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Book Home  Books Information Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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.
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.
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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 Defense 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 wasn't 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.
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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