What's wrong with Mrs. Norris?/Ginny's riddle

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 113255

Julia:
> It strikes me as odd that the basilisk attacked the "Squib's cat". 
> What for? Why did Riddle want to do it? And how did he know that 
> Filch is actually a squib. Was it some kind of revenge on Filch? 
> Maybe Riddle hated Filch and Mrs. Norris as much as everybody 
> else? But wait a second... wasn't there a different guy in 
> Hogwart's? 

Yb:
Molly does remember Apollyon Pringle, the old caretaker. I doubt 
Filch was anywhere near on staff when TR was at Hogwart's. He may 
have been student age at the time, but being a Squib, he wouldn't be 
concerned with Hogwart's anyway. I've never seen him as an old man, 
more like younger than Hagrid. I suppose Squibs have the same 
extended life span wizards do, but there's no canon for it.

Julia:
> I thought that Filch being a Squib is some kind of a secret but it 
> turns out that even young Riddle knows it...

Yb:
I suppose.. I think... I DON'T KNOW! Maybe the basilisk heard about 
Filch's "problem" after the attack. Harry found out about it, told 
Ron (who probably told Ginny, Fred, and George: it's kinda funny to 
them after all) and Ginny told Diary!Tom sometime over the course of 
the year. Catching the cat was just luck, and the Basilisk probably 
heard someone coming and retreated immediately.

Julia:
> Another thought came to my mind while analyzing Tom's words. Why 
> did nobody actually get killed? Was it a coincidence that all five 
> of them saw the basilisk in some kind of refection? If it was 
> really Ginny setting the basilisk on them then she wasn't really 
> effective... Or maybe she has powers "that Dark Lord knows not"? 

Yb:
Oh, don't you start too.

Julia:
> Maybe in some way she was protecting her schoolmates (and animals 
> by creating such situations in which nobody would get seriously 
> harmed? Even under Riddle's influence she could think properly... 
> very impressive. It's just my thought... What do you think?

Yb:
Well, all HP Sleuths know there's know such thing as a coincidence, 
but to explain how Ginny "created circumstances" so Hermione and 
Penelope wouldn't die is a stretch. I think:

Mrs. Norris: bad luck. Tom probably didn't even know Filch was a 
Squib, as discussed above.

Justin: Maybe he was chatting with Nick at the time? Maybe Nick dove 
in in the "nick" of time to save him? Ginny could be responsible for 
telling Nick to jump in JFF's line of vision.

Colin: That was an odd one. He was holding grapes, and Dumbledore 
actually found him first... Maybe he wanted to take a picture of 
something else, and the Basilisk just slipped into view, or he heard 
a noise and turned around, still looking through the lens? I suppose 
one could have Ginny telling him to look through the camera, but 
it's doubtful.

Hermione and Penelope: They were looking in a mirror around a 
corner. Ginny couldn't have had anything to do with it. It was 
Hermione's idea (we can assume that, I think) to use the mirror.

I don't see Ginny being able to do these things. She'd probably 
have /some/ memory of the events she was doing if she was aware 
enough to yell or cast a spell or something. My guess is the 
Basilisk got scared after each attack because it heard someone 
coming.

My thought. Any takers?

~Yb