Was Harry in Danger from the Basilisk?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 108648

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <asian_lovr2 at y...> 
> wrote:
> Steve
> 
> > Sorry, but I think it was either random luck, or the Basilisk was 
> > sent to a specific location by someone with prior knowledge of a 
> > person's presences there. Most likely a combination of the two.
> > 
> > Can't prove it, but I just don't see the Basilisk as a very 
> > selective killing machine.


 
> Geoff:
> Hmm. But may I just repost the quote I gave yesterday in message 
> 108566...
> 
> '"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. It was very amusing......"
> 
> (COS "The Heir of Slytherin" p.229 UK edition)
> 
> It seems to be implied there that the Basilisk was specifically 
> being directed to target Muggles, i.e. your second scenario. The 
> wording suggests that the creature wasn't going round aimlessly in 
> the building; if that had been the case, would there have been a 
> much higher number of casualties? 

Asian_lovr2:

The random part of the Basilisk is that if anyone meets a Basilisk
they are as good as dead. Given its many methods of effective killing,
I think it is an extremely rare few who escape.

To the not random aspect, let's take the example of Colin Creevy. 
Let's say Ginny saw Colin leave the common room late at night. Riddle
who was 'along for the ride' lurking in the back of Ginny's mind saw a
perfect opportunity and sent Ginny to the bathroom to call out the
Basilisk. How do you tell the Basilisk to 'get Colin Creevy', how
could it distinguish him from anyone else? Also, how could you say,
'go get that muggle'. 

For argument sake let's switch it to a dog, which I suspect is far
more intelligent than a reptile. How can you tell the dog to attack
one specific person that the dog has never met? Or how can you tell
the dog to attack only Catholics? Do they smell different? Do they
look different? 

So, Ginny probably said, attack the boy who is on his way to the
hospital wing. Now what if the Basilisk had encountered Filch as it
roamed the school? Could it determine that Filch was not the boy on
his way to the hospital wing, and therefore decline to attack him?
That seems like pretty deep thinking. 

The attack on Hermione appears the most random. Unless I'm mistaken it
occurred at the beginning of a Quidditch match when a VAST majority of
the school was out of the building. Why set it loose then? 

I could speculate that Ginny saw Hermione heading for the library
while she went out to the Quidditch game, and ducked back to set the
Basilisk loose. However, I can't see how Ginny could also know that
Penelope was going to be in the halls at that time. So, I have to
suspect that one of either Hermione or Penelope were random victims.

So for each of the attacks, I can speculate that Ginny saw the victim
and was able to call out the Basiliks. However, I admit a flaw in that
speculation. When Justin was attacked, most people were in class. When
Peeves raised a ruckus, people came pouring out of the classrooms.
Persumably Ginny was in class, so I'm not sure how she could have
isolated Justin.

Keep in mind when I say 'she', meaning Ginny, I am realy talking about
Riddle taking her over and seizing specific opportunities.

So, my point is, while I do see an element of randomness in it all, I
think the attacks were deliberate, however, I feel the scope of the
deliberateness was limited by the intelligence of the Basilisk. 


> Geoff:
>
> Go back to Riddle's time at Hogwarts - we only seem to have a record
> of one attack, that on Moaning Myrtle.

Asian_lovr2:

Not quite, if you read carefully you'll see that 50 years ago several
people were attacked but only ONE person died. That dead person was
Myrtle.

I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just trying to come up with a
speculation that resolves the most inconsistencies and at the same
time has a reasonable degree of likelihood. 

Steve/asian_lovr2