[HPforGrownups] Re: Parseltongue Rarity

[echa_schneider at mac.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 58020

Darrin wrote:
>> A defense that can only be unleashed and controlled via a
>> Parselmouth? When there -- apparently -- have been only two such
>> gifted people in the last 1,000 years?

Then, persephone_kore wrote:
> Er... well, first of all, we have names for three, Salazar, Riddle,
> and Harry (unless Hogwarts was founded far enough back that Salazar
> died before the thousand-year mark). Second, see the bit about
> Runespoors -- I suppose Rowling could have been careless, but it seems
> somewhat unlikely to me that Salazar Slytherin and Tom Riddle are
> responsible for all known discussions (or eavesdroppings) with
> Runespoors. I think the talent is rare, but not quite THAT rare. Tom
> Riddle is perhaps not always a terribly reliable source.

The text is, I believe, contradictory about the rarity of Parselmouth. 
Riddle (or perhaps it's Dumbledore) tells Harry explicitly that he and 
Riddle are the only two Parselmouths to have ever attended Hogwarts. 
This, of couse, allows for the possibility of non-British, 
Parseltongues since Slytherin, but still marks the talent as one that 
cannot reasonably be expected to surface in any wizard more often than 
every few hundred years.

However, everyone knows what Parseltongue is, that it's a mark of a 
dark wizard, that it's something to be suspicious of. Were the talent 
truly so rare that it had only existed in two people over the last 
thousand years, it seems utterly abusrb that it's existence would be 
common knowledge or that it would have a name that's part of the common 
vocabulary.

The argument that the gift isn't that common has come up a few times 
against Darrin's post, and this may have already been stated, since I'm 
still a day behind, but I just wanted to point the apparent 
inconsistency out. People are free to take from it what they like 
regarding the likelihood of a Parselmouth being able to control the 
Basilik against an attack at a random point in Hogwarts's history. For 
me, it's suspect. 

"echa_schneider"