Snakes (was: tell me why... (about the Basilisk))

[Dave Hardenbrook]

No: HPFGUIDX 27578


Friday, October 12, 2001, 11:08:23 AM, you wrote:

bve> And how does the Heir of Slytherin control it?  By speaking
bve> Parseltongue.  So I was thinking that Harry could have just said,
bve> "hey 
bve> snake, don't kill me, go back into the statue".  I know, you might
bve> say 
bve> that the basilisk is not controlled by Parseltongue per say but only 
bve> by someone who is the Heir of Slytherin by blood, but that just does 
bve> not make much sense to me because how is the snake supposed to know, 
bve> really, what the DNA of the person is?  I personally think that 
bve> Parseltongue is the key to controlling the basilisk and Harry should 
bve> have tried to talk to it (of course, easy for me to say now). 

I thought of that too, but it's clear from the Basilisk's rhetoric
("Let me kill... Let me rip", &c.) that this beast is evil and
sadisitic, and I think what Dumbledore tells Fudge about the dementors
("They will not remain faithful to you... Voldemort will give them far more
scope for their pleasures") applies to the Basilisk too... It wasn't about
to take orders from some goody-goody who would force it to lead an honest
snake's life living on rats and pidgeons' eggs.

But how about Nagini?  What if Harry had tried to talk to her in the
graveyard?  What if he tries to talk to her the next time they cross
paths?  How solidly loyal is she to V?  Might she eventually be
swayed to the side of light?

-- 
Dave, who thinks Dumbledore needs to send Harry as envoy to the
       *snakes*, and also hopes the Brazilian Boa will return to
       help fight V.