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human
[Harry Potter] What was the point of the Chamber of Secrets? What did Slytherin do when he went down there?

I know there’s a monster in it, but what the hell was the use of the room itself? Did Slytherin just hang out down there with his basilisk? It’s just a big empty room with a statue at the back, did it function like the room of requirement at one time?
gpt
The room is a treasure vault / worthiness test. Its job is to keep the treasure of the Basilisk safe until someone worthy of it (a parsel tongue who wants to use that power to advance Slytherin’s goal) comes for it. 

The Basilisk is extremely dangerous but so are the teachers and advanced students of Hogwarts. Without a safe place for the basilisk to hide, the staff would kill it. Probably the same if it wasn’t made as the central hub of the piping, allowing it to move undetected until it attacks. So it’s also something of a secret base designed to hide the attackers. Every time it comes into the open, it risks someone destroying it instead of the other way around. 

It’s also very much in the vein of Dumbledore’s trick with the Mirror of Erised. Only the right sort of person can get the treasure of the basilisk. They must speak parsel tongue. They must have enough skill to control the Basilisk and not be eaten instead. And they have to be looking for it, they can’t just stumble on it, because you have to command the magic to get in. And you probably need a clue to start, which is difficult to get. 

Harry’s clue is that the Basilisk is always associated with water and that the only murder victim died in a bathroom and she heard a boy talking in it. That’s what lets him find it. Essentially he tracked Voldemort to it. Voldemort had to find out another way.  Which no one before him did. So there’s a good chance that you have to be interested in what Voldemort was interested in to find the clues to the entrance. So dark arts. Slytherin history. Family lineages. The history of the castle itself. All of that winnows the worthy down until it’s only the extremely rare person who can find it. Only someone with Slytherin’s interests, lineage, and power. 

That significantly helps to make sure that the Basilisk will be used exactly the way that Slytherin wanted it used.