It really annoys me ...

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 163888

> > >>Anne Squires:
> > Okay, Inge, I'll bite.
> > <snip>
> > In PS/SS the stone is protected by a series of tests and           
> > enchantments that a group of eleven year olds with only one year of 
> > training can bypass. 
> > <snip>
> > (I actually believe the tests were purposely set up not to protect 
> > the stone, but rather to test Harry. But it's still a plot hole.)
> > <snip>
> >
> > In CoS Dumbledore and his staff have not figured out that a Basilisk
> > is the Chamber's monster.  What? 
> > <snip>
> > I'll tell you why.  DD wanted Harry to fight young Tom and the     
> > Basilisk.  It's still a plot hole though, imho.
> > 
> > About Sirius, why didn't someone interrogate the man under
> > veritaserum?  
> > <snip>
> > (I actually think DD may have wanted Sirius out of the way for his 
> > own purposes. It's still a plot hole.)
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:

> Did Dumbledore set up Harry to run the gauntlet in PS/SS?  If so (and 
> unfortunately there's nothing in canon to contradict this senario) 

Pippin:
"And then...well, you remember the events of your first year at 
Hogwarts quite as clearly as I do. You rose magnificently to
the challenge that faced you, and sooner -- much sooner--
than I had anticipated, you found yourself face-to-face with
Voldemort." --OOP ch37

Clearly Harry was not meant to go after the Stone as a first year.
This is corroborated by Hermione's appalled reaction in Book
One to the idea. 

There was no need for the challenges guarding the stone 
to be lethal or impassable -- which could have been arranged by
having poison in *all* the flasks, requiring one to bring
an antidote or concoct one on the spot.  Even Fluffy, fearsome
as he is, doesn't seem to be a killer. As Quirrell complains,
he didn't even tear Snape's leg off. The mirror is the real 
challenge, everything else merely draws
the questing wizard in. Voldemort used the same strategy
in designing the protections for the horcrux in the cave.

Hermione knows the monster is a basilisk because she's a well-
educated Muggle. The basilisk's power to petrify is preserved in
Muggle literature, but is apparently not known among wizard
kind -- see Fantastic Beasts and the exerpt in CoS, both of
which say nothing about petrification. 

Just like in the first book, Muggle knowledge is more useful
than you might think. 


Pippin
wondering if some bit of Muggle lore will be useful in the last
book.