[HPforGrownups] Hanging Mrs. Norris

[Indigo]

No: HPFGUIDX 46774


On 11/19/2002 at 12:24 AM Carol Bainbridge wrote:

>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.)


I don't believe she was missed all day, no.  She was at classes at least part of the time.

  She has to be careful of the timing when she paints the
>message 
>on the wall.  Painting the message has to take a while.  

Not necessarily.  But that does beggar the question: "where'd she get the blood/red paint?"  

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?

Tom Riddle has her in his power, though -- and Tom Riddle was what, a fifth or sixth year? You can't be a fourth year and be a prefect like Riddle was.  But who knows what he used to command Ginny or Mrs. Norris. Does Cruciatus work on cats?

>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. 

Ginny was sort of dimly aware of it -- that's why she freaked out and tried to toss out the diary, which ended up offending Moaning Myrtle because she threw it into Myrtle's toilet. 

 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.
>
I get the impression that Tom sort of possessed Ginny rather than told her what to do, and then sat back for her to do it.  He put her mind to sleep and then was Tom Riddle in Ginny's body doing his own dirty work with her as his vehicle.

Indigo