[HPforGrownups] The evidence for knowledge of the Basilisk WAS Re: What's annoying about Harry

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 51420

Pip squeaked

> But, you want some canon that Snape at least had reason to suspect a
> Basilisk? OK.
>
> CoS, UK paperback, Ch.11, pp. 145 to 146. Snape suggests to Malfoy
> that he uses the Serpensortia curse. Harry, as a result, displays
> his Parselmouth abilities. Snape gives him a look Harry doesn't
> like: 'shrewd and calculating'.
>
> Of course, that could be complete coincidence. Snape could have no
> reason whatsoever for making sure that Harry has a curse flung at
> him which tests his ability to control snakes.
>
> But that 'shrewd and calculating look' suggests Snape is not
> *scared* of Harry's ability (like the students, who are frightened).
> He's working out that Harry can either a) control the basilisk, or b)
> can hear it.

I don't think Snape knows about the basilisk. I think that shrewd and
calculating look had more to do with a couple of other things that Snape
knows. For one, a certain other speaker of Parseltongue. Secondly, he knows
more than we, the readers, do about Harry's past. Despite the case that has
been made that Snape set that whole scenario up to "out" Harry as a
Parselmouth (i.e., Snape suspected it beforehand), I don't think Snape did
suspect this ability. That said, I also think it is noteworthy that surprise
is not part of his reaction. I don't think Harry's speaking Parseltongue (or
anyone speaking Parseltongue) had crossed his mind before, but I also think
there's some reason, one we don' t know yet, that this ability of Harry's is
not surprising.

All that was to say that yes, Snape's reaction is significant, but *not*
because he knew about the Basilisk. He wasn't even born when it happened,
and (to infer, here) we have seen that Dumbledore is not a great offeror of
unsolicited information; I see no reason to assume he's been told.

BUT. I believe Dumbledore knows, or suspects. I don't have my books here,
I'm stealing time while my kids are getting ready for bed, but this is based
on what Harry overhears when he's in the Infirmary and Colin Creevy is
brought in. Dumbledore's comment: "It means the Chamber has indeed been
opened again" (or whatever his exact words are). McGonagall seems to not
know what he's talking about (another excellent bit of evidence for my
inference that Snape didn't know, either). I think Dumbledore suspects or
knows that the basilisk is a basilisk, but that he has not shared this with
his staff.

Okay, must run, hear havoc in the bathroom...

~Amanda