S l o w Villains, CoS version (was PDWDWTSAFAB)

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25295

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Barb wrote:
>  
> > > In CoS, it took Ginny writing in the diary for months before Tom 
> > > Riddle's memory became strong enough to emerge from the book.  Her 
> > > writing in it produced a cumulative effect.
> 
> Pippin wrote:
> 
> > 	Once again, Ginny recovers the diary on May 7. She's 
> completely in 
> > Riddle's power, because there's another attack on May 8. But Riddle 
> > doesn't bring her to the Chamber until May 29.
> > 	(Dates from the Harry Potter Lexicon, except May 7, mine)
> 
> Ginny has been in Riddle's power for a long time if you go by the 
> attacks.  If that plus the diary's being in her possession were all he 
> needed, he could have brought her on May 8.  But he also needs to 
> convince her to come to the Chamber despite her struggles, and he 
> wants to kill Harry, and for that those things he needs his full 
> strength.  We have no way of judging how long he needs to keep her 
> writing before he can extract that much power from her.
>
	I wasn't clear above. Tom doesn't need to be out of the diary to 
get Ginny to the chamber or to attack Harry, since he can use the 
basilisk. Tom's been bringing Ginny to the Chamber ever since 
Halloween. She opened the Chamber of Secrets then. She opened it again, 
after she recovered the diary, to attack Hermione, and then she 
returned the basilisk to its den. 
	 To make your explanation work, you would have to assume that 
Riddle had enough power to make Ginny attack Hermione, but not enough 
to  make her write a farewell message on the walls or stay in the 
chamber after she returned the basilisk. Possible, but not plausible, 
IMO. 
	I love the endings of all the books, and the way Rowling jams as 
many twists and turns into them as she does, but she does have a habit 
of twisting the long arm of coincidence to make the term and the 
adventure end at the same time. 
Pippin