Petrification (was: What's annoying about Harry (WAS: Characters you hate)

[Grey Wolf <greywolf1@jazzfree.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51541

Catlady wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Grey Wolf <greywolf1 at j...>" 
> <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > What more do we know? Well, "last time the Chamber was opened, 
> > there  were several attacks, and one girl was killed". Since 
> > Dumbledore recognizes the state of Collin when he's petrified, we 
> > can asume that last time the attacks on the people also paralized 
> > them - if not, Dumbledore couldn't have been sure that "the Chamber
> > of Secrets has indeed been opened again". So last time there were 
> > several people paralized too.
> 
> I have the same questions that came up in today's chat. First, were 
> the other students Petrified last time as they were this time? If 
> they were, it doesn't seem quite fair of JKR not to have said so.

Whenever is JKR fair giving out information, Cat? Goodness, if we 
wanted any sort of direct answer from her we'd probably have to strap 
her to a toture table! 

The fact is that Dumbledore is able to tell that the attacks are 
repeating (i.e. that the chamber has indeed been opened again) after 
the second example, which certainly points in the direction of 
Dumbledore recognizing the symptoms. If he doesn't, then he *has* to 
know the creature is a basilisk - else, how could he relate these new 
attacks to the last ones if the last ones were -for example- poisoned 
people?

As much as I'd like that to happen, however, I'm afraid it doesn't 
really wash. What are the possible effects of facing a basilisk? We 
have its gaze, which is immediately mortal no anyone who sees it 
directly (which we can discount, since the last time the people were 
merely "injured" not killed - except Myrtle, that is), it stones if 
looked indirectly into his eyes (the most probable, since Dumbledore, 
as I say, recognised the simptoms) and then we have his poisonous fangs 
(which *do not* cause memory losses - at least it didn't to Harry and 
there is no reason to assume he's special in that sense), and I assume 
that if worse comes to worst, it can also strangle or even squash with 
its whole body.

The important thing now, however, is my mention of memory loss. After 
all, if all the injured students hadn't forgotten the thing that 
attacked them, Hagrid wouldn't have been expelled. Tom was a good 
speaker, but even him would've choked on an explanation on how Hagrid 
had kept a 50-foot snake hidden in his bedroom without anyone noticing 
until then. So the attacked students must have suffered from amnesia, 
which in turn means the petrification (by elimination - strangulation 
doesn't cause amnesia fast enough, and we *know* the poison doesn't). 
Thus, the one left is the gaze, which probably causes a system shock, 
which is commonly associated with amnesia anyway.

> Second, to me Petrification and Paralysis are not the same. Paralysis 
> is the result of the Full Body Bind curse -- it leaves the eyes and 
> mind free and doesn't change the texture of the flesh. Petrification 
> was shown as leaving the person unconscious, unable even to see (even 
> to breathe?) and I assumed it changed the texture of the body to 
> something stone-like.

Well, Cat, I'll have to defer to you in this which is, really, a matter 
of wording. You're the one who speaks English - I only try to express 
myself as best I can in this alien language. If you think they are 
different, then I'll start using them as such. I've done so in this 
post, anyway, just in case.

Now, I do realize that there are diffrent levels of immobility - 
petrificus totalis cannot be the "advanced dark magic" Dumbledore 
mentions that is equivalent to the gaze of the basilisk (I'll explain 
my reasoning behind this if it is not obvious), so it seems there are, 
indeed, different levels. Notice, however, that the wording used in 
this spell is "petrificus", latin for petrificate (more or less - my 
latin is rusty at the very best), which sort of hints that, even if 
there are differentiation of levels of immobility, they're not called 
differently.

At any rate, there is no canon to suggest that the basilisk!petrified 
people have stone-like properties. Dumbeldore was able to untighten 
Colin's grasp enough to liberate the camara, and so did Harry to 
liberate Hermion's paper. No, I more see it like a full-body muscle 
tightening in whatever position they're in, holding that position with 
all the strenght the relevant muscles can give and keeping "freezed" in 
that position thanks to the magic (which, I asume, prevents the muscles 
from softening after a while due to tiring). I am not an expert, but 
doesn't something similar happen when someone dies? It's muscles are 
"blocked" in position? Maybe someone that actually knows about that 
(instead of relying on films, like in my case) can tell us. 

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf