Skip to main content

harry potter - How Did Ginny Weasley Set the Basilisk on Muggleborns Without Getting Killed or Petrified?


In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny Weasley carries out Tom Riddle's plan by proxy and apparently leads the Basilisk to attack four Muggleborns and Filch's cat Mrs Norris in the castle.



‘Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib’s cat.’

‘No,’ Harry whispered.

‘Yes,’ said Riddle, calmly. ‘Of course, she didn’t know what she was doing at first ...’

Chamber of Secrets - page 229 - Bloomsbury - chapter 17, The Heir of Slytherin



How was Ginny able to direct the actions of the Basilisk without using her sight (so the Basilisk wouldn't be able to look her in the eyes), or without being killed or petrified herself?


Side note: Tom Riddle described Ginny as being in "a sort of a trance" while she was carrying out Riddle's orders -- would this make her more or less aware of the dangers of the Basilisk?


★ I prefer a canon-based answer if possible (the Harry Potter novels, the three supplemental books, quotes from J.K. Rowling, or Pottermore information) and do not prefer an answer from either the HP Wikia or the Wikipedia.



Answer




She didn't need to be looking at Basilisk's eyes. She merely needed to tell it in Parseltongue where to go and what to do. At most, she needed to be generally aware of:




  1. Where Basilisk was...




    • No need to look it in the eye.




      • She could hear it, or look at the bulk of the body.





      • or, Tom could have made her to order Basilisk to close its eyes when she looked in its direction.




      • or, less likely, Tom's soul was aware of Basilisk's location supernaturally.









  2. ...and where the prey was.




    • No need to look Basilisk in the eye unless she was almost directly on Basilisk=>Prey line. Presumably, Tom was smarter than allowing that to happen.


       [Ginny]   -------- [Prey]  -------- [Basilisk........]  <== bad





Please note that, based on how Basilisk hunted Harry in the CoS, it may only have had to be given rough orders and it would figure out how to get the prey itself. She didn't need to act as a navigator daemon with constant course corrections and turn by turn directions.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...