Hairy Heart

The Heart of a handsome, skilled, and rich young Warlock was cut out of his body and placed in an enchanted casket. During the heart's long incarceration away from the Warlock's body, it grew shriveled, shrunken, and covered with black hair. This also symbolizes the warlock's own descent into beasthood due to his attempts to live without love.

Early history
A young Warlock was embarrassed to see his friends falling in love and considered the act foolish and weak. He decided that he never wanted to fall victim to love, and secretly used Dark magic to cut out his heart.

He lived on, seeming content with his lack of emotion, not even mourning when his parents passed away. After their deaths, he moved into their home and transferred his heart, his "greatest treasure," to the dungeon. Believing in the perfection of his solitude, he was shocked to overhear one of his servants pitying him, and another thinking it funny he didn't have a wife. He decided he would go out and find the most beautiful, talented, wealthy and all-around enviable young woman to be his bride.

Interaction with the maiden
The very next day, the young Warlock had the fortune of meeting the perfect woman. He began pursuing her, convincing all of his friends that he had changed. She was both "fascinated and repelled" by him, and agreed to attend a feast at his home. While at the feast, the maiden asked the Warlock for proof that he had a heart. He took her down into the dungeon and showed her the magic crystal casket that held his beating heart. The woman was horrified at the sight of it, as it had grown hairy and shrunken as a result of its separation from the Warlock's body. She begged him to replace the heart within himself, so he sliced his chest open with his wand and placed his heart back into his chest. As the woman embraced him, his heart, which had grown blind and perverse, took savage action against the young woman and killed her.

Trying to get a real heart
When the rest of the guests went looking for the Warlock, they found him in the dungeon, crouched over maiden's lifeless body, caressing her heart. He attempted to take her heart for his own, but his heart was too strong and would not leave his body. Determined never to be mastered by his heart again, he cut it out of his chest, and fell over the maiden's body, dead.

Behind the scenes

 * In the modern wizarding world, to say that someone has a "hairy heart" means that they are an unfeeling person.
 * The act of the wizard cutting out his own heart and preserving both it and his own life is considered a piece of dark magic impossible outside of the storybook, and is comparable to a horcrux in concept.

Appearances

 * The Tales of Beedle the Bard (real)
 * The Tales of Beedle the Bard