Parseltongue Rarity

[persephone_kore]

No: HPFGUIDX 58348

echaschneider wrote:
> 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. 

That would have been Riddle, and actually, he said that he and Harry
were "probably" the first two to come to Hogwarts since Slytherin
himself. Dumbledore, on the other hand, mentioned Parseltongue as one
of various qualities Harry possesses that Salazar valued in his
students, which suggests that Salazar may have at least thought
finding another one not to be unreasonable. (Now, possibly he just
would have LIKED to and never actually did, or didn't bring them to
Hogwarts, but if Dumbledore's testimony is reliable here, he at least
thought about it.)

And then there's the Runespoor research and, as you have pointed out,
the general knowledge of what Parseltongue and Parselmouths are --
including the obviously erroneous belief that the talent is the mark
of a dark wizard.

So I would say that if Riddle, who isn't what I'd call a terribly
reliable individual anyway, is the only source for considering it to
occur that rarely and isn't even *sure*, the contradiction isn't
terribly serious. (On the other hand, one might wonder about relying
on supposedly dark wizards for one's zoopsychological studies of
Runespoors, but I suggest that this is a superstition not nearly so
widely believed under normal circumstances -- as in, not in a
schoolful of teenagers already on edge from mysterious attacks.)

> People are free to take from it what they like regarding the 
> likelihood of a Parselmouth being able to control the Basilisk 
> against an attack at a random point in Hogwarts's history. For 
> me, it's suspect. 
> 

Well, strictly speaking, it would seem that an inability to control
the creature or let it out until a thousand years later would make it
remarkably inefficient as either a protector OR an eradicator.

Now, if the basilisk were intelligent and cooperative enough to know
what it was meant to do and do it, or could be long-term enchanted to
do so, the only thing missing for either would be a trigger to let it
out. Presumably the logical one, aside from Parseltongue, would be a
like-minded person with knowledge of where the lever was or the
presence of the intruders the basilisk was supposed to attack.

Let's see. Muggle-descended students have, apparently, been around
fairly consistently. That can't be it. 

In either case, it seems rather stupid to have mislaid the trigger. 

The attackers inside the castle the first year were brought there by
authorized professors -- though I confess to an amusing mental image
of the basilisk emerging from the plumbing and eating the troll for
Hermione, if that hadn't bypassed any triggering mechanisms. ;)

"persephone kore"