Harry, Parseltongue, and the Basilisk

[yolandacarroll]

No: HPFGUIDX 86615

Derek Hiemforth wrote:
> As a new list member, I've been reading a lot of the material the 
group
> refers to, such as the Fantastic Posts section, Hypothetic Alley, 
the
> Harry Potter Lexicon, and so on.  I found the following about 
Harry and
> the Basilisk in an essay by Steve Vander Ark in the Puzzles and 
Mysteries
> section of the HPL...
> 
> (Now from Steve Vander Ark's essay):
> "Why didn't Harry talk Parseltongue to the Basilisk? Good question.
<snip>

I just thought of another reason.

Harry has to be face to face with a snake to 
speak parseltongue.

Since Basilisk's petrify anyone that makes eye 
contact with them, Harry was doing his best to 
not look it in the eye.

Since Harry can't speak parseltongue without 
being face to face/ eye to eye with a snake he 
couldn't speak parseltongue to the Basilisk.

I realize that the snake in the bathroom, wasn't 
a real snake, but he did look the fake snake in 
the eye while speaking to it.

Riddle either doesn't have this restriction or 
he focused his way around it.  Harry was not as 
practiced a parselmouth as Riddle apparently was 
and as stated above was at a disadvantage while 
facing a Basilisk.

I'd thought of this before, but we do not have 
canon supporting it.  Perhaps, parselmouths are 
immune to the Basilisk's stare.  In a way, it 
would make sense.  Since Parselmouths are so 
rare, Harry wouldn't know about this and Riddle 
wouldn't share this little fact while fighting 
Harry, so we have no way of knowing.

Yolanda