Hogwarts was founded and built about 1,000 years ago by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Slytherin additionally built the Chamber of Secrets beneath the school in secret (pun intended). This is obviously a very large chamber, and its creation would have taken a considerable amount of time and labor. With that in mind, how is it possible that he was able to hide its construction from the other founders?
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3Um........ Magic?– Invisible TrihedronCommented Sep 11, 2021 at 23:48
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@InvisibleTrihedron Care to elaborate?– 1dareu2mov3Commented Sep 11, 2021 at 23:48
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2I don't have the detailed knowledge of the Potterverse that some have. Is there any specific reason to suppose they didn't know? They appear to have deliberately created a school that full of secret rooms. The assumption is that they just allowed him to create it. Or maybe they had an agreement where each could create some secrets, and the others would not try to find o0ut.– PeteCommented Sep 12, 2021 at 0:07
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@Pete Good thinking! My answer below was too straightforward. You're right, the four could have agreed not to watch as Salazar Slytherin performed his work. (By magic.)– Invisible TrihedronCommented Sep 12, 2021 at 0:13
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Imperius curse placed on those building Hogwarts?– SpacePhoenixCommented Sep 12, 2021 at 2:06
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1 Answer
We don't know, but it must have involved magic.
We don't actually know how Hogwarts was built, do we? But four wizards could not have done the job all by themselves without magic, so they must have used magic or supervised laborers, or quite possibly both. One scenario is that the school was raised magically overnight, in which case Salazar Slytherin could have tampered with the spell, or with the instructions to the magical creatures who did the physical labor, in such a way as not to be noticed. Or, if the process were a more protracted one using ordinary workmen and tools, Slytherin could have cast a spell of deception over the others so they would not notice what was happening in front of them. Or, then again, Slytherin could have waited until the foundations were complete, and then created the Chamber of Secrets secretly, again using magic. What does not seem possible is that Slytherin could have pulled the task off secretly without the use of magic, if all four were involved in the construction. Of course, if the others delegated the task of building the foundation to Slytherin, they may not have noticed workmen constructing the Chamber without magic, but it's hard to believe that they would have absented themselves long enough for him to get away with it. So magic was involved in some way, but we don't know how.
answered Sep 12, 2021 at 0:04
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Thanks! That answers my question as best as it possibly could be, so I’ve marked it as correct. Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 19:17