Partial transfigure air at wand tip into Sarin gas (which I’m sure Harry knows the chemical structure of). Heating it will help it diffuse faster. Hold breath. But not before telling Voldemort something true put possibly useless (like the special power is “love” or something). I’m fairly certain that voldemort would feel the need to respond to this, explaining why it is a stupid answer. You have to inhale to talk. After that, make for the time-turner I guess?
There’s one problem with transfiguring toxic gases: It is unsatisfying from a story perspective, and it would need to kill instantly —
There’s two problems with transfiguring toxic gases: It is unsatisfying from a story perspective, and it would need to kill instantly (since otherwise a coughing Death Eater might still be able to use non-verbal spells to incapacitate Harry), and it would need to hit all —
There’s three problems with transfiguring toxic gases: It is unsatisfying from a story perspective, and it would need to kill instantly (since otherwise a coughing Death Eater might still be able to use non-verbal spells to incapacitate Harry), and it would need to hit all Death Eaters at exactly the same instant (otherwise one DE could still get in a shot, when he sees other DEs dying.)
He doesn’t need to kill them—Thats why I went with “Really bright light”. Voldemort ordered them all to keep their eyes on him, so any visual effect will hit every single one of them at light speed.
And he is wearing magically secured glasses. Wait, he may have prepared this as an attack… Welding goggles, mirrored sunglasses.
Oh. For. Swears Loudly
I just thought of the silliest solution ever. I don’t want to assign this a probability, except “Low, unless EY really just has to poke fun at the Basilisk brouhaha”.
He’s brought Slytherins Basilisk. He’s wearing the fucking thirty foot snake on his face. Or he talked it into teaching him how to become a basilisk Animagus. Basilisk stare through tinted glasses petrify—Which is exactly the kind of attack one would want against Voldemort.
“What do you mean, didn’t Voldemort Avadra it”? Firstly: He didn’t say he did that in parseltongue. Secondly, that would not work. Salazar not being an idiot.
“All sensible wizards do, if can. Thus, very rare”.
If you want to extend your life without doing incredibly evil shit, “Adopt long-lived animagus form, shift into it when old, never shift out again” is a fairly straightforward application of magic we know wizarding kind has access to.
One obvious problem is that I doubt Salazar would murder students on request, but heck, Voldemort could have set Myrtle up without his consent.
My original thought was simply that killing the basilisk was just too obvious a problem with the lore deposit, and that for this reason there would be backups. As in “more than one snake, and don’t let on to the heirs”. That also increases the durability of the chamber against time—it is a line of snakes instead of just one creature, time alone will not slay it.
One obvious problem is that I doubt Salazar would murder students on request, but heck, Voldemort could have set Myrtle up without his consent.
In canon, at least, the Basilisk is all into murdering students, suggesting victims and egging on the Heir. Indeed, it is the Basilisk’s murderous mutterings in Parseltongue that make Harry aware of it.
.. My personal guess about Canon parsel-tongue is that it creates a mind in the snake you talk to based loosely on your own—Hence the python in the zoo just wanting to escape it’s cramped living situation, and thus the Basilisk in hogwarts being all murdery—it’s nothing more than a funhouse mirror of Voldemort.
This was never tested, because Canon Harry has brain damage from starvation and various other psychological trauma inhibiting his thinking, and never even tried asking the basilisk to back off.
The HPMOR basillisk cannot possibly bear any resemblance whatsoever to the canon one anyway, Because that thing couldn’t teach anyone anything.
My personal guess about it is that it is that most people attribute to animals a lot more agency than they really have, and the story is written with an authorial worldview that assumes that most people’s views on this matter are actually true. Given that worldview, no explanation is needed at all. Of course, that worldview is itself inconsistent, but the inconsistencies have relatively little relevance to talking to snakes.
I believe canon says Animagus forms are not chosen; Salazar would have to be lucky to get the basilisk as his spirit animal rather than a rattlesnake or cobra or something.
Great idea! When everyone has inhaled the gas Harry can truthfully say in parseltongue that if he dies, everyone present will die (because that would cancel the transfiguration).
Edit: This work well with all the early foreshadowing about how transfiguration is extremely dangerous. In Ghostbusters we establish early on that you’re not supposed to cross the streams because that is extremely dangerous. And then, at the end of the move, when all is lost, what you do is to deliberately cross the streams.
The problem with using transfiguration sickness as a threat is that LV possesses the Philosopher’s Stone and can easily make a transfiguration permanent once he notices it.
A better option would be to transfigure a massive dose of Ebolavirus in the Death Eater’s bodies. It will be deadly if made permanent. Once given a chance to reproduce, cancelling the transfiguration won’t save them either.
Indeed, I had assumed that was what Lord V did to hold the school hostage, but it seems that doesn’t mesh with how transfigurations are made permanant.
Partial transfigure air at wand tip into Sarin gas (which I’m sure Harry knows the chemical structure of). Heating it will help it diffuse faster. Hold breath. But not before telling Voldemort something true put possibly useless (like the special power is “love” or something). I’m fairly certain that voldemort would feel the need to respond to this, explaining why it is a stupid answer. You have to inhale to talk. After that, make for the time-turner I guess?
There’s one problem with transfiguring toxic gases: It is unsatisfying from a story perspective, and it would need to kill instantly —
There’s two problems with transfiguring toxic gases: It is unsatisfying from a story perspective, and it would need to kill instantly (since otherwise a coughing Death Eater might still be able to use non-verbal spells to incapacitate Harry), and it would need to hit all —
There’s three problems with transfiguring toxic gases: It is unsatisfying from a story perspective, and it would need to kill instantly (since otherwise a coughing Death Eater might still be able to use non-verbal spells to incapacitate Harry), and it would need to hit all Death Eaters at exactly the same instant (otherwise one DE could still get in a shot, when he sees other DEs dying.)
He doesn’t need to kill them—Thats why I went with “Really bright light”. Voldemort ordered them all to keep their eyes on him, so any visual effect will hit every single one of them at light speed.
And he is wearing magically secured glasses. Wait, he may have prepared this as an attack… Welding goggles, mirrored sunglasses.
Oh. For. Swears Loudly
I just thought of the silliest solution ever. I don’t want to assign this a probability, except “Low, unless EY really just has to poke fun at the Basilisk brouhaha”. He’s brought Slytherins Basilisk. He’s wearing the fucking thirty foot snake on his face. Or he talked it into teaching him how to become a basilisk Animagus. Basilisk stare through tinted glasses petrify—Which is exactly the kind of attack one would want against Voldemort.
“What do you mean, didn’t Voldemort Avadra it”? Firstly: He didn’t say he did that in parseltongue. Secondly, that would not work. Salazar not being an idiot.
“All sensible wizards do, if can. Thus, very rare”.
Wait, are you suggesting that Slytherin’s Basilisk is Salazar Slytherin, in Animagus form? (Edit: spelling.)
...I am now!
If you want to extend your life without doing incredibly evil shit, “Adopt long-lived animagus form, shift into it when old, never shift out again” is a fairly straightforward application of magic we know wizarding kind has access to.
One obvious problem is that I doubt Salazar would murder students on request, but heck, Voldemort could have set Myrtle up without his consent.
My original thought was simply that killing the basilisk was just too obvious a problem with the lore deposit, and that for this reason there would be backups. As in “more than one snake, and don’t let on to the heirs”. That also increases the durability of the chamber against time—it is a line of snakes instead of just one creature, time alone will not slay it.
In canon, at least, the Basilisk is all into murdering students, suggesting victims and egging on the Heir. Indeed, it is the Basilisk’s murderous mutterings in Parseltongue that make Harry aware of it.
.. My personal guess about Canon parsel-tongue is that it creates a mind in the snake you talk to based loosely on your own—Hence the python in the zoo just wanting to escape it’s cramped living situation, and thus the Basilisk in hogwarts being all murdery—it’s nothing more than a funhouse mirror of Voldemort.
This was never tested, because Canon Harry has brain damage from starvation and various other psychological trauma inhibiting his thinking, and never even tried asking the basilisk to back off.
The HPMOR basillisk cannot possibly bear any resemblance whatsoever to the canon one anyway, Because that thing couldn’t teach anyone anything.
My personal guess about it is that it is that most people attribute to animals a lot more agency than they really have, and the story is written with an authorial worldview that assumes that most people’s views on this matter are actually true. Given that worldview, no explanation is needed at all. Of course, that worldview is itself inconsistent, but the inconsistencies have relatively little relevance to talking to snakes.
I believe canon says Animagus forms are not chosen; Salazar would have to be lucky to get the basilisk as his spirit animal rather than a rattlesnake or cobra or something.
Come in again.
Transfer something into non-toxic gas, wait for everyone to inhale it, then dispel the transfiguration. It’s faster.
Great idea! When everyone has inhaled the gas Harry can truthfully say in parseltongue that if he dies, everyone present will die (because that would cancel the transfiguration).
Edit: This work well with all the early foreshadowing about how transfiguration is extremely dangerous. In Ghostbusters we establish early on that you’re not supposed to cross the streams because that is extremely dangerous. And then, at the end of the move, when all is lost, what you do is to deliberately cross the streams.
The problem with using transfiguration sickness as a threat is that LV possesses the Philosopher’s Stone and can easily make a transfiguration permanent once he notices it.
A better option would be to transfigure a massive dose of Ebolavirus in the Death Eater’s bodies. It will be deadly if made permanent. Once given a chance to reproduce, cancelling the transfiguration won’t save them either.
This seems kind of reckless even for Harry.
That all depends on what the traditional Death-Eater burial practices are like, and if they can be induced to change them.
Indeed, I had assumed that was what Lord V did to hold the school hostage, but it seems that doesn’t mesh with how transfigurations are made permanant.