The Basilisk Didn't Do It

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 44969

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rita" <potter76 at l...> wrote:
> 
> Marina:
> 
> That is all very nice if you're travelling between two places that 
are
> actually *connected* to each other by waterworks. Within a castle,
> certainly. Within a limited city neighborhood, maybe. But Little
> Hangleton is in an entirely different part of the country from
> Hogwarts. Do you really suppose there's a vast underground 
labyrinth
> of interconnected water pipes covering all of the UK? I know we're
> supposed to suspend our disbelief from time to time, but the 
number of
> logical leaps required to support the basilisk theory is getting a 
bit
> out of hand, I think.
> 
> Me:
> 
> I do suppose that there's an underground labyrinth of water pipes 
under the
> UK. I'm not an expert so I may be wrong but as far as I ever 
understood it
> the water that comes into my house comes from a lake miles away 
through a
> series of 'pipes' with dozens of branches that go in many different
> direction reaching places far away from where I live.

A water system connected to a particular lake or reservoir can 
certainly cover a large area, but if another area far away is being 
serviced by a different reservoir, it's going to have its own 
separate system.  The two are not going to be connected to each 
other.  There's a good reason for keeping them separate -- if one 
water source gets polluted or contaminated, you don't want it 
spreading to other areas.

Hogwarts, which is somewhere in Scotland, sits right next to a 
lake.  We know, because Moaning Myrtle confirmed it GoF, that its 
water system connects to that lake.  Hogsmeade probably uses it too, 
and maybe some of the other nearby villages.  But Little Hangleton 
is way down in England.  It's not going to be connected to the 
Hogwarts lake.

And that's not even taking into account the fact that the Wizarding 
World has its own infrastructire, separate from the Muggle world.  
It's got its own train line, its own bus service, its own postal 
service, communications network (the Floo), etc.  Chances are its 
water system is separate from the Muggle system, too.


> Couldn't the basilisk
> travel all the way up to the starting point and get into the pipe 
that leads
> somewhere completely different from Hogwarts? And then there is 
the sewer to
> take into account, can't the basilisk travel through that too? and 
as you
> know sewers get to rivers, and sometimes rivers get into other 
rivers that
> have other sewers. 

So now we've got Tom dragging a basilisk along through hunreds of 
miles of water pipes, sewers and rivers, all so he can kill three 
defenseless Muggles?  When he could accomplish the same task by 
speaking two words?  It makes no logical sense.  Especially since, 
as others have pointed out, the use of Avada Kedavra carries great 
thematic importance throughout GoF, while the basilisk is completely 
extraneous to anything that happens in that book.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com