Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
This article is about the book.
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.
Editions
Plot overview
ending details follow.
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
Creevey, and Dobby. Ginny Weasley, though introduced in the
previous book, is given in-depth characterisation for the first
time.
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 center 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 petrified
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 wrapped up in one
of Harry's socks. Lucius unwraps the book and throws the sock to
the side. This sock is caught by his house elf, Dobby. This sock
constitutes as 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 Slytherin 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.
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 is highly unlikely that any such event
will occur, however, given the release of Half Blood Prince; noting
that there was a lot of background history on Voldemort in said
book.
- 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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