Better Out than In: Healthy and Unhealthy Desires in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Part 2

An unhealthy desire of Rubeus Hagrid might have had significantly more dramatic consequences. Hagrid, as he tells Harry, has always wanted a dragon (81). He gets the chance when he wins a dragon egg in a game of cards and hatches a Norwegian Ridgeback he names Norbert (289, 293). In the midst of his intense longing to be “mommy” to Norbert, Hagrid disregards his own safety and that of his friends (292). Although Hermione pointedly reminds the gamekeeper that he lives in a wooden house, Hagrid ignores the danger (290). 

When Norbert bites Ron with his poisonous little fangs, Hagrid tells Ron off for frightening the baby dragon (294). Hagrid, distraught over having to say goodbye to his “baby,” even allows Harry and Hermione to take the extreme risk of carrying Norbert to the top of the astronomy tower to smuggle the illegal dragon out of the country with Charlie Weasley's friends (298). Clearly Hagrid's dragon desire has clouded his judgment, turned his attention solidly onto himself, and nearly spelled disaster for the people closest to him.

Finally, the desires of Professor Quirinus Quirrell may be the most unhealthy of all. For most of the story, Quirrell appears to be working on the side of goodness, protecting the mysterious hidden object, resisting the threats of Snape. At the end, however, Quirrell shows his true colors and his true allegiance. “There is no good and evil,” he tells Harry, “there is only power, and those too weak to seek it” (361). 

Quirrell desires power, the kind of power he thinks he will obtain by serving Voldemort. Quirrell thinks of himself alone as he looks in the Mirror; he sees himself giving the Stone to Voldemort and thereby gaining the power he so desires (360). He cares about nothing but what he wants, and he is only too willing to kill Harry in the process. In the end, though, his desire proves more than merely unhealthy; it proves deadly as Voldemort abandons his unsuccessful servant and Quirrell's thirst for power melts in his burning body (367).