Unsealing the Chamber (Was Ponderables...)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85817

> Constance Vigilance wrote:
> 
> Actually, I say that [that Harry reopened rather than unsealed the
Chamber of Secrets]. The way I read it, Tom unsealed the chamber 
> each time. 713 is correct in pointing out that there is no discussion 
> about resealing the chamber, but we don't really know what all Tom 
> Riddle did in his last year at Hogwarts. However, Tom did come back 
> to Hogwarts as Tom!Diary and therefore would be able to fulfill the 
> requirement that only Slytherin's heir would be able to unseal the 
> chamber. He used Ginny's body to do it, but the true heir (Tom) did 
> the actual unsealing. The purpose of the unsealing, as stated in the 
> legend, was to purge the school of those who were unworthy**. Diary!
> Tom was well underway to do that until he got distracted with the 
> alternate goal of defeating Harry.
> 
> But, like 713 says, I think that any parselmouth could have entered 
> the bathroom and opened the Chamber, after it had been unsealed.
<snip>
> 
> 
> ** If the goal of unsealing the chamber is to purge the school of 
> those unworthy, then that would provide a motivation for Lucius to 
> ensure that the heir of Slytherin (Diary!Tom) was back in Hogwarts. 
> Which would explain why he sent the diary to Hogwarts. Sending it 
> with Ginny was an unexpected opportunity to discredit Arthur. 
<snip>
 

Thanks for an interesting and very thorough explanation of why Harry
is able to open the Chamber of Secrets without being the Heir of
Sytherin. I confess that the distinction between opening and unsealing
never occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense now that you mention it.

I do have another question for you to tackle, though. How did Lucius
happen to have Tom Riddle's diary in his possession? (I'm sure he
wouldn't have trusted Draco to find it for him--I doubt that Draco
even knows about the Riddle/Voldemort connection. BTW, I still haven't
read any wholly convincing explanations of how Voldemort got his wand
back.)

Carol