Mrs. Norris

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 46732

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "vincentjh" <vincentjh at y...> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> Why's Mrs. Norris petrified(sp.)? Why petrify a cat? Is she a threat 
> to the plan? 
> 
> It's puzzled me since my first reading. And I still cannot find a 
> suitable explanation for that. Any idea?
> 
> VJH

bboy_mn speculates:

I don't think the basilisk specifically sought out Mrs. Norris. There
was nothing special about the cat. The basilisk was probably under
orders to kill some one/thing, and the cat just happened to be the
thing it encountered. To Riddle, that was sufficient to send a message
to the school that the Chamber had been open. So, he had Ginny hang
the cat and painted the message.

The Basilisk seems to have consistently roamed the castle until it
encountered someone, then by nature or on order from Riddle, returned
 to the Chamber after the first encounter of that roaming of the school.

At some point, my memory isn't too fresh, Riddle's goal was to entice
Harry into the Chamber. So any basilisk roamings were simply to keep
Harry searching for the entrance to the Chamber. 

As a side note: I don't think seeing a basilisks eyes will kill you.
You have to be held in it's gaze. In other words, it has to look right
at you. Possibly, you even have to look at each other; your gazes have
to lock together. This explains how Riddle could keep his eyes open
and control the basilisk. He probably ordered it to never look at him. 

Just a thought that came to me while I was thinking about this post.

bboy_mn