Why put the entrance tothe Chamber of Secrets in a girl's bathroom?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 88351

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Berit Jakobsen" 
<belijako at o...> wrote:


Berit:
 
> Well, I have canon facts that suggests the bathroom probably has 
not 
> been remodelled... Quote: "'That tap's never worked', said Myrtle 
> brightly, as he [Harry] tried to turn it.'" (CoS p. 222 UK Ed).
> 
> It's kind of implied the reason that tap has never worked is 
because 
> it has a different use than the usual one; it's the key to the 
secret 
> chamber, not an ordinary tap where water pours out if you turn it. 

Geoff:
Myrtle knew that the tap has never worked in her time in the place, 
i.e from perhaps 1940 onwards.

That tap could not be an original piece of Hogwarts plumbing because 
taps weren't around a thousand years ago. I recently visited the old 
underground conduits in Exeter which were built to bring water into 
the cathedral and the city about 600 years ago and although they were 
an excellent piece of engineering for their time, they were stone 
lined and there was no piping in the sense that we would expect 
today. The interesting question becomes whether there has been an 
heir of Slytherin at Hogwarts prior to Tom Riddle who was there at a 
time when a piped water system was installed.