Basilisk (Harry Potter)

"Kill... time to kill... soo hungry... for so long. I SMELL BLOOD! I SMELL BLOOD!"

- The Basilisk speaks in Parsletongue, heard only by Tom Riddle and Harry Potter.

The Basilisk is a serpentine monster that made an appearance as the secondary main antagonist in ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. ''It lived in the Chamber of Secrets until Ginny Weasley (possessed by part of Tom Riddle contained in Riddle's Diary) opened the Chamber of Secrets. The Basilisk escaped inside the school and petrified a few people - Mrs. Norris, Colin Creevey, Justin Fletch Fletchly, Nearly Headless Nick, Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater - who witnessed the monster and did not make direct eye contact. The Basilisk comes from a magical but deadly species of the same name and the creatures from that same race were bred by Dark Wizards, including the first person who bred his own known as Herpo the Foul, and one of the four Founders of Hogwarts School known as Salazar Slytherin.

Ancient History
The first Basilisk was created in ancient Greece by Herpo the Foul and was one of the first examples of the Dark Arts and was considered highly inhumane and illegal to breed. The Basilisk was considered the enemy of almost everything, the enemy of humans, spiders, and roosters. The Basilisk was especially feared by spiders, with them even fearing to name it, presumably because of their eight-eye vision which would render them vulnerable to paralysis.

The Medieval Period
There were no recorded sightings of Basilisks, but Slytherin himself bred a Basilisk deep within Hogwarts castle, marking the beginning of the Basilisk's reign of terror in the school. The Basilisk lived for two hundred years, unless killed, and it posed a serious threat, which would be seen in the twentieth century.

Modern Period
The beast was summoned up by Slytherin's Heir, Tom Marvolo Riddle, in 1943, to continue its original purpose and purge Hogwarts of those "unworthy to attend" (Muggle-borns). It went on a killing spree, sending the school into a panic and threatening its closure. To prevent his beloved Hogwarts from closing, Riddle called off the snake and framed Rubeus Hagrid and his illegal pet, Aragog  the Acromantula, as the ones responsible. The Basilisk was sent to slumber once more within the recesses of the Chamber.

Fifty years later, the monster was woken once more to finish the job after Riddle's shade from the diary possessed Ginny Weasley and used her to open the Chamber of Secrets. The school roosters were killed by Ginny to prevent them from interfering with the Basilisk's mission, and attacks on many students (as well as Filch's cat and one of the school ghosts) sprung up. Several signs pointed to the Basilisk as the culprit, with most victims petrified, the roosters dead, spiders fleeing from the school, and Harry Potter hearing threatening voices within the walls (as it used the plumbing system to travel from place to place). Harry was thought to be responsible for the rerelease of Slytherin's Monster event because he was a Parselmouth, an ability shared by Voldemort and the great Salazar Slytherin. When Hermione Granger became petrified everyone started to think otherwise because she was one of Harry's best friends. Harry and Ron went to the spider Aragog, who told them that it was not he who was the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, and informed them of the "unspeakable horror" living in the depths of the school. Harry and Ron then visited Moaning Myrtle, who was actually the girl that the Basilisk had killed the first time that it was let out of the Chamber. She told them that she had seen a pair of "great yellow eyes" beside one of the sinks in the girls' lavatory.

Harry and Ron investigated and found a small snake engraved on the side of a sink, hinting at the location of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets; Harry figured that he had to speak in Parseltongue in order to access the Chamber portal, which turned out to be a large pipe that led directly under the school and the lake. Harry was able to slay the Basilisk (with help from Fawkes the phoenix and the Sword of Godric Gryffindor) and save Ginny from Tom Riddle, who turned out to be a part of Voldemort's soul encased in the Diary.

Later, in 1998, Ron and Hermione were able to reenter the Chamber of Secrets (with Ron providing a surprisingly good imitation of Parseltongue needed to open the sink) to collect fangs from the Basilisk's corpse, which they used to help Harry destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Known Victims

 * 1) Several unknown students attending Hogwarts in 1943.
 * 2) Several unknown students attending Hogwarts in 1992 - 93.
 * 3) Moaning Myrtle (died, became a ghost).
 * 4) Mrs Norris (petrified, restored to health).
 * 5) Colin Creevey (petrified, restored)
 * 6) Nearly Headless Nick (petrified, restored though already a ghost).
 * 7) Justin Finch-Fletchley (petrified, restored).
 * 8) Penelope Clearwater (petrified, restored).
 * 9) Hermione Granger (petrified, restored).

Trivia

 * Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk is female. Male Basilisks have a red plume of feathers on their heads. However, the Lego Basilisk is a male because it does feature the red plume on its head.
 * In the movie, Penelope Clearwater was not shown as a victim of the Basilisk.
 * The basilisk in the movie was a mix between CGI technology and an anamatronic puppet. 20 ft of the creature and the head were build in the studio for close-up shots of the snake.
 * The Basilisk's corpse can be seen inside the Chamber during the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida.
 * In Jimmy Neutron Finbarr Calamitous made a robot based off the Basilisk when Jimmy is playing a Harry Potter based character and Carl playing a character based off of both Quirinus Quirrell and Tom Riddle(with the former being a vessel for Voldemort and the later being an Incarnation of Voldamort).