2d) Something Voldemort didn’t expect. If Slytherin’s Monster transferred it’s secrets with a Dark Ritual, Salazar could have planned for Rule 12 and plotted to transfer secrets to future heirs. How would you identify a baby as a parselmouth?
Why would (how would) the Basilisk transfer its secrets with a Dark Ritual rather than just, you know, talking?
Efficiency: speed & certainty. How many secrets would you be leaving behind before this incredibly baroque scheme was worth putting in place? How long would it take to communicate hundreds of ultra-advanced spells by one of the pre-eminent wizards of that golden age? How long can a student afford to be sneaking off to the Chamber?
We’ve seen legilimency used to read minds, but Order of the Phoenix also showed that it could be used to write to minds as well.
This seems to defeat the purpose somewhat. Isn’t the point of the Basilisk to ensure that only Parselmouths can access the secrets? Presumably legilimency is, if not impossible, at least difficult to use on a creature with the Gaze of Death, but if there were rituals to transfer information from its mind to yours, obtaining consent under duress seems a small enough obstacle.
Because a Dark Ritual could force a sacrifice that adds redundancy. Leave the Basilisk alone, mostly satisfied.
Kill it and you are bound to transfer the knowledge to the next heir.
Attempt to kill the heir and end up as a horcrux.
Again, Harry wasn’t the Heir of Slytherin when Voldemort was plotting to kill him, or attempting to kill him, or even afterwards. He was only ever a Horcrux of the Heir of Slytherin.
2d) Something Voldemort didn’t expect. If Slytherin’s Monster transferred it’s secrets with a Dark Ritual, Salazar could have planned for Rule 12 and plotted to transfer secrets to future heirs. How would you identify a baby as a parselmouth?
Why would (how would) the Basilisk transfer its secrets with a Dark Ritual rather than just, you know, talking?
Also, in canon Harry wasn’t a Parselmouth until after that Halloween, and stopped being one when the Horcrux was destroyed.
Efficiency: speed & certainty. How many secrets would you be leaving behind before this incredibly baroque scheme was worth putting in place? How long would it take to communicate hundreds of ultra-advanced spells by one of the pre-eminent wizards of that golden age? How long can a student afford to be sneaking off to the Chamber?
We’ve seen legilimency used to read minds, but Order of the Phoenix also showed that it could be used to write to minds as well.
This seems to defeat the purpose somewhat. Isn’t the point of the Basilisk to ensure that only Parselmouths can access the secrets? Presumably legilimency is, if not impossible, at least difficult to use on a creature with the Gaze of Death, but if there were rituals to transfer information from its mind to yours, obtaining consent under duress seems a small enough obstacle.
I don’t follow. The Parseltongue requirements controls access to the Chamber and also communication with the Basilisk. What more is needed?
So you’re thinking a Dark Ritual that only works for Parselmouths? That might work, I guess.
Because a Dark Ritual could force a sacrifice that adds redundancy. Leave the Basilisk alone, mostly satisfied. Kill it and you are bound to transfer the knowledge to the next heir. Attempt to kill the heir and end up as a horcrux.
Again, Harry wasn’t the Heir of Slytherin when Voldemort was plotting to kill him, or attempting to kill him, or even afterwards. He was only ever a Horcrux of the Heir of Slytherin.