[HPforGrownups] Re:Why Petrification?

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 51660

Eloise wrote: 

> Of course. Except that Hermione is the brains of the 
> operation, the one who 
> tends to work out obscure things that the rest of the WW 
> can't quite grasp - 
> like that if something is going round petrifying things and 
> roosters are 
> being killed and spiders running away, etc., etc., then it's 
> a Basilisk. If 
> Hermione had been petrified *on the way to* the library, or 
> hadn't vandalised 
> the book to tear out the page, or written "pipes" on it - if, 
> indeed Harry 
> hadn't noticed the paper in her hand, or Madam Pomfrey had 
> got there first, 
> our hero wouldn't have realised that it was a monstous snake 
> using the 
> plumbing and a Great Big Last Minute Essential Clue would 
> have been missing.
> 
> That was my point.

Hmmm. Good point... But...

I actually think that Harry could've solved it without Hermione's
"pipes" information, if he'd thought about it differently. Tom knows
that  Harry has been inside Myrtle's bathroom - that's where he found
the diary, and possibly knows, from Ginny talking about Percy, that
Harry and Ron have been caught coming out of that bathroom before -
remember, Percy sees them there - I know it's not canon-certain, but it
does mesh with what we know of Ginny's conversations about the Diary,
and Percy's concerns that Ginny had been spying on him. 

So it's reasonable for Tom to think that petrifying Hermione would
increase Harry's interest in finding the culprit, and that he'd want to
rescue Ginny - and that Harry would be smart enough to figure out that
the bathroom was the entrance on those clues alone, even without knowing
what the instrument of the crime was. Of course, it's entirely possible
that if Harry hadn't shown up on his own, when Ginny had died and Tom
had sufficient life-force to move around on his own, he'd've simply gone
after Harry and the little cat & mouse game was just an amusement for
him while waiting...

heidi