[HPforGrownups] Hanging Mrs. Norris

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 46773

Carol (me) said (among other things):

 >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?

Indigo replied:
>Given that the simplest explanation seems to be the right one, there are 
>two possibilities.
>
>1)  Tom Riddle himself was able to reach out and hang Mrs. Norris as he'd 
>just opened the Chamber, and had a burst of strength.  In my opinion, this 
>is less likely, since Tom Riddle explains he was not strong enough to 
>manifest until way, way later on.

I agree.  This doesn't seem at all likely.

>2) Ginny did it herself under Tom's orders, after the Basilisk had already 
>petrified Mrs. Norris.
>
>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?

It also strikes me as a really lucky coincidence to find Mrs. Norris in the 
right place at the right time in order to see that she's attacked by the 
basilisk.  Ginny doesn't have all day to get this job done.  I assume she 
has classes to go to.  She wasn't missed all day, was she?  (I don't 
remember.)  She has to be careful of the timing when she paints the message 
on the wall.  Painting the message has to take a while.  The hallway is 
obviously a place students use in between classes.   So is she hanging (no 
pun intended) around with the basilisk waiting for Mrs. Norris to show up 
so she can hang her up to emphasize her message?  She's a first year and 
it's early in the year, so how much magic can she know to get Mrs. Norris 
to come to her?

The other possibility is that Ginny was taking advantage of a 
situation.  There's a petrified cat lying on the floor and you (if you're 
Ginny) decide to hang it up to emphasize the message you are painting on 
the wall.  Then again, if that's true, how conscious is Ginny of her 
behavior?  I had been under the impression that she didn't know what she 
was doing and didn't even remember the things she had done.  What kind of 
instructions could Tom have given her that would allow her to take 
advantage of such a situation?

Maybe I just keep thinking about these things too late at night and I'm too 
tired to think straight about them.