Chamber of Horcruxes

[Kenneth Clark]

No: HPFGUIDX 162951

> Carol earlier:
> > > [Dumbledore couldn't understand Parseltongue] much less speak it
> or he'd have been able to find and open the chamber. Not being
> Slytherin's true Heir, he couldn't do it.
> > > <snip>
> >
> > Mike:
> > OK, I can't resist <eg> If only Slytherin's heir can open the
> > chamber, how did Harry do it? Ginny could do it because she had a
> > piece of Riddle's soul possessing her, meaning the soul of Riddle
> > identified him as the heir of Slytherin. Did Harry have something
in
> > him that would also identify him as the heir of Slytherin,
thereby
> > allowing him to open the chamber?>

Ken says:

Surely the simplest answer and probably the most obvious is that
Harry IS Slytherin's heir!  We have spent a lot of time and effort
trying to justify his ability to open the Chamber of Secrets on the
basis of his assimilation of some of Voldemort's powers.  But the
Chamber is a seriously magical "thing".  No one or nothing else has
confused Voldemort with Harry so why should the Chamber have done
so?  No, it is more likely that Harry is indeed an heir - perhaps
THIS is why Voldemort identified the infant Harry as his nemesis
instead of  Neville?

Kenneth Clark