Avada Kedavra, Ginny & Tom Riddle, and various basilisk things

ashfaex ashfae at technicaldetails.org
Tue Nov 19 04:12:16 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 46769

First post by me. *gryn* Nice to meet y'all.

Regarding Avada Kedavra:

From: Chocobo
>>Well, I don't know anything for sure here, just guessing...  it does
>>seem like that spell (some kind of explosion) does have a stronger
>>effect, but maybe it also has some drawbacks to it. Maybe a spell
>>with such a big effect takes a long time to set up, maybe it's hard
>>to aim the effects, maybe it's easy to avoid if you're a wizard. AK
>>is instant death and can be done quickly, so that could definitely
be >>more dangerous.

I suspect that the reason Avada Kedavra is one of the Unforgivable
Curses is because it's unblockable (unless you're Harry Potter). Other
curses could cause death, but they would probably do so in an indirect
manner, and indirect things have a chance of being blocked. For
example, if a wizard casts a spell to call lightning down upon another
wizard, the second wizard theoretically has a chance of shielding or
protecting himself somehow. Peter Pettigrew's notorious curse was
probably such an indirect spell; I don't think it was ever made clear
if he actually blow up the water main, or if that was a story told to
appease the Muggles. But regardless, there would at least be a chance
to shield oneself, through a magical shield or Apparation or somesuch.
Avada Kedavra offers no chance for such protection; essentially the
wizard casting the spell is pointing at you and stating "Die!", and
the next instant, you do. (this is of course just a theory, but it
seems to hold water)


Regarding Ginny:

From: Audra
>>Of course, this could be one of the important clues JKR refers to in
>>CoS.  Pre-Voldemort Tom Riddle has transferred some of his power to
>>Ginny, just as Voldemort transferred some of his power to Harry.
This >>means Ginny and Harry now both have increased magic ability and
Tom >>Riddle/Voldemort's special talents.

While I agree that Tom Riddle must have transferred some of his powers
and abilities into Ginny in order for Ginny to open the Chamber of
Secrets/control the basilisk/etc, I think it unlikely that she retains
any such abilities now. Tom was feeding off of Ginny's soul, using the
book, and this was killing her; but when the book was destroyed, all
the "soul" (for lack of a better word) that had been transferred from
Ginny into Tom was returned to her. It's logical that any powers she
gained from Tom would have been destroyed along with the book. The
Harry/Voldemort scenario is not quite comparable; first of all because
Tom Riddle was only a memory, whereas Voldemort was alive and kicking;
and second of all because the Tom Riddle memory was completely
destroyed, and Voldemort is _still_ alive and kicking. (it would be
interesting if, when Voldemort is ultimately and finally destroyed,
Harry lost his ability to speak Parseltongue)


Regarding Mrs. Norris:

from: Carol Bainbridge
>>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)

I would suspect that it was Tom Riddle, acting through Ginny, who
decided to hang up "the Squib's cat" as a warning. (though that leads
me to wonder how Tom knew Filch was a Squib; it's unlikely that Ginny
knew, as Filch's nature doesn't seem to be common knowledge) I suspect
that whenever the basilisk struck, Ginny/Tom was almost certainly
present and controlling its actions. This would explain how the
basilisk knew which students to attack. One piece of evidence for this
is that Ginny wrote in her diary that she had no memory of where she
was when the students were attacked. 

From: Indigo
>>But this does beg an interesting question.  The ensorcelled Ginny
>>controlled by Tom -- was she immune to being petrified like Tom
seems >>to also have been?
I imagine that the basilisk, after hearing Ginny/Tom speak
Parseltongue, recognized her as an ally, and thus knew not to attack
her. That, or Tom simply ordered the basilisk not to look at him. 


Here's a curious thought: the fact that none of those attacked died
seems almost wildly coincidental, given the the extreme deadliness of
the basilisk and the undeniably evil intentions of Tom Riddle. Is it
possible, do you think, that a small part of Ginny was aware of what
was going on? While she couldn't fight back entirely, perhaps she
tried to make sure that the basilisk only attacked students when those
students had a means of defense handy. Given the number of Muggleborns
at Hogwarts, it's astonishing that the basilisk just _happened_ to
attack Justin while Nick was nearby, or that it went after Colin
Creevy, who's never seen without his camera. (not sure how Hermione
and Penelope Clearwater fit into that theory though)

"ashfaex"






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