World Building

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 187118

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

Carol:
> But the problem is that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, which was created by Salazar Slytherin a thousand years ago, is a water faucet (or tap) in a girls' restroom with what appears to be early twentieth-century plumbing. How could that faucet have been there a thousand years ago unless the ancient wizards had modern plumbing? It isn't just the drain pipe that Harry slides down--it's the serpent-marked faucet on the sink that doesn't work that we're concerned about. (And Dumbledore appears to have used chamber pots at one time--wonder how long ago that was?)
 
> Anyway, I suppose that the school could have had Roman-style plumbing upgraded to twentieth-century style later, but the implication is that the sink that doesn't work, and the serpent-decorated faucet has been there for a thousand years. 

Geoff:
Two points initially. First, to be pedantic, the tap controls the entrance to 
the Chamber - it is *not* the entrance itself.

Second, I see no implication that the tap has been there for a thousand years. 
I sometimes find pieces of equipment that may be, say, fifty years old, but 
which have been re-equipped with up to date control gear...

I would presume that some of the Heirs of Slytherin - if not all - knew about 
its existence. Tom Riddle said that he searched for five years to find the 
entrance (COS "The Heir of Slytherin" p.230 UK edition). This implies that 
some of the Heirs had left clues. We don't know how often an Heir of Slytherin 
had been in the school but I am prepared to believe that the tap had already 
been marked by Riddles' time. I consider the possibility of an earlier 
Heir using magic to update the entrance technique when the taps were 
originally installed as being feasible.