I thought about this while reading through the books a while back. I get that none of the "living" teachers had been able to find the Chamber of Secrets, since you'd need to know Parseltongue to find it. But how is it that not one of the many ghosts, including a ghost teacher, ever stumbled across it in over 1000 years? They didn't need to "open" anything...
shareWhy would the ghosts be in the girls bathroom in the first place? Except for Moaning Myrtle, who of course died there, but I guess the teachers didn't think the entrance to the chamber was in there. It is one of Hogwarts' many many secrets. Like the Room of Requirements, it was secret to many of the teachers.
shareThat's kind of two dimensional thinking. A living person would need to be in the bathroom to gain access, but a ghost would not need to be in the bathroom. Ghosts pass through walls after all.
The pipe that opens up in the sink goes down to the cave that leads to the chamber. In 1000+ years, no ghost was ever passing through walls or whatever and saw this big pipe with no water flowing through it leading down, and/or never got a little curious as to where it went?
I believe the book says that Myrtle's bathroom was on the first floor, but there were also dungeons bellow the castle. Also, isn't the Great Hall on the first floor as well? And aren't the kitchens bellow as well? At least one classroom is in the dungeons. Ghosts roam the castle, including the dungeons. Wasn't Nick's Deathday Party in the dungeons?
My point is that the ghosts of Hogwarts would not have had to be in the bathroom to find the pipe that leads to the cave that leads to the chamber. And 1000+ years is a long time for all those ghosts to be roaming around and never find this big pipe (the book describes it as being really large).
I'm just saying that it's kind of weird IMO.
Also, "flaw" was probably not the right word to use, I just couldn't think of a better word...
I will point out that the "first floor" is in UK terms, and means "up one staircase", pretty much.
The Great Hall is on the "ground floor" :)
_
How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask, or angry...or ready for dessert
Maybe he was a pervert and liked girls?
shareI get what you're saying; ghosts don't need to find the entrance to the chamber, they just pass through walls to get everywhere. It's a good point, I hadn't thought of that before!
One logical explanation I can come up with is that the chamber is located very deeply into the ground, way under the castle - it's unlikely that any ghost would be wandering around the layers of dirt behind Hogwarts ground to come across the Chamber by accident. Or maybe Slytherin thought of that possibility and made the Chamber undetectable, or something. There's a number of plausible explanations... and it's fun to try to come up with them. :)
That's not a bad idea, as long as it's some kind of magical "bubble" that wraps around the entrance, the pipe, the cave and the chamber, and only opens up when the sink is opened up. And maybe when a ghost is "passing through" any of these areas, they instantly go from one side to the other?
shareGreat question. To me, it seems like the ghosts don't really travel through the walls and pipes. Even if they did discover the pipe that leads to it, they'd probably think of it as just another pipe. Keep in mind the chamber is below the lake, so a ghost finding the pipe that leads to it won't automatically mean the ghost would find it, and in my opinion it would still be unlikely that it would be found.
sharemaybe some ghost did stumble over the pipe. question then becomes, did they know they were looking at the entrance to the chamber of secrets? it's a pipe coming out of a bathroom after all and hardly sporting a sign "this way to the chamber of secrets"
what -is- really weak is that nobody in 50 years bothered to ask myrtle what or who killed her.
I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.share
Just re-watched this last night and that was my exact thought. How did none of the ghosts know there was a hidden chamber.
shareI can't really see many of the ghost diving into the depths under the castle for fun or curiosity. The only exception I can think of might be Moaning Myrtle. She traveled through the pipes-even to the Black Lake and the Prefects Bathroom. The basilisk traveled through the pipes. So it certainly seems possible that myrtle might have ended up in the Chamber by accident.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain (Isaac Asimov)
Why not, there are probably months of time ie Summer when the school is for the most part deserted.. if that was the only place I could roam... I would most definitely check every nook and cranny :)
shareThat's true! After all, in the seventh book, when Luna tells Harry that noone in living memory knew about Ravenclaw's diadem, Harry immediatley thought to go ask the Ravenclaw ghost.
shareI always thought that ghosts had to see the place while they were living, or else the couldn't see it after death.
sharedoesn't jive. Myrtle explored the depths of the lake. she never saw those depths in life-only the surface.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain (Isaac Asimov)
Well, there went my theory! I'll guess again when I come up with something!
I'm not sorry that it's over, but for the way we let it end.
It's a fair question. I assume the ghosts never saw it because to do so, they'd have had to follow the drain down to the cavern to find it, and just never had a reason to do that.
What always did puzzle me, though, was that no one ever thought to ask Myrtle how she died. They find her body, with not a mark on her, and her ghost nearby. And NO ONE, not even Dumbledore, bothered to ask her what killed her? Don't you think that would be one of the first things they'd do?
Here's to the health of Cardinal Puff.
perhaps they did. but I doubt anything important would come out of it. Myrtle say she saw two big yellow eyes and died. not much info there.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain (Isaac Asimov)
Myrtle says in the book that no one ever asked her how she died before the trio did; she was very excited about it. And someone like Dumbledore might very well put the pieces together if she told him what she saw, given the nature of her death (not a mark on her). Just a weird sort of thing for the school authorities to leave out of their investigation.
Here's to the health of Cardinal Puff.
I had never thought of nobody having asked Myrtle how she died before. Very strange indeed that nobody asked her, especially Dumbledore. Or ever her parents themselves, if they were ever there to see her.
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I was just talking to my wife about this and she brought up a really good point. But to really paint the picture:
Hogwarts was built over a thousand years ago. Slytherin left shorty after. He built the "Chamber" before he left.
So here it is, in over a thousand years, NO ONE tried to figure out why the sink in the girls bathroom didn't work?
Now, I can see how it may have stumped people, but SOMEONE must have put a little thought into it, in over a thousand years. At least one person should have noticed that it had a snake on it, and it was the only one with that snake (at least I assume it was the only one with a snake on it).
Slytherin built it and hid it. It probably had a lot of spells put upon it so that it wouldn't be found (after all even Dumbledor couldn't find it).
Slytherin would most likely have included anti-ghost spells.
I just re-read the book, the US version, and it never says that no one ever asked Myrtle about how she died before.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Harry. "What do you want this time?"
"To ask you how you died," said Harry.
Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
Then she just talks about it. She never says anything about having never been asked before.
And someone like Dumbledore might very well put the pieces together if she told him what she saw, given the nature of her death (not a mark on her).