Hey everyone
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’ll be discussing
a moment in the series when Harry and the horcrux inside of him face possible destruction.
After the Chamber of Secrets, a lot of fans were left asking themselves “Why wasn’t
the horcrux inside of Harry destroyed after he was bitten by the basilisk?”. This is
a very reasonable question for people to ask- especially as basilisk’s venom is one of
the confirmed known ways to destroy a Horcrux. If Basilisk’s venom destroys Horcruxes,
and Harry has a horcrux inside of him then- why wasn’t it destroyed? I made a very old
and brief video on this in the past but a lot of people have been asking me this question
lately, so I thought I’d add some information and do a better job of it.
As we know, in The Chamber of Secrets, Harry is in possession of Tom Riddle’s diary,
the same diary that Harry uses to source information about the fabled chamber. When he finally
finds the entrance to the Chamber, he speaks parseltongue and opens it up- then he’s
faced with a couple of things:
A memory of Tom riddle, preserved by the diary.
And next- a gigantic basilisk , aka the serpent of slytherin- a creature placed there by Salazar
Slytherin himself, one of the four founders of Hogwarts. The Basilisk was originally placed
there to rid the school of all muggle-borns, and could only be controlled by the rightful
heir of slytherin, who we know to be Tom Riddle. It’s worth mentioning that even though Harry
could speak to the basilisk with Parseltongue, he had no control over it.
Throughout the chamber of secrets we see Hogwarts students drop off like flies, this is because
the Basilisk is on the loose. When victims were found, they were most commonly in a petrified
state- turned to stone- similar to the victims of Medusa. When the basilisk looks at you
directly, it’s suggested that it would kill you instantly, however- if you look at the
basilisk indirectly, it only petrifies you.
When Harry becomes aware of the capabilities of the Basilisk’s gaze, he’s more disoriented
than ever, and simply runs away from it with no real plan. Fortunately, Fawkes, Dumbledore’s
Phoenix, intervenes and claws the Basilisk’s eyes out. This blinds the basilisk, and makes
things much easier for Harry.
However, just because the basilisk is no longer able to see, it certainly doesn’t suddenly
mean that it isn’t lethal. It’s still a GIANT serpentine creature with sharp teeth
and a killer instinct. It can hurt Harry in other ways. However, knowing that the basilisk
is blind gives Harry just enough confidence to begin fighting back.
After lots of running around aimlessly, Harry is unfathomably lucky once again as he is
able to retrieve the sword of Gryffindor from the sorting hat. It is said that a ‘true,
worthy gryffindor’ is capable of pulling the sword from the hat, and Harry fits this
criteria beautifully. After some back and forth with the basilisk, Harry lures it up
to the top of the statue of slytherin, where he slashes ferociously. When the basilisk
lunges at Harry for the first time, Harry is knocked over, but when the basilisk goes
in for a second lunge, her face is met with the Sword of Gryffindor- as Harry stabs her
through the roof of the mouth. This effectively puts an end to the basilisk, but Harry doesn’t
escape unscathed- as one of the Basilisk’s fangs pierced his arm. This is where fans
have historically been a bit confused.
Now, we know basilisks fangs quite well in the books/films, and that’s because they’re
capable of destroying horcruxes, or at least the venom inside of them is. Harry even later
uses the sword of Gryffindor to destroy several of the other horcruxes, BECAUSE it was imbued
with the basilisk’s venom. So, if Harry has a horcrux inside of him, and he was inflicted
with Basilisk’s venom, why was the Horcrux still intact?
When Harry yanked the fang out of his arm, he knew that he had been wounded by the venom,
and felt the poison spreading. However, fortunately for Harry, he’s a very lucky boy once again,
as Fawkes’ was still present, and saved Harry’s life just in time with his tears.
The tears of a phoenix are said to possess immense healing capabilities, including but
not limited to healing wounds from those who have been inflicted with basilisks venom.
In fact, the tears are SO POWERFUL that they can even revive people who are at the brink
of death, as Harry was.
So, Harry’s life was saved- but, in almost all of the cases of the other Horcruxes, they
were destroyed as soon as they made contact with Basilisk’s venom. So, how did it remain
inside of Harry unscathed?
Here’s the thing we need to remember: in order for a horcrux to be destroyed, the ‘container’
itself needs to be destroyed beyond magical repair, and in this case, Harry was the ‘container’.
JK Rowling has stated herself that because Harry was technically not ‘beyond repair’,
the Horcrux remained safe. In order for the basilisks venom to have been successful in
penetrating the Horcrux, Harry would have needed to die. But- Fawkes of course saved
the day, and possibly the wizarding world.
And that’s it for this video, I hope you learned something. If you enjoyed it, please
be sure to like the video and subscribe to support the channel.
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY