On the Basilisk's (and Tom's) victims

[alicit at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 46750

Ooh, it's my first post.  How special...

On Ginny as Tom's victim:

Audra says:
"...and Ginny, well, that was Lucius's fault for giving her the diary.  Tom 
had to leech from whoever was in possession of the diary to become human 
again."

I agree with this completely.  Lucius was probably looking for someone to 
give the book to (maybe intending to hide it in a school book in the store) 
when he encountered the Weasleys & co.  Maybe he wanted to stir things up 
Deatheater style, because he had no idea Voldemort eas about to come back 
(sort of like the group at the World Quidditch Cup did) or maybe he wanted to 
make his son's years at Hogwarts legendary for the eradication of the 
Muggle-born, or (which is most probable) Tom told him to return his book to 
Hogwarts.  

Anyway, I think that the choice of Ginny was not random or just Lucius being 
against the Weasleys.  Voldemort probably shared Lucius' contempt of 
Wizarding families who consorted with Muggles like Arthur Weasley does.  Is 
it not possible that Lucius was writing in the journal and told Tom about the 
Weasley family?  Maybe then Tom told him to give the book to one of the 
children, and might or may not have told him for what purpose.  

Which brings up another, really deep point.  If Tom can control the keepers 
of his diary without their knowing, could Lucius be partially truthful when 
he says that he was under the imperius curse when serving Voldemort? His 
actions after he gives the diary away are just underhanded, and none are 
truly evil.  Just some food for thought.

On The Basilisk's thoughts:

Gail B. says:
"My question is...Harry kept hearing the basilisk say 
"kill...tear...blood..." etc, but none of it's victims died.  Did it think 
that they had already died, and not just petrified?"

I'm under the impression that the Basilisk is not too smart.  He probably 
doesn't understnad concepts like "ethnic clensing" or "petrify," he just 
thinks about killing and eating, even if that is not what his real goal is.  
He's like an attack dog, he only listens to his master, Tom Riddle, and 
thinks that he's killing for food, when it's for other purposes, like attack 
dogs are trained to attack men who wear steaks on body pads.  

His "Kill... Tear... Blood" mantra might be something like a football psych.  
Or it cold just be how he speaks.  He might not know any more words, because 
he is not created to do more than petrify people.

Gail also asks:
"And why didn't the 
basilisk munch the people he petrified if it was talking about blood and 
stuff?"

Probably because of his training from Slytherin.  Going back to my attack dog 
analogy: after the dog brings down his attacker, he returns to his master to 
get a treat.  The basilisk was probably trained to leave the bodies behind by 
Slytherin.

On the subject of where a Basilisk comes from:

I saw the conversation about the relation between Basilisks and Cockatrice 
(cockatrices? how do you pluralize Cockatrice?) and looked it up in my 
_Larousse_Dictionary_of_World_Folklore._  On that subject, the dictionary 
combines the two into basically the same animal, the names coming from 
different stories.The intersting thing, though, was this part;

 "The sound of a cock crow is fatal to a basilisk, and its only other natural 
enemy is the weasel." (Larousse 52)  

Weasly reference, anyone?  This brought three theories directly to my mind:

a) Ginny and Ron's presence/actions lead to the defeat of the basilisk (ie. 
something they said, Ginny's warning Harry)  I'll review the book after I get 
my own copy (softcover, so I can write in it!) to see if I can see anything 
to support this.

b) (Least likely)  Harry, who defeats Tom's basilisk, is related to the 
Weasleys (sorry, H/G shippers)

b.5) Addendum: This just struck me.  It was Godric Gryffindor's sword that 
could defeat the basilisk, maybe Godrick is an ancestor to the Weasleys, and 
this is the connection.

c) (most likely) The Weasleys embody the thing that will destroy the Basilisk 
and all it represents.  They are good people, they see muggle-borns and 
pure-bloods as equals, and they are all around good guys.  The Basilisk is a 
thing of fear and a vessel for mass murder based on bigotry and hatred.  One 
of the only weapons we have against hatred, the basilisk, is kindness, like 
the Weasleys.

It could also have no significance, but that's no fun, now, is it?

Woah, pretty good for a first post! I'm so proud of myself, and here I 
thought I would have nothing to say.

-Scheherazade


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