Basilisk Venom

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182332

Carol earlier:
> 
> << (The only reason that the Sword of Gryffindor could destroy the
Horcruxes was that, because of Harry, it had absorbed Basilisk venom.) >>

Catlady responded: 
> My memory is dreadful. I thought the Sword of Gryffindor could
destroy Horcruxes because it was a powerful magical artifact (so
presumably the Goblet of Fire also could have destroyed Horcruxes). In
fact, I even thought the Basilisk fangs could destroy Horcruxes
because they were pointy things from a magical beast, not because of
the venom. Please remind of the canon about the necessity of Basilisk
venom.

Carol responds:

Happy to oblige. In "the Goblin's Revenge," after Phineas Nigellus has
told HRH that the last time he saw the Sword of Gryffindor was when DD
used it to break open a ring, Hermione says, "the sword can destroy
Horcruxes! Goblin-mad blades imbibe only that which strengthens
them--Harry, that sword's impregnated with basilisk venom!" (DH Am.
ed. 304)--which explains why DD used it and why he willed it to Harry
and wants snape to deliver it (and, of course, why it's important to
have Snape send a fake sword rather than the real one to Bellatrix).

Earlier, Hermione has said that "what Harry did" (stabbing the diary
with a Basilisk fang) is one of the only "foolproof" ways of
destroying a Horcrux. Apparently, the venom alone is not sufficient
(assuming that it can be obtained on the black market, which I've
already given my reasons for doubting). Hermione continues, "It
doesn't have to be a Basilisk fang. It has to be something so
destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself" (Basilisk venom
qualifies, she says, because it has only one antidote, the incredibly
rare Phoenix tears), and she adds, "There are very few substances as
destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry
around with you" (104). Presumably, they're also rare and difficult to
obtain because Hermione doesn't even bother to list the alternatives.

At any rate, the Sword of Gryffindor, as we later learn, has been
imbued with Basilisk venom, solving the problem of obtaining a
Basilisk fang and carrying it around--not impossible, but it would
require going to Hogwarts and risking getting caught by Snape, so they
think, and carrying the thing around without being poisoned by it--or
finding an alternative, which is evidently even more difficult or
Hermione would have listed the possibilities. (She does say that you
can't rip, smash, or crush a Horcrux. Which makes me wonder whether
Nagini could have been killed with any other weapon that the Sword of
Gryffindor. Unlike Harry, she was a true Horcrux and would have had
the usual magical protections placed on her.)

Carol earlier:

> << Because you have to be a Parselmouth to control one, so only a
Parselmouth would hatch one (unless the Dark Wizard doing so wanted to
be killed by his own creation). >>
> 
Catlady responded:
> You have to be a Parselmouth to direct a Basilisk to go lurk outside
the library and kill everyone who exits. You have to be a Parselmouth
to direct a Basilisk NOT to kill Pansy Parkinson while out on a
killing spree.
> 
> You don't have to be a Parselmouth to keep your Basilisk confined in
a cage from which it can't escape, keeping it blindfolded or having
blinded it (poor snake) or enclosing the cage with opaque walls to
protect everyone from its deadly gaze, and using other precautions.

Carol again:
I'm going by FB: "The creation of Basilisks has been illegal since
medieval times, although the practice is easily concealed by removing
the chicken egg from under the toad when the Department for the
Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures comes to call. However,
since *Basilisks are uncontrollable except by Parselmouths*, they are
as dangerous to most Dark wizards as to anybody else, and there have
been no recorded sightings of Basilisks in Britain for at least four
hundred years" (FB 4). 

Needless to say, Newt Scamander doesn't know about Salazar Slytherin's
Basilisk, but my point is that Basilisk venom is more than a bit
difficult to obtain. It's not likely to be found on the black market.
What would even the darkest Wizard use it for when other, less
dangerous poisons are available? And most Wizards don't even know
about Horcruxes, much less being in the business of destroying them.
(Regulus clearly hadn't read the book Hermione read, or he'd have
realized that he was presenting poor Kreacher with an impossible
task.) And earlier, Hermione implies that the object actually has to
be stabbed with a Basilisk fang (just sprinkling on the venom might
not be enough). The Sword of Gryffindor would serve the same purpose;
the venom would enable it to break open the Horcrux, which would
otherwise be impervious even to a powerful magical object like a
Goblin-made sword.

Catlady:
> For example, it might be kept under the Imperius Curse. <snip>

Carol:
Only if the Dark Wizard know Parseltongue, the only language that the
Basilisk understands. And since it obeys the Parselmouth, anyway, the
Imperius Curse would be unnecessary.

Neither the Basilisk fangs used to destroy the diary and the
Hufflepuff cup nor the venom-impregnated Sword of Gryffindor, used to
destroy the ring, the locket, and Nagini, would have been available to
DD or HRH had Harry not been a Parselmouth able to enter the Chamber
of Secrets and kill the Basilisk in the first place. And, of course,
that killing was only possible with the help of Dumbledore and Fawkes.
Had Fawkes not blinded the Basilisk, Harry could not have killed it
even with the Sword of Gryffindor because he would have been killed
like Moaning Myrtle by those big yellow eyes. (Of course, if the
Basilisk had been a Horcrux, heaven forfend, not even the Sword of
Gryffindor would have killed it.)

Any Wizards bent on destroying LV's Horcruxes without first consulting
Dumbledore would have been hard-pressed to find the means to do so
even if they knew what and where the Horcruxes were (which is also
impossible without consulting the man who had been obtaining
Riddle-related memories since Tom framed Morfin for the Riddle
murders, given that most of the people in those memories were long
dead by the time of Godric's Hollow).

Carol, who thinks that matters would have been greatly simplified if
DD had had Snape's help in destroying the Horcruxes, but that's a
matter for another post (or a different series whose hero isn't a
teenager with special powers inadvertently given to him by his nemesis)