Dumbledore and Basilisk

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 129

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, dorband at u... wrote:
> 
>    I'm puzzled about Dumbledore:
> 
> He himself tells Harry that he (Dumbledore) doesn't need a cloak 
> to be(come) invisible...

Whenever I read that scene, I wonder whether he meant that he used an 
invisibility spell, or whether he meant that he simply used the 
technique of being very still and quiet so as not to be noticed, or 
whether he meant that Harry hadn't even been looking anywhere except 
toward the mirror and would have missed noticing a college 
marching band playing Let's Get It On.
> 
> In CoS, Nagini slithers through the very heart of Hogwart's,
> presumably, having been there for Dumbledore's entire stint 
> as headmaster. 

People have already pointed out that Nagini is not the Basilisk. 
While the Basilisk had been there during Dumbledore's entire career 
at Hogwarts, it had been in some kind of suspended animation except 
when awakened by the Heir of Slytherin, and I don't blame Dumbledore 
for not knowing about an entity in suspended animation in a magically 
hidden chamber.

I have a problem with JKR's insistence on basilisk being a kind of 
snake. I thought basilisks were more like a dragon or a lizard (there 
IS a genus of lizard named basilisk here in Muggle-land). I recall 
very clearly that the cockatrice is hatched from an egg laid by a 
rooster and it is something like a toad body with chicken head and 
snake tail, and it has some terribly deadly attributes that I can't 
remember just now, and the basilisk is the offspring of the 
cockatrice and has all those deadly attributes plus another one, and 
a basilisk looks like a cockatrice except it has another head at the 
end of its tail. And I DON'T recall anything about spiders!

But I just went Web searching and everything I've found so far says 
that cockatrice and basilisk are the same creature. Here's the most 
interesting one, Encyclopedia Mythica:

The mythical king of the serpents. The basilisk, or cockatrice, is a 
creature that is born from a spherical, yolkless egg, laid during the 
days of Sirius (the Dog Star) by a seven-year-old rooster and hatched 
by a toad. 

The basilisk could have originated from the horned adder or hooded
cobra from India. Pliny the Elder described it simply as a snake with
a golden crown. By the Middle Ages, it had become a snake with
the head of a cock, and sometimes with the head a human. (snip) 

According to legend, there are two species of the creature. The first
kind burns everything it approaches, and the second kind can kill 
every living thing with a mere glance. Both species are so dreadful 
that their breath wilts vegetation and shatters stones. It was even 
believed that if a man on horseback should try to kill it with
a spear, the power of the poison conducted through the weapon would 
not only kill the rider, but the horse as well. The only way to kill 
a basilisk is by holding a mirror in front of its eyes, while 
avoiding to look directly at it. The moment the creature sees its own 
reflection, it will die of fright. 

However, even the basilisk has natural enemies. The weasel is immune 
to its glance and if it gets bitten it withdraws from the fight to 
eat some rue, the only plant that does not wither, and returns with 
renewed strength. A more dangerous enemy is the cock for should the 
basilisk hear it crow, it would die instantly. 

The carcass of a basilisk was often hung in houses to keep spiders 
away. It was also used in the temples of Apollo and Diana, where no 
swallow ever dared to enter. In heraldry the basilisk is represented 
as an animal with the head, torso and legs of a cock, the tongue of a 
snake and the wings of a bat. The snake-like rump ends in an 
arrowpoint. 

Interesting words: Sirius (first paragraph), weasel (paragraph four, 
but I suspect they *mean* mongoose), spider (paragraph five).

> we have Peter Pettigrew in the form of Scabbers within the walls of 
> Hogwart's.  And in GoF we have the whole fake Moody scenario, again 
> for the entire school year! 

I often mention that if Dumbledore were a D&D wizard with even half, 
even a quarter of the power level that we have been given to 
understand that Dumbledore has, he would have Detects (Detect Evil, 
Detect Illusion, Detect Disguise, etc) running constantly. Detects 
must be a hell of a lot more expensive in JKR's universe than in D&D 
universe. However, for all the years that Scabbers was a boring but 
good pet rat to Ron Weasley, Percy before him, and maybe Bill or 
Charlie before that (chronology!), the only Detect that would have 
detected him is Detect Transformed Being.