What, Voldemort Kill Myrtle ? (Was Re: Moaning Myrtle is Harry's aunt on James's

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 167849

Annemehr wrote:
> > Nah.  The Basilisk did not have an innocent purpose, like a
welding torch does.  Riddle summoned it to kill, and it did.  That's
murder.
> 
Random832:
> It's an animal, it doesn't have to have any kind of purpose. And we
> don't know what was going through Riddle's mind, whether the intent to
> use it to kill had formed prior to that moment
> 
> 
>
Carol responds:

The Basilisk is essentially a killing machine. As it creeps through
the pipes, it states its desire to kill: "Come . . . Come to me. . . .
Let me rip you. . . ..Let me tear you. . . . Let me kill you" (CoS Am.
ed. 120) and ". . . rip . . . tear . . . kill," ". . . soo hungry . .
. for so long" and "kill. . . time to kill" (137). The Basilisk is, of
course, an animal. It is extremely hungry. It has no conscience. For
Salazar Slytherin and for Tom Riddle after him, the Basilisk is a
deadly weapon.

Killing is its sole purpose, or rather Salazar Slytherin's intended
purpose in leaving it in Hogwarts in the first place, to kill
Muggleborns. Professor Binns tells the students that "the Heir alone
would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets and unleash the horror
within, and use it to purge the school of those who were unworthy to
study magic" (CoS Am. ed. 151). Tom Riddle, wishing to prove himself
the Heir of Slytherin, spends "long years" searching for the CoS to
prove that he's the Heir of Slytherin and continue his "noble work"
(312). Having killed one "Mudblood," he fears that the school will be
closed, so he creates the diary in the hope of someday "leading
another" to finish this "noble work." (312). Diary!Tom uses Ginny to
release the Basilisk to go after Muggleborns, all of whom would have
died if they had looked it directly in the eye. It's only when
Diary!Tom learns through Ginny of Harry's existence that "killing
Muggleborns doesn't matter to me any more" (150). Both Tom Riddle, the
student, and Diary!Tom use the Basilisk, which they control, as their
weapon. (Ginny, too, is not controlled, but she isn't a deadly weapon.)

Right before the Basilisk kills Moaning Myrtle, she hears a boy's
voice speaking to it in an unknown language. My guess is that Tom
heard Myrtle crying, knew who she was, and ordered the Basilisk to
kill her. "Killing Muggleborns doesn't matter to me anymore" (312)
indicates that it *did* matter at one time, and I see no reason why he
would be speaking to the Basilisk other than to control it. He
certainly isn't holding a conversation with it. But even if he didn't
order it to kill Myrtle when she emerged from the stall, the mere fact
that he was bringing a hungry, bloodthirsty monster into a school,
intending to release it on the "unworthy" students, makes him guilty
of murder, just as Draco would have been guilty of murder if Ron or
Katie had died even though they weren't his intended victims. "It
won't come until it is called," says Diary!Tom (308). The Basilisk
roams the school only when he orders it to do so.

The responsibility for the presence of a killing machine within
Hogwarts belongs to Salazar Slytherin, but the responsibility for its
release and for the death of one student and the Petrification of the
others belongs to Tom Riddle and Diary!Tom. Ginny is at best an
innocent victim, at worst an unwilling agent or accomplice, and of
course has nothing to do with Myrtle's murder. The Basilisk is Tom's
weapon, as effective as a wand.

Carol, who thinks that Myrtle's murder was Tom's first and that he
used it to make the diary, already the proof the he was the Heir of
Slytherin, into a Horcrux