Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by J. K. Rowling

Summary:

Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are entering their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Ron’s younger sister Ginny is excitedly joining them for her first year. After a strange visit by a house elf named Dobby warning him not to go to school, Harry is rescued from his aunt and uncle’s house by Ron and his older twin brothers Fred and George in a flying car. When the time comes to go to Hogwarts via the Hogwarts Express, Ron and Harry find that the barrier separating the Muggle [or non-magical folk's] world and the wizarding train won’t let them in. They solve this problem by flying the car to school, and crash it into the Whomping Willow-the only tree that could hit them back [after all it is a Whomping Willow!] and getting into trouble with the Potions master [Professor Snape] who hates Harry [and anyone not in his House, but especially Harry because Harry's father, James Potter, had saved his life] and their head of house, Professor McGonagall. There’s also been a new addition to the school, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, the famed author of multiple books about himself doing wonderous feats to protect innocent people from harm by hags, trolls, vampires…you name it. He sounds wonderful, right? Wrong. He’s a self-centered git who seems to know nothing about the Dark Arts, though extremely self-promoting and a braggart about his great feats.

As the school year progresses, Nearly Headless Nick [or Sir Nicolas de Mimsey-Porpington, his full name] invites Harry, Ron and Hermione to his deathday party-like a birthday party, but celebrating the day he died, October 31st. They agree, and when the day comes, attend as the only live guests. On their way back from the dungeon that it was held in, Harry hears a voice that his friend’s can’t-one wanting to find and kill someone. He has heard this only once before, and still doesn’t know what it is. They stumble upon Mrs. Norris, Filtch the caretaker’s cat, hanging upside-down from a torch, Petrified. This begins a series of stunnings-Collin Creevy, Nearly Headless Nick, Justin Flinch-Flenchy… all while Harry along with the rest of the school finds out that he’s a Parselmouth-a person who can speak to snakes. Salazar Slytherin was one of the most famed Parselmouth in wizarding history and as one of the messages made by the attacker clearly stated that the attacks are being performed by the Heir of Slytherin, this puts Harry under suspicion.

The Heir supposedly has legendary powers to open the “Chamber of Secrets,” a chamber that Slytherin made in Hogwarts after being driven out by the other three founders. The Chamber has never been found [though not because of lack of searching] but is rumored to have a vicious monster only the Heir can control inside of it. Harry and his friends have no idea who the Heir is, but think it’s Draco Malfoy-their enemy from Slytherin House from last year. They make a complicated potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room, and figure out that he has no idea either.

Later Professor McGonagall approaches Harry and Ron with news of something shocking-Hermione’s been Petrified by the monster. A few days after they found Hermione, Harry and Ron realize that she’s holding something in her hand-a piece of a page out of a book, leading them to the Chamber, Lord Voldemort, and Professor Lockhart’s secret.

Review:

This was a really long summary, I apologize. I thought my summary of the first book was inadequate, so I made this one longer-much, much longer. I enjoyed this book, and was completely drawn into the plot-who wouldn’t love a secret chamber within an old castle? Gilderoy Lockart was portrayed amazingly, but that’s not to say that he’s not a self-centered git. He is. His character is so self-centered and well portrayed I felt myself hating him within minutes. As for the rest of the plot, I felt it was very similar to the first book [as it is a series, and takes place in the same school for most of the books] yet still fresh and original in it’s own ways [for the un-original part, see the Sorcerer's Stone review]. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets gets a 8/10 for well-developed character and plot, originality, but it still has the “borrowed” parts which irk me [probably from hanging out with CeCe too much]. Recommended for ages 11+

 

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