Possession

[Barry Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 90465

A few more thoughts on the theme that Voldemort is more than just Tom 
Riddle after a make-over.

There seems to be a growing expectation among fans that the Chamber of 
Secrets holds, or held, more than just a Basilisk. Its very name 
endorses the idea. Secrets - plural. Some expect that JKR will return 
us to the Chamber in a future volume, and there is that tantalising 
hint that she nearly gave away the key to the story  in CoS. Enough 
there to attract  any red-blooded theoriser.

What happened to Salazar Slytherin? We don't know. We are told that he 
left the school - after constructing the Chamber. Presumably he  could 
see the way the wind was blowing long before he left. You  don't cobble 
together something like the Chamber in five minutes and then he'd have 
to find or hatch a Basilisk, make sure it was OK, place a few spells 
here and there - generally get things ready for whoever it was that 
would, as Tom says, "...finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work." So  he 
had time to set it up just the way he wanted; nice and comfy, all mod 
cons, everything an Heir might want.

But  all  we see  is a Basilisk. That's it, is it? One measly  Basilisk 
is the sum total of the malice of a twisted old looney? Come now, 
surely he could do better than that. For a start, he'd have to be sure 
that whoever entered the Chamber matched the job description for Heir. 
How can he do that? Well, they have to be a Parselmouth to get in and 
maybe to find out about the Chamber at all (see Entering the Chamber, 
90464), but that might not guarantee evil intent; Harry isn't evil, or 
is he? So by my reckoning, it's much easier to make  sure that somebody 
is evil when they *leave* the Chamber, than it is to ensure that only 
evil enters it.

And possession is how you do it. An Heir inherits possessions ('scuse 
the pun) and the first to enter gets possessed. Can't  have some 
do-gooder ruining Salazars little plan, can we? So  there was something 
in there that trapped whoever entered and took them over for Salazar's 
own ends.

I was re-reading CoS and I was struck by the number of times that 
Diary!Tom refers to Lord Voldemort in the third person, as if he were 
someone else entirely. It could be a verbal tic, but  I wonder. Twice 
Diary!Tom proclaims the greatness of himself and of Voldy. He says that 
he is the greatest wizard in the world, and of course Harry puts him 
straight. Everybody remembers that passage. But a few lines earlier he 
says that Voldemort is the greatest wizard in history. Wow! That is 
something else. Do  you really think that Tom believes he is greater 
than his hero Slytherin? Not from the way he refers to Salazar, you 
wouldn't; he talks like a disciple not a superior.

We know that there is a dis-embodied entity that can pass from Voldy Mk 
I to intermediate life-forms after Godrics Hollow and from Quirrell to 
rats in Albania and eventually form Voldy Mk II. So where did this 
entity come from?  From the Chamber IMO.
And it is a sub-set of old Salazar himself.

Now for a  wild guess. Diary!Tom was destroyed when the diary was 
destroyed.
The spirit of Salazar Slytherin will be destroyed when a certain 
something in the Chamber is destroyed.

Expect a big show-down under Hogwarts!

Kneasy