I know this has probably been discussed before, but I couldn't really find anything about it, and its been bugging me lately, with all the 'redo' fics I've been lookin at.

We know the basilisk seemed to be inept enough to not manage to kill anyone outright, but... why didn't the giant snake just eat the petrified victims? I mean, that's its motivation, right? Wants to kill, eat, etc? And the petrified people were a perfectly viable meal--they weren't turned to stone. It'd be just like creatures who paralyze their victims in real life. So what the heck?

It just turned around and left afterwards? Can you imagine that?

 

My theory: JKR either didn't think of it, or that would've lacked any true excitment and would end the series.

 

I would say the 2nd one Sirius except for the fact we have to remember it was a kids book. What kind of parent is going to let their kid read a book where a giant snake is going around, killing and eating everybody? We didn't even have a real character death until the end of Book 4.

Plus, it would of ended the series if Hermione and Harry had gotten eaten. What are you going to do? Have a whole book series based on Ron and the Weasleys? OWA- That's Canon. My mistake.

 

Maybe petrified people don't taste very good...?

Perhaps, Ginny/Tom didn't want the basilisk to. The intention was first to bring Tom to life while inspiring fear, and then later, to get Harry.

However, since it's a children's book, JKR might've wanted to spare the poor innocent readers tales of dead, mangled students.

EDIT: Nice, Scrittore.

 

My theory: It's a children's story.

It would be way cooler if Justin Finch-Fletchley got mauled, Colin Creevey got a cool picture of himself getting eaten. However, Hermione would get spit back up because of the giant hairball.

 

If the basilisk did kill everyone, the school would have been shut down much faster than it was going to have been in the book. *shrugs*

One of those rewrites should have the basilisk eat students, though. Like, the kids are just missing instead of petrified, and their bodies or skeletons are found at the end when they get to the Chamber.

 

Riddle's aim was to become corporeal again by slowly possessing Ginny and leeching energy from her, to reopen the Chamber, and to meet Harry. This appears to have taken most of the year, and Hogwarts was indubitably the best place for such a plot. None of those things could have happened without the proper time and setting. At school, especially one like that, she can disappear for hours unattended, and execute Riddle's plans unhindered, while at home, the chances of somebody finding the strange diary, or noticing her strange behavior are much greater. Surely slaughtering a few unimportant children was not worth the sacrifice of the rest of his plan.

 

All of you have this all wrong. You have to think like a dentist. Remember how easy that fang broke off into Harry's arm? A sure sign of tooth decay. I mean a thousand years with no toothbrush and no hands to brush with can really play havoc with one's teeth.

Once the children and Mrs. Norris were petrified, it would be like eating hard candy. It could have scooped them up and sucked on them for a while until they dissolved, but really who has the time? :awesome

 

Not so. Malfoy used the diary to fuck the Weasley's over. He didn't really know what it was, and Voldemort was unaware at the time that one of his soulbits was being hijacked for use in a family feud. As such, Riddle did not go into it with any plan. From his explanation in the chamber, the diary riddle figured out what was going on and where he was some time in the school year when Ginny was being emo to the diary, and came up with a plan on the seat of his pants.

If Riddle's plan was simply to come back to life and as you say, do it without getting noticed, then wtf was he doing summoning a giant basilisk to petrify people left, right and center? Surely paralyzing students had absolutely no effect on his ability to tap into Ginny's life force, for want of a better word.

Conclusion: Petrifying students was the result of trying to kill mudbloods for lulz, and failing at it. The incompetence in the execution and in the 'why are you doing this' of the plan itself reiterate than Voldemort was severely lacking in common sense, and it was more to the incompetence of canon!wizards that allowed him to succeed as he did...

 

1. I thought it had been suggested to Lucius for its potential to act as a weapon. If I am mistaken, well, that's that, heh.

2. As I said, coming back to life was not the only goal. The Riddle in the diary was still in the mindset of releasing the snake as a fear tactic. You're right about the plan being made on the fly, but perhaps his intention was not to kill. The writing on the wall was clearly a warning of future death, and we saw in the memory that Tom Riddle does NOT want Hogwarts closed, in past or present. The point about him being able to execute his plan better at Hogwarts still stands. Clearly, mistakes were made, but I don't think Riddle's aim was really to go on a rampage. However quickly or spontaneously that form of Riddle came into being, according to JKR, it did make its plan with the intent to regain life, purify the school (presumably by somehow getting the school to not admit muggleborns? Even if the aim was just to kill them, the school gets closed), and "go off to find the present Voldemort." I don't know what they would have done, she gives only a vague hint in the interview, but it would presumably have been not very nice. He knows murder will only end in no Hogwarts for anyone, so perhaps it is merely an attempt to inspire the required fear to purge the school.

 

This is assuming that Riddle is telling the basilisk: "Okay, so like, I don't want you to actually kill nobody--just scare em real bad. Try to look at them in reflections or through other things only!" Which... is silly. Riddle sent the basilisk out to attack students, and the only assumption that can be made is that the basilisk would KILL students.

JKRFail. I know it was a children's book, but if you don't want your story to be full of little kiddies being eaten by a snake, maybe you come up with some way to have your dangerous monster but make it realistic that it never happened to succeed in its 'killins'.

Aw ok, I can accept that.

 

Heather--

Snakes have unhinged jaws, they swallow prey whole without needing to chew them up. The primary function of the teeth is to inject venom to paralyze the prey, which the basilisks accomplish by their gaze.

 

^^That, and didn't their venom pretty much burn through everything on contact? I don't remember if that's canon or fanon.

 

^ Harry's arm didn't get burn off when he got bit.

 

Uh... right. I've seen the Discovery Channel a time or seven.

You do realize that what I said was a joke, right? Maybe I should have put a banana beside of it. :banana:

@JB - Fanon.

 

Not so much "scare 'em real bad" as much as, look at them through reflection only. I have no doubts, because he orchestrated this plot twice with similar results, that Tom Riddle knows of its capacity to petrify rather than kill, and can twist that to his advantage. The petrification is what causes the fear, not the 'lisk itself.

 

Canon for the Alien movies (blood not venom), fanon for HP.

 

I think we can just chalk this one up to JKR writing a more children friendly book. Say what you will about the basilisk's old ass teeth, or it just wanting to instill fear. There is no reason it shouldn't have just killed Ms. Norris though. Even eat the damn thing and leave the same message. I'm sure one small house cat is like a peanut to the king of serpents. This is one of the greatest mass murderers in recent wizarding history. Granted he is younger but still, why spare a house cat when you were more than willing to have Myrtle killed and have her ghost around to tell the story.

I think Riddle/Gin-slut could have gotten away with causing at least one casualty other than Ms. Norris as well. Hell riddle did when he was in school and it wasn't shut down (at least I think) And clearly Riddle still had Hagrid around as the fall guy if any deaths did occur, they would just blame Hagrid again like they did in the book. And if the school was closed down, it's not like Riddle's plan to come back to life was immediately lost, Ginny would still have the diary even at home. I'm sure, being the idiot that she is, she would have continued to write in it providing Tom with his precious...life force

 

I read somewhere, can't remember at all where, that each of the attacks occurred with someone nearby; the person who was petrified was discovered quickly, in most instances at least.

Colin is an unknown as Harry didn't hear any hissing for either of them, from memory. However, Hermione was near the library and she was found quickly, if Quidditch matches start directly after breakfast, which they appear to since it's mentioned that people rush out straight afterwards to get to their seats, and the teams leave breakfast early. Harry heard hissing that was a short way ahead of him and lead him to Mrs. Norris, Justin Finch-Fletchy and Nearly-Headless Nick - the attack likely occurred with little more than enough time for Basilisk to escape into the pipes again before Harry came across them. I don't recall any evidence suggesting that any of them had been laying there for extensive periods of time.

Might've been a fanon thing. It gets hard to tell sometimes. I should reread the early books.

Otherwise, Children's books is the best explanation.