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Post by Hallie Thera Christodoulou on Jan 19, 2011 21:14:57 GMT -7
"That would be correct, if you think of a dog, when you have a dog it connects more with one person, and even though we keep them in a family situation and they'll listen to each person," Hallie told her, "though they'll still listen to that one person more," she explained, "that's what we believe is the same with the Basilisk, with the exception you need two parselmouths to do it with, which in and of itself is kind of rare." She looked at her and wrote that analogy down to use in her class. She'd never thought of it before but it made sense.
She asked what was the normal length of a basilisk. Hallie had to think carefully and of an average length. "I've never heard of one reaching over fifty feet, so I would go on ahead and assume that they range from fourty to fifty feet," she told her. The question of what it ate was a harder question. "From people I've spoken to doing my studies, I've learned that they eat medium to large mammals," she said softly, "is that all or do you have more questions?"
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Post by allison on Jan 21, 2011 14:15:40 GMT -7
When Professor Christodoulou agreed to the basilisk being something similar to a pet, Alice nodded thoughtfully. She figured that was it; but she also wondered whether or not a basilisk would turn against its creator, whether or not it would just, well, listen. She figured it would go against its creator once in a while, like many creatures do occasionally, but she figured it would stick with its creator nonetheless. "Ok, I think I got it."
When the professor began to answer her questions, Alice nodded; she figured the basilisk would be large, but she thought they'd be larger than that. Perhaps she was just going on the rumors told in the books about the length of a basilisk. When she was told that the basilisk ate medium to large mammals, Alice raised an eyebrow in a very Alec way. "Oh? Well, I do have a few more questions, if it isn't too much trouble."
She paused, thinking about how to phrase the next question, and what exactly it should be. Alice was thinking of either asking about whether there were recorded deaths from a basilisk, and whether the basilisk was caught; or she was thinking about asking whether or not a non-parselmouth could control a basilisk, whether it be indirectly or directly. Though she already knew the answer to the last part. Deciding on her question, Alice spoke up once more. "So, are there any recorded deaths due to the basilisk? And I'm wondering whether or not the basilisk was caught, or how it would be caught?" It was treading in dangerous water, but she figured there were others, mainly Slytherins that would wonder about the topic; after all, though he would probably wonder about it just because, Alec was a Slytherin.
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Post by Hallie Thera Christodoulou on Jan 21, 2011 15:19:47 GMT -7
"Not at all, go ahead any questions are gladly welcome," Hallie smiled. Alice had paused and that made Hallie wonder what her next questions would be. She had to think carefully of the words she would use. When Alice had asked the question Hallie's eyebrows raised. She thought carefully and had to think on this answer for a moment.
Once it came to mind Hallie looked up to her. "I'm not sure they're recorded but they are very well known deaths cause by basilisks," she told her, "in the case here at Hogwarts, if you know Myrtle, her death was caused by a basilisk, which was also being controlled at the moment by the dark lord, when he was a student here, we learn that this year, at least more on that information, other deaths are from the creators who couldn't speak parselmouth and couldn't control the creature, in that case those Basilisks have been obtained, mind you hundreds of years ago, and killed," she told her.
She looked at Alice still and then stood up. She had already pulled her notebook out but now she went over to her trunk and shifted through it for a moment before finding a rather large dusty book. She blew the dust off the cover and than had to wipe off what was left. She came back over to the desk and sat it down before opening it. She flipped through the pages and found a report on those basilisks being caught with certain measures. "Well when created the only way to control it is by of course speaking parselmouth, if you cannot do so, you would not want a basilisk, when these creatures were caught, and I would assume the same for today, they had a parselmouth on staff that could control the creature and than make sure to blind it for everyone else's safety, the creature again would than be condemed to death," she told her.
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Post by allison on Jan 21, 2011 16:03:50 GMT -7
Alice nodded, she figured that those who couldn't control the creature would be the cause of deaths; and she knew Myrtle was killed by a basilisk so many years ago; more than a century. It was the very same basilisk that laid in the Chamber of Secrets, the one that petrified many muggleborn students in the year of 1992. If it were not slain by THE Harry Potter back then, then Alice was almosts certain someone, whether it be a student or a wizard outside of Hogwarts, someone would have come by and opened it once more. After all, there are still many who oppose the muggles joining in with the wizards as much as there are wizards who agree with the law.
When the professor brought over a large book, Alice tilted her head, curious as to what it was. When she explained that the team that caught the basilisk would usually have a parselmouth in there, curiousity lit up in her eyes. "So, they'd use the parselmouth on their team to capture the basilisk? But wouldn't the basilisk disobey them, since they weren't the creator or anything?"
When Professor Christodoulou mentioned something about the basilisks being blinded and then killed, Alice couldn't help but feel sympathetic for the dark creature. It would have been best to just leave then in a secluded area, made especially for basilisks, rather than kill them. After all, they were created to kill; it seemed wrong that they were being killed because of their dark nature. Perhaps it was because her family's history that she thought this, or perhaps it was just because of her nature that she thought this.
"So, if you weren't a parselmouth, would the basilisk kill you immediately? Or would it just not listen and do what it chooses?" She asked, sticking on topic, since she had a few more questions on it.
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Post by Hallie Thera Christodoulou on Jan 21, 2011 23:30:33 GMT -7
Hallie looked at her and closed the book in front of her. "I'll go ahead and allow you to borrow this book, it's a complete record keeping of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, it has many blank pages in the back and it updates itself for important records, a nice read if you're interested," she told her, "it may give you some answers that I may not be able to." She then looked up at her. "There has been incidents where that has happened, in those cases it is declared absolute neccesity to get rid of, not that it wasn't before, what would happen is the parselmouth would go ahead and provide a distraction for the rest of the team to blind it, being the parselmouth is the most dangerous job when coming to basilisks," she said softly.
"Chances are high it would enjoy you as a nice snack, that is why it's important for the DRCMC to take care of the creatures when they are known to exist," she spoke seriously. She looked at her, "we check in with all registered parselmouths due to the fact these creatures can kill and will," she said.
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Post by allison on Jan 24, 2011 12:25:24 GMT -7
Alice nodded, and took the book, smiling in thanks as she did so. "Thank you Professor," she looked at the book, flipping through the pages quickly. "I'm sure this has some information that would answer my question. Thank you." she smiled towards Professor Christodoulou. Alice nodded, of course, being on the team itself is dangerous; but when you have to communicate with a dark creature like the basilisk, well, Alice knew there were only a select few that would try. There were even less that would succeed in talking out a basilisk; probably a one in a million ratio.
When Professor Christodoulou spoke of the basilisk eating a non-parselmouth that tried to control it Alice couldn't help the slight smirk that came to her face. Quickly wiping the slight smirk off her face, she nodded. Still, she couldn't help but wonder who would be stupid enough to to even try and control a dark creature meant for a parselmouth. When Professor Christodoulou talked about the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures checking in with registered parselmouths Alice's lip twitched slightly as she tried to hide her smirk. Truly, the ministry was naive, it was funny to her really. Wiping away the thoughts of the ministry, Alice smiled, "Ok. I have one last question." she stated, placing her books in her enchanted bag.
"Are there any known antidotes for the basilisk poison?"
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Post by Hallie Thera Christodoulou on Jan 24, 2011 15:33:03 GMT -7
Hallie looked at her and smiled. "I hope it does have what you're looking for, I am ministry registered, since I previously worked for the department," she told him. She watched Alice carefully for reactions to things. She saw the smirk she got when she spoke of non-parselmouths trying to tame a basilisk.
"If I'm correct you come from a long line of purebloods, most pureblood families have parselmouth in their genes, but there's not very many of them, as of three years ago there were only seven registered parselmouths," Hallie told her. Alice than spoke of one last question and Hallie looked at her. "Yes and no, it depends on if you're talking wizard made or nature," she said softly. Her blue eyes glanced over at her looking up and down. "Currently there is no known wizard made antidote, though I've heard a few people have come close," she spoke, "currently only pheonix tears can help," she said.
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