Entrance to CoS (was Re: Hagrid - Basilisk)

[ken_kuller]

No: HPFGUIDX 41527

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "rosie" <crana at n...> wrote:
[Snip]
> I've been listening to CoS again, and one thing has struck me. The 
basilisk is described as being "thick as an oak trunk", right? 
Well... how big *are* the pipes at Hogwarts? and how did the basilisk 
come out of the pipes and Petrify people? Moaning Myrtle is logical - 
she died in the bathroom - and so is Mrs Norris (corridor outside the 
bathroom) but how did it manage to get in to Petrify the others? Were 
they all attacked in the same corridor? - I can't find any mention of 
this in canon.
> Ideas?
> 
> Rosie
> 

Harry Potter's world is both a magical one, and a fictional one. I'm 
sure the basilisk could have thinned itself to squeeze through a much 
narrower pipe if that was a necessary device for the story. But in 
this case, the pipe itself was expandable, providing the chamber's 
open/close mechanism. Harry didn't have to tickle a portrait or move 
a gargoyle aside; he had to expand a pipe. Remember: the entrance was 
somehow connected to a sink that didn't work.

Not all of the attacks occured in that one location. I do not know 
where Ginny was when she was abducted, but I'm pretty sure that 
Hermione was either in the library or had just left it when she was 
petrified. Collin and Nearly Headless Nick were both petrified while 
Harry was in the hospital; the location of their attack is unknown. I 
seem to recall that Justin Finch-Fletchley attack and (I think it was 
Penelope Clearwater) were both attacked in a corridor, presumably the 
one outside Myrtle's bathroom.

Moaning Myrtle was a clue that Harry was slow to pick up on. He never 
thought to ask her when and how she died until the answer became 
obvious.

Filtch must have suspected that he knew the location of the entrance 
to the Chamber of Secrets, because he was kept returning to the site 
of Mrs. Norris's attack. He stood vigil there whenever he was not 
otherwise occupied.

The clue that I picked up on, long before Harry put the pieces 
together, was the puddle of water in the corridor just outside 
Moaning Myrtile's bathroom. Faulkes helped Harry and Ginny out of the 
chamber. But, is it reasonable to assume that the basilisk needed 
some sort of push to make it through ... like water pressure?

Ken Kuller