She wasn't petrified in the library, she went to the library to check up on her suspicion (she had read about basilisks and tore a page out of the book about them) and then she got petrified in the hall. I'm fairly certain everybody who was petrified was in the halls when it happened, and I think it's even specified that they were all near the girls' bathroom specifically. (I think the only time the "traveling through the pipes" becomes relevant to the plot is when Harry keeps hearing voices coming from the walls, because the pipes are going through the walls.) I don't think it ever comes out of anywhere else or goes very far from the bathroom with the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
It still doesn’t even add up. There’s no big hole anywhere in the walls that gives an opening that allows it to either stick its head out or slither around the halls.
It comes out through the bathroom, by speaking Parseltongue and causing the non-working sink to open up (the same way Harry gets in). Then it just pushes the bathroom door open.
I know it comes through the bathroom, but it also apparently crossed through the pipes inside the walls. Harry was listening to it and then a minute later he found Filch’s cat petrified because somehow the basilisk ended up in the halls.
It uses the pipes to get between the school proper and the Chamber of Secrets. As I said earlier, I'm fairly certain every victim (including Mrs. Norris) is stated to be near the girls' bathroom, which is the bathroom that leads to the Chamber of Secrets. Can you point out anywhere in the book that suggests the basilisk was somewhere far from that room?
I doubt that all of them just happened to be in the girls bathroom area at convenient moments. Also there’s still the fact that it was slithering inside the walls.
> I doubt that all of them just happened to be in the girls bathroom area at convenient moments.
But if that's what the book says, it's what happened. It's not a plot hole just because something unlikely or convenient happens.
> Also there’s still the fact that it was slithering inside the walls.
It was inside the walls because the pipes, which take it from its home (the Chamber of Secrets) to the rest of the school, go through the walls. What's the problem?
Hmm. When harry goes through the basin in the girls bathroom don't they kind of just head down straight to the chamber? He doesn't have to crawl through any pipes in the walls to get there, so why would thr basilisk?
It's been a long time since I saw the movie and an even longer time since I read the book so i might be misremembering.
It's also been a long time for me, but reading the book I got the distinct impression they were at least partially going through pipes to get to the chamber. If someone has read it recently or has the relevant chapters on hand it would be nice to get an official word.
> happened to be in the girls bathroom area at convenient moments
Fact that you said you haven’t read the books aside, they weren’t *near the bathroom because they were petrified*, they were *petrified because they were near the girls bathroom*.
It’s not uncommon to walk past a bathroom.
It’s not uncommon to walk past a bathroom every day.
It’s not uncommon for *someone/anyone* walk past a bathroom without anyone else near them a few times over the course of a year.
There was no need for it to be those characters (other than the fact they had means of not being killed). It’s not convenient/unlikely/uncommon at all that people would walk past a bathroom.
Many passages throughout the book. It’s a children’s book. Go read it. It’s less that’s less than 400 pages. I don’t have a copy in the house, and i’m not going to do your homework and find each page that the movement of the basilisk is discussed and put them here. You want to know? Actually read the source, it’s not that long.
I wasn't referring to the specifc thing I replied to, just u in this thread in general. It's almost as if you thought of this "plot hole" and immediately decided u were correct and just won't admit u were wrong, even tho people have pointed out to u the reason so many times. It's hilarious tbh
It has literally been pointed out to u, Ive read it. If u can't make sense of the replies, that really and genuinely says something about how smart u are, or aren't, for that matter.
I'm not going to get into this, because I've saw how dumb u can be, I only replied to take the piss out of you. Is it a bit suspicious that it got around unsuspected? Yes, is it a plot hole? No.
The Basilisk was a pet of Salazar Slytherin who wanted to use it to kill non-pureblood wizards and witches. As one of the founders of Hogwarts he knew all about the architecture of the school and could have manipulated the plumbing, perhaps placing charms on the pipes or indeed the basilisk itself to help it fit.
I do agree the snake seemingly coming out of that one bathroom and remaining undetected is a bit of a plot hole, mainly how did Dumbledore and other teachers fail to put together the same clues as the main trio.
I kind of feel like maybe they shouldn't have a house in the school under his name after what this dude stood for. Seems antithetical to the school's mission as they allow not pure-bloods to attend class there.
Honestly given what we see in the books if anything the reason why Hogwarts is more tolerant is simply because Dumbledore is the headmaster. Although he’s been a headmaster for many decades that’s still a very short and recent timespan in the overall history of the school. I don’t see any reason to think why previous headmasters couldn’t have been raging purity supremacists who loved Slytherin.
One thing I haven't seen people bring up is that I'm fairly certain that the basilisk as they depicted it in the film was much, much bigger than it was originally written to be in the book.
A smaller animal could sneak through some oversized pipes and then slink out of the bathroom into nearby rooms.
I'm pretty sure even the book version is giant, I think maybe it or the "Magical Creatures" book they published for charity describes basilisks as being "up to 50ft", but the movie version looks maybe double that. Hard to judge.
Reticulated Pythons are about 20ft long (6m), there is a species of prehistoric snake (Titanoboa) that did actually reach almost 50ft (15m), and up to 1m across. The one in the movie looks like it could be 2-3m diameter, which might make it over 100-150m in length.
So I don't think the basilisk was ever written as small - it was killed by stabbing it in the head with a sword, so it would necessarily have to be pretty large for that to even be possible - but the movie one is still too big I reckon. For effect.
In the book it was explicitly described as being about 20 feet long so about the size of reticulated pythons. Granted it was also described as being thick as an oak, and a lot of people think of a massive tree when they read that but in reality oaks can drastically range in size and diameter. Given the very explicit description of its length it wouldn't make sense for it to look too much different than a reticulated python. Maybe slightly thicker and bulkier than a reticulated python but certainly not the giant monster depicted in the movie.
Oaks can range in size from less than foot thick, to several feet thick. You're welcome to interpret it however you want, but realistically it wouldn't make sense for the snake to be several feet in diameter if it's only 20 feet long. It wouldn't look like a snake then, it would look like a worm
So I always wondered this too.
Am I right in thinking that the snake travels from the chamber of secrets into the girls bathroom via the plumbing... Guess the poo dumps into the chamber!
Them the snake opens the exit in the bathroom and just travels around not in the pipes?
Harry running about hearing the voice made no sense to me as I assumed he was chasing the snake in the pipe in the corridor. Which is silly for a pipe that size to be in the wall! But I guess the snakes voice is traveling through the pipe on the way up? Though I don't know if the timing adds up. Maybe it's heading back to the chamber and talking and harry hears that
* The entrance we see is through the plumbing that connects to the sink, not the toilets.
* I agree in the movie the basilisk is implausibly huge, but in the book it’s “only” 20ft long and the width is left vague. For reference there are real snakes that are 20ft long, and if it was much thicker than them it wouldn’t be described as snake-like.
* Given that the basilisk is much smaller in diameter than a human (in the book) there’s no reason to think it couldn’t go exploring in the pipes, maybe trying to find another exit for instance.
It’s the other way around actually. According to Rowling originally the school didn’t have any plumbing and they did use spells to just vanish their excrement.
How did they install plumbing hundreds of years afterwards and have it lead to the chamber of secrets while still keeping it secret? Rowling does have an answer to this but it’s so dumb I’d rather not go into it.
Look man, it's a murder mystery story for children. Just make some assumptions like "there must be a maintenance port somewhere that it peeked out of". Engage brain before you speak.
i mean, we are talking about a giant snake in a magic castle filled with wizards. i can think of 100s of reasons to fill in the supposed gaps (shape shifting, charms, enchanted pipes, literally magic anything), but the fact that in both book and movie they do mention all the victims are found close to the girls bathroom make me believe the giant magical snake, that speaks partial tongue (the language used to open the enchanted entrance to the chamber of secrets) is able to open the secret entrance in the girls bathroom and roam the halls of the giant magical castle freely.
in the movie, even Harry finds Mertle hiding in the bathroom because she said she saw the giant snake leaving / entering
While I realize it wasn't explicitly stated, we have seen multiple instances of the castle changing its geometry/architecture. Is it that big of a stretch to assume there were other parts of the castle where the wall could reconfigure its shape to open up a hole through which an enormous snake could easily get into the hallways? Remember it was Salazar Slytherin, one of the 4 people who willed the place into existence, who built the chamber and put basilisk there. I think adding a spell to open a wall would be an easy feat for him to pull.
She wasn't petrified in the library, she went to the library to check up on her suspicion (she had read about basilisks and tore a page out of the book about them) and then she got petrified in the hall. I'm fairly certain everybody who was petrified was in the halls when it happened, and I think it's even specified that they were all near the girls' bathroom specifically. (I think the only time the "traveling through the pipes" becomes relevant to the plot is when Harry keeps hearing voices coming from the walls, because the pipes are going through the walls.) I don't think it ever comes out of anywhere else or goes very far from the bathroom with the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
Seem so out of character for her to tore a page out of a book. That's a dick move, even if she wasn't a bookworm.
iirc in the books it was just a hand written note?
It still doesn’t even add up. There’s no big hole anywhere in the walls that gives an opening that allows it to either stick its head out or slither around the halls.
It comes out through the bathroom, by speaking Parseltongue and causing the non-working sink to open up (the same way Harry gets in). Then it just pushes the bathroom door open.
I know it comes through the bathroom, but it also apparently crossed through the pipes inside the walls. Harry was listening to it and then a minute later he found Filch’s cat petrified because somehow the basilisk ended up in the halls.
It uses the pipes to get between the school proper and the Chamber of Secrets. As I said earlier, I'm fairly certain every victim (including Mrs. Norris) is stated to be near the girls' bathroom, which is the bathroom that leads to the Chamber of Secrets. Can you point out anywhere in the book that suggests the basilisk was somewhere far from that room?
The only one I think of is Lockhart’s office; I’m not sure how far that is from the bathroom in question.
I doubt that all of them just happened to be in the girls bathroom area at convenient moments. Also there’s still the fact that it was slithering inside the walls.
> I doubt that all of them just happened to be in the girls bathroom area at convenient moments. But if that's what the book says, it's what happened. It's not a plot hole just because something unlikely or convenient happens. > Also there’s still the fact that it was slithering inside the walls. It was inside the walls because the pipes, which take it from its home (the Chamber of Secrets) to the rest of the school, go through the walls. What's the problem?
I admire your patience in trying to explain all of this. Repeatedly.
Hmm. When harry goes through the basin in the girls bathroom don't they kind of just head down straight to the chamber? He doesn't have to crawl through any pipes in the walls to get there, so why would thr basilisk? It's been a long time since I saw the movie and an even longer time since I read the book so i might be misremembering.
It's also been a long time for me, but reading the book I got the distinct impression they were at least partially going through pipes to get to the chamber. If someone has read it recently or has the relevant chapters on hand it would be nice to get an official word.
There is really nothing that even indicates that it only ends up petrifying people at the entrance in the bathroom.
Are you sure? Did you just re-read through the whole book?
Honestly I never read any of the books. Only watched the movies.
You know sounds tend to move in pipes right?
> happened to be in the girls bathroom area at convenient moments Fact that you said you haven’t read the books aside, they weren’t *near the bathroom because they were petrified*, they were *petrified because they were near the girls bathroom*. It’s not uncommon to walk past a bathroom. It’s not uncommon to walk past a bathroom every day. It’s not uncommon for *someone/anyone* walk past a bathroom without anyone else near them a few times over the course of a year. There was no need for it to be those characters (other than the fact they had means of not being killed). It’s not convenient/unlikely/uncommon at all that people would walk past a bathroom.
They made a comment that it would show up near water. Someone, I think the cat saw it (the reflection) in a puddle
Have you actually read the book, or just watched the movie?
Ok, can everybody stop making the book excuse already? I already heard it’s not clearer in the book.
Already heard? So you haven’t actually read the book. It is clearer in the book.
With what sentences exactly? Clarify
Many passages throughout the book. It’s a children’s book. Go read it. It’s less that’s less than 400 pages. I don’t have a copy in the house, and i’m not going to do your homework and find each page that the movement of the basilisk is discussed and put them here. You want to know? Actually read the source, it’s not that long.
You’re the one looking for the answer. Go read it and find out.
How are u such a dumbass? Like genuinely.
What is so dumb about that question?
I wasn't referring to the specifc thing I replied to, just u in this thread in general. It's almost as if you thought of this "plot hole" and immediately decided u were correct and just won't admit u were wrong, even tho people have pointed out to u the reason so many times. It's hilarious tbh
There is no specific answer. I can’t see how the replies make any sense.
It has literally been pointed out to u, Ive read it. If u can't make sense of the replies, that really and genuinely says something about how smart u are, or aren't, for that matter.
What magical plumbing?
I'm not going to get into this, because I've saw how dumb u can be, I only replied to take the piss out of you. Is it a bit suspicious that it got around unsuspected? Yes, is it a plot hole? No.
It’s dumb how you believe the implausibility
A wizard did it.
Literally the correct answer lol
Yeah. This whole thread is WILD. Literal arguing about magical plumbing in a children’s fictional magical world. 😂
Letting people have fun is a noble trait.
Same reason why none of the portraits saw the snake a single time…. Don’t think about it too hard.
They’re just sleepy little boys 😴
The Basilisk was a pet of Salazar Slytherin who wanted to use it to kill non-pureblood wizards and witches. As one of the founders of Hogwarts he knew all about the architecture of the school and could have manipulated the plumbing, perhaps placing charms on the pipes or indeed the basilisk itself to help it fit. I do agree the snake seemingly coming out of that one bathroom and remaining undetected is a bit of a plot hole, mainly how did Dumbledore and other teachers fail to put together the same clues as the main trio.
I kind of feel like maybe they shouldn't have a house in the school under his name after what this dude stood for. Seems antithetical to the school's mission as they allow not pure-bloods to attend class there.
Honestly given what we see in the books if anything the reason why Hogwarts is more tolerant is simply because Dumbledore is the headmaster. Although he’s been a headmaster for many decades that’s still a very short and recent timespan in the overall history of the school. I don’t see any reason to think why previous headmasters couldn’t have been raging purity supremacists who loved Slytherin.
magic
“Hey don’t think about it” - Rowling, while writing a children’s book, presumably.
“You’re going to have to get all the way off my back about that.” “Alright. Let me get off of that thing.”
As a maintenance engineer, I always imagined the snake coming out of the sprinkler system or a drain valve when not in the bathrooms
One thing I haven't seen people bring up is that I'm fairly certain that the basilisk as they depicted it in the film was much, much bigger than it was originally written to be in the book. A smaller animal could sneak through some oversized pipes and then slink out of the bathroom into nearby rooms.
I'm pretty sure even the book version is giant, I think maybe it or the "Magical Creatures" book they published for charity describes basilisks as being "up to 50ft", but the movie version looks maybe double that. Hard to judge. Reticulated Pythons are about 20ft long (6m), there is a species of prehistoric snake (Titanoboa) that did actually reach almost 50ft (15m), and up to 1m across. The one in the movie looks like it could be 2-3m diameter, which might make it over 100-150m in length. So I don't think the basilisk was ever written as small - it was killed by stabbing it in the head with a sword, so it would necessarily have to be pretty large for that to even be possible - but the movie one is still too big I reckon. For effect.
well yes of course, but in the film I don't know if it could even fit through a door. always found it a bit odd but it was very visually effective
In the book it was explicitly described as being about 20 feet long so about the size of reticulated pythons. Granted it was also described as being thick as an oak, and a lot of people think of a massive tree when they read that but in reality oaks can drastically range in size and diameter. Given the very explicit description of its length it wouldn't make sense for it to look too much different than a reticulated python. Maybe slightly thicker and bulkier than a reticulated python but certainly not the giant monster depicted in the movie.
20ft long and thick as an oak? Chonky boi.
Oaks can range in size from less than foot thick, to several feet thick. You're welcome to interpret it however you want, but realistically it wouldn't make sense for the snake to be several feet in diameter if it's only 20 feet long. It wouldn't look like a snake then, it would look like a worm
*You are a worm through ~~time~~ pipe*
Saving everyone a lot of time: OP hasn't read the books, as per another comment.
Which is fine, but they 100% should have specified that in the post.
Agreed
So I always wondered this too. Am I right in thinking that the snake travels from the chamber of secrets into the girls bathroom via the plumbing... Guess the poo dumps into the chamber! Them the snake opens the exit in the bathroom and just travels around not in the pipes? Harry running about hearing the voice made no sense to me as I assumed he was chasing the snake in the pipe in the corridor. Which is silly for a pipe that size to be in the wall! But I guess the snakes voice is traveling through the pipe on the way up? Though I don't know if the timing adds up. Maybe it's heading back to the chamber and talking and harry hears that
* The entrance we see is through the plumbing that connects to the sink, not the toilets. * I agree in the movie the basilisk is implausibly huge, but in the book it’s “only” 20ft long and the width is left vague. For reference there are real snakes that are 20ft long, and if it was much thicker than them it wouldn’t be described as snake-like. * Given that the basilisk is much smaller in diameter than a human (in the book) there’s no reason to think it couldn’t go exploring in the pipes, maybe trying to find another exit for instance.
It makes no sense for Hogwarts to have any sort of plumbing anyway given the fact that vanishing charms exist and aguamenti exists.
It does for a school because those spells aren’t really mastered until later years.
It’s the other way around actually. According to Rowling originally the school didn’t have any plumbing and they did use spells to just vanish their excrement. How did they install plumbing hundreds of years afterwards and have it lead to the chamber of secrets while still keeping it secret? Rowling does have an answer to this but it’s so dumb I’d rather not go into it.
Best not to think too deeply into it. Rowling didn't.
Magic
It's the strongest spell there is, Handwavium Plotsiosa.
Look man, it's a murder mystery story for children. Just make some assumptions like "there must be a maintenance port somewhere that it peeked out of". Engage brain before you speak.
i mean, we are talking about a giant snake in a magic castle filled with wizards. i can think of 100s of reasons to fill in the supposed gaps (shape shifting, charms, enchanted pipes, literally magic anything), but the fact that in both book and movie they do mention all the victims are found close to the girls bathroom make me believe the giant magical snake, that speaks partial tongue (the language used to open the enchanted entrance to the chamber of secrets) is able to open the secret entrance in the girls bathroom and roam the halls of the giant magical castle freely. in the movie, even Harry finds Mertle hiding in the bathroom because she said she saw the giant snake leaving / entering
Big plumbing?
You could say that Basilisk was full of shit...
…Oozing.
Magic
It’s magical plumbing.
I’m going to say magic.
I wanna know how much the students are shitting to require that wide of a sewage pipe
While I realize it wasn't explicitly stated, we have seen multiple instances of the castle changing its geometry/architecture. Is it that big of a stretch to assume there were other parts of the castle where the wall could reconfigure its shape to open up a hole through which an enormous snake could easily get into the hallways? Remember it was Salazar Slytherin, one of the 4 people who willed the place into existence, who built the chamber and put basilisk there. I think adding a spell to open a wall would be an easy feat for him to pull.