Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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| Harry Potter Books | |
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| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | |
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| Author | J.K. Rowling |
| Illustrator | Cliff Wright (UK), Mary GrandPré (US) |
| Genre | Fantasy, Horror novel |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury (UK), Scholastic (US) |
| Release date | July 2, 1998 (UK), June 2, 1999 (US) |
| Number in series | Two |
| Sales | 14.9 Million (US) (as of December 2006) |
| Dedicated to | "Séan P.F. Harris, getaway driver and foulweather friend" |
| Story timeline | 1943, 1992-1993 |
| Preceded by | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone |
| Followed by | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It is the second book in a series of seven Harry Potter books. The book was published on 2 July 1998. A film was theatrically released in November 2002.
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[edit] Plot summary
While home with Dursleys for the summer, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house elf, who warns him he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts. Harry is determined to return despite Dobby's dire warning. Dobby, seeing that he will have to use force, decides to drop a pudding on the Mrs. Mason's head. Harry is blamed by the Ministry of Magic for Dobby's charm, and is told that if he does Magic outside of school again, he will be expelled. The Dursleys, upon learning that he cannot do magic outside of school, have locked away Harry’s books and wand, and Mr. Dursley screwed on bars to his window, making him a prisoner, but the Weasley brothers (Fred, George and Ron) rescue him in their dad's flying car. After a pleasant summer together, everyone heads to Platform 9¾ to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. But Harry and Ron are unable to enter through the magical barrier between platforms 9 and 10. In desperation, they fly to Hogwarts in the car (although how they enter the wizarding world remains unknown), crashing into the Whomping Willow and damaging Ron's wand. The semi-sentient car ejects them and their belongings and disappears into the Forbidden Forest.
Harry soon finds he is the unwanted center of three people's attention: the vain new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, a wizard perpetuating his own legend; admirer Colin Creevey, a young first year Gryffindor who endlessly takes Harry's photo; and Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley, who has a crush on Harry. Events take a bad turn when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and a monster stalks the castle, which literally petrifies several students. According to legend, the Chamber was built by Salazar Slytherin and can only be opened by his heir to purge Hogwarts of students who are not pure-blood wizards. Many suspect Harry is the heir, especially after he inadvertently speaks Parseltongue (the language of snakes), a rare ability Harry gained after Voldemort's murderous attack when Harry was an infant. Harry, Ron, and Hermione attempt to discover the Heir of Slytherin's true identity. Using Polyjuice Potion brewed by Hermione, they disguise themselves as Slytherin students, Crabbe and Goyle, hoping to learn from Draco Malfoy who the heir is, although he does not know. Unfortunately, Hermione mistakenly adds cat hair instead of human to her potion and assumes a feline appearance, and it takes a little more than a month to restore her normal human appearance.
The attacks increase throughout the year, petrifying students, including Hermione. Most horribly, a message written on a wall declares that a student—Ginny Weasley—has been taken into the Chamber where, "her bones will lie forever."
With Ron's help, Harry discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. They force Gilderoy Lockhart to go with them, but once inside, Ron and Lockhart are separated from Harry by a falling rock. Harry makes it to the Chamber where he finds an unconscious Ginny. He also meets a young man named Tom Riddle, who claims to be a "memory." Harry learns that Ginny, under the control of Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber. Voldemort, whose real name is Tom Riddle, imprinted his memory in an enchanted diary, to one day continue the work he begun when he reopened the Chamber fifty years ago—ridding Hogwarts of non-pureblood wizards. It was Hagrid, a Hogwarts student at the time, who was blamed for the attacks and expelled.
Tom Riddle's memory grows more powerful as it steals life from Ginny's body. It tries to kill Harry by setting loose the Basilisk (the monster responsible for petrifying the students), but Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes arrives carrying the Sorting Hat, from which Harry draws out the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, destroying its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. He stabs the diary with one of the basilisk's fangs, and Riddle's memory is vanquished while Ginny revives from a near-death state. She fully recovers, as do the petrified students.
Harry realizes it was Lucius Malfoy who slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron when he encountered the Weasleys in a Diagon Alley bookshop, but he is unable to prove it. Dobby reveals he is the Malfoys' servant, and knowing their treachery, had been trying to protect Harry all year. In gratitude, Harry wraps the dead diary in one of his socks and hands it to Lucius. He tosses aside the sock, but it is caught by Dobby; it constitutes a gift of clothing—the traditional manner a master frees a house-elf from servitude. The freed Dobby is eternally grateful to Harry and even protects him from an attempted reprisal from Lucius.
Dumbledore later dispels Harry's fears that he is of a kin to the evil of Slytherins rather than to Gryffindor's nobility. He tells Harry that it is his choices that define him, and he could not have wielded the sword of Gryffindor if he did not truly belong to that house.
Meanwhile, Gilderoy Lockhart, who Harry and Ron discovered to be a fraud who wipes clean other wizards' memories and claims their achievements, is confined to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. When he attempted to erase Harry and Ron's memories in the Chamber of Secrets, his charm backfired while using Ron’s broken wand, and he no longer remembers who he is.
[edit] Points to consider
- Hermione's accident with the Polyjuice Potion takes a little more than a month to reverse - much longer than considerably deadlier accidents.
- Dumbledore says that Voldemort was the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, instead of descendant. J. K. Rowling said this was a "deliberate mistake". This mistake was fixed on further printings, though some versions have put it back after Rowling's comment, perhaps overlooking the tongue-in-cheek nature of the term "deliberate mistake". This line was left out of the film.
- The confrontation in the Chamber shares several notable features with Redwall, the children's novel by Brian Jacques. For example, both books feature ancient swords belonging to fabled warriors (both of whom formerly resided in the main institution of the novels); in both of these novels, the sword is used to kill a monstrous poisonous snake with dangerous eyes.
- Filch leaves Harry alone in his office briefly, while he goes and investigates a loud crash. On his return, he comments about a very expensive Vanishing Cabinet that has been broken by Peeves the Poltergeist. This cabinet later plays a small part in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and a significant part in the events of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
- The Hand of Glory and the opal necklace that first appear when Harry is in Borgin & Burkes also come into play in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
- Dumbledore does not send Fawkes to save Harry; Fawkes is called to save Harry because he shows true loyalty to Dumbledore during the encounter with the Serpent.
[edit] Editions
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[edit] External links
- Mythological structure of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from MonoMyth.org
- Mistakes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from bookmistakes.com
[edit] Translations
See: Harry Potter in translation
[edit] Harry Potter Series
| J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philosopher's Stone | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Chamber of Secrets | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Prisoner of Azkaban | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Goblet of Fire | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Order of the Phoenix | book | film | game | |
| Half-Blood Prince | book | film | ||
| Deathly Hallows | book | |||
| Other books | Other games | |||
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup | |||
| Quidditch Through the Ages | ||||
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