Parvati Delacour, pa360

This may be a bit too long, but I tried to make shorter. I really did! :)



Despite popular interest, my favorite book out of the Harry Potter series would have to be Chamber of Secrets. It has always been my favorite ever since I read it and I do not think I could part with that. Chamber is like a giant puzzle (like all of the Harry Potter books). You are presented with clues throughout the novel, some are obvious while others are not. You are taken on a journey, one moment you are almost positive you have the verdict, the next your theory has been proven wrong.

Chamber starts out like all other books at the Dursley’s. Not unsurprising, the book begins with an argument between Harry and his Uncle, Vernon. This time about Hedwig. Of course, this is not about any ordinary subject, but something that indirectly is about magic, something the Dursleys despise about Harry more that anything else.

Uncle Vernon then begins talking of his dinner party that night. Of course, it also happened to be Harry’s 12th birthday that day. They began to go through their schedule, Vernon reminding Harry many times that he is to be up in his room not making a sound. Harry then escapes through the back door into the yard. Dudley comes out later and makes a snide remark about how Harry hasn’t gotten any presents or letters from his friends at that "freak place". Harry worries that his friends had forgotten him and that the whole previous year had indeed been a dream.

As Harry sits on a bench staring into a bush thinking, he notices something odd about that bush. It had eyes. Big green ones the size of tennis balls. They soon disappear. Later that day, as Harry enters his room while the Dursleys are greeting their guests, there is a small, rather ugly looking creature sitting on Harry’s bed. This creature happens to be a House Elf by the name of Dobby. He brings a warning to Harry to not go back to Hogwarts that year and that horrible things would happen. After showing Harry all of the letters from his friends that Dobby had intercepted, Harry gets angry and says that he will not stay at the Dursleys. In a desperate attempt to make Harry stay in the muggle world, Dobby shoots out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. He magically smashes Aunt Petunia’s large bowl of pudding and disappears. A letter arrives by owl warning him about his use of magic over the summer as well as in front of muggles. The Dusleys learn that Harry is not aloud to use magic over summer. His greatest weapon is revealed.

The Dursleys then lock Harry up in his room and put bars on his window so he could not escape. Then, one night he wakes up to find his best friend, Ron Weasley at his window in a flying car with his twin brothers, Fred and George. They help him to escape the Dursleys and take him to safety at their home, the Burrow.

As Harry is flying to the Burrow, he tells of the strange events that happened over the past few days. The twins point out that the Malfoys are rich and would most likely have a House Elf. Harry begins to wonder if the Draco sent Dobby to stop him from going to school.

When they arrive at the Burrow, they find a very angry Mrs. Weasley. She sends them out to degnome the garden. Harry is very interested in anything magical, so he has a good time.
Harry finds that he’s had the best summer of his life at the Burrow. Everything was so out of the ordinary, the opposite of what life was like back on Privet Drive. It was soon time for school shopping so the Weasleys and Harry went to Diagon Alley. They used floo powder as a means for travel this time, a way to travel from fireplace to fireplace. Harry, not having used it before, arrived a place very much unlike the cheery Diagon Alley. He found himself in a shop full of dark arts supplies and the person Harry would rather not see at that time arrives with his father. Lucius and Draco Mafoy were interested in selling some of their Dark Arts things, afraid that the Ministry of Magic would raid their home. As Mr. Malfoy haggles with Mr. Borgin, Draco gets closer and closer to finding Harry’s hiding place in a closet. Malfoy is finally finished haggling and he and his son leave.
Harry then quickly finds a way out of the store and finds himself in a place very unlike the cheery Diagon Alley. There are dark arts shops all around him and an old witch with a tray of fingernails asks him if he’s lost. Suddenly, he hears his name from a voice that belongs to no one else but Hagrid, the Hogwarts Game Keeper. He gets Harry back into Diagon Alley and says that he was in Knockturn Alley getting some Flesh Eating Slug Repellent when Harry asks. They then find the Weasleys as well as the Grangers and the trio takes a stroll around Diagon Alley.

An hour later, they met up with the rest of the Weaselys in Flouish and Blotts, the bookstore where Harry and his friends buy their magic books. When they arrive, they discover that the famous Gilderoy Lockhart is signing his new book. He spots Harry in the crowd and insists that he takes a picture with him for the Daily Prophet. It is then that he announces that he will be filling the spot of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Finally released from Lockhart’s grip, he and the other Weasley children run into Draco and his father. Draco makes some snide remarks about Ron and his family and just as Ron jumps at Draco, Mr. Weasley pulls him back. It’s now Lucius’ turn to insult the Weasleys. He picks up a tattered book out of Ginny’s cauldron and makes a remark about it. He puts the book back into the cauldron and it ends up with a physical fight between Mr. Weasley and him.

To Harry’s disliking, it was soon the end of summer. As Harry and the Weasleys are driving to Kings Cross Station in the Weasleys Ford Anglia, they had to turn back many times for fogotten brooms, diaries, and dungbombs. When they finally arrive, they are already running very late. Harry and Ron watch as the others pass through the barrier with ease. They are last to start their run at the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and as they reach it, they run into solid wall. Confused, they get up with everyone around them staring at them. It’s not after Harry makes a statement about waiting by the car for Ron’s parents that he gets an idea…

In no time Ron and Harry are up in the air in the Ford Anglia. But before they got into the clouds, the invisibility booster stopped working. Unable to become invisible again, they get above the clouds quickly.

Their ride to Hogwarts at first was fun, checking every so often to make sure they were following the Hogwarts express, eating toffees, imagining the looks on people’s faces as they arrive to school. All too soon it became tiring as they rode on and on as the darkness gathered around them. Finally, when Harry spots Hogwarts ahead of them, the car gives a sudden sputter and the engine dies. They are falling fast to the ground and as Ron tries to stop the car with his wand, it breaks. They then crash into a tree and the car falls to the ground. As soon as they feel at the least bit safe, branches begin to punch their way into the car. Glass shatters and the roof begins to cave. Just then, the engine starts up and they get to safety outside the vicinity of the punching tree. Harry, Ron, and their luggage are thrown from the vehicle and it drives away into the Forbidden Forest.

As they drag their luggage towards the castle, they pass by the Great Hall windows. They look in and see the sorting ceremony’s already started. One of the chairs is empty at the teacher’s table and they realize it was Snapes. Right after hopeful remarks are made about his absence, his voice is heard behind them. They’re then taken down to his office where they learn that they had been seen back in London. Dumbledore and Professer McGonagal join them where Harry and Ron find out that they won’t be expelled, but only that their families will be written to and they earned a detention. When they get to their common room that night, they are met by applause and astonished faces.

The next day as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Gryffindors are sitting down for breakfast, the mail arrives. Ron’s family owl falls to the table with a red envelope in its beak. Harry soon learns that it was a howler. As Ron opens it, Mrs. Weasley’s shouts are heard throughout the Great Hall.

After Breakfast, the Gryffindors make their way down to their first lesson of the year, Herbology. They find Lockhart pestering Professer Sprout about the Whomping Willow. They are told to go into Green House 3 and they all enter it interested in what they will be learning about. Lockhart pulls Harry aside and to his great annoyance, is lectured about fame. He enters the Greenhouse and finds Professer Sprout talking about Mandrakes. Hermione earns Gryffidor some points by telling that Mandrake’s cry are fatal and that they help revive those who are petrified. The students are provided with some ear muffs and they get to work repotting them. They meet a Hufflepuff boy by the name of Justin Finch-Fletchley and learns about his muggle parentage.

The trio ate lunch outside and met a small first year named Colin Creevey who was very anxious to get a picture with Harry. He says that he wanted to send pictures of Hogwarts back to his muggle parents. Draco makes a remark about giving out signed photos which is overheard my Lockhart and insists that Colin takes a picture of him and Harry together. Harry is then escorted to Lockhart’s classroom for their next lesson.

They find themselves soon taking a quiz about all of Lockhart’s books that they were told to have gotten. Of course, Hermione get a perfect score. Lockhart then gets out a covered cage and sets it on his desk. It begins to wobble frantically. He takes the cover off and the class finds that it is nothing but some Cornish pixies. The teacher sets them loose and the classroom is soon in total mayhem. Unable to get control of the pixies, Lockhart runs from the room telling Harry, Ron, and Hermione to get them back into their cage.

Days later, Harry is awoken by Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry is followed by Colin to his early morning Quidditch practice. After listening to a lifetime of lectures from Wood, the team gets out onto the field to practice. No sooner had they gotten in the air, they find the Slytherin Quidditch team also on the field with their new player, none other than Draco Malfoy. As they goggle at their new brooms, Nimbus 2001s bought by Draco’s father, Hermione makes a remark about Gryffindor getting on the team with talent. Draco calls her a mudblood and attempts to perform a curse on Malfoy, but ends up on the ground, burping up slugs. Harry and Hermione quickly take him to Hagrid’s.

When Ron was almost relieved of his slug burping, they headed back to the castle to find that their detentions were that night. Harry was to help Lockhart answer his fan mail. Hours later he is in Lockhart’s office scribbling names on envelopes when he hears it. A cold voice hissing…Come…come to me…let me rip you, let me kill you… Harry is startled and asks Lockhart who said that. Lockhart didn’t know what Harry was talking about.

In October after a muddy Quidditch practice, Harry makes his way up to Gryffindor Tower. He is met by Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor House Ghost. Nick is troubled after once again being denied membership to the Headless Hunt, a group for headless ghosts. Argus Filch, the Caretaker, finds Harry dripping mud on the floor. He is taken to his office to be convicted of his wrong doing but is interrupted when something crashed to the floor above. While Filch is gone finding the culprit, Harry discovers a Kwickspell letter on his desk. Filch didn’t know how to do magic! Filch comes back and figures that Harry was reading his (or rather, a "friend’s") mail and Harry gets away without a detention.

It turns out that Nick had told Peeves to drop a cabinet over Filch’s office. To repay Nick for getting him out of a detention, Harry goes to Nick’s Deathday Party. He, Ron, and Hermione go down to one of the dungeons on Halloween for the party and don’t have a very good time. As they are leaving up the stairs back to the entrance hall, Harry hears the voice again. It leads him to the second floor where the trio finds the words, "The Chamber has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware" dabbed on a wall along with Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, hanging off a torch above a puddle of water. Before they know it, the whole school is there after their Halloween dinner. Dumbledore sends all students to bed and pronounces Mrs. Norris to be petrified. After some questioning, the Trio goes up to their Common Room.

A few days later in a usually boring History of Magic lesson, Hermione asks Professer Binns about the Chamber of Secrets. He reluctantly gives in and tells of a hidden chamber under the school built by one of the school founders, Salazar Slytherin. It is said that a monster resides in this chamber and can only be controlled by Slytherin’s true heir and is used to get rid of all of the muggle borns from the school.

After class the trio goes to do a bit of investigating. They find scorch marks and some spiders scuttling in a straight line through a crack in the wall. They then enter the girl’s bathroom next to the scene of the crime and find Moaning Murtle, the ghost that haunts the bathroom. They try to ask her questions about the other night, but fail. They return to their common room. That night, Hermione questions who the heir could be. They think quickly of Malfoy and wonder how they could see if it really was him. Hermione suggests a Polyjuice potion which turns someone into someone else.

After getting a permission slip from Lockhart to get the potion book containing their desired potion out of the library, they’re back in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. They learn that the potion will take a month to brew.

On Saturday morning, Harry wakes up for his first Quidditch match. In no time, he’s on the field facing the Slytherin team. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and they were up in the air. As Harry is searching for the snitch, a bludger continues to try and knock Harry off his broom. Someone tampered with it. As he tries to avoid the bludger, he sees the snitch hovering over Malfoys ears. He speeds towards Malfoy and catches the snitch, but the bludger rammed into Harry’s arm and broke it. On the ground, Lockhart tries to mend his arm but ends up removing all his arm’s bones.
That night in the hospital wing, Harry gets a visit from Dobby and learns that he sealed the platform and tampered with the bludger. He also learns that the Chamber had been opened before. Before he could get any more information out of the elf, another petrified body was carried into the hospital wing, Colin. Dumbledore confirms everyone’s worst nightmare, the Chamber was indeed, open.

About a week later, the trio were heading to the Great Hall for a Dueling Club they had heard about earlier. Lockhart and Snape, Harry’s least favorite teachers, were in charge of it. Harry and Draco are chosen to practice their new learned spell in front of the other students, and Draco makes a snake shoot out in front of Harry’s eyes. The snake looked like it was about to attack Justin, so Harry called it off. Everyone was scared.

Back in the Common Room, Harry learns that he was speaking Parseltounge, the language of snakes. Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth and Harry began to suspect himself of being Slytherin’s heir, as did the rest of the school. Harry goes to the library to speak to Justin about the snakes, but only finds his friends, talking about him. As he leaves the library, he finds Jusin along with Nearly Headless Nick, petrified. Harry is taken to Dumbledore’s office where he speaks to the sorting hat about his house placement. He then sees a rather sickly looking bird perchered beside Dumbledore's desk. Suddently, the bird bursts into flames. When Dumbledore entered his office, Harry tried to explain that he had nothing to do with the bird starting on fire. Fumbledore tells him that this bird's name is Faukes and that he is a Phoenix. Phoenixs burst into flame when they die and are reborn from their ashes. He also tells how their tears have healing powers and other properties about the bird. He then asks if anything was wrong, but Harry replied, no.

Christmas came as did the finish of the Polyjuice potion. On Christmas night, the trio were to drink the potion and transform into Draco’s cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, and another Slytherin girl. Hermione had filled some cupcakes with a sleeping draft. Crabbe and Goyle were to find them and fall asleep. Harry and Ron performed that part flawlessly. They got some hairs and returned to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. They changed into Slytherin robes and drank the potion. Harry and Ron changed into their Slytherins, but Hermione refused to come out of her stall. Harry and Ron left without her.

They finally found the Draco in the dungeon minutes later and were lead the Slytherin Common Room where all they found out from Malfoy was that a girl had died the last time the Chamber was opened. Malfoy was not the heir.

It turned out that Hermione had taken a cat hair with her potion and was transformed into one. She had to stay in the hospital for a few weeks. After visiting Hermione, Harry and Ron find that Moaning Myrtle had flooded the bathroom again. They enter it cautiously and Harry finds a diary on the floor. Myrtle tells him someone had thrown it at her. Harry, interested, keeps it.

Days later, Harry is up in his room with the Diary. He takes a quill and a drip of ink falls onto a page. It disappears. Harry writes a sentence and he gets and answer back. The person writing on the other side, Tom Riddle, was from Hogwarts, fifty years before, the time when the Chamber was first opened. He then takes Harry back to that time and shows his catching of the culprit. Harry is astonished when he sees the culprit and his monster, a giant spider. It was Hagrid.
A few days later, Harry returned from a Qudditch match with his bed and things all in ruins. Someone had stolen the diary back.

The next day was the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch match. As Harry walks out of the castle, he hears the voice again. Hermione runs away to the library having just thought of something.
As Harry and his teams gets ready to go out to the field, Professer McGonagal announces that another attack has happened. Harry and Ron are taken to the hospital wing were they find Hermione and another girl petrified. Harry and Ron decide it’s time to visit Hagrid.

That night, the sneak out to Hagrid’s hut wearing Harry’s invisibility cloak. When they get there, they are soon shoved to a corner as others arrive. Dumbledore is followed into the hut by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. Lucius Malfoy soon arrives with an announcement that Dumbledore was to step down form headmaster. Hagrid is taken away to the wizard prison, Azkaban in Fudge’s attempts to stop the attacks. As he leaves, he makes a remark to follow the spiders. Harry knows what to do.

A few nights later, Harry and Ron were again under the cloak making their way out of the castle. They find their trail of spiders making its way into the Forbidden Forest. They followed the spiders deep into the forest, right into the lair of Aragog, Hagrid’s giant spider Harry saw in the diary.

Harry and Ron learned that Hagrid wasn’t the one who had opened the Chamber and that the girl that had died from the monster had died in a bathroom. After a narrow escape out of the forest when Ron and Harry were to be fed to Aragog’s children, Harry realizes up in his dormitory and maybe Moaning Myrtle was the girl who had died.

As they sat in the Great Hall the next day for breakfast, Ginny came over to Harry and Ron to tell them something. She is interrupted by Percy and immediately jumps up from her seat and leaves without a word. Harry suspected it was something about the Chamber.

All throughout the day, Harry and Ron were trying to find a way to get to the bathroom without being caught to ask Myrtle some questions. Just as they were about to open the door to the bathroom, McGonagal notices them and asks what they’re up to. They said they were going to visit Hermione and, unbelievably, she allows them to go the hospital wing. As they sit beside Hermione, they find a piece of paper clutched in her hand. Harry gets it out and reads it. They’ve got their monster. It’s a Basilisk.

They walk to the teacher’s lounge to tell a teacher what they found out, but it’s empty. A voice rings above them telling all teachers to report to the lounge and all students to their common rooms. Harry and Ron hide in a closet. They learn that a girl had been taken to the chamber. That girl was Ginny Weasley.

The boys ran to Lockhart’s room to tell him all they knew since they thought he was going to go and save Ginny. When they get there, he’s packing his bags. They make him go with them to bathroom and ask Myrtle their questions about her death. She tells them that she had seen a pair of yellow eyes by a sink and then had just, died. A Basilisk’s look can kill…the entrance to the chamber was in the bathroom. Harry searches for any sign of an entrance and finds a snake etched on the side of a tap of the sink. He says "open" in parseltongue and it opens to a large hole. He, Ron, and Lockhart slide down it and find themselves in a large pipe. As they make their way down it they find a huge snake skin. Lockhart then grabes Ron’s wand and tries to perform a memory charm on them, take some skin and become a hero once again. The wand backfires and it’s Lockhart’s memory that was modified, along with the tunnel caving in as well. Ron and Lockhart are stuck on the other side of the rocks. Harry is left to go on.

Harry walks down the tunnel and finds the entrance. He enters the chamber and finds Ginny laying on the floor. He runs up to her. She unconscious and dead cold. Tom Riddle then appears and Harry learns that it was he who had opened the chamber and was using Ginny to open it this time. He also learns that Tom Riddle was also Lord Voldemort. All of a sudden, Faulks, Dumbledore’s phoenix flies into the chamber carrying the sorting hat. Tom Riddle smiles and calls out the Basilisk. Harry runs around blindly and then hears Faulks poke out it’s eyes. The Basilisk’s tail swoops the sorting hat into Harry’s arms and he puts it on, hoping for anything to help him. A sword falls on his head and he takes the hat off and kills the Basilisk with the sword. As he does that, a venomous Basilisk fang sears into Harry’s arm. He’s about to die.

As Tom watches Harry die, Faulks flies over to Harry and cries on his wound. The tears heal Harry. He then takes the fang and sears it into the diary. Tom Riddle is gone.

Ginny then wakes up and they go back down the tunnel and find Ron and Lockhart. They all then take a ride on Faukes up the pipe and back into the bathroom.

They make their way to Dumbledore’s office and find the Weasleys there. Harry tells the whole story to the listening audience. As the everyone leaves, Harry and Ron are left with Dumbledore. They receive special awards and Ron is sent to send a letter and get Hagrid back. Just then, Lucius Malfoy comes in with his House Elf who happens to be Dobby. He is infuriated that Dumbledore’s back, but when he hears the news about the capture of the heir, he is a bit embarrassing. Harry learns that the diary was Malfoys and that he had slipped in Ginny’s cauldron in Diagon Alley. He takes off his sock and puts the diary in it. He runs after Malfoy and returns the diary. Malfoy takes off the sock and throws it behind him and Dobby catches it, setting him free.

The term finally ends and everyone is sent back home. Hermione asks if Harry’s aunt and uncle would be proud of him. He laughs and says they’d probably be sad that he hadn’t died altogether and they all walked back into the muggle world.

The first time i read someone work about the Chamber of Secrets... Can I just ask you a question... Did you type out the whole novel!!! :huh:
Well, what can I say... You said the story about the book... Well I will give you 40 points for this because there is no analysis...