Unicorn horns

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90625

Sylvia:
But I'm still puzzled as to how they obtain the unicorn's horn
without harming the animal.  Do unicorns shed their horns? Or are
the
horns removed after the creature has died naturally?  I imagine
unicorns must be pretty rare, even in the WW so how do they obtain
sufficient horns for school-children to use in potion making?
 
Iggy:
 
Also, nobody said that they use the entire horn.  Looking through the
Forbidden Forest, you might find splinters of horn that have come off
when they were sharpening their horns or in fights, or even larger
chunks broken off in fights, challenges for dominance of the herd,
etc... You probably just have to know where to look.
Some people, like Hagrid, may even be able to get the unicorn to let
them "harvest" some of their horn material.  (Shaving a little off the
sides and end will allow the horn to retain its defensive and magical
abilities, and will also help keep the horn from getting so large as
to be troublesome... like a stag who's antlers have grown too large to
allow it to easily make it through thick foliage.)

Carol responds:
Although Hagrid seems to be an exception to the rule, JKR's unicorns
generally follow traditional mythology in being less afraid of girls
than boys (or women than men). (Professor Grubbly-Plank has the boys
stand back and the girls come forward.) Maybe Ollivander has a
granddaughter (Luna?) who calls the unicorns to her long enough for
him to pull out their tail hairs (but nothing worse) to make a wand.
As for horns, a unicorn might be willing to shed its horn into a young
girl's hand. She could then give it to an adult who needed it as a
potion ingredient. (Snape, of course, would buy his powdered unicorn
horn in Diagon Alley rather than relying on, say, Pansy Parkinson, to
help him obtain it.)

Unicorn blood, of course, is another matter, and would not be used 
in potions made by students--or by Snape. It can only be obtained as
Quirrelmort obtained it, by killing or wounding the unicorn to give
himself a cursed half life. (BTW, although some people on this list
blame Harry for Quirrell's death, I think it had more to do with
having drunk the unicorn blood. Once LV left him, he had only his own
accursed self. The burns Harry gave him (in self-defense) on his hands
and face probably were not fatal, but the unicorn blood, in
combination with being unpossessed, probably was.)

Carol