Chapter Discussion Chamber of Secrets Ch. 9 The Writing on the Wall

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189059

Potioncat wrote:
> And a new question--Pippin offered that the Heir had to be someone who wasn't at the feast, which rules out Draco. What about Ginny?  Did she miss the feast?
>
Carol responds:
I don't remember Pippin's comment (sorry), but Dumbledore, at least, knew perfectly well who the Heir of Slytherin was (Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort), which is why he said that it was not a question of who but how. But you're right that the person who wrote on the wall and (theoretically) Petrified the cat would have to be someone who was absent from the banquet. I don't know whether Ginny's absence was indicated or not--probably not because the narrator is seeing from Harry's point of view and Harry didn't know (or, at the moment, care) where Ginny was. I don't think that DD or Snape would have noticed, either, since their focus was on Harry.

BTW, I agree with whoever made the comment that the teachers were remarkably calm given the potential danger to the students--unless the teachers (other than DD and Snape, both of whom would know the importance of remaining calm) thought that it was all a student prank (an older student who knew about the Chamber of Secrets having previously been opened and sufficient knowledge of magic to do a very strong and long-lasting Petrificus Totalus?). 

A new thought just occurred to me. Might DD and Snape, both of whom knew that LV was a powerful Legilimens, already be considering the possibility that LV was controlling Harry in that way? That, or the idea that he might be possessed, would explain the urgent need to determine whether he was a Parselmouth. (DD would keep the additional possibility that the scar was a Horcrux out of the discussion.) But given the fact that Harry was at the scene of the crime, they may really have thought that he did it--not on his own or deliberately but as LV's puppet (a possibility that is disproved when Colin Creevey is found and Harry is confined to the hospital wing).

Carol, who has to rush off and doesn't have time to think these ideas through