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Why Couldn't Harry Potter Control the Basilisk?

Why Couldn't Harry Potter Control the Basilisk?
Image credit: Legion-Media

Fans have found an enormous plot hole in a J. K. Rowling book.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is undoubtedly one of the best Harry Potter books, with a brooding atmosphere of horror and ancient secrets that makes it a thrilling read.

Why Couldn't Harry Potter Control the Basilisk? - image 1

The Basilisk, hidden in a secret chamber beneath Hogwarts, lives again, fulfilling its goal of killing all the Muggle-born wizards at the school, thanks to Ginny Weasley, who is being controlled by none other than Lord Voldemort himself.

When Ginny takes possession of the diary that served as Voldemort's Horcrux, part of the villain's soul gets trapped in the girl, causing her to write frightening messages on the walls and open the Chamber of Secrets.

But how does Ginny control the Basilisk? According to the Harry Potter lore, a Basilisk can only be controlled by the true heir of Salazar Slytherin, and that would be Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort. Part of his soul possessed Ginny through the diary, making her a partial heir to Salazar and allowing her to control the monster.

Fans always loved how Rowling made an innocent girl into a puppet villain, but one question has been bugging them all these years: how come Harry Potter has no power over the Basilisk?

The answer may seem obvious – Harry Potter is not Salazar's heir, so the monster doesn't obey him. But every Potter fan who has read the books knows that Harry himself is a Horcrux, with part of Riddle's soul embedded in him. So why couldn't Harry have just ordered the Basilisk to stop its murders?

Fans haven't been able to come up with a good answer to this question, with many believing that it simply never occurred to Harry, given his tender age and his limited knowledge about Lord Voldemort at the time. Others say it's a huge plot hole and that the Basilisk could never have attacked Harry as one of the Horcruxes.

If Voldemort didn't want to kill himself in the process, why did he lure Harry into the Basilisk's lair in the first place? That's an even more difficult question to answer, isn't it? And it seems like it will forever remain a mystery.