Salazar’s Separation & the Chamber of Secrets (was Re:The Falling-Out of the Fou

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 126029


> Kemper wrote:  
> 
> I don't see Salazar as an ambitious man.  How many ambitious men 
in  the world want to become teachers?  

Hannah now:  Um... I know a few personally for starters.  Teaching 
isn't an easy job and it's quite possible to be an ambitious 
teacher.  Besides, Salazar Slytherin wasn't just 'a teacher.'  He 
was a founder of one of the first organised schools in the country.  
There's a difference.  As well as that, he was a powerful wizard who 
could have had any number of ambitions in other directions besides 
teaching and the world of the school. 

Kemper continued:
<snip>
> I also don't see his murderous intent.  Did Salazar set the 
Basilisk  on Muggleborns or anyone for that matter?  

> I think Salazar built the Chamber as a refuge.  Maybe Salazar kept 
it  from the others in case one of the students or Founders 
accidentally  walked in to say hello only to be bitten or stared at 
by a Basilisk  because he didn't close the Chamber all the way.  I 
don't know.
> I also speculate that when Salazar left, he didn't go running 
around 
> whispering into ears, "Hey
 there's this room in Hogwarts that I 
> built
 I call it the Chamber of Secrets."   
<snip>

Hannah now:  Yes, I agree that it's unlikely Slytherin himself named 
it the Chamber of Secrets.  It was christened that by someone, maybe 
many years after he was dead, because of the mysteries surrounding 
its location (and its very existence) and the nature of the monster.

There was obviously some knowledge about the chamber.  Perhaps 
Salazar did build it for protection and not tell anyone else its 
location for the reasons given already in the thread.  He must have 
said something, for there to be any knowledge of it at all.  There 
was no point telling the others its location, as they wouldn't be 
able to open it, even once he'd left the school.

If Slytherin really did want to kill all Muggleborns at the school, 
why didn't he release the Basilisk himself, or get his own 
son/daughter to do it?  He must have had a child/ children, but 
there's no evidence that they or their children, who would be most 
influenced by Slytherin's beleifs, released the basilisk.

As a Muggleborn killing mechanism, the basilisk is very 
inefficient.  Both times the chamber was opened, only one child was 
killed and relatively few even attacked (luckily).  All it achieved 
(had it not been thwarted) was the closure of the school 
altogether.  And no doubt sooner or later another school would have 
been started up, somewhere without a secret chamber and resident 
monster, where Muggleborns could continue to be taught without 
fear.  For someone so sneaky and cunning and clever, it was a 
remarkably poor plan.  

However, the basilisk as a last ditch defence mechanism - which 
could be controlled only by Slytherin, so not turned and used 
against the school by a Muggle - and the Chamber as a very secret 
hiding place, do make sense as a plan.

I doubt Slytherin was nice, in the same way that Snape isn't nice.  
But he may not have been evil.

Hannah