Would wearing an Invisibility Cloak block the gaze of a Basilisk?

Question

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the gaze of the Basilisk is described as lethal (as most of us already know):

[The Basilisk] 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 - pages 3-4 - Scholastic - An A-Z of Fantastic Beasts}

To quickly review, Mrs. Norris survived the Basilisk by seeing its reflection in standing water and was petrified, not killed. Colin Creevey survived because he was looking through the viewfinder of his camera when the Basilisk came along, and he was also petrified instead of being killed. Nearly Headless Nick was already a ghost when he saw the Basilisk; it's impossible to die twice so Nick was merely petrified. Justin Finch-Fletchley saw the Basilisk through the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick and was petrified, not killed. Hermione saw the reflection of the Basilisk in her hand mirror and was petrified, not killed.

Does the gaze between a potential victim and a Basilisk have to be mutual in order for death to occur? In the case of an Invisibility Cloak, the wearer would be able to see the gaze of the Basilisk, but the Basilisk, ostensibly, should not be able to see the gaze of the Invisibility Cloak wearer because the cloak wearer is hidden from view.

Would an Invisibility Cloak block death from the gaze of a Basilisk like some of the above items did?

Answer 1

In all of the examples it is the victims' direct view of the Basilisk that is being interrupted/disrupted. Assuming that the Cloak of Invisibility is a perfect cloak, then no disruption of the wearers vision occurs. We know that air has substance, and it is insufficient to protect one from the Basilisk, then in the perfect cloak scenario no protection would be offered and the wearer would die.

In the book version of the universe I do not recall any distortion of vision, so I presume the perfect cloak scenario, leads to death from the gaze of a Basilisk.

In the movie version of the universe, there is clearly distortion. Folds in the cloth are clearly visible from inside the cloak. This is a less than perfect cloak scenario so the gaze of a Basilisk is not fatal. (Notice the books behind Harry, and how folds are clearly visible)

Answer 2

Here's a rather speculative thought: the idea of a basilisk dates back to a time when many people thought sight was an effect of something coming out of the viewer's eyes, not something (light) going into it. In this model, the basilisk emits a beam of some ethereal "substance" - a basilisk death ray, if you will - from its eyes, and death is brought on by having this ray enter your own eyes.

If you look at the circumstances of the petrifications in the book, it's plausible that in each case something disrupted the flow of the basilisk's deadly emission:

• Mrs. Norris: standing water is only a partial reflector, so only part of the basilisk death ray was reflected into Mrs. Norris's eyes
• Colin Creevey: presumably the internals of the camera affect the basilisk's death rays differently than they affect light, and thus only part of the emission made it through (though this seems like a bit of a stretch to me)
• Nearly Headless Nick: well he's a ghost so the reason he didn't die is unrelated
• Justin Finch-Fletchley: it stands to reason that Nearly Headless Nick's incorporeal body is able to refract the basilisk's death rays, just as it must necessarily refract light in order to be visible at all
• Hermione: I think one would have to assume the mirror is only a partial reflector of basilisk death rays

Now, if this model holds, in order for the HP universe to be internally consistent, an invisibility cloak would have to work by "rerouting" observers' eye beams around the person under the cloak. Of course a basilisk's eye beam is "stronger" in some sense than a person's, and thus might be more difficult to deflect. Still, the simplest conclusion seems to be that if magic treats sight as being caused by some emanation from the eyes of the viewer, an invisibility cloak will protect you from a basilisk's glare.

Incidentally, this does explain the glasses thing because eyeglasses are meant to focus light, and it's quite plausible that they would do the same to a basilisk death ray. (But then again you could say the same about a camera, so who knows.)

There's nothing that I can think of in the books to conclusively show that the HP universe uses this model of sight, though. Without that, I'm not sure it's possible to come to a conclusive answer.

Answer 3

I think that it would completely override the stare of a basilisk. If you think about Harry’s cloak specifically, it is said to hide one from death itself, so either death couldn’t “collect” or if death can’t find you a basilisk certainly wouldn’t be able to.