Han var inte den enda som kände till kammaren ...
Det var sant att kammaren inte var lätt att hitta, och att Riddle, en extraordinär person, hade svårt att hitta det:
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
Slytherins arvingar har emellertid i många århundraden känt till kammaren :
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.
Inte heller var han den enda som öppnade den
As nobody else could hear the creature sliding beneath floorboards or, latterly, through the plumbing....
Detta innebär att tidigare generationer Gaunts hade låt basilisken ut, men hade varit ovillig att ta det sista steget att begå mord med det.
Vidare anger Rowling det explicit:
Med andra ord, med tanke på att VVS i Hogwarts är överlägsen vad Muggles hade vid den tidpunkt då den byggdes, och med tanke på att trollkarlarna är tekniskt bakom Muggles, måste kammaren ingången ha ändrats, vilket enligt WoG) innebär att arvingarna ville ha fortsatt tillgång till kammaren.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.
Men han var den enda som använde basilisken
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.
Om ingen trodde de historier som Gaunts berättade för att Riddle släppte ut den basiliska, är det en bestämd implikation att detta var första gången den basiliska användes som Slytherin hade tänkt att döda Muggle-borns. Ordet "vågade" innebar också att Riddle var den första.