[HPforGrownups]Why didn't they die?(was: Petrification )

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51562

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Jeanne Blade <jeanneblade at y...>
wrote:
> 
> ... WHy weren't there more deaths resulting from the Basilisk? FB ..
Basilisk has very venoumous fangs, and it also kills by looking ....
So there were circumstances surrounding the Petrifications everytime? 

Jeanne


bboy_mn:

Interesting thought, I think we must first look at the nature of
animals in general. Animals rarely act with emotions, the run on
almost pure instinct. For the most part, they don't attack anything
unless it hangs around acting like FOOD, and the animal is actually
hungry. I'm reminded of fish swimming among a school of sharks. Don't
they know that sharks eat fish? For the most part, they can tell when
the sharks are hungry and feeding, so the rest of the time, the sharks
and the fish just ignore each other. So, animal never attack without a
reason, and the reason is usually food, or feeling threatened.

Reptiles are even more so, regardless of what movies and books would
have us believe, reptiles, for the most part, only have three mode of
operation; rest, sleep, and eat, and rest and sleep account for about
98% of their activity. My brother-in-law has five aligators, he feeds
then a few chicken legs once a month and the rest of the time they
spend laying around under heat lamps. Some people might feel sorry for
the poor aligators all couped up like that, but in the wild, they do
the same thing; eat once a month and spend the rest of their time
sleeping in the sun.

Animals are almost uniformly shy, and reptiles are very shy and very
lazy. Whether a bear, moutain lion, or rattle snake, these creature's
first line of defense if to stay hidden and avoid humans. If you by
chance threaten one or back it into a corner, of course, it will
defend itself. Sadly, it it the humans who THINK they get to decide
when a animal is cornered, so when they are malled by a bear, the
first thing the say is 'I didn't do anything'. 

So back to the point, unless the Basilisk considers you food, it is
not going to come looking for you. If you should be so foolish as to
come looking for it, it has many defenses it can use to protect itself.

When the Basilisk, like all reptiles, was warm (in the summer) it ate
and slept with sleep consuming a vast majority of it's time, when it
was cold it did nothing but sleep. Considering that the floor is
littered with dead rodents, I don't think the Basilisk had to go very
far for food. My guess is that it left the chamber on Riddles orders,
but quickly turned back after the first person it encountered. It
probably did it's best to sneek around the castle avoiding people.

Now let's look at motivation. There is this belief that Salizar
Slytherin hated all muggles and wanted to kill them all, but as
someone pointed out in a similar discussion, Slytherin never said he
hated muggles, he said he didn't trust them. This was a time of great
muggle persecution of wizards, so not trusting muggles to keep the
wizard school secret was a reasonable concern. It would seem that he
wanted them out because he viewed them as a security risk, and for
that reason wanted to keep the wizard's school limited to the children
of wizards and witches only. That doesn't seem that unreasonable.

So the belief that 'the monster within' would rid the school of all
those unworthy of studying magic, probably started out as a rumor that
was more along the line of ridding the school of all those who were
untrustworthy. 

It's entirely possible that Riddle is NOT the heir of Slytherin. He
could have appointed himself heir simply because he could speak
parsletongue, and he may have perverted Slytherin's beliefs to suit
his own prejudices. It wouldn't be the first time that happened. I can
thing of many Christian examples where the Bible was perverted to suit
someone's particular agenda.

The point, after all this seemingly pointless rambling, is that it may
not have been the nature of the Basilisk to seek people out and kill
them, and equally, it may be the Slytherin never intended the Basilisk
to be used this way. Remember the legend has had a 1,000 years of
retelling to stretch and distort it.

Finally, touching on the nature of Slytherins in general, I think that
most Slytherins are just kids going to school and trying to do the
best they can. They don't care about mudbloods or Death Eaters or
Voldemort, in fact I'm sure many of them see all that crap as
counterproductive to their ambitions of wealth and power. 

If Voldemort starts a war and if he takes over, I don't see a very
productive or stable world. Besically, Voldemort's inner circle of
butt kissers will have all the wealth and power in return for the
small price of unrelenting butt kissing, and that leaves the rest of
the world in a mess. If you're not part of the inner circle of
Voldemort's Slytherins, then you are dirt just like the rest of the peons.

Sorry, it this rambles a little too much, but I just got done with
four days of car wrestling and I'm exhausted.

Hope at least part of it makes sense.

bboy_mn