Some people can be wierd about their pets...

[pegruppel]

No: HPFGUIDX 60037

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Brooke" <brookeshanks at m...> 
wrote:
> I was just thinking about Nagini, Voldie's snake.  This could be 
way 
> off, but I wonder if Nagini could be a baby basilisk?  Maybe the 
> basilisk's stare is only fatal after it has become an adult? 

Me: 

I suspect that a basilisk is lethal from the moment it hatches.  All 
of the mythology sources I checked (print and electronic) make no 
mention of a basilisk needing to mature.  

I think Nagini is some type of venoumous serpent.  "Nag" is the name 
of one of the cobras in the Kipling story "Riki-Tiki-Tavi."  
And "Naja naja" is the Latin binomial for several cobras (subspecies 
get another name tacked onto the first two) of the Indian 
subcontinent (that's an abbreviated description).  

Although JKR said that Frank saw a diamond pattern on the snake as it 
slitered past him, I think it was shadows on her (Nagini is female) 
back.  There are a few venomous snakes in that part of Europe, but 
none of them get as big as Nagini is supposed to be. A king cobra is 
the largest of the venomous snakes.  But if it were, I think we'd 
have heard about the classic rearing up and hooding that these snakes 
perform.  It seems from Voldie and Peter's conversation that Voldie 
has been subsisting on snake venom (yuck). (All from OOP, American 
addition)
> 
Brooke:
> But even if he's just a regular snake, I wonder if there IS 
anything special about him?  An animagus?  I am sure there is 
something more 
> that we don't yet know about Fawkes.  
> 
Me: 
I think Nagini is Voldie's best friend.  She "nursed" him, so to 
speak.  And I doubt that any human likes him as well as his snake 
pals.

Brooke:
> Although the Phoenix is not the Gryffindor mascot, maybe there is 
> something more to the respective pets of Dumbledore and Voldie.  I 
> could see a future battle between Fawkes & Nagini.  Some snakes are 
> prey for certain species of birds.  Perhaps they were once the pets 
> of Godric & Salazar?  
> 
> Anyone else have any theories about these two?

Me:

I doubt that Nagini and Fawkes were ever the pets of the two 
founders. But I have noticed something, and haven't seen anyone else 
mention it.  I'm still new to the list, so that may not mean much.  
But.

In COS, JKR clearly states that the basilisk is "King of Serpents" 
(COS, American ed., p. 290). I can't recall where, and right now I 
can't seem to find the reference, but I have seen the phoenix 
referred to as the "King of the Birds."  This would certainly fit 
very nicely into a grand showdown between the forces of evil 
(basilisk) and the forces of good (phoenix).  On the other hand, 
maybe we've had a preview of the outcome in the battle between Fawkes 
and the Basilisk in COS, hmmm?

Peg, a librarian, who is now off to find the citation for "King of 
the Birds" because it's making her nuts.