Ele não era o único que sabia da Câmara ...
É verdade que a Câmara não foi fácil de encontrar e que Riddle, um indivíduo extraordinário, teve dificuldade em encontrá-la:
It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance...as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!
—Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
No entanto, por muitos séculos, os herdeiros da Sonserina sabiam da Câmara. :
The existence of the Chamber was known to Slytherin’s descendants and those with whom they chose to share the information. Thus the rumour stayed alive through the centuries.
Nem ele foi o único que abriu
As nobody else could hear the creature sliding beneath floorboards or, latterly, through the plumbing....
Isso implica que as gerações anteriores de Gaunts deixaram o basilisco fora, mas não estavam dispostos a dar o passo final de cometer assassinato com ele.
Além disso, Rowling declara explicitamente:
Em outras palavras, dado que o encanamento em Hogwarts é superior ao que os trouxas tinham na época em que foi construído, e dado que magos estão tecnologicamente por trás dos trouxas, em algum momento a entrada da Câmara deve ter sido modificada, WoG) implica que os herdeiros queriam acesso contínuo à Câmara.There is clear evidence that the Chamber was opened more than once between the death of Slytherin and the entrance of Tom Riddle in the twentieth century. When first created, the Chamber was accessed through a concealed trapdoor and a series of magical tunnels. However, when Hogwarts’ plumbing became more elaborate in the eighteenth century (this was a rare instance of wizards copying Muggles, because hitherto they simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence), the entrance to the Chamber was threatened, being located on the site of a proposed bathroom. The presence in school at the time of a student called Corvinus Gaunt – direct descendant of Slytherin, and antecedent of Tom Riddle – explains how the simple trapdoor was secretly protected, so that those who knew how could still access the entrance to the Chamber even after newfangled plumbing had been placed on top of it.
Mas ele foi o único que usou o basilisco
Whispers that a monster lived in the depths of the castle were also prevalent for centuries. Again, this is because those who could hear and speak to it were not always as discreet as they might have been: the Gaunt family could not resist boasting of their knowledge. As nobody else could hear the creature sliding beneath floorboards or, latterly, through the plumbing, they did not have many believers, and none, until Riddle dared unleash the monster on the castle.
Se ninguém acreditou nas histórias contadas pelos Gaunts até que Riddle desencadeou o basilisco, esta é uma implicação definitiva de que esta foi a primeira vez que o basilisco foi usado como Slytherin pretendia - matar os nascidos-trouxas. A palavra "ousada" também implicava que Riddle era o primeiro.