Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Publishing Facts and Information:

UK Book Info

  • First British Printing: July,1998
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury
  • Pages (paperback): 256
  • Price (Hardcover): £11.99

US Book Info

  • First U.S. Printing: June, 1998
  • Pages: 341
  • Price (Hardcover): $19.95
  • Book Colors:
    Outside: Green and Blue
    Inside: Dark Red
    Title Writing: Silver

Dedications (US):

For Sean P.F. Harris
Getaway driver and foul-weather friend

Summaries from the back of the books

(from back of UK book)
Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Little does he know that this year will be just as eventful as the last…

(from back of US book)
Ever since Harry Potter had come home for the summer, the Dursleys had been so mean and hideous that all Harry wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry recieves a warning from a strange impish creature who says that if Harry returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls’ bathroom. But then the real trouble begins – someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonus rival than ever? Could it possible be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects…Harry Potter himself!

Chapters:

  1. The Worst Birthday
  2. Dobby’s Warning
  3. The Burrow
  4. At Flourish and Blotts
  5. The Whomping Willow
  6. Gilderoy Lockhart
  7. Mudbloods and Murmurs
  8. The Deathday Party
  9. The Writing on the Wall
  10. The Rogue Bludger
  11. The Dueling Club
  12. The Polyjuice Potion
  13. The Very Secret Diary
  14. Cornelius Fudge
  15. Aragog
  16. The Chamber of Secrets
  17. The Heir of Slytherin
  18. Dobby’s Reward

Awards and Recognitions:

  • Nestle Smarties Book Prize- Gold Metal 9-11 years, 1998
  • British Book Awards- Children’s Book of the Year
  • North East Scotland Book Awards, 1998
  • The Booksellers Association. The Bookseller Author of the year, 1998
  • FCBG Children’s Book Awards- Overall Winner and for Longer Novel Category, 1998
  • Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Award, 1999
  • North East Book Award- 1999

Plot Summary: Contains Spoilers

Short Summary:

The summer starts off at the Dursley’s house where a house elf comes to warn Harry not to go back to Hogwarts, and that there is an evil plot. Harry still returns to Hogwarts, where writing on the wall says “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Hair Beware.” Everybody things Harry is the heir to Slytherin, because he proves he can talk to snakes in a dueling match. Finally, at the end of the book, Ron’s little sister Ginny goes missing. Harry and Ron find the entrance to the chamber and go to save Ginny. Ron gets trapped so it is up to Harry. Harry finds that the heir of Slytherin is Tom Riddle (Voldemort) and that he wanted to meet Harry all year. He also says that Ginny opened the chamber (though was possessed by a diary of Tom Riddle’s). Harry kills Riddle’s memory and saves Ginny.

Long Summary:

Harry spends his summer at the Dursley house. On a night that was very important to Harry’s Uncle, Vernon’s business career, with a customer and his wife coming over, a house elf called Dobby arrives. Dobby tells Harry not to go back to Hogwarts, but Harry says no. Then, Dobby goes into the kitchen and does a charm. Seconds later an owl comes in and drops the letter on the head of Vernon’s customer’s wife, which send them both out of the house terrified. The letter was from The Improper Use of Magic’s office, saying that Underage Wizards could not do Magic from their houses, even though Harry did not do the charm. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia lock Harry up in his room, with bars on his window.

After being rescued from Ron Weasley and his two brothers in a flying car, Harry goes to the Weasleys’ house for the remained of the summer. While here, he is supposed to go to Diagon Alley. But with a flu powder accident, he accidentally ends up in Knockturn Alley, an alley of Diagon alley with all sorts of shops for the dark arts. While here, he sees Lucius Malfoy, the horrible father of his enemy, Draco Malfoy.. He is selling dark arts things.

Harry finds his way back to Diagon Alley with the help of Hagrid, who just happened to be in Diagon Alley that same day. Harry, while meeting up with the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione, go to a book shop and see Gilderoy Lockart, a conceited hansom wizard who has done many great things, and says that he will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in his second year, after driving a flying car to school, since Platform 9 3/4 would not let him in. Whle flying they bumped into the Whomping Willow, a tree that fights back, and Ron smashed his wand, and the car was destroyed and (the car) ran into the forest. After being caught, both Harry and Ron receive detention.
Harry catches up to the rest of his classmates. Harry’s first class of the year is Herbology, where the students learn how to re-pot Mandrakes. On Harry’s first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Lockart gives the class a pop quiz, each asking questions such as “What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favorite color?” Harry serves his detention with Lockart, helping him answer fan mail.

Harry has quidditch practice, where the slytherin team shows up saying that they get the field today, with a not from Professor Snape. The note gives Slytherin the permission to practice on account to train their new seeker, Draco Malfoy. The Slytherin team also has brand new brooms, Nimbus 2001’s. Hermione says a comment to Draco, saying that at least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent. Then Draco calls Hermione a mud blood (a foul name for Muggle Born Wizards or Witches). Draco tries to hex Malfoy, but since his wand snapped in half the spell backfired, and Ron started puking out slugs. Harry and Hermione take him to Hagrids house. Hagrid says that the only thing to do is to wait until it stops.

Later that night, Ron has detention shining silver in the trophy room, and Harry has to help Lockhart answer his fan mail. While in detention, Harry hears noises saying “Come. Come to me. Let me rip you. Let me tear you. Let me kill you” but Lockhart doesn’t hear the noises. Nobody could figure out why only Harry could kill it.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione attend a deathday party for nearly headless Nick on Halloween. Half way through the party the kids leave, and upon returning to their dormitory, they see, Enemies of the Heir beware, written in blood, with Mrs. Norris (Filtch’s cat) petrified. During their next History of Magic class, Hermione asks Professor Binns to tell them about the Chamber of Secrets. He says that long ago, when Hogwarts was first built, that the founders (Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin) were great friends. But one day Slytherin left the school (because he only wanted pure-bloods in the school) leaving behind a chamber called the Chamber of Secrets. That only the heir of slytherin can open the chamber.

During their first quidditch match, right after Harry catches the snitch, his arm is broken by a rogue bludger. Lockhart tries to help, but actually does a spell where all Harry’s bones disappear, so Harry is in the Hospital re-growing them all night. This night Colin Creevy (A Gryffindor 1st year) is found petrified.

The school starts a dueling club, and at the 1st meeting, Draco throws a snake at Harry, and Harry talks to it, so everybody thinks Harry is the heir to slytherin. As the year goes on, several people get petrified. Hermione thinks of an idea to use a Polyjuice potion (a potion that can transform you into somebody else for an house) to talk to Malfoy as Crabbe and Goyle to ask him if he’s the heir to Slytherin. They do this (not Hermione, she took cat hair by accident and turns into a human-cat), but Harry and Ron find out that Malfoy is not the heir of slytherin, but do find out that the last time the chamber was opened, a muggle born died, this was 50 years ago. They come back and tell Hermione what happened.

Harry and Ron return to Moaning Myrtle’s (a sad ghost) bathroom (where they made the potion) and find a diary. They show it to Hermione, but nothing is written in it. Later that night Harry writes in the journal and somebody writes back. (words appear) They take Harry to the world 50 years ago and show him that this person named Tom Riddle turned Hagrid in for being the heir to slytherin. The next day the diary is stolen.

Hermione gets petrified, so Harry and Ron go to see Hagrid. While here, Hagrid is taken away to Akaban (wizard prison) by the minister of Magic, and Dumbledore is being suspended of Headmaster. Hagrid tell them to follow the spiders.
The next day at the end of their class, they follow the spiders to Aragog, a giant spider Hagrid kept as a pet. Aragog tells them that Hagrid is not the heir to Slytherin, that he is innocent. Then Aragog tries to kill Harry and Ron, but they escape when the flying car appears.

Several days later, a message is left saying “Her body will lie in the Chamber forever” and that Ginny Weasley had gone missing. They realized that nobody had died yet by a not in Hermione’s petrified hand, saying that the Basilisk was the snake, and that nobody had died yet because they didn’t see its eyes directly. Harry and Ron go to get Lockhart (who is supposed to be going to get her, after saying he knew where the chamber was) trying to run away. They take him to the chamber (which they found in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom) and find out it was Myrtle who died 50 years ago.

In the chamber, Lockhart reveals that he never really did the great things, but it was other wizards. Then he steals Ron’s wand and tries to blast the boys memories away, but it backfires, so Lockhart has no idea who he is. Harry goes to try and save Ginny and while Here he finds that Tom Riddle framed Hagrid and he was actually the heir, and he later turns out to be Lord Voldemort. He says that he put Ginny in a trance and she had been attacking the people all year.

Then The basilisk starts to attack Harry. Dumbledore’s phoenix appears with the sorting hat. Harry put the sorting hat on and a silver sword with the words Godric Gryffindor falls out. Harry kills the basilisk, but it stabs him with his fang. Then Fawkes (the Phoenix) makes tears over Harry’s arm which heals him. Then he takes the fang and sticks it in the diary. Tom Riddle disappears (since he was only a memory in the diary) and Ginny wakes up. Everybody gets out of the chamber safely.

Ron and Harry both get awards for beating the basilisk. Lucius Malfoy appears along with Dobby. Dobby points out that Lucius gave Ginny the diary. On Malfoy’s way out Harry gives Lucius the diary with a sock in it. He takes out the sock and throws it in the air, and Dobby catches it. (If a house elf gets clothes, they are free).

Everybody who was petrified returns to their normal state. Gryffindor wins the house cup, and Harry goes back to the Dursleys for the summer.