Basic Information
Location:	Hogwarts grounds, Highlands, Scotland, Great Britain
Point of Access:	Hogwarts grounds and beyond

Historical Information

Overview

The Forbidden Forest, also known as the Dark Forest, was a forest that bordered the edges of the grounds of Hogwarts. The forest spanned a considerable area and possibly extended beyond Hogwarts, as Bartemius Crouch Senior managed to enter the grounds by walking through the forest from somewhere outside.

The forest was thick with trees and undergrowth, but there were paths, brooks and clearings throughout the forest as well. It was also home to a wide and strange (and sometimes dangerous) assortment of creatures. Hagrid’s Hut was located at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, as he was the gamekeeper. Except for detention or occasional Care of Magical Creatures lessons, the forest is strictly off limits to students, as its name suggested.

Early History

Dating back to somewhere between the first millennium A.D. and the 19th century, the Forbidden Forest may have started out as a small wood tended by a herd of centaurs. Over the centuries since the inception of Hogwarts, quite a few students had disappeared in the forest.

As a large portion of the forest fell within the boundaries of the Hogwarts grounds, the groundskeeper of the school also had to deal with incidents in the forest as part of the job.

1990s

Fred and George Weasley showed a great interest in the forest, despite the efforts of Hagrid and Dumbledore to keep them out.

The Unicorn Case

In school year 1991-1992, Harry Potter secretly followed Severus Snape to the outskirts of the forest after a Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. He overheard a conversation about the Philosopher’s Stone between Snape and Quirrell, in which Snape threatened Quirrell to consider where his true loyalties lie.

After being caught out of bed at night by Minerva McGonagall, Harry, Hermione, Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom were given detentions. They were assigned to help Hagrid find and rescue a badly-injured unicorn in the Forbidden Forest. They split into two parties, and Harry and Draco found the dead unicorn. A hooded figure was seen drinking the blood from the corpse, and Draco screamed and fled. Harry was knocked out by the pain spreading from his scar. A Centaur called Firenze found him and offered to give him a ride back to the school after he regained consciousness. Firenze revealed to him that the figure was Voldemort, trying to regain strength by drinking the unicorn’s blood.

Visiting Aragog

In school year 1992-1993, the Chamber of Secrets was reopened, and Tom Riddle’s diary showed Harry a memory implying Hagrid had something to do with it. Harry and Ron went to visit Hagrid and ask him about his possible involvement in the last opening, but Hagrid was taken away by Lucius Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge before they could ask. He advised them to follow the spiders before having to leave. The next day, Harry spotted a stream of spiders heading to the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Ron followed the spiders into the forest and eventually arrived at the Acromantula colony in the forest, headed by Aragog, Hagrid’s pet 50 years ago. Aragog explained that he was not the monster that was set on other students, and that Hagrid was innocent, but he decided to keep Harry and Ron as dinner for his children rather than letting them leave. Fortunately, Mr. Weasley’s flying Ford Anglia blasted through the layers of spiders and rescued the boys.

With information from Aragog that the last victim was killed in a bathroom, Harry came to realize that Moaning Myrtle was probably the victim, and this helped him find the actual entrance to the chamber.

Peter Pettigrew’s escape & Sirius’s rescue

On 6 June 1994, Sirius Black took Ron and his rat Scabbers through the underground passage beneath the Whomping Willow and into the Shrieking Shack, in his Animagus form as a big black dog. Harry and Hermione followed them and attempted to rescue Ron. Remus Lupin noticed Peter Pettigrew’s name on the Marauder’s Map, despite him being believed to be murdered by Sirius long ago, and also headed to the shack to investigate.

The trio didn’t trust Sirius at first, and Harry believed that he was responsible for his parents’ death, but Lupin and Sirius convinced them to listen to the explanation. Finally the truth was revealed: Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew’s Animagus form. Sirius was not the traitor and murderer that everyone else believed all along. Rather, Peter Pettigrew was the one that betrayed James and Lily Potter to Voldemort, and he faked his own death to put the blame on Sirius. Pettigrew then disguised himself as a rat and lived with the Weasley family for 13 years. Also, Lupin turned out to be a werewolf and the Marauders became Animagi to accompany him during his transformation. During the confrontation, Severus Snape saw the Marauder’s map when delivering the Wolfsbane potion for Lupin and also entered the shack, hoping to capture Sirius, but he was disarmed and knocked out. Finally, the seven people left the shack together, hoping to clear Sirius’s name and bring Pettigrew to justice.

Unfortunately, it was the full moon, and Lupin had forgotten to take his Wolfsbane potion in a hurry to get to the shack. He transformed into an uncontrollable werewolf, and Sirius turned into his Animagus form to protect others. Pettigrew seized the opportunity, turned into a rat and ran away. Lupin injured Sirius and fled into the forest. Sirius, left injured by the lake, was surrounded by Dementors. Harry and Hermione tried to save him, but were both overwhelmed. Before he fainted, Harry saw a mysterious person cast a powerful Patronus that drove all the Dementors away.

Harry and Hermione woke up in the Hospital Wing, and they were informed that Sirius was captured and that the Dementor’s Kiss was to be performed on him as soon as possible. With Dumbledore’s hint, they used Hermione’s Time-Turner and went back in time to save Buckbeak the Hippogriff. They hid with Buckbeak in the forest to avoid being seen by their counterparts, then moved to Hagrid’s cabin for the transformed Lupin would be coming straight into the forest. Harry then left in the hope of seeing the Patronus caster, and eventually found out that he was the caster himself, and his Patronus was his father’s Animagus form, Prongs.

Eventually, they found the right timing and flew Buckbeak up to the window of Flitwick’s office where Sirius was being kept. Sirius thanked them before he flew off and went into hiding, and Harry and Hermione returned to the Hospital Wing just in time.

Triwizard Tournament

In the 1994-1995 school year, the Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts. Dragons were imported for the champions to overcome as the first task, and they were kept and maintained in the Forbidden Forest to stop students from discovering them. However, Olympe Maxime and Igor Karkaroff both saw the dragons and informed their champions from their respective schools. Harry was invited by Hagrid to see the dragons under his Invisibility Cloak, and later told Cedric Diggory about the dragons to ensure the fairness of the first task.

Near the end of the Tournament, the champions were informed that the third task would be a maze filled with obstacles. After that, Viktor Krum asked to speak to Harry alone about his relationship with Hermione. However, as they moved away from the Quidditch pitch, they saw Barty Crouch Snr emerging from the forest, seemingly out of his mind. Crouch would talk to trees about his son, then abruptly regain sanity and ask for Dumbledore.

Harry asked Krum to keep an eye on Crouch and left to get Dumbledore, but was held up by Snape briefly in the process. When Harry returned with Dumbledore, they found that Krum was stunned and Crouch disappeared. Later, it turned out that his son, Barty Crouch Jnr, disguised as Alastor Moody at that time, saw his father entering the grounds on the Marauder’s Map and murdered him before Dumbledore arrived. He stunned Krum in the process, and hid the body with Moody’s Invisibility Cloak. Later, he returned to transfigure his father’s body into a bone and buried it in the forest near Hagrid’s pumpkin patch.

Second Wizarding War

In the 1995-1996 school year, Hagrid’s first Care of Magical Creatures lesson inspected by Dolores Umbridge took place in the forest, as it involved mysterious creatures called Thestrals, and their natural habitat was the forest.

Hagrid and Madame Maxime were asked by Dumbledore to visit giant tribes and try to bring them over as allies against Voldemort, as they were both half-giants. The mission was not very successful, but Hagrid did find his half-brother “Grawp” and brought him back to Hogwarts to protect him. He kept him deeply hidden in the Forbidden Forest, and regularly visited him throughout the year in an attempt to teach him manners and English, only emerging with suspicious injuries that he refused to explain to the trio.

After Dumbledore confronted the Ministry and left the school, Hagrid knew that he might be banished from the school any time, for Umbridge hated half-breeds like him. During the final game of the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup, when Ron was playing as the goalkeeper of Gryffindor, Hagrid secretly brought Harry and Hermione into the forest and showed Grawp to them. He asked them to keep Grawp company should he be forced off the school grounds, which they reluctantly agreed in the end.

In 1996, Harry was shown the false vision of Sirius being held and tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. He broke into Umbridge’s office in desperation, hoping to check on Sirius via the Floo Network, but he and other members of Dumbledore’s Army were caught. Umbridge was about to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry to force him to reveal what exactly he’d been trying to do when Hermione came up with the idea and claimed that they were trying to contact Dumbledore for a secret powerful weapon hidden in the forest. In fact, she planned to lead her into the forest and get rid of her with the help from magical creatures.

Hermione led Harry and Umbridge into the forest until they encountered a herd of centaurs. Umbridge foolishly insulted them and attempted to use magic against them, so she was overpowered and got carried off into the woods. However, the centaurs were not happy with Hermione and Harry either. They failed to talk their way out of it, accidentally angering the centaurs even more. Grawp crashed onto the scene just in time, and they were able to escape the centaur’s anger amidst the chaos caused by Grawp. Later, they were joined by Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna in the forest, who overpowered the Inquisitorial Squad and escaped from Umbridge’s office. They decided to take Thestrals to the Ministry and find Sirius.

Private enclosure

In February 1997, as Hagrid was coming out of the forest one day, he overheard Snape and Dumbledore arguing over something, involving Snape saying he didn’t want to do something any more, but Dumbledore argued that he had already promised to do that. He let slip of this to Harry. Harry later found out that the “something” Snape said he didn’t want to do involved helping Draco Malfoy fulfill the task assigned by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore.

Battle of Hogwarts

Towards the end of 1997, the trio were camping outside during their search for Voldemort’s Horcruxes when they overheard a group of runaways (including Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, and goblins Griphook and Gornuk) discussing Ginny, Neville and Luna getting caught trying to steal Godric Gryffindor’s Sword from Snape’s office. They served detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest.

On 2 May 1998, the Battle of Hogwarts commenced. The Forbidden Forest served as temporary headquarters for Voldemort and his followers. A horde of Acromantulas, driven out of their own habitats, emerged from the forest and entered the castle, attacking everyone.

When Harry later learned that he had to die for Voldemort to regain mortality from Snape’s memory, he headed alone into the forest. He used the Resurrection Stone to call his parents, Lupin and Sirius to give him strength to do what he had to do and face Voldemort for what he believed would be the last time. The Stone was dropped somewhere near the Acromantula’s hollow in the forest, and was later pressed into the ground by the hoof of centaurs joining the battle. It was buried and was likely never to be found again, and Harry had no intention whatsoever to ever go looking for it.

Harry approached Voldemort prepared for death, and did not defend himself when Voldemort struck him with the Killing Curse. However, he did not die, but was temporarily in limbo, and eventually woke up on the forest floor. Believing he was finally dead, Voldemort and his Death Eaters took Harry’s “body” out of the forest and back to Hogwarts.

Credits/References

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Written by Erland Lundberg
Base code by Andrew Sutherland, edited by Iselin Merilä and Desmond Gray.