Petrification

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 51575

Er, point of order;

Fantastic Beasts (the primary reference book) makes no mention of 
petrification in relation to the Basilisk. Nor does the fragment of the 
library book that Hermione was clutching when she was petrified. And if the 
students who were petrified the first time the Chamber was opened got no 
better look at the monster than Myrtle did, how many people have survived 
being in the vicinity Basilisk long enough to *know* that petrification is 
the result of an unsucessful Basilisk attack? Sure, Dumbledore *may* have put 
two and two together since then, but it sounds very much to me as though this 
little detail is simply *not* widely known in the Poterverse.

I mean, sure, *we* know. We know that the three mythological stone-turners 
are the Basilisk, the Cockatrice (which a lot of people contend is the same 
creature, although it is generally depicted with a rooster's head rather than 
a snake's) and the Gorgon. But if we don't know what mythology Rowling is 
following for a werewolf, when one of her main supporting characters *is* 
one, we certainly don't know how widely she has adopted the standard 
mythology on stone-turners. 

-JOdel


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