#It’s not clear exactly how they work, but they cause instant death.
It’s not clear exactly how they work, but they cause instant death.
In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it’s stated that looking directly into a basilisk’s eyes causes instant death. However, it’s not said how looking into the basilisk’s eyes kills.
“It has exceptionally venomous fangs but its most dangerous means of attack is the gaze of its large yellow eyes. Anyone looking directly into these will suffer instant death.”
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
When Myrtle describes how she died, she said she saw yellow eyes, seized up, and then was floating away (so she was dead right after seizing up). It was very quick.
“So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then –’ Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining, ‘I died.’
‘How?’ said Harry.
‘No idea,’ said Myrtle in hushed tones. ‘I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away …’ She looked dreamily at Harry. ‘And then I came back again.”
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 16 (The Chamber of Secrets)
We don’t know what her body looked like, so we don’t know what damage looking into the basilisk’s eyes caused but ‘seizing up’ almost sounds like she’d been something like Petrified, but in a strong enough way to actually kill. This would fit with how people who see its eyes indirectly get Petrified but not killed, but there’s no confirmation that this actually is how it works.
