Ponderables...

[sarcasticmuppet]

No: HPFGUIDX 83202

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, James Sharman <jamess at c...> 
> wrote:
> > Deedee: 
> > > 2.  If only the heir of Slytherin could open the chamber of 
> secrets 
> > > how was Harry able to open the Chamber of Secrets??!?
> > > 
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > In COS, where Harry meets up with Tom Riddle in the Chamber, TR 
> tells 
> > him that Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber......
> > 
> > James:
> > I've seen this heir of Slytherin subject discussed a few times 
and 
> I think a
> > possibility has been missed. My suspicion is that when Slytherin 
> said that
> > only his true heir could open it he might have meant any 
> parcelmouth who
> > wanted to kill mugleborns.
> 
> <snipped>
>  
> 
> Geoff:
> but that still raises the point of Ginny opening the Chamber. She 
is 
> not a Parseltongue speaker; it seems that Riddle must have had some 
> sort of control over her....
> 
> "'Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?' said Riddle 
softly. 'Ginny 
> Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school 
> roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the 
> serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods and the Squib's cat.'
> 'No,' Harry whispered.
> 'Yes', said Riddle, calmly, 'Of course, she didn't /know/ what she 
> was doing at first.....'"
> 
> Possibly an Imperius curse or something similar but that doesn't 
give 
> the victim the ability to speak a language they don't know, i.e. 
> Parseltongue....
> 
> Answers on a postcard.....

Ginny wasn't under the Imperius curse, sillies.  She was /possessed/ 
by Riddle.  In OotP we see that the two are completely different.  
Ginny does not relate any tales of being in complete bliss while 
encouraged to do the CoS stuff.  She just doesn't where she was or 
what she did while being possessed.  We see in GoF that the symptoms 
of Imperio are drastically different.

--sarcasticmuppet--