Entering the Chamber

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 90472

Kneasy:
> >To do so it had to leave the Chamber; but Myrtle has 
apparently seen  nothing unusual in her bathroom recently. Isn't 
this a bit odd? There  sits Myrtle, alone and palely loitering in her 
U-bend, desperate for  company or someone she can nag, and 
she is not  aware of the multiple  Basilisk forays that cause such 
a fuss, nor did she notice Ginny using  the bathroom to access 
the Chamber.<<

Pippin responds:
But Myrtle goes abroad frequently. She attends the Deathday 
party, she spies on the Prefect's Bathroom, and while she's in 
the U-bend she can be flushed down to the lake. 

Possessed!Ginny can wait till Percy goes to take a bath or she 
can simply flush Myrtle out of the way.

Kneasy:
>>Tell me, how did Tom get *out* of the Chamber all those years 
 ago? He certainly didn't use Fawkes. It's a long slide down to 
the bottom - and there are no steps.<<

Pippin:
The basilisk itself speaks parseltongue and it obeys Tom's 
commands. He could cast a disillusionment charm on himself, 
have the monster deliver him to the bathroom, then order it to 
return to the Chamber. 


Kneasy:
>> Harry first hears the Basilisk during his detention with 
Lockhart -  this is within the first few days of the start of the 
school year.Is it likely that Ginny has already opened the 
Chamber in that short time? <<

Yes. When Harry saw Hagrid that morning, there was a 
half-plucked rooster on his kitchen table. This was Ginny's doing 
(the cause of the uproar among the birds which Harry heard 
earlier that morning) and it proves that she was already under 
Tom's control.

Kneasy:
>> He's been spying on Hagrid and his little pet and 
Aragog knows all about Basilisks. He fears them and begs 
Hagrid to let  him leave. He doesn't tell Hagrid what it is that he 
fears but a  brilliant scholar like Tom may have reasoned it out in 
much the same  way as the Trio, especially Hermione, did later. 
Acromantula - spiders -  obsessive fear - Basilisk! Pipes - 
pipework - bathrooms. Check 'em out!  Yippee! Jackpot!<<

Pippin:
Hmm....I don't think Aragog knew about the basilisk before it was 
let out of the Chamber. It couldn't leave the statue of Slytherin 
until it was called...but  may be there's another way out of its lair 
that doesn't lead into the castle. What did it live on for 1000 
years? It must have been eating something to get that big.

Kneasy:
> so it's highly likely that he had been down there before Myrtle 
>came  eyeball-to-eyeball with her nemesis.

Pippin:
Yes. Riddle himself says "all these attacks" when speaking to 
Dippet. 


Kneasy:
 >>Remember the timings in that  event: Myrtle was being 
happily miserable in her cubicle, hears someone  speaking, 
unlocks the door and faces her ultimate Freudian nightmare. 
 Not enough time for Tom  to slide down to the Chamber and call 
the  monster from Salazars statue; the Basilisk was not 
sleeping, it was up and about and eager to be out and at 'em. 
Something, presumably Tom, had already primed it for action.<<

I always figured Tom and his little pet were on their way *back* to 
the Chamber after a foray. They entered the bathroom from the 
corridor. 

Pippin