Basilisk's death
The death of the Basilisk marks the violent climax of the Chamber of Secrets crisis, the moment when the ancient horror that had been petrifying students and threatening the very existence of Hogwarts is finally destroyed. It is a battle fought in darkness, guided by a phoenix and a magical hat, and it resolves the central mystery of the year while simultaneously confirming the deepest truths about Harry Potter's character and his connection to Lord Voldemort.
The Nature of the Beast
The Basilisk, known as the King of Serpents, is a creature of immense and terrible power, born from a chicken's egg hatched beneath a toad. As Hermione Granger's research revealed, it can reach gigantic size and live for many hundreds of years. Its primary weapon is its murderous stare: all who are fixed with the beam of its eye suffer instant death. This explains the pattern of attacks at Hogwarts, where no one died because no one looked it directly in the eye. Colin Creevey saw it through his camera, which was burned by the basilisk's gaze, leaving him Petrified. Justin Finch-Fletchley saw it through the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick, who took the full blast of the stare but could not die again. Hermione and Penelope Clearwater were saved by a mirror, which Hermione had realized was the only safe way to look around corners. Even Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was only Petrified because she saw the basilisk's reflection in the water flooding from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The basilisk's other weakness, as Harry read aloud from Hermione's page, is the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. This explained why Hagrid's roosters had been killed: the Heir of Slytherin did not want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened. Furthermore, spiders flee before the basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, a fact that led Harry and Ron to the giant spider Aragog in the Forbidden Forest.
The basilisk's origin is as unnatural as its powers. Aragog, the giant Acromantula, revealed that he himself was not born in the castle but came from a distant land, given to Hagrid as an egg. He was blamed for the death of a girl, but he never harmed a human, out of respect for Hagrid. The creature that lives in the castle, Aragog explained, is an ancient creature that spiders fear above all others, a beast so dreadful that even the spiders refuse to name it. This unnamed horror, the basilisk, had been dwelling in the Chamber of Secrets for centuries, waiting for the Heir of Slytherin to call it forth.
The Battle in the Chamber
Harry's confrontation with the basilisk occurs in the deepest chamber of Hogwarts, a long, dimly lit hall with towering stone pillars entwined with carved serpents. After Tom Riddle, the memory preserved in the diary, reveals his true identity as Lord Voldemort and commands the basilisk to kill Harry, the giant serpent emerges from the mouth of the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Harry, with his eyes tightly shut to avoid the fatal stare, is forced to flee blindly. He trips and falls, tasting blood, as the serpent closes in. Just as death seems certain, Fawkes the phoenix arrives, swooping around the basilisk's head and jabbing at its eyes with his golden beak, blinding the creature. Blood streams from the serpent's ruined eyes, and it thrashes wildly, spitting in agony. In the chaos, the basilisk's tail sweeps the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. With no other weapon, Harry rammed the hat onto his head and threw himself flat on the floor, desperately thinking, "Help me — help me — Please help me." In response, the hat contracts, and a gleaming silver sword appears inside it, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs. This is the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, a weapon that only a true Gryffindor could pull from the hat.
Armed with the sword, Harry rises to his feet. The blinded basilisk lunges at him, its forked tongue lashing his side. As it lunges again, its aim true, Harry throws his whole weight behind the sword and drives it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth. Warm blood drenches Harry's arms, but he feels a searing pain just above his elbow: one long, poisonous fang sinks deeper and deeper into his arm and splinters as the basilisk keels over sideways and falls, twitching, to the floor. The great serpent is dead, but Harry is poisoned, and he slides down the wall, knowing it is too late. He grips the fang and wrenches it out of his arm, but white-hot pain spreads through his body, and his vision goes foggy. It is only the tears of Fawkes, which have healing powers, that save him, as the phoenix lays its head on the wound and weeps, curing Harry of the basilisk's venom.
The Aftermath and Significance
The death of the basilisk has immediate and far-reaching consequences. With the serpent slain, Harry is able to destroy Tom Riddle's diary by plunging the basilisk fang into its heart, causing the memory of the young Voldemort to writhe and scream before vanishing. This act frees Ginny Weasley, who had been possessed by the diary and forced to open the Chamber, and it ends the attacks on the school. The basilisk's body, a vast, poisonous green serpent thick as an oak trunk, lies motionless in the Chamber, a testament to the battle that was fought. Harry, with the help of Fawkes, carries Ginny, Ron, and the memory-wiped Gilderoy Lockhart back up through the pipes to safety.
The basilisk's death also serves as the ultimate proof of Harry's character. When Dumbledore later explains that the Sorting Hat placed Harry in Gryffindor because he asked not to go to Slytherin, he points to the sword as evidence. "Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry," Dumbledore says. The sword, engraved with the name Godric Gryffindor, is a physical manifestation of Harry's choice and his loyalty, distinguishing him from Tom Riddle, who was also a Parselmouth and possessed many of the qualities Slytherin prized. The basilisk, the monster that was supposed to purge the school of all who were unworthy, is instead destroyed by the very boy it was meant to kill, and its death marks the end of the Chamber of Secrets as a threat, allowing Hogwarts to return to normal and the Petrified victims to be revived with the Mandrake Restorative Draught.
