Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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This article is about the book. See Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) for other formats.

Image:Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.jpg 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 in 1998. A film was theatrically released in November 2002.

1 Editions
2 Translations
3 Plot overview
4 Points to consider
5 External links
6 Harry Potter Series

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Editions

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Translations

See: Harry Potter in translation

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Plot overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The story continues with Harry's second year at Hogwarts. Several new characters are introduced, such as Moaning Myrtle, Gilderoy Lockhart, Colin Creevy, Ginny Weasley and Dobby.

Harry is warned by Dobby, a house elf belonging to Lucius Malfoy, that he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts for his second year. Harry is still determined to return despite Dobby's advice, pleas, and attempts to stop him using magic. The Dursleys have locked away his books and wand, so Harry is a prisoner, but the Weasleys come to the rescue in their dad's flying car. After spending a pleasant summer with his best friend Ron, the whole family go off to platform 9¾ for the school train, but Harry and Ron are unable to enter the platform. In desperation, Harry and Ron take the car and fly to Hogwarts where they crash land, breaking Ron's wand.

Harry finds himself at the centre of attention of three people: the vain new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, admirer Colin Creevy who loves taking photos, and Ron's sister Ginny Weasley who has a crush on Harry. Events take a really bad turn when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and something goes on a rampage, turning students into statues. According to legend, the Chamber was built by Salazar Slytherin and can be opened only by his true heir to purge Hogwarts of students who are not pure-blood wizards. Many suspect Harry of being the Heir, especially after he inadvertently speaks Parseltongue (the language of snakes), a distinctive ability of Dark wizards which Harry gained when Voldemort tried to kill him as a baby. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend the majority of the novel trying to discover the true identity of the Heir of Slytherin.

The attacks increase in frequency, leaving more pertified characters in the hospital wing, including Hermione. To top it all, a message is written on a wall declaring 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, where he discovers that it was Ginny who opened the Chamber, but that she was not acting of her own free will - she was possessed by Lord Voldemort, whose name at school was Tom Riddle. Riddle had imprinted a memory of himself in an enchanted diary, hoping to one day continue the work he had begun when he first opened the Chamber fifty years ago. That time, Hagrid had been blamed for what happened and had been expelled from the school.

The memory of Tom Riddle becomes steadily more alive as it steals the life from Ginny. It tries to kill Harry by setting loose the basilisk (the monster responsible for petrifying the students) but Dumbledore sends Fawkes, his phoenix, to give Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk so that it cannot use its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. Riddle is vanquished and Ginny restored to life when the diary is destroyed. The petrified students are restored to normal. Lucius Malfoy had owned the diary and must have given it to Ginny, but there is no evidence to prove what he did. The remains of the diary are returned to Lucius but Harry places a sock inside it. Lucius hands the book to his house elf Dobby, unwittingly giving him a gift of clothing, which is the traditional way a master frees a house-elf. Dobby is free and becomes forever grateful to Harry. As for Harry, his fears that he is akin to the evil of Slytherian instead of the good of the Gryffindor house are dispelled when Dumbledore points out his choice defined him and he could not have wielded the sword of Gryffindor if he didn't belong to that house.

Meanwhile, Gilderoy Lockhart has been exposed by Harry and Ron as a fraud who wipes the memories of others and claims their achievements. When Lockhart tries to wipe their memories using Ron's malfunctioning wand, the spell backfires and wipes his memory instead, leaving him permanently confused and confined to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies.

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Points to consider

Many fans noted that Dumbledore said that Voldemort was the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, instead of descendant. J. K. Rowling said this was a "deliberate mistake". This could support the theory that time travel will recur in the series (see "Rumour" note for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). This mistake was fixed on further printings, though, so it's more likely to be a mistake that slipped past the editors than an actual hint. 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.

It was implied in the book that Ginny had sent Harry his singing valentine. Some members of the online fandom have questioned this conclusion, suggesting it being a prank by the Weasley Twins or a genuine overture from Moaning Myrtle as other possibilities. However, during an interview around the time of the launch of Half-Blood Prince, Rowling confirmed that it had indeed been Ginny who had sent Harry the valentine.

Spoilers end here.

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External links

Mythological Structure of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Courtesy of MonoMyth.org

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Harry Potter Series

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in USA)	book	film	game
Chamber of Secrets	book	film	game
Prisoner of Azkaban	book	film	game
Goblet of Fire	book	film	game
Order of the Phoenix	book	(film)
Half-Blood Prince	book	(film)
Unnamed Seventh Book	(book)

Other books		Other games
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them		Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
Quidditch Through the Ages

Plot – Characters – Places – Translations – Wizarding world WikiProject – Related articles