BOOK
DAY AND BOOK WEEK: BOOK REVIEW “HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS”
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling is the second installment in the Harry Potter series. The
book begins at Number Four, Privet Drive, where Harry lives with his aunt,
uncle, and cousin Dudley.
Harry Potter is
back at his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon’s house for the summer
following his first year at Hogwarts, and he is upset because he hasn’t heard
from any of his friends over the summer. On Harry’s twelfth birthday, the
Dursleys host a business dinner and Harry receives a visit from a house elf
named Dobby in
his room. Dobby warns that danger awaits Harry at Hogwarts this year and says
that he should not go back—also revealing that he has been stopping Harry’s
friends’ letters. When Harry refuses to promise that he will not return to Hogwarts,
Dobby destroys Petunia’s pudding and ruins the dinner. The Dursleys imprison
Harry in his room for three days. Harry’s friend Ron Weasley and his brothers Fred and George then rescue Harry using a flying car belonging to their
father, Mr. Weasley. They take Harry and his luggage back to their home, the
Burrow, where Harry spends the rest of the summer in bliss.
Harry and the
Weasleys go to buy their schoolbooks for the year along with Hermione Granger and her parents, who are Muggles. At the bookstore
Flourish and Blotts, they meet Gilderoy Lockhart, a famous wizard who announces that he will be the new Defense
Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Also at the store is Lucius Malfoy, who says that the Weasleys “disgrace the name of wizard” by associating
themselves with Muggles.
At the end of the
summer, the Weasleys drive to King’s Cross Station with Harry to board the
Hogwarts Express. But at the station, everyone is able to get through the
barrier to platform nine and three quarters except for Harry and Ron. They
decide to fly the car to Hogwarts, but on the way, they are seen by many
Muggles. When they arrive at Hogwarts the car engine fails and they land right
on the Whomping Willow, a giant tree that starts to hit back at them. Ron’s wand
breaks and the car drives away from them into the Forest. Harry and Ron get in
major trouble for flying the car, and are warned by Dumbledore that if they break any more rules, they will be expelled.
After Harry’s first
week of class, Quidditch practice begins, but his first practice is interrupted
by the Slytherins. Draco Malfoy has just joined the Slytherin team as Seeker, because his
father bought the entire team new brooms. When Hermione points out that Draco
bought his way onto the team, he calls her a “Mudblood.” Ron later explains
that this is a derogatory term for someone who is Muggle-born, but he also says
that most wizards know that blood status doesn’t mean anything about magical
ability.
That evening, Harry
and Ron serve detention for their arrival by flying car. Ron is sent to polish
trophies, while Harry helps Lockhart answer his fan mail. But in Lockhart’s
office, he hears a mysterious cold voice that it seems only he can hear, saying
“Let me rip you…let me kill you.” On Halloween, Harry again hears the voice and
follows it down a corridor. He is unable to find what is causing it, but he
does see a puddle of water and Mrs. Norris (Filch’s
cat) frozen stiff as a statue. On the wall next to her is a message: “The
Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.” Filch
immediately blames Harry for killing Mrs. Norris, but Dumbledore explains that
a second-year would not have the magic required to do it. Furthermore, he says,
Mrs. Norris is not dead—she is simply petrified, and once Professor Sprout’s Mandrakes are matured,
they can revive the cat.
Hermione tries to
find out information about the Chamber of Secrets, and so she asks the History
of Magic teacher, Professor Binns, about it. Professor Binns explains that when Hogwarts was
founded, Salazar Slytherin (one of the four founders) did not want to allow
Muggle-borns into the school, but the other three founders disagreed with him.
Legend has it that he created a hidden Chamber that could be opened by his
Heir, and that a monster lives inside that would then “purge the school” of
Muggle-borns. Rumors start to circulate that Harry is Slytherin’s heir, but he,
Ron, and Hermione think that it is Draco Malfoy. Hermione proposes that they
use Polyjuice Potion (which can transform a person’s body into someone else’s)
to ask Draco about it—but they’ll need to steal ingredients from Snape’s store.
Meanwhile, Harry has
his first Quidditch game of the year, but someone bewitches a Bludger to attack
Harry. Harry is able to catch the Snitch and win the game, but the Bludger
breaks his arm in the process. Lockhart tries to heal the arm but instead
removes Harry’s bones entirely. Harry spends the night in the hospital wing,
where Dobby visits. Dobby reveals that he bewitched the platform barrier and
the Bludger, because he doesn’t want Harry to be in danger. Again, he insists
that Harry has to go home. Then, Dumbledore and McGonagall enter carrying Colin
Creevey (a first-year who idolizes Harry), who has also been
petrified.
News about Colin
spreads like wildfire, and the air is thick with “rumor and suspicion.” Harry,
Ron, and Hermione continue to work on the Polyjuice Potion, and during Potions
class Hermione successfully steals some of the ingredients from Snape.
Meanwhile, Lockhart starts a dueling club to help protect the students. At the
first meeting, Harry and Draco are matched up to duel. Draco conjures a snake
to try to attack Harry, but when it starts to go after a Muggle-born student
named Justin Finch-Fletchley, Harry tells the snake to stop, and it does. However, he says
it in snake language, and everyone thinks that he was egging on the snake.
Hermione and Ron tell Harry that this is not a common gift, and that Salazar
Slytherin was known for talking to snakes. The whole school will think that
Harry is the Heir of Slytherin—and for all anyone knows, he could be.
The next day, Harry
goes to try and explain to Justin what happened, but he overhears some
Hufflepuffs talking about how he must be the Heir of Slytherin. Then, in a
corridor, he discovers Justin and the ghost Nearly Headless Nick, both petrified. When McGonagall discovers Harry with them, she
takes Harry to Dumbledore’s office. Harry sees the Sorting Hat and wonders
whether the Hat put him in the right House, as it had thought about putting him
in Slytherin the year prior. He also watches as Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix, is reborn. Dumbledore tells Harry that
he does not think that he petrified the students, but wonders if Harry has
anything he needs to tell him. Harry says no.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione
put their Polyjuice Potion plan into action on Christmas. Harry and Ron
transform into Crabbe and Goyle in
order to question Draco about the attacks. They discover that Draco is not the
Heir of Slytherin, but they also learn that the Chamber had been opened fifty
years earlier.
Soon after, Harry
finds a diary that had been thrown away in a bathroom near where the first
attack had occurred, which is haunted by a ghost named Moaning Myrtle. Harry discovers that by writing in the diary, he can
communicate with the memory of Tom Riddle, who was a student at the school fifty years prior when the Chamber
was opened last. Riddle shows Harry a memory in which he caught the person who
opened the Chamber after a girl was killed by the monster. This person turns
out to be Hagrid, who was trying to protect a monster within the castle. When
Harry tells Ron and Hermione about this, they decide not to confront Hagrid
unless another student is attacked.
One day when Harry
hears the cold voice again, Hermione gets a spark of inspiration and heads off
to the library to try and find out information. Later, McGonagall informs Harry
and Ron that Hermione and another student were petrified. Harry and Ron decide
to confront Hagrid by sneaking out to his hut at night. But before they can ask
him about his involvement, Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, visit Hagrid. Fudge says that with the attacks going on, he
must appear to be doing something, and so he takes Hagrid away to Azkaban (the
wizard prison). Then, Lucius Malfoy arrives, speaking on behalf of the school’s
governors, to inform Dumbledore that he is temporarily suspended. Before Hagrid
leaves, he tells the boys to “follow the spiders.”
A few days later,
Harry and Ron find a trail of spiders leading into the Forbidden Forest and
sneak out at night to follow it. In the forest, they meet an enormous spider
named Aragog, who explains that he is not the monster that lives in the
Chamber of Secrets, and that Hagrid did not open the Chamber fifty years prior.
Aragog also tells them that the girl who was killed died in a bathroom. When
Harry and Ron escape the spiders, they realize that the girl must have been
Moaning Myrtle.
Harry and Ron then
visit Hermione’s body and realize that in her frozen hand, there is a piece of
paper explaining that the monster in the Chamber is a Basilisk. But before they
can tell the teachers, McGonagall announces that the school is closing, because
the monster has taken Ginny Weasley into the Chamber. The teachers decide to send Lockhart to
face the monster. Lockhart tries to run away, but Harry and Ron threaten to
reveal that he is a fraud, and so he goes along with them. They discover a
secret tunnel in Myrtle’s bathroom that leads them to the Chamber.
In the Chamber,
Lockhart tries to perform a memory charm on Harry and Ron using Ron’s broken
wand, but it backfires, causing Lockhart to lose his memory and accidentally
creating a rock barrier between Ron and Harry. Harry goes on to the Chamber and
discovers Ginny’s unconscious body and Tom Riddle. Riddle explains that he is
actually Voldemort, and that he has been possessing Ginny through his diary and
using her to carry out the attacks. Harry calls out to Dumbledore for help, and
Fawkes arrives. Fawkes blinds the basilisk and delivers the Sword of Gryffindor, which Harry uses to kill the
basilisk. Harry then uses the basilisk’s fang to pierce Riddle’s diary,
destroying Riddle. Ginny regains consciousness, and Fawkes carries Harry,
Ginny, Ron, and Lockhart out of the Chamber.
Dumbledore returns to
the school, and Harry explains what happened. Harry expresses his insecurity
that he and Riddle are very similar, but Dumbledore tells Harry that they make
very different choices, and therefore are very different from each other. Then
Lucius Malfoy arrives with Dobby to confront Dumbledore, and Harry realizes
that Lucius gave Ginny the diary in Flourish and Blotts. Harry then tricks
Lucius into freeing Dobby.
At the end of the
book, the petrified students are cured, exams are cancelled, and Hagrid returns
from Azkaban. Lockhart is fired now that he has no memory, and Harry returns to
Privet Drive once more.
Author: J K Rowling
Country: UK
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury
(UK)
Publication date: 2
July 1998 (UK)
2 June 1999 (US)
Pages: 251 (UK
edition)
341 (US edition)
272 (Illustrate edition)
