Harry, Parseltongue, and the Basilisk

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86690

Derek wrote:
<snip> I offer another idea for why Harry didn't speak Parseltongue to
it [the basilisk]. <snip>
I suggest that it's possible Harry didn't just fail to think of trying
to speak Parseltongue to the Basilisk, nor fail to try it because he
didn't think he could command it.
 
Instead, perhaps he failed to try because he was afraid he *could*
command it...
<snip>
> 
> Syndicateblue:
> 
> There are some interesting points in this post but I believe I have 
> a simpler, better solution to this "problem" that no one has raised 
> as of yet.  ;)
> 
> We all know that being a Parseltongue enables one to communicate 
> with serpents.  Therefore, most people assume that Harry, being a 
> Parseltongue, would simply be able to tell the Basilisk to leave him 
> alone and it would relent.  However, here's the part that no one 
> seems to have considered: just because Harry can _talk_ to the 
> Basilisk does not mean that the Basilisk would obey him.
> 
> Here's my take on the situation: Riddle is pretty much unofficially 
> established as the Basilisk's master, if not owner.  Firstly, he is 
> the heir of slytherin, and secondly, he has familiarity with the 
> Basilisk and has known and commanded it in the past.  <snip>  I 
> would assume here, as Harry probably would, that had Harry tried to 
> communicate with the Basilsk, it would have either
> A) Understood, but completely ignored him.
> B) Hear both his command and Riddle's commands simultaneously, but 
> comprehend that Riddle is its true master and therefore go after 
> Harry.


Carol:

I agree and suggested something along these lines in a previous post

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/86581 :

"I think he [Tom] must have communicated with it before he saw it.
Harry heard it talking to itself ("Kill! Kill! Kill!" . . .) as it
slithered through [the] pipes. Maybe Tom [also] heard it before he saw
it and was able to communicate with it, even command it not to harm
him. Possibly it was even intelligent enough to recognize him as
Slytherin's heir and therefore its master. Maybe he promised it a
chance to kill freely if it would obey him. Maybe he took additional
precautions never to look it in the eye; it's likely that he knew it
was a basilisk before he ever saw it. Diary!Tom was able to command
it. The real Tom must have been able to do so as well."

The one person who responded to this post indicated that the basilisk
would not have been in the pipes yet, which is true but doesn't negate
the possibility of Tom's hearing the basilisk at some point while he
was searching every inch of Hogwarts for the Chamber of Secrets. If
Tom suspected the basilisk's presence, and I think he must have, he
could have found the chamber but waited to enter it until he had
communicated with the basilisk through the walls and established his
mastery over it as the rightful Heir of Slytherin. Diary!Tom would
have reestablished that mastery through the possessed Ginny and
retained it when he assumed a substantial form of his own (presumably
immune to both the bite and the stare of the basilisk). The basilisk
was used to obeying Tom's voice and would have blindly obeyed his
order to kill Harry, ignoring any attempts Harry made to convince it
to spare him. And of course the basilisk's own wishes would coincide
with its master's, making Harry's attempts even more certainly futile.

Of course, it's possible that Harry was so busy watching the snake or
trying to escape it that it never occurred to him to talk to it, but I
doubt that he would have succeeded if he had tried because he wasn't
the basilisk's master.

Carol