The Sword of Gryffindor

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182572

Carol earlier:
> > I didn't say that the diary was irrelevant to Harry. 
> 
> Geoff:
> True, but you did write "The diary's being a Horcrux is irrelevant
at this point." To which I replied "the diary is far from irrelevant
to Harry". Harry is very soon made to realise that the diary
constitutes a grave danger to him in the form of the memory image of 
Tom Riddle. <snip>

Carol again:
Sorry if my meaning was unclear. But the diary's being a Horcrux is
relevant to HBP and DH; CoS can be read and understood with Diary!Tom
as a mere memory with the power to possess the reader of the diary.

But my point, to rieiterate, is that DD did not know about the diary.
Consequently, the protections he provided for Harry (the only person
other than the Heir of Slytherin, or whoever the Heir was possessing,
who could open the Chamber of Secrets) were therefore designed to
protect against the monster (which, as I've already argued, had to be
a Basilisk) and not against a Horcrux or some other form of Voldemort.
Yes, the diary was dangerous, but how was DD supposed to know that
when he didn't even know that the diary existed, or that Lucius Malfoy
had put it in Ginny's cauldron and that Diary!Tom was using it to
control her and Petrify the "Mudbloods"?

DD knew that the CoS had been opened and who had opened it (but not
how). He had (as Ive argued) a very good idea of what the Chamber
contained. He knew that Harry had been falsely suspected of being the
Heir of Slytherin and that HRH had gone after "Snape" the previous
year to protect the Sorceror's Stone. Had DD not been reasonably
certain that Harry and friends would behave in a similar fashion
regarding the CoS (even if Ginny hadn't been involved and Hermione
Petrified), there would have been no point in his advice about loyalty
to himself (which summons Fawkes) and help always coming at Hogwarts
to those who ask for it, which relates to the Sword of Gryffindor.

Even if DD had known about the diary and suspected that it was a
Horcrux, the Sword of Gryffindor at that point could *not* have been
used to destroy the Horcrux as it had not yet absorbed Basilisk venom.
It was, however, a suitable weapon to use against a Basilisk
(especially after that monster had been blinded by Fawkes)--much more
suitable than a wand for a kid whose knowledge of defensive spells was
extremely limited at that point.

> Geoff:
> And if Harry had not found the entrance to the Chamber? What then?

Carol responds:
We'd have had no story or rather a very different story. Diary!Tom
would have succeeded in draining Ginny's soul and would have left her
to die in the Chamber of Secrets. I suppose he would have gone to
rescue his other self, Vapor!mort, in Albania and they would have
merged. IOW, DD could not open the Chamber himself. Harry, as a
Parselmouth, not only could but did. And Dumbledore, even though he
didn't know about the diary Horcrux (though he knew that Voldemort was
involved in some way) was counting on him--and encouraging him--to do
it. He was also "handing him weapons" so that when the time came, he
would not face the monster unarmed and unaided. (What he expected
Harry to do if he encountered some form of Voldemort, I don't know. As
I said, he didn't know about the diary, and the Horcruxes he knew
about--ring, locket, cup--could not have been used to open the
chamber. I doubt very much that he was deliberately using Harry to
create a weapon that could be used in future to destroy Horcruxes. He
was merely providing him with the best protection available against
the danger he did know of, the Basilisk, short of being there himself.

> Geoff:
> This brings up a thought which came to me earlier today 
> after my last post. There has been much talk of a link 
> between the Hat and the sword of Gryffindor. One thing 
> which has been exercising me is the fact that the Hat 
> should be impartial and without bias when deciding to 
> which house new pupils should be allocated. So, this 
> begs the question: if someone in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw 
> or - heaven forbid - Slytherin <g> finds themselves in 
> a situation of calling for help, how does the Hat respond?
> 
> One for the academics.

Carol (who is or was an academic <wink>) responds:

I'm not sure that the Hat itself has powers to help students in peril.
It didn't come to Harry on its own; it was brought by Fawkes, almost
certainly on DD's orders because he knew that the sword would come out
of it if a Gryffindor called for help "under conditions of need and
valor"--but only if the hat was actually in reach. IOW, it's not as if
the hat, sitting on its shelf in DD's office, heard and responded to
Harry's call for help, any more than it flew to Neville in the Battle
of Hogwarts (it was summoned, ironically, by LV himself, who should
have known better--or maybe not, since Diary!Tom didn't survive to
tell his alter ego the details of the previous encounter).

The Sword of Gryffindor, in contrast, has been enchanted to help
Gryffindors specifically, and the only student who could enter the
Chamber of Secrets (with or without his friends) was a Gryffindor, as
were his friends, and (IMO) DD designed his protections (not a
songbird and an old hat but a songbird--whose song instills courage in
the pure of heart, not to mention his other magical properties, all
relevant to protecting a wizard battling a Basilisk--and a magical
sword that could be pulled from the hat by a courageous and imperiled
Gryffindor--with that in mind.

In theory, a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff in trouble might have been able
to summon *Fawkes* to help them by expressing loyalty to Dumbledore,
but their respective House artifacts, a cup and a diadem, wouldn't
have been much help even if they hadn't been Horcruxes and even if DD
knew that the diadem was at Hogwarts. I doubt that a Slytherin student
of Harry's era would express loyalty to DD, so Fawkes wouldn't help
them, with or without a Sorting Hat. I imagine, for example, that
Montague, trapped in the broken Vanishing Cabinet, called for help a
few times. (Maybe that's how he was able to escape despite the
anti-apparition spells on Hogwarts, but the protective magic and the
anti-Apparition spells would have worked against each other, landing
him in a toilet with rather severe PTSS. <g>)

It just occurred to me--Draco was also in trouble, terrible trouble,
in HBP. No one entered Hogwarts to murder him, though, and when
Harry's ill-judged use of Sectumsempra left Draco lying in a pool of
his own blood, the former Ravenclaw Moaning Myrtle called for help,
which arrived in the form of Severus Snape, the Slytherin HoH. Had he
been following Draco, or did Hogwarts itself send the one person who
knew the countercurse that could save Draco?

Both Snape and DD talk about protections on the castle. Of course,
they don't protect Fred (no longer a student, but that's probably
irrelevant) or Cedric (who's not in the castle or on the grounds when
he dies), but until the Battle of Hogwarts, no student actually dies
there. What exactly are those protections and what do they protect
against? (Not cruel detentions by Umbridge or the Carrows, obviously.)

Carol,who would have liked to know what magical powers the Hufflepuff
cup possessed before it was Horcruxified