harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Eight: The Deathday Party
Summary
October arrives, bringing rain. Quidditch practice continues. One evening as Harry is walking back through the castle corridors, he encounters Nearly- Headless Nick, the not-quite beheaded Gryffindor ghost. Nick is looking gloomy and Harry asks why, only to hear Nick explain that he has just been rejected from the Headless Hunt on account of his head being unable to come all the way off. The conversation ends in a flash, as they are spied by Mrs. Norris, Filch the caretaker's cat, and Nick warns Harry to hurry off, so as not to get in trouble for tracking in mud. Filch spies Harry and drags him into his office, begins to write up a punishment complaint, but is interrupted by a large crash. Filch rushes out. While he is gone Harry peers curiously into an open envelope on the desk and finds a mail-order course called "Kwikspell" for wizards who are not fully magical. He returns it before Filch returns, gleefully telling his cat that Peeves the Poltergeist will certainly be expelled for damaging a valuable cabinet. Filch stops mid-sentence when he notices that the Kwikspell envelope is so close to Harry's elbow, and he asks hysterically whether Harry read it. Harry lied that he hadn't, and Filch seems quite alarmed and lets Harry go.

Outside, Nick explains that he had told Peeves to cause a distraction, and Harry is quite grateful and asks if there is anything he can do to help with the rejection from the Headless Hunt. Nick replies joyfully that he could attend his 500th Deathday party, taking place on Halloween, and during it mention to the other headless ghosts how terribly impressive and frightening all the students find Nick. Harry agrees to come, and he invites Ron and Hermione. On Halloween, the three head to the dungeons where they hear awful, scratchy music, they smell rotting food, and they glimpse hundreds of see-through figures. Nick welcomes them and they take a look around, watching the ghosts dance and walk through the table of rotting food, trying to taste it. Hermione spies a ghost from the girls' bathroom, Moaning Myrtle, and quickly leads her friends away, hoping not to get into a conversation with her.
Peeves approaches at this point, mentions having heard the three speaking of Myrtle, and calls Myrtle over. Hermione says hastily that they were just saying how nice she looked tonight, but Myrtle moans that they were making fun of her, and she proceeds to list all the attributes they might have mocked: fat, ugly, moping. Peeves notes that she had forgotten pimply, and Myrtle flees tearfully from the party. Nick arrives at this point, introduces them to the (headless) head of the Headless Hunt, and the three living students are past ready to leave. They hurry off during Nick's speech, and in the passageway Harry hears an eerie murderous voice saying that it is time to kill. He tears off in the direction from which it comes, his friends close at his heels, and they arrive in a deserted corridor and see scrawled on a wall, "The chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware." Then from the ceiling they see a stiff, hanging cat-Mrs. Norris. Suddenly the halls rumble and fill with people coming out of the feast, and Draco Malfoy calls out, grinning and delighted, "You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
Analysis
Not only is there life after death in the wizard world, but life's problems don't end after death. Peeves still acts bitter, mischievous and vengeful. Nick is excluded from the Headless Hunt and feels dejected. Myrtle is still self- conscious and miserable. None of these ghosts are particularly happy, but they get along. This landscape of the afterworld mirrors the other human landscapes in these novels. Whether a community is made up of Muggles, wizards, ghosts, students or teachers, it possesses all the interactions and triumphs and disappointments of the world that we experience. Nobody is exempt from life as we live it, but everybody has his or her own different tools while moving through it.
In this chapter, we are introduced to a new anomaly in the wizard world. We have learned of Mudbloods, wizards being born to non-wizards, but only when Harry reads Filch's letter do we learn of non-wizards born to wizards. Filch is one of these, and he is clearly quite self-conscious about that fact, growing flustered and self-conscious to the point that he even lets Harry go unpunished.
When Harry heard the voice a second time, his reaction is to run toward it-an instinctive quality that enables him to "live up to"-or rather, in a scale of fairness-deserve the fame given him at birth. When a frightening situation presents itself, Harry does not rest until he is certain that everybody is safe. He does not run away from the voice but toward it, hoping that he can stop the possessor of the voice from doing what it threatens to do. This is why Harry Potter succeeds, as we learn more further in the story. He does not survive situations without assistance-rather, he survives each one only with great assistance from friends and teachers.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter Eight: The Deathday Party
Summary
October arrives, bringing rain. Quidditch practice continues. One evening as Harry is walking back through the castle corridors, he encounters Nearly- Headless Nick, the not-quite beheaded Gryffindor ghost. Nick is looking gloomy and Harry asks why, only to hear Nick explain that he has just been rejected from the Headless Hunt on account of his head being unable to come all the way off. The conversation ends in a flash, as they are spied by Mrs. Norris, Filch the caretaker's cat, and Nick warns Harry to hurry off, so as not to get in trouble for tracking in mud. Filch spies Harry and drags him into his office, begins to write up a punishment complaint, but is interrupted by a large crash. Filch rushes out. While he is gone Harry peers curiously into an open envelope on the desk and finds a mail-order course called "Kwikspell" for wizards who are not fully magical. He returns it before Filch returns, gleefully telling his cat that Peeves the Poltergeist will certainly be expelled for damaging a valuable cabinet. Filch stops mid-sentence when he notices that the Kwikspell envelope is so close to Harry's elbow, and he asks hysterically whether Harry read it. Harry lied that he hadn't, and Filch seems quite alarmed and lets Harry go.

Outside, Nick explains that he had told Peeves to cause a distraction, and Harry is quite grateful and asks if there is anything he can do to help with the rejection from the Headless Hunt. Nick replies joyfully that he could attend his 500th Deathday party, taking place on Halloween, and during it mention to the other headless ghosts how terribly impressive and frightening all the students find Nick. Harry agrees to come, and he invites Ron and Hermione. On Halloween, the three head to the dungeons where they hear awful, scratchy music, they smell rotting food, and they glimpse hundreds of see-through figures. Nick welcomes them and they take a look around, watching the ghosts dance and walk through the table of rotting food, trying to taste it. Hermione spies a ghost from the girls' bathroom, Moaning Myrtle, and quickly leads her friends away, hoping not to get into a conversation with her.
Peeves approaches at this point, mentions having heard the three speaking of Myrtle, and calls Myrtle over. Hermione says hastily that they were just saying how nice she looked tonight, but Myrtle moans that they were making fun of her, and she proceeds to list all the attributes they might have mocked: fat, ugly, moping. Peeves notes that she had forgotten pimply, and Myrtle flees tearfully from the party. Nick arrives at this point, introduces them to the (headless) head of the Headless Hunt, and the three living students are past ready to leave. They hurry off during Nick's speech, and in the passageway Harry hears an eerie murderous voice saying that it is time to kill. He tears off in the direction from which it comes, his friends close at his heels, and they arrive in a deserted corridor and see scrawled on a wall, "The chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware." Then from the ceiling they see a stiff, hanging cat-Mrs. Norris. Suddenly the halls rumble and fill with people coming out of the feast, and Draco Malfoy calls out, grinning and delighted, "You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
Analysis
Not only is there life after death in the wizard world, but life's problems don't end after death. Peeves still acts bitter, mischievous and vengeful. Nick is excluded from the Headless Hunt and feels dejected. Myrtle is still self- conscious and miserable. None of these ghosts are particularly happy, but they get along. This landscape of the afterworld mirrors the other human landscapes in these novels. Whether a community is made up of Muggles, wizards, ghosts, students or teachers, it possesses all the interactions and triumphs and disappointments of the world that we experience. Nobody is exempt from life as we live it, but everybody has his or her own different tools while moving through it.
In this chapter, we are introduced to a new anomaly in the wizard world. We have learned of Mudbloods, wizards being born to non-wizards, but only when Harry reads Filch's letter do we learn of non-wizards born to wizards. Filch is one of these, and he is clearly quite self-conscious about that fact, growing flustered and self-conscious to the point that he even lets Harry go unpunished.
When Harry heard the voice a second time, his reaction is to run toward it-an instinctive quality that enables him to "live up to"-or rather, in a scale of fairness-deserve the fame given him at birth. When a frightening situation presents itself, Harry does not rest until he is certain that everybody is safe. He does not run away from the voice but toward it, hoping that he can stop the possessor of the voice from doing what it threatens to do. This is why Harry Potter succeeds, as we learn more further in the story. He does not survive situations without assistance-rather, he survives each one only with great assistance from friends and teachers.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Seven: Mudbloods and Murmurs
Summary
Time rushes by uneventfully at Hogwarts. Harry avoids Gilderoy Lockhart and Colin Creevey as much as possible, and Ron's wand continues to muddle spells. Early Saturday morning, Harry is shaken awake by Oliver Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, for a crack-of-dawn practice. Harry dresses quickly and on the way to meet the team in the locker room, runs into Colin, who eagerly asks him to explain the rules of Quidditch, which he does. The game's basic terms are this: the game is played with seven people on broomsticks, and during it the small golden Snitch flies around and must be caught by the Seeker (Harry's position) in order for the game to end. Two Bludgers fly around, trying to knock the players off their broomsticks, and two team members, the Beaters (Fred and George Weasley), try to beat the Bludgers away. Other than this, the game is similar to water polo, in that the remaining three members, the Chasers (Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell), aim to throw a ball, the Quaffle, through the goal posts and past the Keeper (Oliver Wood).

The team spends a long time in the locker room, listening to Wood explain moves. Finally, they head outside to practice and are greeted by Ron and Hermione and Colin Creevey, all watching from the bleachers. Colin is taking pictures and calling for Harry to look over and smile, and Harry is embarrassed and pretends not to know him.
Wood is beginning to grow suspicious that Colin is a spy for Slytherin. Slytherin's team enters the field, interrupting the practice and infuriating Wood, who had reserved the field already. The Slytherins refuse to leave, claiming that they must train their new Seeker. Draco Malfoy steps up, smirking and explaining that his father made a generous gift of seven top-notch broomsticks to the team. He makes several disparaging remarks about Fred and George's rather tattered broomsticks, and Hermione steps in and remarks that at least Fred and George were talented enough not to have to buy themselves onto the team. Malfoy gets angry and calls Hermione a "Mudblood," a word that causes the crowd to gasp and Ron to pull out his wand and cast a spell on Malfoy. Ron's spell reverses, causing him to belch slugs.
Hermione and Harry take Ron to Hagrid's cabin, where Lockhart is bidding adieu to a rather sullen-looking Hagrid. Hagrid cheers up when he sees the students, and he offers Ron a basin for his slug-belching, remarking cheerfully, "Better out than in." The students recount the story and Ron explains that Mudblood is a terribly derogatory term for a Muggle-born wizard. Hagrid soon changes the subject, and asks Harry for an autographed photo. Harry bristles until he realizes that Hagrid was joking. Hagrid shows off his magic-enhanced pumpkins, although Harry knows that ever since Hagrid was mysteriously expelled from Hogwarts and left to remain as gamekeeper, he is not allowed to use magic.
Harry and Ron are called to do their belated detentions for the flying car incident. While Ron is called to help the grouchy caretaker Filch polish trophies, Harry is called to help Lockhart answer his fan mail. Both boys believe they have the worst end of the deal. In Lockhart's office, as he is addressing envelopes and inserting signed photos, Harry hears a high, eerie voice murmuring, "Come to me….let me rip you….let me tear you…" and he jumps up, alarmed. He is alarmed further when Lockhart claims to have heard nothing. The thought of this chilling voice plagues Harry for the rest of the evening.
Analysis
This chapter elaborates upon bigotry that is evident in the wizard world every time the Malfoys enter the scene. Pure-blood wizards are snobbish toward those who are Muggle-born, of one race or class trying to wipe out the next. Draco Malfoy turns on Hermione for her Muggle heritage and Ron Weasley for his family's meager finances, and Hermione's response that at least the Weasley twins had enough talent to play Quidditch without having to buy their ways onto the team, hits Malfoy in a vulnerable spot. He places so much pride on the fact that he can afford to lean back on his family's status and money without having to do anything to deserve it, that when Hermione points out that he does not deserve much of what he gets, he is upset. Malfoy picks on Ron for his poverty, Hermione for her heritage, and Harry for his fame. However, at different points in the story, he envies much of what they have: in chapter four, Malfoy complains to his father about Hermione's grades being higher than his, and about Harry being so famous and getting to play Quidditch. Succeeding at Quidditch, school grades, and fame requires competency, talent and a work ethic. Malfoy lacks all three, and he knows it.
The voice that Harry hears in Professor Lockhart's office is the first clue of the conflict to come. Harry hears an eerie voice that nobody else can hear, and at this point it is left to the reader to try to guess at the source of the voice. This is perhaps the first tangible sign that something is very wrong at Hogwarts.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Six: Gilderoy Lockhart
Summary
At breakfast the morning after the arrival by car, Hermione is acting sulky and annoyed with Ron and Harry, although most of their other friends are still clearly impressed. Soon a flock of owls arrives, bringing the day's letters and packages. Errol, the Weasley's aged owl, falls into Hermione's milk jug, and when Ron digs him out and cleans him off, he notices that the envelope in his beak is red and beginning to smoke. It is a Howler, and Ron opens it….and the voice of Mrs. Weasley explodes loudly and furiously into the great hall, yelling at Ron for ruining the car, getting Mr. Weasley in trouble with his job, and putting his own and Harry's lives in danger.

From this point on, Hermione is friendly again, as she seems to feel that Harry and Ron have been punished enough. Together, the three friends walk to Herbology class, where Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in flamboyant turquoise robes, is cheerfully and smugly advising a disgruntled Professor Sprout on how to doctor the Whomping Willow. Lockhart pulls Harry aside and says, with great pain and understanding in his voice, that he blames himself for the car incident. It soon grows apparent that he believes that ever since he gave Harry a taste of fame that day in the bookstore, Harry has been trying to recapture that fame by behaving recklessly. Harry is stunned and offended as he collects himself and joins his classmates in the greenhouse.
In the greenhouse, Professor Sprout is explaining that the lesson of the day will involve repotting seedling Mandrakes, which Hermoine explains are a strong restorative, used to return transfigured people to their original state. These plants are pale green, mottled-looking babies with leaves growing out of their heads and a cry that is fatal, so the entire class puts on earmuffs to handle them. Before they begin repotting, a boy from Hufflepuff House named Justin Finch-Fletchley introduces himself to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He explains that he almost went to Eton (implying that he is Muggle-born since Eton is not a wizard school) and that he persuaded his parents to send him to Hogwarts after showing them Lockhart's books, persuading them how useful wizards can be. The students work with the Mandrakes, and the Gryffindor House second-years head over to Transfiguration class with Professor McGonagall, where Ron's broken wand malfunctions, casting putrid smoke everywhere.
On the way to his next class, defense against the dark arts, which is taught by Professor Lockhart, Harry is accosted by a small camera-clutching Gryffindor first-year named Colin Creevey, who shyly asks Harry for a signed picture to prove that they met. He makes a large sentimental fuss about Harry's history, Hogwarts, magic in general, the whole time humiliating Harry. To make matters worse, Draco Malfoy passes by them during this and loudly announces that Harry is giving out signed photos; when Ron steps up to defend Harry, Malfoy says dryly that one of the signed photos would be worth more than Ron's entire house. Before a fight can break out, Lockhart strolls through, overhears, and suggest that he and Harry both pose for a signed photo for Colin.
Afterwards, Lockhart gives Harry yet another bit of fatherly advice about why not to give out signed photos this early in his career. Harry is horrified and sits as far back in Lockhart's classroom as possible. Lockhart begins the class with a quiz to make sure they've been doing their reading of his many books. The quiz contains over fifty questions pertaining to Lockhart's personal interests, secret desires, favorite color, and greatest achievements. The day's assignment is dealing with pixies, who wreak havoc when Lockhart lets them out of their cage. He is unable to get them back into their cage, so he hastily leaves the room, asking Ron, Harry and Hermione to clean up the angry pixies.
Analysis
This chapter gives a clearer and more thorough look at the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart. In his interaction with his peers, such as Professor Spout, he is bossy and patronizing, giving them self-satisfied advice in their own fields of expertise. As a teacher in his own class, he does not know how to control the dark arts nearly quite so well as he professes in his books. The pixies destroy the classroom, hanging students from the ceiling and tossing wands out the window. Lockhart is unable to stop them or to recapture them. When he leaves this job to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, his boasting tales of adventures with frightening creatures seem suspect; although is a handsome man, his actions and abilities do not make credible his stories.

Most importantly, Gilderoy Lockhart is portrayed here as a contrast for Harry. Lockhart vastly misunderstands Harry's famous history. Harry is humiliated when people like Colin Creevey approach in varying states of awe; any special treatment makes him uncomfortable, especially since Draco Malfoy resentfully mocks whatever "famous" attention Harry Potter happens to be getting. So for Harry to get caught twice by Lockhart in situations that bring him extra attention is horrifying; he does not want Lockhart to identify with him, to give him pointers on fame and to involve him in photo sessions. Lockhart, we begin to see in this chapter, will spare no sacrifice in order to arrive at some sort of eminence, while Harry, who was thrust into eminence without being knowing or wanting it, will do anything he can in order to feel that he is treated fairly despite his fame. He wants to succeed on his own merit, not resting back upon the history of the scar on his forehead, as opposed to Lockhart, who we soon see has little integrity on what he will do to become famous, and in how he will handle that fame. Lockhart revels in the end result, while Harry strives to make worthwhile the process.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Five: The Whomping Willow
Summary
Harry enjoys every minute of the summer at The Burrow. The night before leaving for Hogwarts, the Weasleys and Harry eat a delicious meal and dessert, set off wizard fireworks, drink a final mug of hot cocoa and finally go to bed. The next morning is pure chaos, with six children preparing their luggage for the year at Hogwarts. Mr. Weasley has enchanted his Ford Anglia so that it will fit all of them plus their luggage and pets comfortably, and after several returns for forgotten items, they finally arrive at King's Cross in time to catch the Hogwarts Express train at platform nine-and-three-quarters. The Hogwarts students arrive at the platform by walking through the wall between platforms nine and ten, and all of the Weasleys successfully do so. When it is time for Harry and Ron to go through the wall, the wall closes up and refuses to let them through. They miss the train, and in a flash of inspiration, they decide to follow the train in Mr. Weasley's flying Ford Anglia.

The ride to Hogwarts is relaxing. The boys skim the clouds, keeping sight of the red Hogwarts train below. Several hours later, night falls and the boys are bored and hungry and wondering how much longer the trip could possibly be. The Anglia runs out of gas and begins to fall toward the Hogwarts lake. Ron and Harry do their best to control it, but still the car engine dies and the car plunges straight into a strange sprawling tree in the Forbidden Forest. The tree is the Whomping Willow, the only tree in the forest that will strike back when struck. Its thick, angry branches wallop the car, Harry, and Ron. The boys manage to collect their things. They flee toward the Hogwarts castle just in time to spy through the windows the great feast and the "Sorting" process, in which first-year students try on the "sorting hat" are selected (through the judgment of the hat) for the four different houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. While the boys observe the professors' table, they wonder at the absence of Professor Severus Snape, the mean and slimy Potions professor, and as they speculate, Snape appears behind them and directs them into his office.
The boys explain their story, but Snape silences them, brandishing in their faces a newspaper article proclaiming that Muggles have noticed a flying car. Snape also reprimands them for damaging the Whomping Willow, an extremely valuable tree. Harry and Ron know that they are in trouble, and that Snape is delighted at the prospect of punishing them. Snape leaves to fetch Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster, and Minerva McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, where Harry and Ron live. When these two stern figures arrive, Harry and Ron are lectured further on what they have done, given detentions, and told that they will be permitted to remain at Hogwarts. Snape is severely disappointed by their easy punishment. Professors Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall return to the feast, not without leaving Harry and Ron a plate of sandwiches and a jug of pumpkin juice for dinner.
Harry and Ron eat and return to their part of the castle, Gryffindor Tower, through a portrait of a fat lady, to whom they must give a secret password ("wattlebird," a disapproving Hermione informs them). They are greeted in the common room by a delighted crowd, clamoring to hear about their flying arrival. Percy, Ron's brother and a Gryffindor prefect, moves towards them with a scolding look on his face, and Ron and Harry hurry up to their rooms, where they are welcomed as heroes by their awestruck roommates, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom.
Analysis
Many of the adventures in the novel entail Harry, Ron, and Hermione sneaking around, finding alternate ways to achieve certain ends. Often, Harry and his friends bravely set out on their own to remedy a situation, and other times, like this one, they are impeded by events beyond their control and forced to be resourceful. Sometimes they are caught (usually by Snape) and other times they are not. In this case, Harry and Ron are not seeking glory or adventure, but rather they simply want a fast and painless way to get back to Hogwarts. Ironically, this is one of the times when they are caught and punished and accused of calling unnecessary attention to themselves. For Harry, this is the ultimate insult; attention is always called to him, simply because of who he is, regardless of whether he wants it or not. But because Harry and Ron both are curious, courageous and resourceful, they tend to be involved in many attention- getting scenarios, sometimes with heroic aims, other times simply to explore, and still other times simply to escape a bad situation. This arrival with a crash is only the first of many times they will be noticed on a large scale.
In this chapter, food plays an important role. At the Dursley house, Harry is vastly underfed, usually given some bread and cheese or a bit of cold soup. Among the cozier and more joyful images during the last night at The Burrow is that of a large meal with Harry's favorite dessert (treacle pudding) and another mug of hot cocoa. In addition to being appreciated and included by the Weasleys, Harry is also well fed, kept healthy. His comfort greatly contrasts the unhappy, unhealthy lifestyle from which Harry escapes. At Hogwarts, right after Harry and Ron have been lectured and punished by the three angry, worried professors, Professor McGonagall conjures a self-refilling plate of sandwiches for the boys to eat alone, before going up to bed. They are punished by being secluded for their meal and given a detention, but never once is food withheld. Even while in dire trouble at Hogwarts, direr than Harry could have mustered at Privet Drive, he is still kept above a certain respectable standard of living. From what we have seen, the punishments of wizards are infinitely more humane than that of regular humans. If we had come to this point of the story with any doubt as to the good intentions of the magical world, they should be dispelled in this chapter.