The Cursed Castle - Discussion 4

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

More and more rooms have been showing up! YAY! It appears that just maybe the very causing of the rooms to show up is actually undoing the curse, without having to come up with a counterspell. The ways of magic are so mysterious ...

The name of the book that we are centering our activity around is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Pretend that we have finished the book and we know what is IN the Chamber of Secrets.

Again, we have a couple of discussion questions.

#1
Just what is in the Chamber of Secrets? After you answer that, we have the obvious next question. Do you think anyone residing in the castle actually 'knew' what was there?

#2
I was thinking of this activity and of a sudden, something occurred to me. We know what was there. (Yes, we read the book!) How long was it there? Which leads to the question -- what did it eat?

You’ll earn 20 beans when you answer with 100 or more words. If you answer both, you earn 20 beans per question if you give it the required number of words.

Post your response below by 11:50 PM HOL-time on the 4th of April to get your beans!

[River Fenwick]

#1:
Strangely enough, my first thought when it comes to what is in the Chamber of Secrets is that massive statue of Salazar Slytherin. If it weren’t home to the next thing I’ll mention, it would almost be mesmerizing to see. But with a basilisk often residing in the statue’s mouth, that would be a quick way to kill off any awe. I doubt anyone knew for sure what was there, though I have a strong suspicion some people could have guessed correctly. If the early attempts to find the Chamber had been successful, they would’ve been in for a surprise. For those who had an idea as to what was in it, I assume it was more of an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” situation, where, as long as whatever was in it wasn’t causing any issues, there was really no need to look to confirm.

#2:
Since Salazar Slytherin had planted the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets before his departure from Hogwarts, it would have had to be there for about a thousand years. Which, compared to the normal 900-year lifetime of a basilisk, is not something crazy to assume is true. As for what it ate, I can only assume there were some critters that came with the introduction of plumbing, which was at least some nutrition for it. I’m personally not convinced that was all it had to eat, since that would hardly be a sufficient meal for a beast that can grow to be 50 feet long. I can only guess that there had to be another food source, possibly crafted by someone who knew of its existence and magically transported to the Chamber.

[Kaylee Oatsong]

Hello,

1: The first thing that came to my mind was something more... abstract. The atmosphere was suffocating yet empty at the same time. It felt like it could suck all the remaining life out of you, only to then seem gradually more majestic as you're dying inside. You feel amazed, but at the same time you want to run away. The snakes carved into stone seem like they are looking at you, and you don't need to brush the rock to know that it feels as cold as their stare. I think that the professors and students alike are aware of its existence, but never really discovered it. OR, they hide the existence of it under a vow...

2: Well, if you're in the Chamber of Secrets, not encountering the humongous Basilisk is quite the impossible. We can definitely associate the creature with the infamous co-founder of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin (even though his name sounds fire not gonna lie). It's there since around 1000, and we're in 2026, so it is 1026 years old, which is extremely old, even for a Basilisk. Of course, just like every single animal, an old creature has much less of an appetite, and maybe Basilisks fast just like snakes do, and from time to time, maybe the leftover food from Hogwarts gets transported here by accident?

Kaylee Oatsong

[Janne Halla]

#2
I'm also subscribing to the idea of the different critters being the source of nourishment. Hogwarts is a huge castle after all, with lots of hidden spaces, tunnels, and pipes. It’s very likely that small animals lived there, especially rats or other creatures that could move through the walls and plumbing. The basilisk could have hunted these animals while moving through the pipes.

Another possibility is that it didn’t need to eat very often. Since it’s a magical creature, it might survive for long periods without food, or need much less than a normal animal. It could also have gone into a kind of resting state when it wasn’t being controlled. So, even if food wasn’t always easy to find, it still had enough to survive for many years.