7/11

7/11 Harry Potter takes another familiar unicorn idea, the value of its magical body, and makes the method of obtaining that value matter. Unicorn hair can be used in wand-making. Drinking unicorn blood can keep someone alive when they are close to death, but it comes with a cursed half-life. The Forbidden Forest material in Philosopher's Stone makes that distinction disturbing. A unicorn is harmed so that someone else can continue living. The story makes the cost part of the magic instead of treating the blood as an ordinary ingredient that happens to be difficult to obtain. That is an especially clear comparison with Grimm #43. Both put a unicorn in danger because other characters see something they can get from it. The exact magic and consequences belong to their separate universes, but the ethical problem is recognizable in both. The important question becomes what someone believes their own survival or ambition entitles them to do. A creature can be valued enormously and still be treated terribly. In this kind of story, the willingness to pay any price often means someone else is the one paying it.