[HPforGrownups] Re: The Basilisk Didn't Do It

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 45060



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sherry Garfio [mailto:sgarfio at yahoo.com] 

> Granted, these 
> are Hogwarts pipes, which may have magical properties, but 
> I'm more inclined to believe that the pipes are ordinary and 
> the snake is not.  Now, I need to finish re-reading the 
> series before I decide whether I believe the Riddles were 
> killed by a basilisk or by AK (I'm currently re-reading CoS), 
> but I don't think anything presented so far rules out the basilisk.
>

You should also reread Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which
describes the basilisk as follows:

<<Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is
none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the
King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live
many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a
toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its
deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all
who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death.
Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the
Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to
it.>>

I do understand the point you're trying to make, and clearly FBaWTFT is
not as comprehensive as a full magivetinary study would be, but I do
think that the use of the phrase "reach gigantic size" means that the
basilisk grows as a regular snake does, and sheds its skin as it does
(we saw a basilisk's sheded skin in CoS) - it just grows larger. And
accordingly, it can't shrink and expand at will. 

The other thing I think nobody has pointed out yet is that if Tom did
take that basilisk to the Riddle House, there would've been water where
the basilisk left the pipes. There was at Hogwarts each time the
basilisk came out - and given that it was an overnight that they were
undiscovered, I don't think the water could've evaporated away so
quickly - although certainly someone who lives in the UK could tell
whether my supposition is valid.

Now, I want to make it clear that I agree with those who feel that there
is no reason to believe that there can be only one basilisk at any given
time. It's entirely possible that Tom hatched a baby basilisk and
carried it around with him during his orphanage summer. But it seems
unlikely, given his assessment of the risk in his talk with Harry at the
end of CoS. While I have very little reason to trust him, at that point,
he didn't have a reason to really lie.

Of course, the flip argument to that would be that the Tom in the Diary
was "created" before Real!Tom got the idea to make a new baby
basilisk...

However, I think there are so many logical reasons why it's not the
basilisk FROM the chamber. 

And there are, as Barb has said, many literary reasons why it's similar
in description, but different in, shall we say... execution.


Heidi
http://www.fictionalley.org
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