tidbits: fighting dragons, toads

[dorband at uwp.edu]

No: HPFGUIDX 18836


> 1 - When Harry was trying to outfly the Hungarian Horntail, she 
> wouldn't rise up and leave her eggs unprotected. What made her 
> finally take flight after him? 
> 
>    Harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of
>    exasperation. He was like a fly to her, a fly she was 
>    longing to swat; her tail thrashed again, but he was too high 
>    to reach now...She shot fire into the air, which he
>    dodged...Her jaws opened wide...
> 
>    "Come on," Harry hissed, swerving tantalizingly above her, 
>    "come on, come and get me...up you get now..."
> 
>    And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery 
>    wings at last, as wide as those of a small airplane - and 
>    Harry dived...
> 
> So what happened? Why did she finally decide to come up into the 
air? 
> My guess is that it's the same reason that Nagini obeys Voldemort 
and 
> the same reason that the Basilisk obeyed Tom Riddle and Salazar 
> Slytherin...and the same reason that the snake obeyed Harry at the 
> Dueling Club. That hissing Harry was doing was Parseltongue, 
although 
> he probably didn't even realize it. He ORDERED her into the air and 
> she obeyed. After all, when Harry was looking at the image of a 
snake 
> on the taps in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, he felt that he could only 
> speak Parseltongue when faced with a real snake, and the Horntail 
> look to Harry, just a few second before, like a snake weaving before 
> a charmer.
> 

Steve,
I like this explanation so much; I posited something similar back in 
August(8-26/8-27)when the following discussions took place:



From:  "Joywitch " <joym999 at a...>
                 Date:  Sat Aug 26, 2000  11:14 pm
                 Subject:  Re: Nagini/basilisk/snake ramblings

 <Brian wrote> > > As I read CoS, I didn't think that a basilisk was 
anthing other than > > a snake (I'd never heard the term 
*basilisk...<snip>

<Joywitch wrote>     > It is a snake in CoS.  I think JKR must have 
modified the  mythological basilisk to suit her purposes 

 According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English 
 Language, a basilisk is

  basilisk (bàs´e-lîsk´, bàz´-) noun
  1.      A legendary serpent or dragon with lethal breath and glance.
  2.      Any of various tropical American lizards of the genus 
          Basiliscus, characterized by a crest on the head, back, and 
          tail and the ability to run on the hind legs.

                 and a serpent is

                 serpent (sûr´pent) noun
                 1.      A reptile of the order Serpentes; a snake.

                 In other words a mythological basilisk is a snake or 
a dragon, and a real basilisk is a type of lizard.

<Brian wrote>
This may have been spoken of earlier regarding the serpent, basilisk 
and dragon; we know that in HP, at least, regular snakes (the boa)    
and basilisks of the serpentine variety speak/understand parseltongue. 
 We have no indication yet that the basilisks of the dragon variety 
 speak parseltongue.  Does it seem reasonable to suggest that it takes 
 so many highly trained wizards to control the dragons (in GoF)
because they're not communicating very well - in fact NO ONE in the 
wizard world communicates very well with the dragons, because the 
*dragons speak parseltongue*! Nagini will advise Voldemort of this and 
they will begin efforts to recruit the dragons to their evil cause!  
With Hagrid's(and Norbert's) help, Harry will convince the dragons to 
unite with the wizarding world to conquer Voldemort and 
 Nagini...We shall see the Battle of the Basilisks/Snakes/Dragons!!!!!

       

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Brooks R" <brooksar at i...> wrote:
                 > > because the *dragons 
                 > > speak parseltongue*!
                 > 
                 > Then why didn't Harry catch a hint of them 
screaming  "YOU !! STAY 'WAY FROM MY EGGS"?


                 LOL!!! That was funny!


                 Dragons seem too important, in a magical creature 
kinda way, to have a limited role.  They'll come into play before the 
end of this tale. Thanks for the laugh!


                

I still believe that dragons speak parseltongue; I like Steve's theory 
on how Harry "ordered" the dragon off of her eggs by speaking 
(subconsciously?) in parceltongue; I still believe that dragons will 
play a very important role.  

Brian 

PS - Very impressive resolution to the "Latin" debate. Nicely handled 
by all.  The level of civilized communication on this board is really 
something to behold.