CoS 17

[pauraque_bk]

In Chapter 16, we discussed whether the books encourage rule-breaking, Harry and Ron's intentions in taking Lockhart down to the Chamber, and how the Basilisk has stayed alive.


CoS 17: The Heir of Slytherin

Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: it was ancient and monkey-like, with a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes[...] (226)

It's confirmed a bit later that this is indeed Salazar. Monkey-like! Somehow this detail seems to have escaped Founder-fic.

'Well, that's an interesting question,' said Riddle pleasantly. 'And quite a long story[...]' (228)

And there's nothing Tom/V likes better than a loooooong story.

[Tom:] '[...]I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger.' (228)

Hm. Another reinforcement of the idea that it's unwise to confide in people.

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. (228)

chresimos and I have discussed what we think a "high, cold laugh" is (it comes up again in GoF, where V also has a "high, cold voice"), and decided we don't know. It's high, so it's shrill? A hysterical giggle? But cold too? Dunno.

In any case, it seems this is a vocal quirk of Riddle's that pre-dates becoming a Dark Lord. Though, on the other hand, this incarnation of Tom shares a few odd characteristics with V, such as eyes that glow red (231) which you wouldn't think he'd have had at 16.

[Tom imitating Ginny:] '[...]Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Hallowe'en, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front[...]' (229)

Paint, then, not blood.

'Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry,' said Riddle. 'Your whole fascinating history.' His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and his expression grew hungrier. (229)

Yeah, this makes sense. The diary was made before V's disintegration, obviously, so he didn't know about Harry until Ginny brought him up.

'[...]On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school Prefect, model student[...]' (229-230)

Just as good at manipulating adults as Harry is!

'[...]on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed[...]' (230)

Beg your pardon? Werewolf cubs. If anything, this'd have to be a figure of speech.

'Well, [Dumbledore] certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled,' said Riddle carelessly. 'I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work.' (230)

Uh-huh. But now, "killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to [him] anymore" (230), all he wants to do is kill Harry, which I guess would explain why he hasn't actually... er, killed anyone. Perhaps it makes sense... he doesn't want Harry to get in the way of his future self returning to power.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
'You see?' he whispered. 'It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course[...]' (231)

Random Slytherin: Fancy a fly around the pitch, Riddle?
Tom: *righteously enraged* I keep telling you, call me by my proper name!
R.S.: *puzzled* But that is your name...
Tom: *pounding fists* No! LORD VOLDEMORT!
R.S.: ...Uh-huh. Okay, Tommy, catch you later.
Tom: *angst*

'Twice -- in your past, in my future -- we have met. And twice I failed to kill you[...]' (233)

They have indeed met twice, but... huh? If Tom's trying to say something significant here, I can't penetrate its meaning.

Riddle opened his mouth and hissed -- but Harry understood what he was saying. (234)

In Chapter 16, we discussed how little JKR knows about snakes. She has a snake wink in PS/SS (snakes don't have eyelids), refers to a green shed snakeskin (they're white-to-brownish), and invents a spoken snake language when snakes can't hear! It would have been just as easy to make it a telepathic language and drop the references to it sounding like hissing, but apparently neither she nor her editor knew any better.

The movie also has Harry distract the Basilisk with the clatter of a thrown pebble, which is just... *facepalm* Even if the Basilisk had felt the vibration, Harry was right in front of its face; as Tom quite rightly points out, it can easily smell him.

A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the Hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs. (235)

idlerat has previously pointed out the phallic imagery there.

Harry could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying, 'Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!' (239)

Not to make too much of a throwaway gag, but does this suggest to anyone else that Lockhart was Muggle-born? If he'd been raised in a magical environment, he never would have had the concept in his mind that something could be "just like magic" without in fact being magic, so it would be impossible for him to "forget" back to that point.


Past re-read posts are here. Just one more chapter left.

Comments

[gmth.livejournal.com]

...all he wants to do is kill Harry, which I guess would explain why he hasn't actually... er, killed anyone.

I always considered this a lucky fluke. After all, there's no evidence in the book to suggest either Ginny or Riddle chased the basilisk around after releasing it, to direct it in its attacks, so they really didn't know who the thing was going to go after. It's actually kind of strange that the only people who got petrified were Muggle-borns, if you stop and think about it. (Well, them and Nick.) Seems to me Riddle was taking an awful chance of killing a pureblood.

[pauraque]

I guess it depends on how much inherent control Salazar had over the Basilisk, and by extension, how much Tom had. Binns tells the students that Salazar put the monster in the Chamber to "use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic" (114), which suggests that he at least tried to enchant it to only attack non-purebloods.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Heheh, my first reaction to that was: "How could it tell a pureblood from a non-pureblood?"

And then I realized, hey, we're talking about a universe where a snake lived for 500 years and a memory preserved in a diary came back to life. So yeah, stupid question on my part. ;-)

Hey, here's a question you can maybe address in your analysis of the next chapter: How did Nearly Headless Nick drink the Mandrake Restorative Draught?

[pauraque]

Good question. I'll watch for any signs of an explanation.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

Not this is any good explanation, but since supposedly one of the ghosts at Nick's Deathday Party says if they pass through the moldy food they can almost taste it... maybe if passing the draught through him (splashing on it? In him?) would work?

Er. Never said it'd be a good explanation.