Basilisks was Re: Bang! You're dead.

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 86546

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:

Carol:
> Maybe we could add that since it leaves no trace (no blood, no 
weapon,
> no scream from the victim unless he or she anticipates it), it's 
also
> too easy to get away with. Young Tom Riddle AKd his Muggle relatives
> and went back to school unsuspected. He had already committed 
another
> effortless murder using a basilisk, which undoubtedly hardened his
> resolve to kill and taught him to realize that he enjoyed killing. 
But
> AKing his father and grandparents went beyond that. It required the
> use of his own powers, not a monster's glance, and it required real
> hatred. And as you say, it was just too easy.

Geoff:
 Several weeks go, I raised a point about Fawkes attacking the 
basilisk's eyes and not getting killed in COS.

Reading this post threw up a thought in the same sort of direction. 
How did Tom Riddle manage to communicate with the creature back in 
1942 or thereabouts? He had a body then and was therefore vulnerable 
to its glance. Did he talk over his shoulder to it? Presumably he 
must have known it was a basilisk when he first reopened the Chamber 
or he might have had a surprise and a seriously shortened career as 
an evil wizard.I wonder how much information he had as the Heir of 
Sltherin about it and from where he got this information. Was it 
passed down by word of mouth? Did Salazar leave something in writing?

Just thinking aloud....

Geoff