Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hello Friend! 

I have brought you a new blog post today. Happy reading!

[WARNING: this contains MAJOR spoilers]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book in the Harry Potter series. It’s very well written [my third favourite book!] and sucks you into a bottomless pit of fantasy, friendship, rivalry and—most of all—Voldemort’s evil plot. The origins of his name are revealed in this book. [In case you were wondering, Draco Malfoy is a HUGE pest in this book.] Ron’s younger sister, Ginny Weasley, is introduced as a first-year student; she is central to the plot. This is even better than Philosopher’s Stone—I was really sad when I finished it!

On Harry Potter’s birthday in 1992, the Dursley family—his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley—hold a dinner party for a potential client of Vernon’s drill-manufacturing company. Harry is locked up in his room [Vernon instructed him to “stay out of their way”] ; he is quite content in his room, but wonders why his friends haven’t sent him any birthday cards or presents. Suddenly, a house-elf named Dobby materialises in front of him, explaining that he had intercepted his friends’ cards and presents in an effort to prevent him from going back to Hogwarts, because something ominous is going to happen. Having failed to persuade Harry to voluntarily give up his place at Hogwarts, Dobby proceeds to try and get him expelled by using magic to smash Petunia’s dessert on  the client’s wife and framing it on Harry [using magic out of school is strictly forbidden for anyone below 17]. However, his plan fails—Harry is given a second chance by the Ministry of Magic, and allowed to return at the start of the school year. In the meantime, Vernon punishes Harry by turning his room into a miniature prison cell [due to the unfortunate incident with the dessert, the business deal failed]. However, Ron arrives with his older twin brothers Fred and George in their father’s enchanted car. They rescue Harry, who stays at their family home, The Burrow, for the remainder of his holidays. Just before the start of the school term, Harry, Mrs Weasley, her third eldest son Percy [ who is a sixth-year prefect], and daughter Ginny [who has a crush on Harry] travel to Diagon Alley for their school supplies. There, they run into Hermione [a pleasant reunion!] and Draco and his father Lucius [ an unpleasant surprise…]. They are also introduced to Gilderoy Lockhart, a conceited autobiographer who has been appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher after Quirell’s death.

When Harry and Ron approach Platform Nine and Three Quarters on King’s Cross Station, it refuses to allow them to pass; they decide to fly the enchanted car to Hogwarts, where they crash into a sentient willow tree on the grounds. Ron’s wand is broken. The two are nearly expelled [you can probably guess who was behind this]. Lockhart’s classes prove to be disastrous; he is clearly a fraud. Meanwhile, Draco insults Hermione by calling her a “Mudblood” [a derogatory term used for wizards born of non-magical parents; several “pure-blood” wizards are prejudiced against them]. Harry keeps hearing a cold voice  repeating “More blood, more blood…” but no one else can hear it. In the corridor of the second floor after dark, he, Ron, and Hermione encounter the caretaker’s petrified cat, along with a warning scrolled along one of the walls—“The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.” An awful lot of preposterous rumours fly around the school regarding the Chamber of Secrets’ history. The ghostly professor of History of Magic, Cuthbert Binns, reveals that the Chamber houses a terrible monster and was created by Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, after a fundamental disagreement with the other three [Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff.] Slytherin placed the monster there in order to purge the school of all Muggle-borns [ wizards of non-magical parentage]. Harry is badly injured during a Quidditch match[ a Bludger, one of the balls involved in the game, chases after Harry instead of zigzagging after any player it can hit, breaking his arm.] Dobby visits him in the infirmary and confesses his crimes [ he had sealed the gatrway at King’s Cross and charmed the Bludger.] He also reveals that the Chamber has been opened once before. Another attack occurs—this time, it’s a cheerful and optimistic first-year, Colin Creevey. It is soon revealed that Harry is a ‘Parselmouth’ [ he can speak to snakes.]  When a fellow second-year, Justin Finch-Fletchley, is attacked, Harry is suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin.

Shortly after, the Gryffindor ghost is attacked as well. Owing to Draco’s prejudice against Muggle-borns, the trio suspect him of being the Heir of Slytherin; Hermione concocts Polyjuice potion, which allows Harry and Ron to become Draco’s boorish cronies, Crabble and Goyle, for an hour. They cautiously interrogate Draco. Based on his answers, they deduce that he’s not the Heir at all; he does know an interesting piece of information, though—the Chamber was opened fifty years ago, and a student was killed. Harry also discovers another crucial clue—a diary left in a first-floor bathroom. The diary belongs to Tom Riddle, a student who knows all too well about the opening of the Chamber fifty years ago [he was a student at the time.] Through the diary, Harry learns that Hagrid was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets. While investigating the mysterious creature alongside a Ravenclaw prefect, Hermione is attacked; the school is put on lockdown, and Dumbledore and Hagrid are forced to leave the premises. However, Hagrid leaves a set of instructions: “Follow the spiders currently fleeing into the Forbidden Forest.” Through various hints dropped by the head of the spiders, Aragog [who was blamed for the attacks fifty years ago], Harry deduces that the creature inside the Chamber is a basilisk [hence his ability to understand it]. The basilisk has the power to kill with a stare, but the petrified students, ghost, and cat had all seen it indirectly through various devices. Ginny is taken by the monster into the Chamber; Harry, Ron and Lockhart [who has been forced to rescue Ginny by the other teachers] discover that the entrance is in the bathroom they have been using to make Polyjuice potion. The cowardly Lockhart attempts to wipe the two boys’ memories, but his spell backfires as he was using Ron’s damaged wand.

Harry ends up getting separated from Ron and enters the Chamber of Secrets alone to find an unconscious Ginny and Tom Riddle, who claims to be a memory preserved within his diary for the last fifty years. He then reveals his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, which  has been made into the anagram “I am Lord Voldemort.” Yes, you guessed right—Voldemort was the one who opened the Chamber half a century ago; Hagrid was simply framed by him. Here’s the real shock— by possessing Ginny through his diary, he has been continuing what he started fifty years before. Harry’s ferocious loyalty to Dumbledore in the face of Riddle summons Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, who drops the Sorting Hat in Harry’s lap and tears out the basilisk’s eyes. Harry removes the Sword of Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat [only a worthy Gryffindor can do so] and slays the creature; the basilisk poisons him before it dies, but he uses his last bit of energy to destroy Riddle’s diary by stabbing it with a basilisk fang. Both the diary and Riddle are destroyed, and Ginny is restored. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart return to the main castle. Ginny profusely apologises for her role in the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, but Dumbledore gives her a reprieve, stating that greater wizards have been entrapped by Voldemort; she is but a child. It is soon revealed that Lucius slipped the diary into Ginny’s cauldron when they met at Diagon Alley [also, another big reveal—Dobby is the Malfoys’ house-elf]. House-elves can be freed if they are given clothes by their masters; Harry hands Lucius his own sock, causing him to throw it over his shoulder in disgust [Dobby catches it and is freed, hurray!] By the end of the year the petrified students, cat, and ghost are all cured, the end-of-year exams are cancelled [much to Hermione’s chagrin], Hagrid returns to Hogwarts, and Lockhart is discharged from his post as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. 

Happy Ending!

Thank you! 

I hope you enjoyed my article!