Hanging Mrs. Norris

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 46766

I searched diligently through the archives and couldn't find this question 
discussed. If it has been, I apologize.

The discussion of the basilisk and its victims has reminded me of something 
I wondered when I finished reading CoS the first time (or maybe the 2nd 
or...). We know that Mrs. Norris has been petrified and we know that Nick 
has been petrified and that some students have been petrified. By the time 
we get to the end of the book, we know how each one managed to end up 
petrified rather than dead. All that makes sense.

What does not make sense to me is that Mrs. Norris is found *hanging*.  Am 
I misremembering that?  How did that happen? We learn that she no doubt 
became petrified (but not dead) because she did not look directly at the 
basilisk, but rather saw its reflection in the water that was on the floor. 
Okay. So did that happen before or after she was hanging on the wall? I'm 
not sure that matters so much as how she got up on that wall. I have to 
assume that she did not put herself up there nor could that have been part 
of the effect of looking at the basilisk. I mean no one else got stuck on a 
wall after encountering the basilisk. They ended up lying on the floor.

So could someone have hung Mrs. Norris on the wall for some reason and then 
Mrs. Norris, because of her position on the wall, saw the basilisk's 
reflection in the water? Or could she have been lying petrified on the 
floor and then someone hung her up afterwards? Who did it and why? That's 
never mentioned by anyone in the book, is it? If it is, I can't remember.
Any ideas?  (Or corrections)

Carol Bainbridge
(kaityf at jorsm.com)

http://www.lcag.org