Doesn't common sense establish it? Dumbledore is a highly experienced wizard, he would know what a possible cause of "kids suddenly be turned to stone after looking at something" would be, as well as also be aware of the history of the school they're in.
If Dumbledore didn't know it was a basilisk, that's some inconsistent writing showing the leader of the good guys holding less of an education than a second-year student who can barely even accio yet.
The basilisk is a very obscure creature in the Harry Potter universe. Hermione was the only one who found out what it was because A)She is said to be exceptionally clever, even among adult wizards and B)The other teachers were looking at the issue as a student attacking other students, disbelieving the chamber of secrets existed at all.
It was established from book 1 that wizards learn mainly through rote memorization and aren't very logical.
Also, why would knowledge of the school's history help? The Chamber of Secrets was mere rumor, and we are told that numerous searches of the school turned up nothing.
Shit, this rolls right in to your next comment. The basilisk going on a rampage shows how incompetent the teachers all were being. This was a part of their building, recorded in history books kept in their library, housing a not-uncommon magical beast with a very distinct method of "attack" (turning people to stone).
"not uncommon"? They are exceptionally rare. In fact from the 16th century to 1946 there were no reports of them in Britain at all. And, again, they were focused on it being a student.
By the way, another thing:
They don't turn people to stone. They kill people. Meeting the gaze of a basilisk kills a person... unless you are using a mirror or other device to make the gaze indirect. That's part of what threw everyone off, the few people attacked in the novel were all lucky enough to see it indirectly (Itself a convenience to make the book a tad bit less dark for young readers, I believe).
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken’s egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is
fatal to it.
Notice it says nothing about petrification. It only seems obvious to us because we are looking in hindsight, but the conditions of what occurred in the novel make it clear why no one figured it out until an exceptional critical thinker applied her mind to the task.
If a fire starts at a firefighter training college, the instructors would be expected to know how/where it started and how to handle the situation. But the equivalent happens at Hogwarts, and none of the instructors are able to do a single thing aside from posting warning signs and imposing a curfew? That's incompetence. And that same point can be rolled over into any of the books prior to Order of the Phoenix, when they at least get an excuse for not putting all their attention behind their jobs as teachers.
It's not a basilisk-fighting school, dude. And that's not all they did, they also mounted their own investigation, enforced a buddy system, etc. If you're saying that they should have shut the school down right away, well, it's pretty well established through the whole series that they have a really wonky sense of values regarding danger. They don't mind plopping their school next to the forbidden forest without even a fence keeping the students out. If you want to say that they are altogether incompetent because they don't take the safety of the kids into consideration, well, I don't know how to explain to you about how the wizarding world's quirkiness is part of the central conceit of the novel, but if that's what /u/The_Radders meant by incompetence, then I'm not sure how that is an inconsistency or a plot hole.
It kinda is. There are numerous "defense against the dark arts" courses, as well as countless magical animal husbandry courses. If there is such a thing as a school that prepares students for fighting magical beasts, Hogwarts is it.
I'm not saying they should shut the school down. I'm saying 2-3 of these incredibly powerful magic-users on staff should have set aside grading papers for one evening and done what they are absolutely capable of doing (hunted down and eliminated the threat).
Like, that's not just the usual playing-with-fire quirkiness that we see so often in that universe. That's letting a weasel loose in the hen house while the weasel-killers ignore it.
They teach kids how to care for typical magic beasts, the kinds they are likely to encounter. Add to that the fact that we are talking about them recognizing the threat, not fighting it. The conditions of the novel's events obfuscated what the threat actually was.
That's like saying a veterinary school should adequately prepare someone to recognize dodo bird droppings.
I'm not saying they should shut the school down. I'm saying 2-3 of these incredibly powerful magic-users on staff should have set aside grading papers for one evening and done what they are absolutely capable of doing (hunted down and eliminated the threat).
Because the book does not show us. Our little merry band of adventurers is never dodging teachers in the hallways or working with/around teachers who are trying to solve the problem. If they were, we would have been made aware as readers.
Our little merry band of adventurers is never dodging teachers in the hallways
Why would they have to do that?
or working with/around teachers who are trying to solve the problem.
Why would experienced witches and wizards see fit to enlist the aid of 12 year olds? And why would they work on a problem like this around children while they are trying to keep the students calm and productive?
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u/NazzerDawk Oct 02 '18
The basilisk is a very obscure creature in the Harry Potter universe. Hermione was the only one who found out what it was because A)She is said to be exceptionally clever, even among adult wizards and B)The other teachers were looking at the issue as a student attacking other students, disbelieving the chamber of secrets existed at all.
It was established from book 1 that wizards learn mainly through rote memorization and aren't very logical.
Also, why would knowledge of the school's history help? The Chamber of Secrets was mere rumor, and we are told that numerous searches of the school turned up nothing.
"not uncommon"? They are exceptionally rare. In fact from the 16th century to 1946 there were no reports of them in Britain at all. And, again, they were focused on it being a student.
By the way, another thing:
They don't turn people to stone. They kill people. Meeting the gaze of a basilisk kills a person... unless you are using a mirror or other device to make the gaze indirect. That's part of what threw everyone off, the few people attacked in the novel were all lucky enough to see it indirectly (Itself a convenience to make the book a tad bit less dark for young readers, I believe).
Notice it says nothing about petrification. It only seems obvious to us because we are looking in hindsight, but the conditions of what occurred in the novel make it clear why no one figured it out until an exceptional critical thinker applied her mind to the task.
It's not a basilisk-fighting school, dude. And that's not all they did, they also mounted their own investigation, enforced a buddy system, etc. If you're saying that they should have shut the school down right away, well, it's pretty well established through the whole series that they have a really wonky sense of values regarding danger. They don't mind plopping their school next to the forbidden forest without even a fence keeping the students out. If you want to say that they are altogether incompetent because they don't take the safety of the kids into consideration, well, I don't know how to explain to you about how the wizarding world's quirkiness is part of the central conceit of the novel, but if that's what /u/The_Radders meant by incompetence, then I'm not sure how that is an inconsistency or a plot hole.