Why did Ginevra petrify Mrs. Norris anyway?

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 98903

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "vmonte" <vmonte at y...> wrote:
> vmonte:
> 
> All this talk about Ginevra has got me thinking.  Why did she 
petrify 
> Mrs. Norris in CoS? (I'm sure this was discussed before but I 
began 
> to have suicidal thoughts while using yahoo's search engine.) Did 
the 
> cat just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time?  And 
why 
> not just leave the cat on the floor; why hang it by it's tail? Is 
it 
> possible that Ginny is an animagus, but doesn't yet know it? Could 
> she have been walking the corridors (in a trance-like state) as a 
cat 
> and bumped into Mrs. Norris?  Did she discover something about her 
> while she was in cat form? 
> 
> Hanging the cat upside down seems rather personal doesn't it? 
> Especially considering that Ginny usually likes animals.  
> 
> I do have to admit though that that cat is annoying...
> 
> By the way, I don't see Harry and Hermione as an item.  Harry and 
> Ginny make a better match IMO.
> 
> vmonte

Ginny was possessed by Diary!Tom Riddle when she did all this, her 
own feelings towards animals nonwithstanding. The attack on Mrs. 
Norris was surely directed at Filch the Squib, who in Tom's eyes 
would probably be unworthy even to clean the mud off the floors of 
Hogwarts, and I would guess that poor (ahem) Mrs. Norris was hung up 
on the wall to make sure everyone noticed the message Ginny left. 
And also, everyone else was at dinner in the crowded hall, so there 
wasn't anyone else to attack. (And busting into the Great Hall would 
have blown the basilisk's cover.) Also, as to Ginny being an 
animagus unwittingly, I don't think being an animagus is something 
you are born, it takes years of studying and skill to complete the 
transformation. Anyway, to knuts worth. 
Meri