Chapter: 3

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second novel in the Harry Potter series, which is
written by J. K. Rowling. The story revolves around Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Around the start of the term a series of messages on the walls of the
school's corridors start appearing with message of warning that the "Chamber of Secrets" has
been opened and that the "heir of Slytherin" would kill all pupils who are from Muggle or are
not-from pure Magic families..
The book was distributed in the United Kingdom on 2 July 1998 by Bloomsbury and in the
United States on 2 June 1999 by Scholastic Inc. Albeit Rowling thought that it was hard to
complete the book, it won high acclaim and grants from pundits, junior perusers and the book
business, albeit a few commentators thought the story was maybe excessively alarming for more
youthful kids. Much like with different books in the arrangement, Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets activated religious level headed discussions; a few religious powers have denounced
its utilization of mystical subjects, while others have commended its accentuation on altruism
and on the path in which an individual's character is the consequence of the individual's
decisions.
Several reports and surveys stated that personal identity is a strong theme in the book, and that it
addresses issues of racism through the treatment of non-magical, non-human and non-living
characters.
This novel was adapted into a moviel which released in 2002, and shortly after its release it
became the third film to exceed 600 million in international box office sales and received
generally favourable reviews. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.

At the start of the story Harry is living with the Dursley's who torture him and have kept him
locked in a room. It was during a dinner party given by Harry's aunt and uncle, that Dobby,
a house-elf, pops into Harry's bedroom, Dobby came to ward Harry that if he returns
to Hogwarts, terrible things will happen. Harry disregards it, and Dobby wreaks havoc in the
kitchen, infuriating the Dursleys, who angrily imprison Harry in a room on their first floor. One
night Harry's Ron Weasley comes with his others Fred and George in their flying car, to rescure
Harry and to take him to their home to spend the summer at the Weasley home
During his trip tp Diagon Alley with the Weasleys, Harry meets Gilderoy Lockhart a famous
wizard, who informs everyone that he is the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher and
demands to be in a photo shoot with Harry. When Harry and Ron reach the King's Cross Station
they realise that they have missed the train that would take them to Hogwarts, so they decide to
fly the Weasley's car to Hogwarts instead.
At their first class of Defence against the Dark Arts, the trio finds out that Lockhart is an
incompetent teacher, more concerned with personal celebrity than teaching. On Halloween's eve,
Mrs. Norris, a cat belonging to the school caretaker's is found petrified. On a wall nearby appears
a message: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware." Harry, Ron,
and Hermione Granger discover that one of Hogwarts' founders, Salazar Slytherin, secretly built
the Chamber of Secrets, which is rumoured to contain a monster that only Slytherin's heir can
directly control.

Suspecting that Draco Malfoy, is the heir of Slytherin, the trio makes Polyjuice Potion, a brew
that takes a month to concoct, but allows the one who drinks it to look like someone else, for a
period of time.


During the Quidditch games, Harry's arm is broken by a rogue Bludger. Lockhart volunteers to
heal the broken bones, but removes them instead. During the night, at the hospital, as Harry lies
in his hospital bed, Dobby appears and admits responsibility for the platform incident and the
rogue Bludger and begs Harry to leave Hogwarts, insisting that he is in graveeven mortal
danger. Soon after, a first year student, Colin Creevey, is attacked and petrified.
The authorities decide to give Defence training to students, which are headed by Gilderoy
Lockhart. During the first meeting of Lockhart's new dueling club, Harry duels with Draco, who
casts a spell which makes a snake appear from thin air and starts to attack a student. Harry helps
him by unknowingly talking to the snake in Parseltongue, which is the same ability as of Salazar
Slytherin which makes other students think that Harry is the heir
At Christmas, Harry and Ron use the finished Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Draco's
stupid friends Crabbe and Goyle. Harry and Ron discover that Draco is not the heir of Slytherin,
and that the Chamber was opened fifty years before.
After a few quiet months, Harry finds a diary in the Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Lateer that
night he decides to write in the diary, but as soon as he writes something it vanishes. Soon after
that Harry is sucked into the diary and is shown how the Chamber was opened 50 years ago
when someone died, it shows Harry that the first suspect was Hagrid. The other day Neville finds
Harrt's room messed up and they find that Tom Riddle's diary was missing and that someone
took it. When Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl, Penelope Clearwater, are petrified as well, Harry
and Ron intended to question Hagrid, but soon after they reach his house they find that the
Minister of Magic, Dumbeldore and Lucius Malfoy came to arrest Harry, accusing him of
opening the Chamber again. Before leaving, Hagrid secretly instructs the boys to "follow the
spiders" into the Forbidden Forest. There they encounter Aragog who tells them the monster who
killed the girl 50 years before was not a spider that the girl's body was found in a bathroom, and
that Hagrid is innocent.

Harry and Ron find that Hermione was holding on to a paper when she was attacked that the
monster. On that page it is written about Basilisk, a giant snake that kills those who look it in the
eye, Hermione also mentioned how it moved in the school - pipes. They later discover the
entrance to the Chamber in Myrtle's bathroom, which Harry opens by speaking Parseltongue.

Inside the chamber, Harry finds Ginny's unconscious body, as well as the almost-physical form
of Riddle who reveals that Ginny had been communicating to him by writing in his diary,
allowing him to possess her and have her set the Basilisk on the Muggleborns.
Riddle then summons the Basilisk and orders it to attack Harry. When the Basilisk attacked
Harry, Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix, appears and blinds the Basilisk. Fawkes carried
the Sorting Hat, from which Harry draws a sword and kills the Basilisk, but one of its fangs
pierces Harry's arm. Healed by Fawkes's healing tears, Harry stabs the diary with a Basilisk fang,
defeating Riddle and saving Ginny.

The main characters are:
Harry Potter- He is a boy of twelve years with dirty hair wearing spectacles who become famous
within the wizard company, as he was saved by the curse of wizard.
Ron Weasley Ron is towering with red coloured hair, who belongs to a poor but respected
family.He is one of Harrys best friend.
Hermione Granger-She is one of the intelligent student of the class and is smart in her work
Voldemort - Once a student named Tom Riddle who attended Hogwarts fifty years before Harry,
Voldemort became the most powerful dark wizard ever.
Tom Riddle -He is the fifty years before student than Harry, who become the most powerful
wizard called Voldemort.
Hagrid - The gamekeeper at Hogwarts and a good friend of Harry's.
Albus Dumbledore-He is the headmaster of Hogwarts Schooland is a learned, strong.old aged
with silver beard.
Draco Malfoy -Skinny, simper and snobby, he is one of the greatest enemy of Harry.
Lucius Malfoy He is the father of Draco malfoy, selfish, hissing who ill-treats his wife.
Ginny Weasley - Rons younger sister.
Minerva McGonagall She is the head of Gryffindor House, strict but deeply worried witch, and
a great expert in Quidditch
Severus Snape - The Potions teacher, and a slimy, ill-tempered man, Snape is the head of
Slytherin House and is excited putting Harry in to trouble.
Gilderoy Lockhart - The teacher of the class called "Defense against the Dark Arts
Professor Sprout - The Herbology teacher who is in the process of growing Mandrakes to save
the petrified victims.
Rowling said it was very difficult for her to finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets because she was afraid it would be able to create the magic that Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone did. She took sixs weeks of revision even after submitting the manuscript to
Bloomsbury, the publisher.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" was met with near universal acclaim.The Times, stated
that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a children's book that has its "strong plots,
engaging characters, excellent jokes and a moral message which flows naturally from the
story".". Dream writer Charles de Lint concurred, and considered the second Harry Potter book
tantamount to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, an uncommon accomplishment among
arrangement of books. Thomas Wagner viewed the plot as fundamentally the same to that of the
first book, in view of looking for a mystery stowed away under the school. In any case, he
reveled in the farce of Vips and their fans that focuses round Gilderoy Lockhart, and endorsed of
the book's treatment of racism.tammy Nezol discovered the book more exasperating than its
antecedent, especially in the rash conduct of Harry and his companions after Harry withholds
data from Dumbledore, and in the human-like conduct of the mandrakes used to make an elixir
that cures petrification. All things considered she considered the second story as charming as the
first.
Mary Stuart thought the final clash with Tom Riddle in the Chamber was very horrifying and as
much as scary as some of Stephen King's works, which is considered too much for young or
timid children.
Graeme Davis felt that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the weakest novel of the
series, and agreed that the plot structure is much the same as in Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone. According to him the occurence of Fawkes was ambigious as Fawkes didnt
know where Harry was and also his timing was too coincidential.

Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was awarded many of several children and
novel awards.The American Library Association listed the novel among its 2000 Notable
Children's Books, as well as its Best Books for Young Adults. Booklist named Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets as one of its Editors' Choices.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was awarded the Nestl Smarties Book Prize 1998
Gold Medal in the 911 years division. During this time Rowling had already won two other
Nestl Smarties Book Prizes for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets exmanines the mindset of the reader after reading the
first part. It also maintains Harry's character and its decision that reflect his personality. This
novel contains character which contrast each other, "Gilderoy Lockhart, which was nothing but a
show off against Harry who always kept his talents to himself"
Corruption and the depiction of power as negative are noteworthy topics in the novel. There are
few supreme good administers in Harry Potter's reality, for instance Harry wants to come clean,
however lies at whatever point he thinks of it as fundamental extremely like his adversary
Draco Malfoy. At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore withdraws
his guarantee to rebuff Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the event that they break any more school
standards after Professor Mcgonagall gauges that they have broken in excess of 100 and
extravagantly remunerates them for closure the danger from the Chamber of Secrets. The power
figures and political establishments get little appreciation from Rowling, the Minister for Magic
is displayed as an average quality. The Ministry overall is depicted as a tangle of bureaucratic
domains, saying that "Service authorities occupied themselves with particulars and coin
politically right doublespeaks like 'non-supernatural group' and 'memory altera
Discrimination and oppression of the lower class wizards (Muggle - borns) is a constant theme in
this novel as the heir of Slytherin announces his hatred againts this group. Also the depiction of
Dobby as a slave for the Malfoys and how he was freed from their torture also shows this theme
of oppression.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released as a film in 2002. It was directed by Chris
Columbus and the screenplay was directed by Steve Kloves. It became the third film to exceed
$600 million in international box office sales, preceded by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone (2001). The film was nominated for a Saturn Award for the Best Fantasy Film.
Video games loosely based on the book were released in 2002, mostly published by Electronic
Arts but produced by different developers.This book creates more mystery than the first part did;
it has a real air of intrigue and uncertainty atatched to it. However, its seems a bit predictable and
obvious as Rowling opted for stereo types rather than the originality of monster.

According to some reviewers, the dark side of Rowlings Magical world was shown too soon.
The readers were not ready for the exploration of the world to the extent that it needs to be for
this story.The book's best asset lies within the story of Lord Voldermort and Tom Riddle, the
finale which takes place in the Chamber of Secrets is the best part of the whole book. For some
readers it is a shame that more time and character developement was not involved in creating the
character of Tom Riddle and the mysteries of Voldermorts past.
This book is even more a riddle than its ancestor; with a genuine quality of interest and
vulnerability about it. Yet it ends up in a marginally cumbersome position, some place between
youth purity and naivety and darker high school loathsomeness. In numerous spots it appears a
bit clear and ham-fisted, Rowling appears to have settled on generalizations instead of
inventiveness in these beasts and it makes everything a bit invented.

Shockingly this is inevitable and dulls the interest and enthusiasm of the book, from numerous
points of view this book came excessively soon, when the dull side of the mystical world was
still excessively indistinct for perusers for it to really be investigated to the degree that it needs to
be for this story. Yet it is an essential piece of the arrangement and must be perused to
comprehend the accompanying five books.

From numerous points of view the Chamber of Secrets opens avenues to parts of the Harry Potter
arrangement that will get to be gigantically imperative later on, thoughts regarding Voldermort's
past and his spirit and even his decision to chase Harry start to come to fruition and future
connections are indicated at.

However this book suits more in the thriller/mystery section most aptly, despite its fantastical
elements.I'll definitely recommend this book for growing children of age 9-10 as it can inculcate
the values in them that are most needed in the real world and to be able to stand up to the real
world.