Firenze

Firenze

Alias: None

Age: Unknown, but he appears to be younger than fellow centaurs Ronan and Bane.

Special Abilities: A centaur, Firenze has all the special abilities of his kind. Enigmatic and prideful creatures, centaurs are stargazers. They read the movement of the planets and discern the future from the clues that are hidden there. Firenze trusts humans far more than the other centaurs, yet he still considers the intricacies of centaur knowledge to be far beyond mere human intellectual capacity.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Firenze is a centaur. He has the head and torso of a man and the body of a horse. Firenze is younger than other prominent members of the herd of centaurs that live in the Forbidden Forest. He has white-blond hair, a palomino body, and astonishingly blue eyes that look like pale sapphires. Firenze shares the deep sense of pride inherent to all his kind, but he is far more trusting of humans than the other centaurs. According to several of the female students at Hogwarts, particularly Parvati Patil, Firenze is "gorgeous," but he is quite uninterested in the admiration of humans (OotP, p 599).

Heritage: Centaur

Family: Firenze's family is the herd of centaurs that live in the Forbidden Forest. He was banished from his herd in early 1996 when he agreed to teach at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

First Mention: Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, chapter fifteen

First Appearance: Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, chapter fifteen

General: Before 1996, Firenze lived in the Forbidden Forest with the rest of his herd. It was in this forest that he first met Harry Potter during the 1991-1992 school year. Firenze saved Harry's life when Voldemort, who was possessing Professor Quirrell, attacked Harry. After frightening away Voldemort, Firenze helped Harry onto his back and carried him into a safer part of the Forest. Along the way they met Bane and Ronan, two other centaurs, who rebuked Firenze both for having Harry on his back and for helping humans when the centaurs had "sworn not to set [themselves] against the heavens" (SS/PS, pg. 257). Angered, Firenze told them he would do whatever he could to work against Voldemort, even if that meant aligning himself with humans. He then continued on, Harry still on his back, leaving the other centaurs behind.

As Firenze carried Harry to safety, he told Harry about the uses of unicorn blood, as well as the penalties involved with harming something so magical and pure. He also warned Harry that the Forest was not a safe place for him, alluding to Voldemort's presence and the same impending dangers of which Ronan and Bane had spoken. Firenze only left once Harry was safely with Hagrid again, wishing Harry well and saying "the planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this in one of those times" (SS/PS, pg. 259). Firenze, like Ronan and Bane, had clearly read something in the planetary movements that alluded to Harry and Voldemort, as well as an impending period of danger and unrest in the wizarding world. Firenze never elaborated on what he had seen, so the precise predictions of the centaurs remain a matter of speculation.

In early 1996, Firenze left his home in the Forbidden Forest to teach Divination at Hogwarts. He was offered the position when Professor Umbridge fired the previous Divination teacher, Sibyll Trelawney. Firenze accepted the position as a favor to Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, but doing so earned him the hatred of his herd. After learning of the agreement, the herd attacked Firenze and would have killed him had Hagrid not intervened. Although the herd conceded and let Firenze live, he was banished from them and barred from ever reentering the Forbidden Forest on penalty of death.

Firenze was grateful for Hagrid's intervention and in return gave Harry a warning to pass on to Hagrid: "His attempt is not working. He would be better to abandon it" (SS/PS, pg. 604). Firenze was, of course, referring to Grawp and Hagrid's attempts to civilize him. Hagrid was not pleased with the advice and chose to ignore it.

Firenze was a peculiar teacher at best. He taught in classroom eleven on the ground floor of Hogwarts. Dumbledore transformed this classroom to look like the Forbidden Forest so Firenze would feel more at home while in it. Firenze did not teach Divination even remotely the same way Professor Trelawney had. Instead, he spoke of centaur knowledge and the fallibility of human forms of divination. He pointed out various planets and told the class about different herbs that could be burned to aid in deciphering the future, but he was rather unconcerned by the class's inability to see any of the signs he described. He informed the class that the trials of everyday life were far too trivial to be foretold in the stars; only large-scale events could be properly predicted, and even then nothing was certain. According to Firenze, humans are seldom able to predict the future and even centaurs have been known to misread the signs.

At the end of the 1995-1996 school year, Umbridge was driven away from Hogwarts, allowing Professor Dumbledore to return to his post as Hogwarts Headmaster. With Dumbledore's return to the school, Professor Trelawney was reinstated as Divination teacher. Since Firenze was unable to return to his herd or his former home in the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore allowed him to stay at Hogwarts and share the Divination post with Professor Trelawney. The two of them split the Divination classes during the 1996-1997 school year, each teaching students from different years. Trelawney was highly affronted by this situation, referring to Firenze as "the usurping nag" and loudly questioning his skills as a seer (HBP, pg. 426). Firenze did not seem to mind the circumstances of his tenure at Hogwarts, though according to Trelawney he did find her and her abilities "comical" (HBP, p 544).

At the end of the 1996-1997 school year, Firenze was one of the mourners to attend the funeral of Albus Dumbledore. While his herd paid tribute to Dumbledore's memory from the border of the Forbidden Forest, Firenze stood "like a sentinel near the…edge" of the Hogwarts lake (HBP, pg. 642). At the mere sight of him, Dolores Umbridge stayed far to the back of the mourners. It is unknown whether or not Firenze will remain at Hogwarts after Dumbledore's death. He is still unwelcome in the Forbidden Forest, but whether the new Headmaster or Headmistress of Hogwarts will allow him to teach is open for debate.

In the Muggle world, Firenze is the Italian name for Florence, Italy. Florence, or Firenze, is the final resting place of renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei. Given the stargazing nature of the centaurs and the general lack of coincidence in JK Rowling's books, it is possible that Rowling chose to name the helpful centaur "Firenze" for this reason.