Choosing the Basilisk's Victims (was: Mrs. Norris)

[Audra1976 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 46739

Judy writes:
<<Presumably, Salazaar Slytherin's monster could attack muggleborns specifically. 
Furthermore, all of the petrified humans in CoS *were* muggleborn, and
this doesn't seem like it could be coincidence. So, there needs to be
some method to select specific victims, but I don't know what that would be>>

Now me:

The basilisk wasn't just wandering around the halls, randomly petrifying whoever was there.  It traveled in the pipes, so that when a muggleborn student was near it (and pretty much alone), it would emerge.  Now, the more specific questions is: Could the basilisk itself tell purebloods from muggleborns?  Possibly, it could have been trained to do so by Salazar Slytherin if that was, in fact, the basilisks purpose for being in the Chamber, and if there is actually a way to differentiate muggleborns and purebloods by scent or something.  So it may have just wandered through the pipes until it smelled a muggleborn and attacked.

Or did Tom Riddle just find out which students were muggleborn through Ginny, and tell the basilisk who to attack?  Colin is in her class and in her House. She knows Hermione pretty well too, and Penelope is her brother's girlfriend.  She could have mentioned in the diary that  they were muggleborn, or if she didn't mention it herself, Tom surely coaxed it out of her. She wouldn't have really known Justin Finch-Fletchley, being in a different House and a different year, but it's possible that she knew he was muggleborn.  Perhaps her brother mentioned that Justin was acting afraid of Harry because Harry knew he was muggleborn, and that's how Ginny found out, and was able to convey the information to Tom.

I believe Myrtle and Mrs. Norris were accidents.  They happened to be in or near the bathroom when the basilisk emerged, and before it crawled into the pipes.  Maybe Ginny knew about Filch being a squib, and Tom decided that was a good enough reason to hang the cat there with the message, but it doesn't really matter either way.  I don't know if Tom even realized that the basilisk had killed Myrtle.  If he noticed, why would he leave a dead body in the stall, rather than chucking it down into the Chamber or something?  He must have realized the implications of the body being found there, and that he might not get the chance to release the basilisk again to kill the non-purebloods that were probably on his list at the time.

Audra