Chamber of Secrets and the Potrait

[Amey Chinchorkar]

No: HPFGUIDX 108765

-	Kneasy
-	As for "why wait a 1,000 years?" - only JKR  can answer that - 'cos
-	canon has it that it hasn't been opened since Sally packed his wand
-	and left in a marked manner. I can't argue with that.

Amey:
But we don’t have canon for 1000 years (how I hope we get Hogwarts: The History soon). We hear from Binns that there is no such thing as Chamber, and then Dumbledore confirms that the Chamber has been opened *again*. Also, we have a mention of Chmaber featuring in *History*. So that points to the fact that the Chamber is there and Binns is either hiding it from students to avoid the panic or does not believe in it as he was not there last time. Do we know how much time Binns is there? I think being a ghost, he must be there for a long time.



-	~Yb
-	When the DA is having their organizational meeting in the Hogs Head,
-	the talk turns to Harry's accomplishments, and Ernie says that he
-	spoke to "a portrait in Dumbledore's office" who told him about the
-	sword on the wall, Godric Gryffindor's sword Harry used to defeat the
-	basilisk. I don't think Ernie described the painting, and I don't
-	know if he said "behind DD's desk" or not, but he did speak to the
-	painting. There are probably many "framed folks" in the office, but I
-	wouldn't be surprised if the one Ernie talked to is the same as the
-	one we're talking about. Maybe it is GG in the picture...

Amey:
'And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?' demanded Terry Boot. That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year
' 'Er - yeah, I did, yeah,' said Harry. (OOtP – in hog’s head)
There is no description of the portrait, but it can be anyone, all the portraits seem talkative (gossipy???) and many like Harry.
-	Zoe
-	I think you're forgetting that Dumbledore doesn't actually know that
-	Tom Riddle opened the chamber and set a Basilisk on Moaning Myrtle
-	and the others.  Hagrid, with Aragog as the monster, was set up by
-	Tom as the culprit, and was expelled for it, even though Dumbledore
-	beleived he was innocent. Even if he suspected Tom, he had no proof,
-	or would have done something about it at the time.  We have no cannon
-	for anyone knowing that Tom was the culprit all along.  It is only
-	with hindsight (at the end of COS) that Dumbledore knows for a fact
-	that it was Riddle, due to Harry and Ginny's witness and the Diary
-	itself.

Amey:
"It means," said Dumbledore, "that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed
open again." Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall
stared at Dumbledore. "But, Albus ... surely ... who?" "The question is not who," said Dumbledore, his eyes on Colin. "The question is, how . . . ." (CoS) 

And


"\What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord
Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is
currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

This shows that Dumbledore knew that the Chamber was opened by Tom before events in CoS. Maybe when Voldemort gained power, Dumbledore studied his history and deduced this, or maybe he knew but had no proof of Hagrid’s innocence and Tom’s involvement when Tom opened the Chamber. This is canon for Dumbledore knowing that it was Tom/Voldemort all along. Also, he kept an eye on Tom and so Tom sealed it temperorily. 

Amey



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