[HPforGrownups] The Basilisk Didn't Do It

[Rita]

No: HPFGUIDX 44942






>>Rita (me)
>>wrote: People seems to be overlooking what Mrs Bonsai (what a cute name!)
has already pointed out about Tom >>Riddle's murder of his muggle family.
They were not killed with an AK curse but by the Basilisk and we can be sure
>>of
>>that because they are described " Lying there with their eyes wide open!
Cold as ice!" and "each of the Riddle had a >>look of terror upon his or her
>>face", we should be able to recognize the effect of petrification as we've
seen a lot of that in CoS: Mrs Norris is said >>to be "stiff as a board, her
eyes wide and staring" and on the same line are the words used to describe
Hermione >>and the others.

Barb replied:
>The words used are the same. Precisely.

I say:
that I find troubling that she used the same words to describe different
things, it seems to me more like JKR to do that to remind us of something we
already know and to let us draw the conclusion that we are really presented
with the same thing as the first time we run into that description.

Barb:
>What the folks are missing who are espousing the basilisk-murder theory
>(other than the utter implausibility of Riddle >bothering to take a
basilisk
>to Little Hangleton)

I :
don't think so implausible that the basilisk was in L. Hangleton and it
wouldn't bother Tom in the least taking it there because the basilisk
travels *on its own* through waterworks, even if I reckon it's kind of a
stretch to assume this huge beast can fit in an average pipe! But aren't we
supposed to suspend our disbelief each now and then?


>is that people who are petrified (who are NOT dead, let us remember) look
>remarkably like people who HAVE been >killed by Avada Kedevra.

This is true and your quote from GoF, that I'm going to cut, proves it; so
Barb scores. I was under the illusion (too much TV in my childhood, I guess)
that someone who's dead looks like someone sleeping, closed eyes, sort of
relaxed' expression and so on.


Barb: [cut]
>We do NOT know from CoS that someone who actually DIES from looking in a
basilisk's eyes (Moaning Myrtle) looks >like someone who is petrified.
Someone who dies in this way may look quite different. We do not know; all
we are >told is what people look like who are petrified, which is NOT the
same as death.

me:
here, however, I hope to score my 10 points saying that Myrtle so describes
her death (Cos ch. 16): "My whole body sort of *seized up*, and then I was
floating away...". (emphasis mine) This and Harry's deduction that the
reason no one else had died was that they hadn't looked the basilisk
straight into the eyes led me to conclude that death by a basilisk is a
severe' ( read: non- reversible) form of petrification.

Barb:
>Furthermore, it would make no sense, dramatically, for JKR to hark back to
CoS at this time. I stand by my original >assertion that she was progressing
to the final horror of Cedric's death by describing the dead Riddles first,
then the >demonstration of the curse in the DADA class, then Wormtail
putting the curse on Cedric, witnessed by Harry. This >is how Harry's
parents died. It's very important to the story. The basilisk has no place
here.

Me again:
As I have already said, to me it makes sense for JKR to go back to something
we saw 2 books ago, it helps 'gluing' all the books together, but everyone
is entitled to his/her opinions and impressions. BTW your 'preparation'
theory is quite plausible, were I not so sure about the basilisk (which
doesn't mean that I'm right) I would totally embrace it.

Rita

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