Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets –J.K.Rowling

How I found this book: I realized I was seriously addicted to book one, and bought book two off of a used book seller on Amazon. CRACK!

Setting: During the ’92-’93 school year, starting several weeks after the ending of Book One, mostly at Hogwarts.

Main Characters:

Harry Potter: Harry is turning twelve this summer before his second year at Hogwarts, and it isn’t easy for him. His family is typically horrible, his friends from school haven’t written all summer as they promised they would, and he gets in trouble for something that he didn’t do. When he finally does get to go back to school, things don’t improve much. A horrible monster from Hogwarts legendary past has been unleashed in the school, and many suspect that Harry is the one who has set it loose on the student population of Hogwarts.

Ron Weasley: One of Harry’s best friends, younger brother of Percy, Fred, and George, and older brother to Ginny. It is his idea to fly his father’s flying car to school when the boys miss their train, and because of this Ron breaks his wand, (a hand-me-down from older brother Charlie), and spends much of the book functioning with a broken wand. He assists Harry in finding out the mysterious behind the Chamber of Secrets.

Hermione Granger: The other of Harry’s best friends, Hermione is smart, and practical, and has eased a bit on her rule breaking and is willing to bend things a bit more to help Harry in discovering the secret behind the Chamber of Secrets. She also has a hopeless crush on the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, much to the annoyance of Ron, and amusement of Harry. She cracks the mystery of the Chamber first, and is petrified by the monster, missing much of the school year.

Ginny Weasley: Ron’s younger sister, she is ignored for the most part by her brothers, except when she starts becoming more quiet and withdrawn towards the end of the school year. She has a very schoolgirl crush on Harry, so much so that she can barely speak around him, something Ron finds weird. She’s described as being a small girl, with the Weasley red hair, and is one year younger than Ron. This is her first year at Hogwarts.

Molly Weasley: The Matriarch of the Weasley clan, she keeps her rambunctious sons in line, and dotes on her only daughter. She becomes a mother figure for Harry.

Arthur Weasley: The Patriarch of the Weasley clan, he works at the Ministry of Magic at a low paying job, (it is implied it is due to his Muggle sympathies). He has a fascination with all things Muggle, and it is he who modified the Ford Anglia that Harry and Ron fly to school.

Percy, Fred, and George Weasley: Ron’s older brothers who still live at home, (Bill and Charlie, two others, are grown and live away from home). Fred and George are identical twins, Percy is two years older, and is a Prefect. He is usually taunted unmercifully by the twins, who are pranksters and jokesters and have little use for their ‘perfect’ older brother.

Draco Malfoy: Harry and Ron’s nemesis at school, he is the son of the wealthy and influential Lucius Malfoy, and believes his father’s status makes him something special. The Malfoys are known as a Pureblood family, and Draco has a particular dislike of ‘Mudbloods’, or wizards and witches born in Muggle families, such as Hermione Granger. He is Harry and Ron’s first suspect in the mystery behind the Chamber of Secrets.

Lucius Malfoy: Draco’s father, he is a wealthy, arrogant wizard, who disdains Muggles, and dislikes Arthur Weasley for his sympathy for Muggles, feeling the other Pureblood wizard lacks “proper wizarding pride.” It is rumored that he at one time used to serve Lord Voldemort, and that he still has many objects of dark magic in his home. Harry actually sees him selling some in Knockturn Alley, and alerts Mr. Weasley. Lucius is a very influential wizard thanks to his wealth and status, and it is he who seeks to oust Dumbledore when the Chamber of Secrets is mysteriously opened.

Dobby: A well-meaning House-elf who works for the Malfoys, he is trying to protect Harry and keep him out of some suspected danger. However, his solution to keep Harry out of trouble usually end up with Harry in more trouble than good.

Professor Albus Dumbledore: The Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he must keep the school running while a monster is on the loose, praying on the population of the school.

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart: The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, he is a famous author, and claims to be an expert in all things Dark Magic. Handsome and charming, he loves the media attention and can spot a good PR opportunity a mile away, (or so he thinks), and he proves to be completely inept when it comes to the Dark Arts. Many of the witches in the school, including Hermione, think he is handsome, and have crushes on him.

Rebeus Hagrid: The Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, he is a failed wizard who was expelled in his third year, the last time the Chamber was opened. The monster-loving Hagrid was trying to raise a giant spider who some mistook for being the monster from the Chamber. Hagrid has worked at Hogwarts ever since, but many start looking to him when the Chamber is opened again, and suspect that he might have something to do with it.

Moaning Mrytle: A ghost who inhabits one of the girl’s bathrooms, she usually spends most of her time crying and sulking over imagined slights. She haunts Hogwarts because she was a student during the last time the Chamber was opened, and was actually killed by the monster, nearly causing the closing of the school.

Tom Riddle: The memory of a boy who attended Hogwarts during the time of the last Chamber opening, the memory is locked in his old diary, which finds its way into Harry’s hands. Tom was much like Harry, an orphaned boy, but was a handsome, seemingly nice enough boy, who was a Prefect, and won a special award for service to the school. He is the one who discovered Hagrid with Aragog, and turns him in to the then headmaster.

Aragog: A giant spider who lives in the Forbidden Forest, he was raised by Hagrid when the latter was a boy, and has an affection for the large man, though not for anyone else. This is really because humans are the spider’s favorite source of meat for his large family.


Plot: Harry Potter hasn’t had a good 12th summer. His family has been particularly horrendous to him, and he is blamed for something the well-meaning House-elf, Dobby, did. When he is rescued from his home by the Weasley boys, he thinks that his troubles are over, and he can go back to enjoying his normal life at Hogwarts. However, the school year starts off just as badly for Harry, when first he and Ron get in trouble for flying a car to school after missing the train. Then, to make it all worse, a mysterious, legendary monster from Hogwarts past is set loose in the school, and no one knows who the perpetrator is, but several students start to suspect Harry. As he, Hermione, and Ron try to figure out just what the Chamber of Secrets is and who has opened it, the victims of the monster are petrified and turned to stone, one after another. When Hermione and Ron’s sister Ginny become two more of the monster’s victims, Harry and Ron act to find out the truth about the Chamber of Secrets, and what it is that is attacking the students of Hogwarts.

Themes:

Racism, wizard style: While the wizarding world doesn’t seem to recognize racism according to skin color, they do seem to have a racism that is all theirs based on blood. Some wizards and witches, those who are supposedly “Pureblooded”, claim that Muggles are inferior to Wizards, and that they are also of lesser stock. Any wizard who has Muggle blood in them is somehow inferior to the “purebloods.” This is especially true for wizards and witches, like Hermione, who were born in a Muggle family with a Muggle heritage. Now, the vast majority of witches and wizards are actually of “mixed blood”, either “half-bloods” or “Muggle borns/Mudbloods”, (Mudbloods is the pejorative term.) But the Purebloods are single minded in their racism, and dislike anyone supports Muggles or Mudbloods.

The cruelty of Lord Voldemort and his supporters: We kind of got the gist in the first book that Lord Voldemort wasn’t exactly the world’s nicest guy, but we now start to see glimpses of just how cruel some of his supporters were as well as manipulative. Lucius Malfoy thinks nothing of mistreating his servant, Dobby, or of potentially harming or killing students at Hogwarts. What his ends are for aren’t revealed in this book, but it begins to firmly set Lucius in the camp of Lord Voldemort.

There are wizards, and then there is everyone else: Not to mention the racism of the wizards towards each other, there is the prejudice they display when discussing other magical races, such as House-elves. Dobby is less than a slave in his house where he serves, and you get the feeling things were even worse when Lord Voldemort was around. The plight of the House-elf, who can’t even speak against their masters without feeling the need to physically harm themselves, becomes a re-occuring theme in the series.

The history of Lord Voldemort: Big secret….Lord Voldemort used to be a normal person once! This shocking revelation doesn’t quite rank up there with “Luke, I’m your father,” but it begins to build into the already growing mystery of Lord Voldemort and Harry. How is it that this evil, reptilian like creature who has caused all this misery started off as a charming, even likeable boy? How did the sweet, Anakin Skywalker turn into Darth Vader? We won’t know till you keep on reading. This is built into the story very well, and just tantalizes the reader enough to make them want to keep on reading and find out more.

Harry’s new, adoptive family: Harry’s introduction to the Weasley clan begins the process by which Harry finds a family of his own, one that he can connect with and who will love him like his biological family, the Dursleys, never could. While we would all wish that James and Lily could have raised their son, I don’t think they would have disapproved of Arthur and Molly doing it.

Harry as a hero: Well we already know Harry is the ‘hero’ of the series, but in this book, Harry starts to more fully take on the mantle of hero. Where in the last book he was trying to prevent something from falling into the hands of Voldemort, this book he actually risks his own life for that of another. This is an important facet of Harry’s character, both for the good and for the bad, and it is an aspect he must truly learn to understand as the series progresses.

Every book sucks somewhere: I will admit, of all the books, two is my second least favorite, and I found that the book wasn’t nearly as engaging as book one. Part of this could be that I felt, at the time I read the book; the story was a bit contrived, with a monster, and a diary that had the memory of a past student, and all of that. It only really fits into it all when you read it in context of the entire series, and then you get that ‘ah-ha’ moment. Because of that, the book has been redeemed a great deal in my eyes. But still, I feel of all the books, it is one of the weaker ones in terms of story and character development. It throws a lot at you, but you don’t really see anyone grow out of it just yet.

What did I like: More yummy, geeky history on who Lord Voldemort was, and establishing the world of Harry Potter even further. I am the type of person who loves a well rounded fantasy world.

How would I rate this wormy book: This book gets a FAT WORM from me, as I still think that this book isn’t nearly as good as the first, or even some of the later books, but still is very important in the whole ‘canon’ of Harry Potter knowledge. I think that as far as development of characters goes, it really didn’t add a lot, especially to Ron or Hermione, but it did flesh out the world a great deal, and certainly sets you up for the events in books six and seven.