Basilisk

Basilisk
Name	Basilisk King of Serpents
Originated	Greece
Lifespan	Up to 1000 years
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast (XXXXX)
Book information
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Last appearance	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

"[..] 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 "

— Description of a Basilisk

The Basilisk is a creature in the Harry Potter book series and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The beast is a giant serpent bred by hatching a chicken egg under a toad. It is a Dark creature which will petrify or kill anyone that looks into their eyes. It is a known wizard-killer but it is controlled by a person who speaks Parseltongue. The breeding of a Basilisk is banned.

About

Appearance

Hatching of a Basilisk egg

Basilisks are brilliant green serpents with thin sabre-looking, poisonous fangs and large yellow eyes. They have skin that feels thick like oak. They grow up to fifty feet in length. The female Basilisk does not have a scarlet plume upon their heads. A shedded Basilisk skin is a vivid, poisonous green.

Life

A Basilisk is hatched by putting a chicken egg under a toad. They have a very long lifespan and can live up to a thousand years if they have a good supply of food. They will eat vertebrates, including humans, very easily. Their long lifespan is possible because of their ability to enter a form of suspended animation with the use of Parseltongue that prevents ageing. Their skin, which will shed in intervals, is able to deflect spells which implies it has tough skin like a dragon.

Power

Petrified victims in Hospital Wing

Looking into eyes of Basilisks will result in death. If they are viewed through a reflection, they cause petrification. Basilisks speak in their own language called Parseltongue. The crowing of a rooster is fatal to a Basilisk, but spiders fear it and they flee in the presence of one. Even an Acromantula will not speak its name.

If they are photographed with a camera, the film completely melts. Unlike living creatures, a ghost is Petrified instead of killed if they look directly into a Basilisk's eyes because they are already dead. A Mandrake Restorative Draught reverses petrification. If a Basilisk's eyes are damaged, it is incapable of using its gaze to hurt or kill. A Basilisk is dangerous to anyone who can't speak Parseltongue, so it is very rare for anyone to breed such a creature because it is uncontrollable.

Eye of a Basilisk

Basilisk venom is in their fangs and it is is very poisonous substance. The venom will kill in less than one minute after inducing drowsiness and blurred vision in the victim. The only known cure is the tears of a phoenix. It is also one of the only foolproof ways of destroying a Horcrux. The venom stays potent for at least up to five years.

History

Herpo the Foul, a Dark wizard who lived in Greece, was the first to produce a Basilisk. A Parselmouth, he had carried out a lot of experimentation until he eventually worked out that if he put a chicken egg under a toad, a Basilisk will hatch. Herpo's Basilisk is the first ever recorded and is thought to have lived for nearly nine hundred years.

Basilisk breeding was banned in medieval times. At the Ministry of Magic, any such breeding is watched by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. However, trying to catch them is difficult because it is very easy to conceal by taking the egg out from under the toad whenever the department carried out a routine check.

According to Newton Scamander in his book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, there hasn't been a recorded sighting of a Basilisk for four hundred years. The book was first published in 1927, which puts this sighting in the 1500s. However, the newer editions of the book do not change this despite the discovery of the Serpent of Slytherin.

Serpent of Slytherin

Harry Potter slaying the Serpent of Slytherin

Salazar Slytherin hatched a Basilisk and put it in the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts School. It would answer to no-one but an Heir of Slytherin and it's purpose was to purge the school of Muggle-born students.

It was first unleashed nearly a thousand years later. It killed a student but Rubeus Hagrid and Aragog were thought to be responsible instead and Tom Riddle closed the Chamber of Secrets. In 1992 to 1993, it was unleashed again by Ginny Weasley who was possessed by Tom Riddle's Diary. Harry was the only person who was able to hear it. Mrs Norris saw it's reflection, and Colin Creevey saw it through the lens of a camera at the foot of the Hospital Wing stairs. It later added two new victims: Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington and Justin Finch-Fletchley.

In April, Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater saw it through a mirror. Hermione had researched in the Hogwarts library and deduced it was a Basilisk. Harry and Ron later found a piece of paper in her hand about it and Harry deduced he was able to hear and understand it because it was speaking Parseltongue. In May, Harry killed it using the Sword of Gryffindor and closed the Chamber of Secrets forever.

The skeleton of the Basilisk continued to lie in the Chamber of Secrets for at least five years. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione took its fangs because its poison is still potent enough to destroy Horcruxes.

Trivia

The skull of a Basilisk

• It is known for being a wizard-bred creature and since it was banned in medieval times because it was a dangerous creature, it probably fell under the Ban on Experimental Breeding.
• Igor Karkaoff once told a story about how a paranoid Mad-Eye thought a birthday present was a Basilisk egg and broke it into pieces, until he saw it was a carriage clock.
• In a version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, next to a piece about how the last recorded sighting of a Basilisk was four hundred years ago, Harry Potter writes "that's what you think".