Basilisk Skin

[Linda]

No: HPFGUIDX 58082

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tom Wall" <thomasmwall at y...> 
wrote:

> I'm wondering what the true length of the creature is - 
> not having the books with me, I can't be sure, but didn't the 
> American version say that the basilisk's *skin* was 20 feet long?
> 
> If the skin is 20 *feet* long, is it possible that the basilisk 
> itself was 20 metres long?  Does anyone know about the proportions 
> between snake-skins and actual snake sizes?
> 
> -Tom


 Me(Linda):

 The Book actually stated that "The creature who had shed it had to 
be 20 feet long at least.". If I remember grammer school correctly  
( in other words don't hold me to this too closely), a meter is 
about three feet, four inches.(English to metric conversions always 
gave 
me a headache.) Therefore, 20 feet would be about...let's see...20 X 
30 divided by one hundred centimeters...six meters.               
Ok, so the snake is aroud six meters long when 
it sheds the skin that HR and Lockhart find in the chamber. Going 
once again back to my long ago school days( this time to life 
sciences class) I believe that the reason a reptile sheds it's skin 
is because it has outgrown it. It is necessary in order for the 
natural growth of the animal to continue. Therefore, we must assume 
that the basilisk is longer than the skin in the chamber. Since we 
don't know how long before the events in the chamber the skin was 
shed, we, scientifically, really have no way of knowing how much the 
creature has grown since the shedding. We don't even know that this 
is the last skin that was shed. There could easily be a more 
recently shed skin somewhere else in the castle since the basilisk 
had been roaming the plumbing several times in the proceding months.

-Linda, who's head is hurting from thinking that far back.