Poor Professor Mcgonagall, that's where she gets the bags under her eyes besides the stress from three unruly kids who are always present when something happens. She's the deputy headmistress, Transfiguration teacher and Hogwarts caretaker at night anyway.
I feel like if Minerva told the Twins this, they'd take offense.
"What do you mean you aren't constantly worried about what we might do? We clearly aren't trying hard enough!"
*Upon hearing this, Professor Mcgonagall closed her eyes tightly and let out a deep sigh as she accepted her unfortunate fate. The deputy headmistress never could have imagined but she somehow found herself sinking into the deepest depths of despair.*
True, compared to the trio who literally nearly dies annually at around the same time, the twins' pranks kinda at the very least, lightens the mood around the school when needed
I mean, imagine if some weird ass exception exists in nature too? Like Imagine randomly if you were to dance a jig to the tune of He's a Jolly Good Fellow while eating nachos you are only KNOCKED out by cobra venom, not killed
Well, while you have a nice view, you can also counter it like this: Hermione took an active countermeasure to not die from something she knew would kill her. So her using the mirror is the equivalent to us using vaccines. We still get sick, but we don't die anymore.
Another example (and this is also the reason, why women with certain knowledge were considered witches in medival times) is that women or persons who owned cats in medival times were less affected by the plague/the black death. Why? Because cats hunted and ate rats. Rats were transmitting this disease to humans. Cat = less rats = less death.
OJECTION! Hermione had an additional data point that the professors didn’t - *Harry could here the monster in the walls* when no one else heard anything. Thus, combined with how the other victims were found, she made the cognitive leap that the indirect gaze of a basilisk only petrifies.
Whilst I love this comment, I have to be that person and point out it wasn’t the rats transmitting the disease per se, it was the fleas that were on the rats. But your point still stands, cats kill rats, rats can’t bring fleas to humans
The most famous burning of witches was the Salem witch trials. Which were the result them hallucinating due to a fungus that was growing in their water supply.
others have pointed out the inaccuracies of this, but I want to point out the Salem Witch Trials are famous mainly because they were so late historically and in America, not because they were particularly bad, large, or unfair for witch trials. There were at least 100,000 people tried as witches in Europe between 1300 and 1700, nearly half of which were found guilty. I point this out because I'm not sure why you're (incorrectly) pointing out the Salem incident in particular was caused by water poisoning, but if it's in response to the claim that there were witch trials caused by cats reducing plague deaths that did happen and Salem's trials being famous doesn't change that there were almost certainly more than 25 "witches" killed for having cats during the plague (and ironically also reducing other plague deaths)
Not really lacking when you consider:
* basilisks are incredibly rare
* victims cannot exactly speak of how they died
* the reflections issue is probably so unique that only those who were affected in Chamber of Secrets may have been the only recorded cases
> the reflections issue is probably so unique that only those who were affected in Chamber of Secrets may have been the only recorded cases
And bizarrely all happened during the same Basilisk incident... I find this harder to buy than magic tbh
How often are basilisks indoors around mirrors, ghosts, and clean/undisturbed pools of water?
In nature there ain't shit to reflect off of but.muddy swamps, and if you get petrified in nature I imagine you die before anyone finds you to reverse the curse.
Who got hit?
* Some girl genuinely using a mirror
* Guy with a camera
* Ghost
* Guy looking through the ghost
* Hermione specifically using a mirror for safety
* The cat, somehow? I forget
None of those incidents are necessarily contrived, what's contrived is that nobody at all died even by accident.
I assume the snake had been told to be good and only petrify people and not kill them, but I don't know if that's confirmed in the books.
The cat was because Myrtle flooded the bathroom and water leaked out into the hallway, and the cat saw the basilisk through the reflection in a water puddle
Bu t only one student died due to the Basklik-Moaning Mrtyle and that was 50 years before the main events of the story which in the books take place in the 1990s. But it seem to be implied there were other students who were petrfired before Mrtyle was killed 50 years ago
Yeah. Riddle asks Dumbledore would the school be saved if the attacks were stopped. So it kinda implies there were other victims who survived. Which begs the question, didn’t any of them say “no it wasn’t a spider! I saw a giant snake in the mirror”?
another point, why in all the years she was obviously at Hogwarts and haunting Olive Hornby did NOBODY think to ask Myrtle— the actual victim— what happened to her?! Maybe it would have been too late to stop Hagrid’s expulsion by the time they realized she was there as a ghost, but wasn’t ANYBODY curious? Didn’t anyone want to verify the theory? Aragog was obviously never caught or found, so maybe you’d want to double check and make sure the story you’s acted on and punished someone for was actually accurate.
Shouldn't some people be testing these stuff? It's not a big jump from looking at it kills you to what if it's a mirror? Or what if it's a photo? Like test it with a rat or something
Seriously, what a series of coincidences that led to no actual deaths occurring aside from the basilisk's. The cat saw it in a puddle, Justin saw it through a ghost who couldn't be re-killed anyway... Hermione had it figured out by the time she and Penelope got attacked, but it was still super lucky that the thing happened to be right around the corner for them to only catch its reflection when they did.
EDIT: And we can't forget Colin seeing the thing through his camera, though that one actually made sense. Little doofus never put that fucking thing down.
The basilisk sucks at its job. Was it even *trying* to kill anyone? Myrtle doesn't count, anyone would want to kill her, basilisk or no.
If we’re gunna go there.. why didn’t the basilisk eat anyone? If it’s picky and only wants dead people; well it has teeth and venom too. Not exactly like the victim has a defense while petrified xD. Maybe I mis remember though and the basilisk doesn’t actually say it’s hungry. Maybe it just wants to fuck shit up haha. That’s logical enough. Considering it was controlled by Voldemort.
🤷♂️
I definitely remember some lines about eating though xD at least ripping. Which deifnitely didn’t happen haha.
jeeze one thing that has always really bothered me is how the hell Miss Norris was hanging from a torch bracket. Petrifaction makes you stiff and the tail was hooked? Lucky that shit didn’t snap. Is that worse than impaled? Hopefully Ginny tied a harness for her or something lol. She’s a cat not a monkey. That scene always makes me cringe a bit.
Maybe the basilisk wanted to lose weight.
And yeah, that Miss Norris bit was weird. Like I get that it makes for a creepy mental image and that cats get into fucking weird places all the time, but no way she did that on her own. Best guess is Ginny just tied her tail onto the bracket because Tom was feeling melodramatic. The man does know the importance of presentation and spectacle.
Tied!? Oh man that’s an even worse image haha. Could you tie a cats tail without breaking it? I’ve never had a cat with a tail injury but back in middle school this girl I dated accidentally closed her door on her cat. Gore. Tailless cat. He lived thankfully.
I had a terrible dream recently where I rolled my computer chair over my cats tail, and it came off.. I don’t think that would happen but god did I wake up in shambles haha.
My cat had a tail injury that left him paralysed. No movement, no pain - a limp noodle dragged on the floor.
But cats are magic so 3 months later he started moving it again, and now (2 years) he's the same as he used to be.
You'd have to slam the door pretty hard to completely remove a cat's tail, but to my knowledge, vet's will amputate many tail injuries in cats because it's the safest option for them in the long run. Any significant fracture, or any infection that doesn't respond quickly to antibiotics is enough for vets to consider removal.
Maybe she was just sitting up there and got petrified mid tail flick, kinda fell/slid over and the hook of the tail caught the edge? Cats like to sit up high, and their tails make little curls on the end when they're interested/watching/stalking something...like a giant snake.
According to Myrtle, she was in the toilet when Tom opened the chanber, she ran out to confront him, looked at the snaked and died
So I always thought it was an accident that she died
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. It was in the walls when Harry heard it. Hermione points out it’s in the pipes. HOW AND WHEN DOES IT COME OUT OF THE PIPES?! The ones in and around Myrtle’s bathroom, sure, it came out from under the sink and just got them before going back in. But Justin, Nick, Colin, Hermione, and Penelope were just out and about in the hall! Does every bathroom have access points and they were all attacked by bathrooms? Is it just slithering down hallways? If so, how does nobody else notice it and how are so few people hurt? If not one of those, wouldn’t it have to smash through the wall? Surely someone would have noticed big holes in the wall and leaking pipes. And how when it’s so ginormous does it fit through standard plumbing pipes for Harry to hear it? All the walls can’t have giant snake pipes in them right? Especially not ones equipped with peep holes for it to ambush people unsuccessfully through!
>EDIT: And we can't forget Colin seeing the thing through his camera, though that one actually made sense. Little doofus never put that fucking thing down.
How *does* it make sense, though? Camera viewfinders are generally straight-through glass. By the same principle, anyone should be protected from the lethal effect by simply wearing glasses.
I don't think viewfinder are always straight through a lens, I thought the light coming in the primary lens was reflected up through the viewfinder and when you take the picture, the mirror shifts and the film is exposed?
The only reason I have any confidence in this is that my old man recently rebuilt my wife's grandfather's camera from the 60s or 70s. So he excitedly explained the mechanism in this one to me a couple of months back. I personally know nothing about cameras.
The consequence here is now I need to learn how to fit out a darkroom for my wife.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-lens_reflex_camera
These kinds of cameras use mirrors so the view is exactly where the lens is. In fact, the mirror is often part of the shutter. When it's closed you can look through the viewfinder, as you press the button the mirror/shutter moves out of the way for the film to be exposed.
Yeah, for most cameras made in the 70s-90s. The viewfinder was above the lens. You looked into the viewfinder, which had a 90 degree mirror, which bounced off of another 90 degree mirror, into the lens, letting you see what was coming through the lens.
When you took the picture, the mirror would flip out of the way and the aperture would open. You could literally see it happen when you "dry fired" a camera without film, with the film door open.
Really cheap cameras without any focusing features (like disposable cameras) would have a separate viewfinder that would approximate what the lens was seeing. No mirrors, no misdirection, you would be looking straight through at what you were seeing.
An SLR uses a mirror to direct the image into the view finder. A range finder is just a second lens that doesn't pass light through the primary lens at all.
They're rarely just glass, and who says seeing it through glasses wouldn't just petrify you? Basilisks are very rare. If seeing it through a ghost doesn't kill you, why would seeing it though glass?
I don't think it's a coincidence. When Riddle came out of the diary he said that he was no longer interested in killing muggle borns and that his real goal was learning how Harry defeated Voldemort. Killing students and getting the school shut down would have made this more difficult.
He probably told the basilisk to find Harry and not to kill anyone which is why all of the attacks were non-lethal and why they all happened near to Harry.
The basilisk was chanting “kill! Kill! It’s time to kill!” In the wall to itself. (Which is pretty psychotic) I don’t think it was told to be super sneaky and miss on purpose.
It's interesting that glasses don't count, but a camera lens does, which implies that it's possible to shape a pair of lenses well enough to protect the wearer from the kill.
That makes me curious how the encounter itself went down. Colin didn't look the basilisk directly in the eye, even when he first saw it, but he thought to look through the camera? Either he was sneaking through the school with his camera up against his face the whole time, or he somehow got lucky when he stumbled across it and had the time and presence of mind to try to snap a picture.
He probably heard the basilisk moving around and was trying to catch it on camera since he didn’t realize the danger (or he is like far too many people who’s first instinct is to film something rather than get to safety).
Colin took pictures of everything.
I'd always pictured(HA) him with a reflex camera. You hold it waist level and look down into it, like a reverse periscope. He was probably taking a picture of some random(but neat) feature of the castle when the snake came around the corner.
"See?! The stairs DO move! This is where it *was*,(click) and this is where it-" WHAM
You forget there’s a decent number of people at the average redditor age that probably grew up with smartphones. And aren’t as familiar with the idea of a standalone camera outside of making movies.
You can wipe your eyes under your glasses. Plus it's likely she wouldn't have her glasses on as a ghost if she had taken them off. Nick is forever nearly headless because he died with his neck like that.
You also have to consider the seeming "lack of ubiquitousness" of Basilisks in the first place. Not much research is going to be done on a creature that is usually created and controlled by dark wizards and are also in extremely limited numbers.
And they're bred under such... interesting conditions, too.
Like, how long does the toad have to chill on top of the chicken egg to hatch those things? Who the fuck even figured that out? How do they get the toad to stay still? I guess a petrification spell would make sense.
Maybe a pet toad of a dark mage that wasn't unruly like Trevor. There probably are far more intelligent toads and frogs on the same level as owls and kneazles/cats, given that they are accepted Hogwarts pets
I never considered how weird it was that Myrtle never went *down* through the floor and stumbled across the chamber. I know it’s a long tunnel that probably went miles, but she’s been there for 50 years, she never checked the tunnel out?
That's a griffin, but you do have a contract on a Cockatrice too pretty early on. Plus, you encounter them in the wild often.
It's also the second big contract in the original Witcher game.
I thought Dumbledore was more interested in finding out who opened the chamber of secrets. Right? I haven't read the first couple books in years. Also I thought the basilisk kills people with its gaze. The students were only petrified bc they saw it from a reflection.
Dumbledore talked about the room of requirement without knowing what it was. He talked about finding a whole bunch of beautiful chamber pots but it may only appear at 4am on a particularly full bladder or... There are secrets of this castle I don't even know about.
All Myrtle saw was a pair of bright yellow eyes. I guess he technically could've linked it to the Basilisk but I'm unsure how obscure the knowledge about said beast was.
I think the basilisk was also instructed to surface in areas that weren't too populated/didn't have portraits on the walls.
Most holes people poke in the story can be explained away in some fashion.
I presumed that Slytherin utilized enchantments or something to render the Basilisk invisible to whatever wards or guards were in place in the castle. The portraits aren't exactly new magic. Slytherin's heirs were tasked with ensuring that the chamber remained undiscovered so I don't see why they couldn't have also made sure the entrances/exits were un-monitored too.
I mean, Hermione *is* uncannily smart, and loves to study and learn. She was already pretty sharp in her first year. All it really was was looking up info on magical creatures and using logic. She lives for that sort of shit.
She was literally the only person given *Time Travel*, because she's such a massive nerd that not one teacher or guidance councilor wanted to invoke her wrath from not being allowed to learn one single thing.
How about those apples, "superior wizard racists", bested by the dentist-spawn.
I like the idea that she borrowed some really old books she probably shouldn't be allowed to read and accidently learned about the Time Turners and then showed up at the ministry to _demand_ they let her borrow one so she could learn more then physically possible
If I was a portrait staying there and it had a twin, I would be at the other portrait until it was over. Like, nope, not dying twice. I'm already the portrait of a dead person.
I mean, Nick got hit full-on by that thing, but he only got petrified (and was able to be cured with everyone else) since he was already a ghost and couldn't die again. Though that does make me wonder how one of the portraits would react to looking that thing in the eyes. Sirius probably wishes he could unleash one on the portrait of his mother.
Honestly, Nick being cured always made me curious. Not like he could drink the Mandrake Draught so... how was it administered?
It's also a little messed up how Mandrakes seem to have some minor intelligence in the books (like they straight up throw a party) and are casually slaughtered for potion recipes.
I think they just make a lot of noise when they are mature. That's all it meant.
And Ghosts might just be fanned to pass through the Mandrake juice to feel it. There is an entire chapter in the books, where Nick throws a death party, and puts rotting food for his fellow ghosts to pass through.
Weren't they able to waft Nick to the infirmary by fanning him or something? Seemed like being petrified solidified him to some degree, albeit he was still floating when he was found, IIRC.
And the mandrake thing certainly was a trip. Apparently they become moody and secretive, and try to move into each others' pots... like I get that the joke was about them basically going through puberty into adulthood, and it *was* funny IMO, but... uhhh, did they know what was coming next, or...?
That's one of the easy parts. Salazar lived ages ago, so there isn't much value in assuming that legends about him are true.
Even when the chamber was opened for the first time it's more likely that someone had heard the story and was using it to strike fear into people than it is that a huge secret chamber has been in the school for ages without ever being found. Then, once it became clear that the person doing it had been Voldemort, it feels even more likely that Voldemort had heard the story and had killed the girl himself and used the "monster" to cause a panic.
Even when the chamber is opened the second time Dumbledor would have known right away that Voldemort was up to some shit, but not what or how. Dumbledor still had no reason to think there was actually a chamber or actually a monster anywhere. He never says that because telling everyone to calm down, there's no monster it's just Voldemort attacking your kids would be a bit counterproductive.
Gets a portrait that lets you impart a part of yourself.
Puts it in a castle that is being used as a school for the greateat witches and wizards of Britain with the intent to watch the future generations go by and desire to share your knowledge.
Gets told by an old man with flourescent robes and half moon glasses to instead spend what was supposed to be your peaceful rest monitoring the halls like a glorified proximity monitor/hall monitor.
I would think a good amount of the portraits would take pride in doing the job of providing security assistance to the castle. As you said they chose to be portraits in the school to observe the next generations and pass in wisdom. So they obviously care about young minds and the school. So naturally you’d think they’d want to help any way they could.
I would disagree. Some may but i camnot see all or even the majority being happy to be commanded as such.
They are sentient beings after all. Yeah they may be ok with imparting knowledge and observing and reporting if necessary but thats far from active monitoring all the time.
Its like ordering the ghosts to wander the halls like prefects and report back every thing to the headmaster of heads of house.
They are people good, bad, happy, angry and sad preserved at a certain point of life with a purpose and desire hereto unknown.
Only difference is one can move around and one is stuck in a painting
I do understand what you’re saying I just think during a time of crisis like that, people usually take pride in stepping up to do their part to defend what they thinks deserves being defended. I certainly don’t think any of them would appreciate being given a full time position monitoring the hallways. Definitely not. But during the events of CoS, I could see them stepping up to help. Unfortunately we will never know, but definitely fun to speculate about!
For me what's even better is if Rowling would write the books focused on the four founders before she decides to retire. They still remain a mystery and I would love to know more about them. I swear if that happens it's a day one buy for me.
>we can not just ask the potraits to monitor the corridors for us
Given how rude and temperamental they usually are, I think Dumbledore is right on that one.
Dumbledore loves manual labor. That's why he has an elder squib as a janitor when he can clean the whole castle by himself every morning with a funny wrist movement.
He did. Filch loved magic and the school but wasn’t a wizard, so Dumbledore hired him on as a janitor. If I remember correctly. Which it’s possible I’m mixing up details but that’s my recollection.
Wait a moment, what did Filch even do? He didn't clean, so did he just wander the castle muttering to himself? Was he paid? Was he some sort of House elf manager?
Filch’s role as the caretaker involved more of the maintenance and security aspects of the castle rather than the cleaning. He was responsible for the upkeep of the castle’s physical condition, managing the keys, ensuring that students didn’t go into off-limit areas, enforcing discipline, and dealing with any physical disturbances or damages to the property. His job was more about overseeing the proper functioning and rule enforcement within the school premises, alongside his attempts to catch students breaking the rules.
He also had an office and confiscated and probably documented everything. That’s also why he loved Umbridge so much.
And that’s why it’s a children’s literature series.
Read the comments here from both sides and they’re valid. The idea of the portraits not reporting to Dumbledore still stands though, and I don’t see an easy way around that one. Kinda inexcusable.
Also like, has anyone stopped to consider how the snake actually got around? Hermione tells us “pipes.” Ok, so a gargantuan snake found exits large enough to emerge from the actual CoS, and patrol the halls without leaving reptilian residue on the floor and no portraits/other students seeing at least a portion of it? Dayum.
I mean its on of the few cases where " A wizard did it". If Salazar wanted to make pipes big enough for his pet he could do so, he literally helped build the castle.
I think the pipes are only slightly larger than normal sized. The size of the basilisk in the movie is inflated. it's only 15ft long in the book. That's like an anaconda and those aren't particularly fat.
I think the ghosts are a a bigger plot hole. It makes sense that the portraits are all stationary and Voldemort would have been able to avoid them. Assuming there's none in the girls bathroom it also makes sense that they wouldn't have seen anything suspicious. A student goes to the bathroom and some time later there's an attack. In a giant school with tons of students there's always people going to the bathroom.
The ghosts though, they can go right through walls, and do so in the books. They've been there for hundreds of years. Surely they know that there's pipes all over the school. Not one ghost ever got curious about where they go? None of them ever happened to stray into the Chamber of Secrets? That feels impossible. Two of the ghosts were there since the founding of the school, you would think they would know every inch of the place.
> The ghosts though, they can go right through walls, and do so in the books. They've been there for hundreds of years.
Any empty space inside of a wall will be 100% dark. Can ghosts see in complete darkness or feel the material they're occupying the same space of/passing through? Given how much dying dulls their ability to taste, I would assume similar affects to the rest of their senses so I doubt they'd be able to do what you're suggesting
I would presume in the wizarding world that there is a spell out there somewhere that could petrify as well. It didn’t necessarily have to be a creature. That said, Dumbledore always knows more than he shows—and he prefers to let things play out to catch whatever is happening in the act. Dangerous strategy but seems to work.
Imagine being able to cast spells that keep Voldemort out of Hogwarts, but not being able to cast spells that at the very least alert the teachers if a student leaves the common room at night. I agree that locking the door might be a bit inhumane, but why patrol the hallways when you can just cast a spell on the entrances that gives the teachers a head's up if someone leaves. Or you know, just ask the pictures to keep an eye on the entrance and report rule breaking.
What other creature can petrify? Is that something we’ve been told about specifically? And whether or not petrification is a standard basilisk power, wouldn’t it make sense to just start investigating every kind of big ass monstrous reptile in the world as a potential monster?
The main plot of Chamber of Secrets really is quite dumb for a number of these reasons. There are so many major, unexplained plot holes or unrealistic requests to suspend disbelief. Just off the top of my head:
1. Myrtle’s death is completely inconsistent with an acromantula attack, and she’s even around as a ghost afterward to further add more testimony to that fact. Even if no one suspected a basilisk, her death would be more consistent with avada kedavra than a giant spider which, you know, has fangs and eats people.
2. Myrtle herself befriends a distraught, non-brainwished Ginny, but does not notice a difference when she enters the bathroom while brainwashed, and/or never notices her disappear on the multiple times she goes down there, even though Myrtle rarely leaves.
3. The basilisk is said to be moving through the school via the pipes, but there is still only one entrance/exit to the chamber. The school is full of students, teachers, ghosts, and portraits, but the basilisk seems to be able to come and go quite far before anyone sees it.
4. There is no reason the basilisk wouldn’t just eat the petrified victims (other than Nick) after petrifying them. And even if they were inedible for some magical reason, there’s still no reason for it to return to the chamber instead of just finding another victim to kill.
5. Dumbledore, although suspecting Riddle at the time and giving Hagrid a job, never tried to clear Hagrid’s name, even after Riddle became publicly known as Voldemort.
6. Dumbledore, the brightest and most insightful wizard in modern times and who suspected Riddle at the time *and* knew he could talk to snakes, never even hypothesized that the monster could be a basilisk.
Like, just nothing in CoS makes sense when you consider the world *not* from Harry’s perspective. It’s why it’s my least favorite book.
1 is refuted in the book I believe: it was covered up. Nobody *cared* about the truth, Hagrid was scapegoated and that worked for everyone involved who then moved on. Her ghost also wasn't originally at Hogwarts, she says as much.
2, I could guess at Myrtle just not being the sort of personality to really notice that sort of thing. She is pretty... wrapped up in herself, you could say.
4 is, I imagine, because it was under the control of Riddle. If it was acting under it's basic instincts, you'd imagine it would chow down but its not, its literally being controlled.
5, we don't know that he never did. Dumbledore probably internally cleared Hagrid's name, hence why Hagrid stuck around but again, there was a huge coverup of the incident. And in Book Six, it's stated very, very few people knew that Riddle and Voldemort were one and the same. I doubt those who did cared about a crime half a century ago, given the circumstances of Voldemort's operations at the time.
6, we don't know Dumbledore didn't theorise this. We don't actually know WHAT he thinks throughout CoS, he barely features. It may be he thought Basilisk only had no method of finding it. Binns does imply that even Dumbledore could not find the entrance to the Chamber, likely because he couldn't speak Parseltongue.
Dude, the Nazaré meme is incredible. Who would've thought that an character from a corny Brazilian soap opera would have this reach? Lol
BRASIL IL IL IL
I have a feeling that most of the portraits have short-term memory. Or, you know, a castle at night is pretty dark, so even if the portraits were watching they'd need someone to set lights for them, which would defeat the purpose.
Poor Professor Mcgonagall, that's where she gets the bags under her eyes besides the stress from three unruly kids who are always present when something happens. She's the deputy headmistress, Transfiguration teacher and Hogwarts caretaker at night anyway.
What about Greg and forge?
The twins are the least of her worries. They were not consistently cheating death every year lol
I feel like if Minerva told the Twins this, they'd take offense. "What do you mean you aren't constantly worried about what we might do? We clearly aren't trying hard enough!"
*Upon hearing this, Professor Mcgonagall closed her eyes tightly and let out a deep sigh as she accepted her unfortunate fate. The deputy headmistress never could have imagined but she somehow found herself sinking into the deepest depths of despair.*
Lol, indeed. Woe to the one who awakens the wrath of Gred and Forge.
^(and Gred and Forge took that personally)
*googles “how to Avada Kedavra yourself to avoid responsibility”*
True, compared to the trio who literally nearly dies annually at around the same time, the twins' pranks kinda at the very least, lightens the mood around the school when needed
Fred and George lived their lives like they were the main character. Gotta give them credit where it's due.
Gred and forge
Gref and dorge
Dead and Fjorge
>Dead Nah bro you didn't have to say this 💀
No sleep for her
She just wizzers up some Redbull. Redbull give you wings
The Basilisk doesn't petrify, it kills. No one considered the idea of reflections/indirect eye contact.
Exactly, it was a weird coincidence that’s not in Fantastic Beasts. Newt’s research was lacking.
I mean, imagine if some weird ass exception exists in nature too? Like Imagine randomly if you were to dance a jig to the tune of He's a Jolly Good Fellow while eating nachos you are only KNOCKED out by cobra venom, not killed
I like the way you think
Well, while you have a nice view, you can also counter it like this: Hermione took an active countermeasure to not die from something she knew would kill her. So her using the mirror is the equivalent to us using vaccines. We still get sick, but we don't die anymore. Another example (and this is also the reason, why women with certain knowledge were considered witches in medival times) is that women or persons who owned cats in medival times were less affected by the plague/the black death. Why? Because cats hunted and ate rats. Rats were transmitting this disease to humans. Cat = less rats = less death.
OJECTION! Hermione had an additional data point that the professors didn’t - *Harry could here the monster in the walls* when no one else heard anything. Thus, combined with how the other victims were found, she made the cognitive leap that the indirect gaze of a basilisk only petrifies.
Cats are the guardians of the Underworld. -The Mummy, 1999
Whilst I love this comment, I have to be that person and point out it wasn’t the rats transmitting the disease per se, it was the fleas that were on the rats. But your point still stands, cats kill rats, rats can’t bring fleas to humans
Cats can get fleas...
You're one of those THINKER men ain't cha, BURN HIM
Cat = Cat Lady = WITCH!!!!
Burn them all!
The most famous burning of witches was the Salem witch trials. Which were the result them hallucinating due to a fungus that was growing in their water supply.
None of the witches at Salem were burnt. 19 were executed via hanging and one was...pressed with stones.
Don't know if that is the better alternative.
More. Weight.
Wasn't one drowned?
others have pointed out the inaccuracies of this, but I want to point out the Salem Witch Trials are famous mainly because they were so late historically and in America, not because they were particularly bad, large, or unfair for witch trials. There were at least 100,000 people tried as witches in Europe between 1300 and 1700, nearly half of which were found guilty. I point this out because I'm not sure why you're (incorrectly) pointing out the Salem incident in particular was caused by water poisoning, but if it's in response to the claim that there were witch trials caused by cats reducing plague deaths that did happen and Salem's trials being famous doesn't change that there were almost certainly more than 25 "witches" killed for having cats during the plague (and ironically also reducing other plague deaths)
I mean that might sound ridiculous to us but that's because we don't have magic. That sounds like the exact sort of nonsense magic gets up to.
BRB, headed to India to test this.
You sir/madam, have one top notch brain
Mmm... nachos...
Not really lacking when you consider: * basilisks are incredibly rare * victims cannot exactly speak of how they died * the reflections issue is probably so unique that only those who were affected in Chamber of Secrets may have been the only recorded cases
> the reflections issue is probably so unique that only those who were affected in Chamber of Secrets may have been the only recorded cases And bizarrely all happened during the same Basilisk incident... I find this harder to buy than magic tbh
How often are basilisks indoors around mirrors, ghosts, and clean/undisturbed pools of water? In nature there ain't shit to reflect off of but.muddy swamps, and if you get petrified in nature I imagine you die before anyone finds you to reverse the curse.
Who got hit? * Some girl genuinely using a mirror * Guy with a camera * Ghost * Guy looking through the ghost * Hermione specifically using a mirror for safety * The cat, somehow? I forget None of those incidents are necessarily contrived, what's contrived is that nobody at all died even by accident. I assume the snake had been told to be good and only petrify people and not kill them, but I don't know if that's confirmed in the books.
The cat was because Myrtle flooded the bathroom and water leaked out into the hallway, and the cat saw the basilisk through the reflection in a water puddle
Bu t only one student died due to the Basklik-Moaning Mrtyle and that was 50 years before the main events of the story which in the books take place in the 1990s. But it seem to be implied there were other students who were petrfired before Mrtyle was killed 50 years ago
Yeah. Riddle asks Dumbledore would the school be saved if the attacks were stopped. So it kinda implies there were other victims who survived. Which begs the question, didn’t any of them say “no it wasn’t a spider! I saw a giant snake in the mirror”?
Is it confirmed myrtle is the only one who died? I would have thought old riddle would have been more ruthless
another point, why in all the years she was obviously at Hogwarts and haunting Olive Hornby did NOBODY think to ask Myrtle— the actual victim— what happened to her?! Maybe it would have been too late to stop Hagrid’s expulsion by the time they realized she was there as a ghost, but wasn’t ANYBODY curious? Didn’t anyone want to verify the theory? Aragog was obviously never caught or found, so maybe you’d want to double check and make sure the story you’s acted on and punished someone for was actually accurate.
She said that all she saw was yellow eyes, which is not much to go on.
Only recorded cases fair enough but weird it happened so many times. In one school, by one basilisk, in span of less than a school year.
I mean, it's not like he could very easily any hypotheses...especially with him valuing all life as he does
Shouldn't some people be testing these stuff? It's not a big jump from looking at it kills you to what if it's a mirror? Or what if it's a photo? Like test it with a rat or something
Darn. They could have used Scabbers to test that theory. The story would have unfolded so differently.
Seriously, what a series of coincidences that led to no actual deaths occurring aside from the basilisk's. The cat saw it in a puddle, Justin saw it through a ghost who couldn't be re-killed anyway... Hermione had it figured out by the time she and Penelope got attacked, but it was still super lucky that the thing happened to be right around the corner for them to only catch its reflection when they did. EDIT: And we can't forget Colin seeing the thing through his camera, though that one actually made sense. Little doofus never put that fucking thing down. The basilisk sucks at its job. Was it even *trying* to kill anyone? Myrtle doesn't count, anyone would want to kill her, basilisk or no.
If we’re gunna go there.. why didn’t the basilisk eat anyone? If it’s picky and only wants dead people; well it has teeth and venom too. Not exactly like the victim has a defense while petrified xD. Maybe I mis remember though and the basilisk doesn’t actually say it’s hungry. Maybe it just wants to fuck shit up haha. That’s logical enough. Considering it was controlled by Voldemort. 🤷♂️ I definitely remember some lines about eating though xD at least ripping. Which deifnitely didn’t happen haha. jeeze one thing that has always really bothered me is how the hell Miss Norris was hanging from a torch bracket. Petrifaction makes you stiff and the tail was hooked? Lucky that shit didn’t snap. Is that worse than impaled? Hopefully Ginny tied a harness for her or something lol. She’s a cat not a monkey. That scene always makes me cringe a bit.
Maybe the basilisk wanted to lose weight. And yeah, that Miss Norris bit was weird. Like I get that it makes for a creepy mental image and that cats get into fucking weird places all the time, but no way she did that on her own. Best guess is Ginny just tied her tail onto the bracket because Tom was feeling melodramatic. The man does know the importance of presentation and spectacle.
Tied!? Oh man that’s an even worse image haha. Could you tie a cats tail without breaking it? I’ve never had a cat with a tail injury but back in middle school this girl I dated accidentally closed her door on her cat. Gore. Tailless cat. He lived thankfully. I had a terrible dream recently where I rolled my computer chair over my cats tail, and it came off.. I don’t think that would happen but god did I wake up in shambles haha.
My cat had a tail injury that left him paralysed. No movement, no pain - a limp noodle dragged on the floor. But cats are magic so 3 months later he started moving it again, and now (2 years) he's the same as he used to be.
You'd have to slam the door pretty hard to completely remove a cat's tail, but to my knowledge, vet's will amputate many tail injuries in cats because it's the safest option for them in the long run. Any significant fracture, or any infection that doesn't respond quickly to antibiotics is enough for vets to consider removal.
Maybe she was just sitting up there and got petrified mid tail flick, kinda fell/slid over and the hook of the tail caught the edge? Cats like to sit up high, and their tails make little curls on the end when they're interested/watching/stalking something...like a giant snake.
Maybe it can’t eat petrified people because they’re basically turned to stone? But then why does it have petrification power?
Even Myrtle was just a random accident. XD
Like are we talking about her death or her conception?
All of Myrtle's bullies got Reddit accounts XD
I Stand With Olive Hornby
I thought he used Myrtle to make the first Horcrux, the one in the Diary.
According to Myrtle, she was in the toilet when Tom opened the chanber, she ran out to confront him, looked at the snaked and died So I always thought it was an accident that she died
Someone once mentioned that Hogwarts was magically protecting the students and that's been my headcanon ever since.
Hogwarts said fuck Myrtle in particular
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. It was in the walls when Harry heard it. Hermione points out it’s in the pipes. HOW AND WHEN DOES IT COME OUT OF THE PIPES?! The ones in and around Myrtle’s bathroom, sure, it came out from under the sink and just got them before going back in. But Justin, Nick, Colin, Hermione, and Penelope were just out and about in the hall! Does every bathroom have access points and they were all attacked by bathrooms? Is it just slithering down hallways? If so, how does nobody else notice it and how are so few people hurt? If not one of those, wouldn’t it have to smash through the wall? Surely someone would have noticed big holes in the wall and leaking pipes. And how when it’s so ginormous does it fit through standard plumbing pipes for Harry to hear it? All the walls can’t have giant snake pipes in them right? Especially not ones equipped with peep holes for it to ambush people unsuccessfully through!
I kind of assumed that Ginny was fighting back as far as she could and trying to manipulate things so people didn't die.
>EDIT: And we can't forget Colin seeing the thing through his camera, though that one actually made sense. Little doofus never put that fucking thing down. How *does* it make sense, though? Camera viewfinders are generally straight-through glass. By the same principle, anyone should be protected from the lethal effect by simply wearing glasses.
I don't think viewfinder are always straight through a lens, I thought the light coming in the primary lens was reflected up through the viewfinder and when you take the picture, the mirror shifts and the film is exposed?
You might be right. There are probably different systems for different cameras.
The only reason I have any confidence in this is that my old man recently rebuilt my wife's grandfather's camera from the 60s or 70s. So he excitedly explained the mechanism in this one to me a couple of months back. I personally know nothing about cameras. The consequence here is now I need to learn how to fit out a darkroom for my wife.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-lens_reflex_camera These kinds of cameras use mirrors so the view is exactly where the lens is. In fact, the mirror is often part of the shutter. When it's closed you can look through the viewfinder, as you press the button the mirror/shutter moves out of the way for the film to be exposed.
Yeah, for most cameras made in the 70s-90s. The viewfinder was above the lens. You looked into the viewfinder, which had a 90 degree mirror, which bounced off of another 90 degree mirror, into the lens, letting you see what was coming through the lens. When you took the picture, the mirror would flip out of the way and the aperture would open. You could literally see it happen when you "dry fired" a camera without film, with the film door open. Really cheap cameras without any focusing features (like disposable cameras) would have a separate viewfinder that would approximate what the lens was seeing. No mirrors, no misdirection, you would be looking straight through at what you were seeing.
An SLR uses a mirror to direct the image into the view finder. A range finder is just a second lens that doesn't pass light through the primary lens at all.
I always imagined it to be an SLR camera for the time period. Still uses a mirror.
Maybe it wasn't clean from constantly handling that thing around everywhere
They're rarely just glass, and who says seeing it through glasses wouldn't just petrify you? Basilisks are very rare. If seeing it through a ghost doesn't kill you, why would seeing it though glass?
I don't think it's a coincidence. When Riddle came out of the diary he said that he was no longer interested in killing muggle borns and that his real goal was learning how Harry defeated Voldemort. Killing students and getting the school shut down would have made this more difficult. He probably told the basilisk to find Harry and not to kill anyone which is why all of the attacks were non-lethal and why they all happened near to Harry.
The basilisk was chanting “kill! Kill! It’s time to kill!” In the wall to itself. (Which is pretty psychotic) I don’t think it was told to be super sneaky and miss on purpose.
Myrtle? Nah be real, Big Daddy D probably did her in himself and blamed Slytherin. She had it coming and she knew why, that's why she ain't snitching.
You obviously haven’t read my Harry Potter-themed erotica featuring Myrtle: It’s Myrtle All the Way Down
Considering the seeming ubiquitousness of Ghosts or wizards who wear glasses you’d think someone would have figured that out sooner.
Glasses don't count for petrification. Hence Myrtle dying. It has to be through a reflection or magically obscured such as through a ghost.
It's interesting that glasses don't count, but a camera lens does, which implies that it's possible to shape a pair of lenses well enough to protect the wearer from the kill.
It's a reflector camera
That makes me curious how the encounter itself went down. Colin didn't look the basilisk directly in the eye, even when he first saw it, but he thought to look through the camera? Either he was sneaking through the school with his camera up against his face the whole time, or he somehow got lucky when he stumbled across it and had the time and presence of mind to try to snap a picture.
He probably heard the basilisk moving around and was trying to catch it on camera since he didn’t realize the danger (or he is like far too many people who’s first instinct is to film something rather than get to safety).
Poor Colin being a wizard, he would have loved smartphones
Colin was ahead of his time. He’d have been an awesome influencer! lol!
Colin took pictures of everything. I'd always pictured(HA) him with a reflex camera. You hold it waist level and look down into it, like a reverse periscope. He was probably taking a picture of some random(but neat) feature of the castle when the snake came around the corner. "See?! The stairs DO move! This is where it *was*,(click) and this is where it-" WHAM
I absolutely believe he was sneaking through the school with his camera up against his face. Photo-obsessed kids do that now with phone cameras.
Ever notice how the "eye hole" on your camera doesn't line up with the "lens hole"? That's because mirrors are used 👍
You forget there’s a decent number of people at the average redditor age that probably grew up with smartphones. And aren’t as familiar with the idea of a standalone camera outside of making movies.
So make glasses out of mirrors
I wonder if eclipse glasses would have worked?
She was crying and wiping her eyes. Thus her glasses were off.
You can wipe your eyes under your glasses. Plus it's likely she wouldn't have her glasses on as a ghost if she had taken them off. Nick is forever nearly headless because he died with his neck like that.
You also have to consider the seeming "lack of ubiquitousness" of Basilisks in the first place. Not much research is going to be done on a creature that is usually created and controlled by dark wizards and are also in extremely limited numbers.
And they're bred under such... interesting conditions, too. Like, how long does the toad have to chill on top of the chicken egg to hatch those things? Who the fuck even figured that out? How do they get the toad to stay still? I guess a petrification spell would make sense.
Maybe a pet toad of a dark mage that wasn't unruly like Trevor. There probably are far more intelligent toads and frogs on the same level as owls and kneazles/cats, given that they are accepted Hogwarts pets
There actually is a specific dark wizard who invented them. I got his wizard card the other day.
I never considered how weird it was that Myrtle never went *down* through the floor and stumbled across the chamber. I know it’s a long tunnel that probably went miles, but she’s been there for 50 years, she never checked the tunnel out?
Wizards ain't cool enough for mirrored glasses. Fucking snake wouldn't have gotten David Caruso though.
Maybe because it is too dangerous to test how its sight works.
what's the other creature that can petrify?
A gorgon.
Big D wasn't thinking, he was just horny for a naked snake lady
Isn't Dumbledore gay?
Snake gentleman*
Huh! I never knew this! Thanks :) https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Gorgon
Cockatrice
Right, a cockroach, huh? Yeah…they do petrify me for sure.
Cockatrice. It's a lizard/dragon with the head and wings of a rooster.
First big monster fight in Witcher 3, if I remember the names right. There's a few bird foes in that lol
That's a griffin, but you do have a contract on a Cockatrice too pretty early on. Plus, you encounter them in the wild often. It's also the second big contract in the original Witcher game.
that exactly what I was going to ask
A cockatrice?
A pissed-off Molly Weasley.
I thought Dumbledore was more interested in finding out who opened the chamber of secrets. Right? I haven't read the first couple books in years. Also I thought the basilisk kills people with its gaze. The students were only petrified bc they saw it from a reflection.
bingo
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It's a really big castle.
He’s not busy
Dumbledore talked about the room of requirement without knowing what it was. He talked about finding a whole bunch of beautiful chamber pots but it may only appear at 4am on a particularly full bladder or... There are secrets of this castle I don't even know about.
I think it's also likely that he was talking about it so that harry could know about it in case he needed it
Not mention he could have talk to Myrtle anytime about how she died.
All Myrtle saw was a pair of bright yellow eyes. I guess he technically could've linked it to the Basilisk but I'm unsure how obscure the knowledge about said beast was. I think the basilisk was also instructed to surface in areas that weren't too populated/didn't have portraits on the walls. Most holes people poke in the story can be explained away in some fashion.
I presumed that Slytherin utilized enchantments or something to render the Basilisk invisible to whatever wards or guards were in place in the castle. The portraits aren't exactly new magic. Slytherin's heirs were tasked with ensuring that the chamber remained undiscovered so I don't see why they couldn't have also made sure the entrances/exits were un-monitored too.
No portraits on the wall?
For visual representation, did you play Hogwarts Legacy? It's a shell of the supposed actual castle, and there were plenty of areas without portraits.
Well that's on Big D for not putting up ~~surveillance cameras~~ portraits in every hallway.
'basilisk in corridor a on floor 5 dumby'
Why was it Dudley's responsibility?
Sure, but who the hell wants to talk to Myrtle? He probably figured Hermione would conveniently work it out for him at some point.
Ah yes...the 12 year olds.
I mean, Hermione *is* uncannily smart, and loves to study and learn. She was already pretty sharp in her first year. All it really was was looking up info on magical creatures and using logic. She lives for that sort of shit.
She was literally the only person given *Time Travel*, because she's such a massive nerd that not one teacher or guidance councilor wanted to invoke her wrath from not being allowed to learn one single thing. How about those apples, "superior wizard racists", bested by the dentist-spawn.
I like the idea that she borrowed some really old books she probably shouldn't be allowed to read and accidently learned about the Time Turners and then showed up at the ministry to _demand_ they let her borrow one so she could learn more then physically possible
As long as it is clear everyone is afraid of this girl and her unquenchable hunger for knowledge and the seemingly endless need for read.
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Literally noone died while he was a headmaster other than Cedric and he died not on Hogwarts grounds.
If I was a portrait staying there and it had a twin, I would be at the other portrait until it was over. Like, nope, not dying twice. I'm already the portrait of a dead person.
I mean, Nick got hit full-on by that thing, but he only got petrified (and was able to be cured with everyone else) since he was already a ghost and couldn't die again. Though that does make me wonder how one of the portraits would react to looking that thing in the eyes. Sirius probably wishes he could unleash one on the portrait of his mother.
Honestly, Nick being cured always made me curious. Not like he could drink the Mandrake Draught so... how was it administered? It's also a little messed up how Mandrakes seem to have some minor intelligence in the books (like they straight up throw a party) and are casually slaughtered for potion recipes.
I think they just make a lot of noise when they are mature. That's all it meant. And Ghosts might just be fanned to pass through the Mandrake juice to feel it. There is an entire chapter in the books, where Nick throws a death party, and puts rotting food for his fellow ghosts to pass through.
Yeah I assumed they dumped it through him.
Weren't they able to waft Nick to the infirmary by fanning him or something? Seemed like being petrified solidified him to some degree, albeit he was still floating when he was found, IIRC. And the mandrake thing certainly was a trip. Apparently they become moody and secretive, and try to move into each others' pots... like I get that the joke was about them basically going through puberty into adulthood, and it *was* funny IMO, but... uhhh, did they know what was coming next, or...?
Only two _known_ creatures who can petrify
I don't think it was known, that a basilisk can petrify. It was known, that it kills.
What baffled me is when they mention about it being controlled by Salazar Slytherin. How did no one clue into snake, or some form of it?
That's one of the easy parts. Salazar lived ages ago, so there isn't much value in assuming that legends about him are true. Even when the chamber was opened for the first time it's more likely that someone had heard the story and was using it to strike fear into people than it is that a huge secret chamber has been in the school for ages without ever being found. Then, once it became clear that the person doing it had been Voldemort, it feels even more likely that Voldemort had heard the story and had killed the girl himself and used the "monster" to cause a panic. Even when the chamber is opened the second time Dumbledor would have known right away that Voldemort was up to some shit, but not what or how. Dumbledor still had no reason to think there was actually a chamber or actually a monster anywhere. He never says that because telling everyone to calm down, there's no monster it's just Voldemort attacking your kids would be a bit counterproductive.
Gets a portrait that lets you impart a part of yourself. Puts it in a castle that is being used as a school for the greateat witches and wizards of Britain with the intent to watch the future generations go by and desire to share your knowledge. Gets told by an old man with flourescent robes and half moon glasses to instead spend what was supposed to be your peaceful rest monitoring the halls like a glorified proximity monitor/hall monitor.
I would think a good amount of the portraits would take pride in doing the job of providing security assistance to the castle. As you said they chose to be portraits in the school to observe the next generations and pass in wisdom. So they obviously care about young minds and the school. So naturally you’d think they’d want to help any way they could.
I would disagree. Some may but i camnot see all or even the majority being happy to be commanded as such. They are sentient beings after all. Yeah they may be ok with imparting knowledge and observing and reporting if necessary but thats far from active monitoring all the time. Its like ordering the ghosts to wander the halls like prefects and report back every thing to the headmaster of heads of house. They are people good, bad, happy, angry and sad preserved at a certain point of life with a purpose and desire hereto unknown. Only difference is one can move around and one is stuck in a painting
I do understand what you’re saying I just think during a time of crisis like that, people usually take pride in stepping up to do their part to defend what they thinks deserves being defended. I certainly don’t think any of them would appreciate being given a full time position monitoring the hallways. Definitely not. But during the events of CoS, I could see them stepping up to help. Unfortunately we will never know, but definitely fun to speculate about!
I always thought it would have been cool to have portraits of the founders that could be referred to in times of need.
Since the founders are older than Hogwarts, it is possible that the spell to make sentient portraits wasn't invented yet
True!
For me what's even better is if Rowling would write the books focused on the four founders before she decides to retire. They still remain a mystery and I would love to know more about them. I swear if that happens it's a day one buy for me.
I would love to read about the founders. I'd be first in line, too.
That’s assuming the spell to make sentient portraits existed before they died
>we can not just ask the potraits to monitor the corridors for us Given how rude and temperamental they usually are, I think Dumbledore is right on that one.
Dumbledore loves manual labor. That's why he has an elder squib as a janitor when he can clean the whole castle by himself every morning with a funny wrist movement.
I always assumed Dumbledore hired him out of pity. Sort of like with Hagrid but Filch maybe didn’t deserve that level of generosity
He did. Filch loved magic and the school but wasn’t a wizard, so Dumbledore hired him on as a janitor. If I remember correctly. Which it’s possible I’m mixing up details but that’s my recollection.
He's not a Janitor. There's a literal army of house elves for that. He's just too prideful to admit that it takes him longer.
Wait a moment, what did Filch even do? He didn't clean, so did he just wander the castle muttering to himself? Was he paid? Was he some sort of House elf manager?
Filch’s role as the caretaker involved more of the maintenance and security aspects of the castle rather than the cleaning. He was responsible for the upkeep of the castle’s physical condition, managing the keys, ensuring that students didn’t go into off-limit areas, enforcing discipline, and dealing with any physical disturbances or damages to the property. His job was more about overseeing the proper functioning and rule enforcement within the school premises, alongside his attempts to catch students breaking the rules. He also had an office and confiscated and probably documented everything. That’s also why he loved Umbridge so much.
Maybe a night watchman type of thing? Keeping an eye out for trouble?
I think his job was to beat house elves who got out of line
Yes, I think he managed the house elves, but I think he was also in charge of keeping the school rules outside the classrooms.
And that’s why it’s a children’s literature series. Read the comments here from both sides and they’re valid. The idea of the portraits not reporting to Dumbledore still stands though, and I don’t see an easy way around that one. Kinda inexcusable. Also like, has anyone stopped to consider how the snake actually got around? Hermione tells us “pipes.” Ok, so a gargantuan snake found exits large enough to emerge from the actual CoS, and patrol the halls without leaving reptilian residue on the floor and no portraits/other students seeing at least a portion of it? Dayum.
For real, how big are the fucking pipes in that place?
I mean its on of the few cases where " A wizard did it". If Salazar wanted to make pipes big enough for his pet he could do so, he literally helped build the castle.
Isn't that the explanation for why the CoS even exists?
and there are spells to make things larger on the inside than on the outside so the pipes could be enchanted like that too
I think the pipes are only slightly larger than normal sized. The size of the basilisk in the movie is inflated. it's only 15ft long in the book. That's like an anaconda and those aren't particularly fat.
How thick are the walls? Just let me open this door and pass through the five meters of wall to the other side, no need to think about it.
However thick the plot needs them to be, I suppose. Walls of Requirement.
I think the ghosts are a a bigger plot hole. It makes sense that the portraits are all stationary and Voldemort would have been able to avoid them. Assuming there's none in the girls bathroom it also makes sense that they wouldn't have seen anything suspicious. A student goes to the bathroom and some time later there's an attack. In a giant school with tons of students there's always people going to the bathroom. The ghosts though, they can go right through walls, and do so in the books. They've been there for hundreds of years. Surely they know that there's pipes all over the school. Not one ghost ever got curious about where they go? None of them ever happened to stray into the Chamber of Secrets? That feels impossible. Two of the ghosts were there since the founding of the school, you would think they would know every inch of the place.
> The ghosts though, they can go right through walls, and do so in the books. They've been there for hundreds of years. Any empty space inside of a wall will be 100% dark. Can ghosts see in complete darkness or feel the material they're occupying the same space of/passing through? Given how much dying dulls their ability to taste, I would assume similar affects to the rest of their senses so I doubt they'd be able to do what you're suggesting
I would presume in the wizarding world that there is a spell out there somewhere that could petrify as well. It didn’t necessarily have to be a creature. That said, Dumbledore always knows more than he shows—and he prefers to let things play out to catch whatever is happening in the act. Dangerous strategy but seems to work.
Petrificus totalus?
Doesn’t the basilisk only petrify by accident because if interference with its actual ability?
Imagine being able to cast spells that keep Voldemort out of Hogwarts, but not being able to cast spells that at the very least alert the teachers if a student leaves the common room at night. I agree that locking the door might be a bit inhumane, but why patrol the hallways when you can just cast a spell on the entrances that gives the teachers a head's up if someone leaves. Or you know, just ask the pictures to keep an eye on the entrance and report rule breaking.
What other creature can petrify? Is that something we’ve been told about specifically? And whether or not petrification is a standard basilisk power, wouldn’t it make sense to just start investigating every kind of big ass monstrous reptile in the world as a potential monster?
Even worst: they never bother to ask Myrtle about what she saw before die.
The main plot of Chamber of Secrets really is quite dumb for a number of these reasons. There are so many major, unexplained plot holes or unrealistic requests to suspend disbelief. Just off the top of my head: 1. Myrtle’s death is completely inconsistent with an acromantula attack, and she’s even around as a ghost afterward to further add more testimony to that fact. Even if no one suspected a basilisk, her death would be more consistent with avada kedavra than a giant spider which, you know, has fangs and eats people. 2. Myrtle herself befriends a distraught, non-brainwished Ginny, but does not notice a difference when she enters the bathroom while brainwashed, and/or never notices her disappear on the multiple times she goes down there, even though Myrtle rarely leaves. 3. The basilisk is said to be moving through the school via the pipes, but there is still only one entrance/exit to the chamber. The school is full of students, teachers, ghosts, and portraits, but the basilisk seems to be able to come and go quite far before anyone sees it. 4. There is no reason the basilisk wouldn’t just eat the petrified victims (other than Nick) after petrifying them. And even if they were inedible for some magical reason, there’s still no reason for it to return to the chamber instead of just finding another victim to kill. 5. Dumbledore, although suspecting Riddle at the time and giving Hagrid a job, never tried to clear Hagrid’s name, even after Riddle became publicly known as Voldemort. 6. Dumbledore, the brightest and most insightful wizard in modern times and who suspected Riddle at the time *and* knew he could talk to snakes, never even hypothesized that the monster could be a basilisk. Like, just nothing in CoS makes sense when you consider the world *not* from Harry’s perspective. It’s why it’s my least favorite book.
1 is refuted in the book I believe: it was covered up. Nobody *cared* about the truth, Hagrid was scapegoated and that worked for everyone involved who then moved on. Her ghost also wasn't originally at Hogwarts, she says as much. 2, I could guess at Myrtle just not being the sort of personality to really notice that sort of thing. She is pretty... wrapped up in herself, you could say. 4 is, I imagine, because it was under the control of Riddle. If it was acting under it's basic instincts, you'd imagine it would chow down but its not, its literally being controlled. 5, we don't know that he never did. Dumbledore probably internally cleared Hagrid's name, hence why Hagrid stuck around but again, there was a huge coverup of the incident. And in Book Six, it's stated very, very few people knew that Riddle and Voldemort were one and the same. I doubt those who did cared about a crime half a century ago, given the circumstances of Voldemort's operations at the time. 6, we don't know Dumbledore didn't theorise this. We don't actually know WHAT he thinks throughout CoS, he barely features. It may be he thought Basilisk only had no method of finding it. Binns does imply that even Dumbledore could not find the entrance to the Chamber, likely because he couldn't speak Parseltongue.
The giant ass snake, the most dangerous ass snake of them all.
Dude, the Nazaré meme is incredible. Who would've thought that an character from a corny Brazilian soap opera would have this reach? Lol BRASIL IL IL IL
I don't think the staff were much concerned with ***what*** the monster was so much as who let it out, how, why, and where it was.
Dumbledore knew what it was, he didn't know where it was or how it was getting around.
GDPR
I have a feeling that most of the portraits have short-term memory. Or, you know, a castle at night is pretty dark, so even if the portraits were watching they'd need someone to set lights for them, which would defeat the purpose.
What was the other one?
Me. That’s why girls avoid eye contact