The Forbidden Forest - summary

[katzefan at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25680

The Forbidden Forest

The first mention of the Forbidden Forest comes in PS/SS, when 
Dumbledore, in his welcoming speech, warns that it is forbidden 
for any students to go into it - with a particular look at Fred and 
George Weasley. Dumbledore doesn't offer any explanation as 
to why students should stay away from it.

The first time Harry goes into the forest is also in PS/SS. It's
a punishment, after he, Hermione, Draco and Neville are caught 
out of bed and wandering around well after curfew (they have just 
sent Baby Norbert off with Charlie Weasley's friends). The four 
are sent out with Hagrid to help find out what is killing unicorns. 

Initially Harry and Hermione set off with Hagrid, while Draco and 
Neville go with Fang.  Harry, Hermione and Hagrid meet two 
centaurs, Ronan and Bane, both of whom give very vague replies 
when Hagrid asks if they've seen anything strange in the forest 
lately.

Shortly afterwards, Draco frightens Neville, who sends up an 
alarm signal which brings the other three running. Hagrid then 
takes Neville and Hermione in one direction back into the forest, 
and Harry and Draco go in a different direction with Fang. Harry 
and Draco find the dead unicorn, and then see a hooded 
creature crawling along the forest floor. It creeps over to the dead 
unicorn and begins to drink its blood. Harry freezes; Draco 
screams and bolts; Fang also takes off. The hooded figure 
stares at Harry and begins to approach him when a third centaur 
- Firenze - comes bounding out of the bushes and rescues 
Harry. He tells Harry, "The forest is not safe at this time ... 
especially for you."

In CoS, Harry and Ron venture into the forest, following the 
spiders fleeing from Hogwarts, only to encounter Aragog and his 
family, giant spiders who live deep in the forest. Aragog was a 
`pet' of Hagrid's; he got the spider's egg from
someone while he was still a student at Hogwarts. When the 
Basilisk was loose, Hagrid smuggled Aragog out of the castle to 
safety in the forest, and later found him a wife, Mosag. They now 
have a large collection of offspring.

In GoF, Hagrid captures two unicorn foals, and - later in the book 
- Nifflers, all presumably from the forest, although this is not 
specifically stated. 

And while Harry is speaking to Viktor Krum near the forest, Barty 
Crouch Sr. stumbles out onto the Hogwarts grounds, apparently 
having travelled through the forest to reach the castle.

Questions

1) When Dumbledore warns all the students to stay away from 
the forest, he glances in particular at the Weasley twins, implying 
they are often caught venturing into the forest. Later Hagrid 
suggests the same thing, when he first meets Ron: "I spent half 
me life chasing yer twin brothers away from the forest." Do you 
think the forest is as dangerous as it is implied? If not, why does 
Dumbledore warn the students away from it? If so, how is it the 
Weasley twins have come to no harm?

2) Do you think it was responsible to send a group of first-year 
students out to help search for something so powerful and evil 
that it can kill unicorns - especially since they went out in two 
groups, one of which consisted only of two students and Fang 
(who, Hagrid warns, is a coward)? Do you think Dumbledore 
was aware of all this? If so, why would he allow it?

3) Do you think Hagrid's right when he says nothing in the forest 
will hurt the students if they are with him or with Fang? Why 
would this be so?

4) Why is it `especially' unsafe for Harry to be in the
forest 'at this time,' as Firenze says? How much do you think the 
centaurs - perhaps Firenze in particular - know about what is 
stalking the unicorns?

5) Do you think Draco had any idea that the creature creeping up 
to the dead unicorn was connected (literally) with Voldemort? Do 
you think he reported the incident to his father? If so, what do you 
think Lucius would have told him?

6) What other creature(s)s would you hope or expect to see in 
the forest, in the next book?