obsessing and worried by the basilisk, even though they knew intellectually it was a silly idea

I had a similar but much lesser reaction (mildly disquieting) to the portrait of Hell given in the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I found the portrait had strong immediate emotional impact. Good writing.

More strangely, even though I always had considered the probability that Hell exists as ludicrously tiny, it felt like that probability increased from the "evidence" of a fictional story.

Likely all sorts of biases involved, but is there one for strong emotions increasing assigned probability?