voldemort’s snake) to concoct a potion that will create a rudimentary physique for his grasp’s dismembered soul, enabling him to journey and carry out magic to some extent till he totally regains his powers. Voldemort’s “virtually human kind” has the form of a “crouched human little one”, however with a snake-like face, crimson eyes, and scaly, reddish-black pores and skin. As that is an oblique use of unicorn blood, it’s unclear whether or not it has the identical repercussions as consuming it instantly (though that’s more likely to be the case).
Why Does Voldemort Drink Unicorn Blood?
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Nicolas Flamel asks his buddy Albus Dumbledore to cover the ruby-red Sorcerer’s Stone at Hogwarts Faculty of Witchcraft and Wizardry for security. A weak Voldemort, whose fragmented soul has latched onto Professor Quirrell’s physique, spends your entire faculty 12 months trying to steal the stone so he may create the Elixir of Life and, thus, attain immortality. Within the meantime, nevertheless, he orders Quirrell to kill unicorns and drink their blood so he may acquire power and energy.
When Harry, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy are despatched to the Forbidden Forest one night time (as detention), they accompany Rubeus Hagrid in his seek for an injured unicorn as traces of its spilled blood have been noticed. Hagrid additionally shares with the scholars that he found a lifeless unicorn only a week earlier, which suggests “there’s one thing dangerous unfastened on this forest”. The group splits into two, and Harry and Draco ultimately come across a hooded determine (Quirrell/Voldemort) ingesting blood from a unicorn’s corpse. Simply because the determine advances in direction of Harry, a centaur named Firenze arrives, inflicting him to flee. When Firenze explains to Harry afterward that “just one who has nothing to lose, and every thing to realize, would commit such a criminal offense”, Harry questions who could possibly be that determined: “Should you’re going to be cursed perpetually, dying’s higher, isn’t it?” Nonetheless, as Firenze reminds him, solely Voldemort, who has all the time “clung to life”, will be able to such an act. Having created a number of Horcruxes, his soul is unable to maintain itself — plus taking up his physique drastically weakens Quirrell too. Therefore, they resort to preying on creatures as sacred as unicorns for survival.
