Nagini/basilisk/snake ramblings

[badgers' kin]

No: HPFGUIDX 187

As I read CoS, I didn't think that a basilisk was anthing other than
a 
snake (I'd never heard the term *basilisk*, and since Tom Riddle was 
speaking Parseltongue to it, I just assumed that a basilisk = snake). 
 Further, I assumed that the basilisk in the Secret Chamber at 
Hogwarts had been slithering (slytherin) through the plumbing at 
Hogwarts for Dumbledore's entire tenor as Headmaster, perhaps even 
longer - perhaps since the beginning of Hogwarts when the Chamber was 
constructed by Salazar Sltherin. 

While the basilisk may not have been in the *plumbing* for all this 
time, it is strongly implied that the basilisk was the cause of 
Moaning Myrtle's death.  So the basilisk lived inside the Chamber of 
Secrets for "over a thousand years" (according to Prof. Binn, this is 
the age of Hogwarts), the Chamber having been built by Salazar 
Slytherin either initially or shortly after, at least before he "left 
the school".  I think it is safe to say that the basilisk - THIS 
basilisk - is the "horror within" that the Slytherin heir would 
unleash to "purge the school of all who were unworthy to study
magic." 
 This basilisk apparently only needs to eat once per millenium - come 
to think of it, it may not have to eat at all!  (Geez, having said 
that, I seem to recall some passage that proposed to explain how the 
thing could survive so long within a sealed chamber...do I recall
such 
a passage?...I look...I can't find anything, Hmmm.)

I guess the question is: what constitutes the opening and closing of 
the Chamber?  The first *opening* we have is the large pipe behind
the 
sink with the snake scratched into the copper tap.  *Opening #2 is
the 
Chamber proper: "...a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents 
were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting  emeralds."  Inside 
the Chamber is a statue of Salazar Slytherin, *opening* #3 is the 
mouth out of which the basilisk crawls.  Each of these three openings 
is accomplished by speaking parseltongue.  

Harry sees Tom Riddle as a *physical being* when he gets into the 
Chamber, but was Tom able to embody himself at will?  Or was Tom 
Riddle's diary able to speak?  Or did the diary enable Ginny to utter 
in parseltongue?  As always, the resolution of one question leads to 
the asking of many more.  

At any rate, I now know that the basilisk was NOT Nagini, and the boa 
constrictor that was let out of the cage is neither Nagini nor a 
basilisk...(although I'm still unclear as to why/how a basilisk 
responds to parseltongue if its not a snake?).

Hail Hufflepuff!!
the Badgers' Kin

P.S.  Really - I don't take this as seriously as it seems...really!!!