harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Thirteen: The Very Secret Diary
Summary
On the way back from visiting Hermione, who is in the hospital wing recovering from her cat-state, Harry and Ron hear Filch yelling at someone, and they round the corner to see a flood of water seeping out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The boys step inside to look around, and they immediately spy a diary bobbing in the toilet. They examine it and see the name T.M. Riddle written on the first page, but the rest of the pages are blank. Ron recalls the name from his trophy-polishing detention as the boy who was rewarded for special services to the school fifty years ago. Harry feels a strange familiarity to the name, and so he pockets the diary. They show it to Hermione when she is fully cured, and she concludes that Riddle, who was commended fifty years before, must have caught the Heir of Slytherin, who had opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years before. She tries to make words appear on the pages, but with no success.

At the beginning of February, the school is calmer; nobody else has been attacked, and the Mandrakes are becoming moody and secretive-in other words, entering adolescence-and soon will be ready to be made into an elixir. Lockhart believed that he had intimidated the monster into hiding, and by Valentine's Day he was in such a cheerful mood that he decorated the great hall in pink and organized a troupe of dwarves to deliver valentines. The dwarves were not quite so cheerful, however, and an embarrassing encounter occurs when a dwarf had to kick through the masses, knock Harry's bag out of his hands, and ultimately sit on Harry's ankles in order to deliver him a singing valentine, sent (we are fairly certain) by a nearby blushing Ginny Weasley. Once Harry has gathered his things and left the laughing crowds, he notices that all of his belongings are covered in his spilt red ink, all except Riddle's diary. This puzzles Harry, and he retires to bed early that evening and pages through the diary. He writes his name on a page and watches it disappear, and suddenly the ink rises up again, forming the words, "Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?" This begins a dialogue between the two boys with oddly similar appearances and pasts, separated by fifty years and connected through this secret diary. Riddle writes that he was in fact awarded his medal for catching the person who had opened the Chamber, and he invites Harry to visit his memory.
Harry agrees, and within seconds he is blown into the pages of the diary to the headmaster's room. Here he witnesses a conversation between Riddle and the then- headmaster in which Riddle's request to remain at Hogwarts for the summer holidays is turned down because of the recent dangers of the open Chamber of Secrets. Harry then follows Riddle through the corridors, once running into a younger, auburn-haired Dumbledore who warns Riddle to head back to his dormitory. Riddle and Harry wait in the dungeons for a long time, and finally they hear and follow nearby footsteps. The footsteps belong to a younger Hagrid, who is trying to conceal something inside a box. Riddle explains that he must turn Hagrid in for possessing the guilty monster, and Hagrid argues vehemently that the animal inside the box is innocent. Riddle pulls out his wand, casting open the box and releasing a giant, hairy spider that scuttles over him and out through the corridor. Harry is whirled back into real time, back into his dormitory, and he begins to tell Ron what he saw.
Analysis
When Harry decides not to leave the diary bobbing in the toilet, we see a flash of intuition telling him that the name T.M. Riddle is significant. Voldemort left Harry with marks other than the scar on his forehead; we learn later in this book that he left him with the ability to speak Parseltongue, and in the first book of the series, we learn that the wand that chose Harry contained the brother phoenix feather to the wand that chose Voldemort. Harry is connected to his nemesis in more ways that he knows or understands, and this explains his curiosity about Riddle before he knows that Riddle is the boy who one day would become Voldemort. Good and evil are never wholly unconnected, but rather will always return to interact with each other. These moral extremes even at times share origins, as Riddle and Harry do, with their orphaned, Muggle-raised childhoods, their gift for Parselmouth, their skinny, dark-haired appearances.
The early glimpse of Riddle is telling. He is a school hero who has won his glory by framing another student, Hagrid, for the murder that he himself caused. One could go so far as to note a Satanic element in this "fall" of Riddle into Voldemort, from Hogwarts hero to the demonic figure who caused such a reign of terror among the wizard community. At the same time, a Jesus-like element resides in the younger Dumbledore, who sweeps through the halls with his auburn hair, understanding more than he lets on, yet preserving a forgiving, reticent wisdom that has not faded after fifty years. Furthermore, it is noted several times that Voldemort is threatened only by Dumbledore, because he knows that Dumbledore would never join his side.
The incident with the Valentine's Day dwarf does then amount to something beside Harry's humiliation, in that it demonstrates the ink-absorbing property of the very secret diary, inspiring Harry to experiment writing in it. We are also reminded in this incident of Ginny's long-standing crush on Harry, something that appears in certain occasions but as of yet has not taken its place in the plot.
The description of the Mandrakes touches upon another important point in the Harry Potter series. In the wizard world, everything is given the gift of life; ghosts return and "live" within the Hogwarts walls, pet owls and mice have distinct opinions and personalities of their own, dwarves, wizards, elves, cars, and plants all possess human characteristics. The Mandrakes are a particularly humorous touch, as their maturation process follows exactly the stereotypical one followed by human adolescence: first crying like babies, then becoming secretive and being ailed with acne, and eventually (when they come closer to adulthood) throwing parties and trying to move into each other's pots. The realm of magic is vibrant and curious because everything inside it has its own right to life in all its stages and eccentricities, as shown here by the Mandrakes.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Twelve: The Polyjuice Potion
Summary
As frightened as Harry feels as he is brought to speak with Dumbledore, he still is deeply impressed by Dumbledore's office. He spies the Sorting Hat, and while waiting for Dumbledore to emerge from the back room, he tries it on. The hat repeats what it told him last year, that he would have done well in Slytherin. Desperate, Harry tears the hat off his head. His attention falls next on a sickly bird perched near the door, and before he can observe it for long, the bid bursts into flames and is gone. Harry yells, and moments later is reassured by Dumbledore that the bird, Fawkes, is a phoenix, and the time had come for his burning and rebirth. During this explanation, Dumbledore also mentions that phoenixes are excellent pets because they are faithful, can carry heavy loads, and can heal injuries with their tears. At this moment, Hagrid bursts into the room proclaiming Harry's innocence, and Dumbledore impatiently informs Hagrid that he does not think Harry is responsible for petrifying the students. Hagrid leaves, and Dumbledore then asks Harry if there is anything that Harry wants to tell him. Harry considers all of the things currently pressing on his mind, and then answers no.


The school is still frightened about the Heir, and Fred and George humor the situation by walking in front of Harry in the halls and crying out, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…" Harry appreciates this humor, because it reassures him that at least the twins think that the idea of him being the Heir is laughable.
Soon the term ends, and on Christmas day Ron, Hermione, and Harry open their presents and plan for their Polyjuice Potion adventure later that night. The feast is exquisite, as always, and afterwards Hermione instructs Harry and Ron to leave two sleeping-potion-filled cakes in easy places for Malfoy's large, hulking friends Crabbe and Goyle to find, and then to hide them in a closet and pluck out a few of their hairs to add to the potion. Ron and Harry do this, and within minutes the cakes have been eaten, the sleeping bodies hidden, the hairs plucked. Soon they are back in the bathroom with Hermione. Hermione already has her hair, it turns out, because the day she was paired to duel with Millicent, one of the hairs of the large Slytherin girl wound up on Hermione's robes. The three friends add their hairs to their respective potions and drink them, and soon Harry is a replica of Goyle, Ron of Crabbe. Hermione refuses to come out of her stall, so Harry and Ron set off alone.
Unfortunately, they don't know where the Slytherin common room is, so they wander around, accidentally asking a Ravenclaw girl, and suddenly they run into Percy, who is emerging from a side room. They regard him warily and he regards them back, just as warily, and finally Ron and Harry are saved by the approach of Malfoy. Malfoy leads them through corridors, to a black stone wall whose password is "pure blood," which opens into the Slytherin common room. Malfoy is pleased with himself for obtaining a copy of the Daily Prophet, a wizard newspaper, and he shows Ron and Harry an article about Ron's father being fined for bewitching a Muggle car. Ron is furious, but tries to conceal it. Malfoy then speaks of the last attack by the Heir, and how a girl was killed, and then how he hopes that this time Hermione will be killed. Then he says wistfully that he wished he knew who the heir was, so that he could help him, and finally he reveals information about a hidden chamber under his family's drawing room floor, in which dark wizarding paraphernalia is kept. Ron and Harry are a blank audience to all of this, but Malfoy doesn't seem to notice that they are any slower than the real Crabbe and Goyle. After some time the spell begins to end, and Ron and Harry dash out of the room and back to Hermione, who is still in the stall. Moaning Myrtle is in delighted humor, and the reason turns out to be because the hair in the potion turned Hermione into a cat. Ron and Harry persuade her to go to the hospital wing, while Myrtle gloats in her toilet.
Analysis
Dumbledore's information about the phoenix foreshadows Fawkes' role in the Chamber of Secrets. When Harry is brought to Dumbledore and given the freedom to confide, he lies that nothing is on his mind. Here we have another glimpse of his desire to be free of special treatment by adults, teachers or anyone. We see the string of worries cross his mind before he answers that he has nothing to tell the headmaster, revealing that even at the sacrifice of having Dumbledore in his confidence and on his side, Harry does not wish to be singled out. This is not unusual for him; recall during the Quidditch match against Slytherin that Harry preferred to face the Rogue Bludger on his own and allow himself the freedom to pursue the Snitch, than to ensure his own safety by having Fred and George hovering about him throughout the game. Perhaps as a side effect of having so much attention heaped on him for a triumph he does not remember, he wants to achieve goals and untangle fears by himself, without the assistance so willingly lent to him.
The Polyjuice Potion about which Hermione is so optimistic seems to have every possible reason to go awry. Yet, somehow all the steps seem to work, until Hermione refuses to emerge from the bathroom stall. The fact that the potion turns her into a cat does not hinder the eavesdropping plan, although it does disclose certain basic personality traits: Hermione will never fail to read directions correctly or recall a spell at the appropriate moment, but she does not possess some of the more practical skills and assumptions that Harry does. She concocts the potion without a hitch, but it does not occur to her that the hair she found on her could be anyone's other that Millicent's, whereas Harry and Ron tend to think outside the lines more, acknowledging more uncertainty and potential for error.
While Ron and Harry do not find out who the Heir of Slytherin is, the entire event is significant as it reveals to Ron the location of the secret vault under the Malfoy Manor, and furthermore it shows in full color the snobbery of the Slytherins, and it hints at a certain inbred stupidity that exists among the members of the house. Crabbe and Goyle are incomparably stupid, eating the cake Hermione left near the staircase, speaking-or not speaking-with such denseness that Malfoy is able to mistake the clueless, disguised Ron and Harry for the equally clueless real Crabbe and Goyle. Ron notes that only when bewildered does Harry looks exactly like Goyle. The two clearly were not admitted to Hogwarts on account of their wits. The password to the Slytherin common room is "pure blood," the unchanging house philosophy, as opposed to the Gryffindor word, always quirky and often changing. The Slytherins succeed in wizardry by connections through blood and exclusion, yielding a snobbery evident in Malfoy and his two daft acolytes. Nobody connected with Slytherin House is, as far as we can see, redeemable; Snape, Malfoy, Millicent, Crabbe and Goyle are all extremely unappealing, and lacking in rudimentary kindness, fairness, and goodness. It is no surprise that Voldemort was produced from this house; although he was cleverer than Malfoy, he was equally low and creepy.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Eleven: The Dueling Club
Summary
When Harry awakes from his night in the hospital wing, his arm is healed and he is eager to tell Ron and Hermione about Dobby and Colin. He runs into Percy, who looks exceptionally happy, and then Harry heads into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, where he finds his friends. Ron and Hermione have spent the morning concocting the beginning of the Polyjuice Potion, and they listen eagerly to the news about Dobby and the reopening of the Chamber of Secrets. Meanwhile, the entire school is all in a fright about Colin. Ginny Weasley is especially shaken up by the occurrence, and Neville Longbottom, a round and clumsy wizard, has started carrying around protective charms, since he acknowledges fearfully that he is almost a Squib.

In Potions class, Harry distracts Snape by throwing a firecracker into a Slytherin cauldron, splashing swelling potion on the faces of many students, while Hermione sneaks out of the room to procure Polyjuice ingredients from Snape's personal collection. When she returns with the ingredients inside her robes, the swollen faces are back to normal, and Snape is spitting with rage and looking straight at Harry as he threatens expulsion to the troublemaker.
A week later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione spy a poster advertising a new student dueling club, and they go to the meeting to learn to duel. It turns out that Lockhart is heading it, and when he practices his first dueling match, Snape, his opponent, disarms him by crying out, "Expelliarmus!" Lockhart quickly says that he had deliberately allowed Snape to win that one, and he divides the students into pairs, not wanting to lose another duel. Hermione is matched up with a large Slytherin girl named Millicent, and Harry is matched up with Malfoy. The two boys attack each other with all sorts of body-contorting charms, including a tickle-spell and a leg-jerking spell. The two boys are brought to the front of the room to demonstrate for the entire club, and Snape whispers something to Malfoy, who immediately conjures an angry black snake from his wand. Lockhart tries to help, but instead makes the snake angrier and sends it straight for Justin Finch-Fletchley. Without even thinking, Harry calls out at the snake to leave Justin alone, and the snake falls into a docile heap on the floor. Harry is relieved, but the class is terrified, and only after class does he find out through Ron and Hermione that he spoke Parseltongue-snake language-a feat for which Salazar Slytherin himself was famous. Harry begins to question if, in fact, he really could be the heir. Furthermore, he worries about the Sorting Hat's decision to place him into Gryffindor, when it mentioned first that he could be great through Slytherin.
The next day Harry is restless and goes to find Justin to explain what had actually happened, but as he looks for him in the library, he overheard several Hufflepuffs, led by Ernie Macmillan, discussing the probability that Harry was the heir, and that Voldemort had not succeeded in killing him only because the infant Harry already had powerful dark protective powers. Harry speaks to the Hufflepuffs and asks for Justin, and they all react fearfully and with accusations that anger and annoy Harry. As Harry returns to his house through the corridors, he runs into Hagrid, who is holding a dead chicken, and soon after he trips over the stone-hard figure of Justin Finch-Fletchley, lying near the airy floating figure of Nearly-Headless Nick. Soon Peeves the Poltergeist sees the scene and cries out, alerting the students and teachers, all of whom quickly rush into the corridor. Many angry faces glare accusatorily at Harry, and Professor McGonagall calls Harry to come with her. Together they walk to Dumbledore's room.
Analysis
This chapter includes a great deal of foreshadowing, both of Percy, when he is walking cheerfully through the hallway the morning after Colin has been petrified, and of Ginny, who is unduly upset, and finally of Harry, who when put on the spot reveals himself as a Parselmouth. Nobody has been caught yet, but many people still look suspicious, and everybody is uneasy. The mandrakes are growing and everybody is eager for them to mature and be put to use to restore the petrified folk.
The dueling club meeting serves as a catalyst for the school to suspect Harry, and it is debatable whether Snape instructed Malfoy to conjure a snake simply because it is the Slytherin mascot, or because he wanted to test whether Harry could be the heir by seeing whether he could communicate with snakes. In any case, the students, including Ron and Hermione, are deeply worried by Harry's response to the snake, as we see in the library, when the Hufflepuffs speculate on Harry's dark powers. This scene is horribly unfair, especially when Ernie points out that everybody knows that Harry is a Muggle-hater because he so obviously hates living with the Dursleys. This upsets Harry further because he does hate the Dursleys, but not because they are Muggles. Explaining this brings him no success or sympathy. When he winds up alone in the corridor with the petrified figures of Justin and Nick, the wide-spread suspicion of him is deepened. Recall that in chapter six, Justin told Harry that he was signed up for Eton, a Muggle school, before deciding to go to Hogwarts. If Harry is the Heir of Slytherin, then this information would have helped him to target Justin.
This chapter reveals Harry's self-doubt to a greater degree than we have seen before. He always is frightened but brave when encountering new and trying situations, but in these moments, he doubts his wizarding knowledge and abilities, rather that doubting his own morality or motives. He simply assumes that he is a good person who has had certain fortunate and unfortunate happenings in his life, and here he worries late into the night that he was destined to be a Slytherin, and that he is responsible in some way for these tragedies at Hogewarts. He cannot easily dismiss these fears. He is certainly an unusual student, marked by a scar, the ability to speak Parseltongue, certain heroic victories in his first year, and also a strange voice speaking to him around the time of the killings. When strange things happen at Hogwarts, Harry is almost certainly involved. He has never been exceptionally pleased or traumatized by this extra attention, but rather he just takes is as part of the hand he has been dealt. Here, the fact that he is a public and closely watched figure works against him, making him a more potent suspect, a more likely threat to Voldemort, and also giving his famous childhood trauma a fresh, gossipy spin.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Ten: The Rogue Bludger
Summary
After the incident with the pixies, Lockhart reverts to role-playing in his Dark Arts class. Hermione approaches Lockhart at the end of class and asks for permission to get a book out of the restricted section of the library, in order to better understand the tactics employed in one of his books. Lockhart is very flattered by this attention paid to his works, so he signs the slip, and Harry, Hermione, and Ron hurry into the library, where they are given the book. They read about the painful and complicated steps to making and using Polyjuice potion, and by the end Hermione is the only one still interested in trying to make it, although she persuades the boys to join her.

The Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin dawns, and during the Gryffindor team pep talk, Oliver Wood reassures his team that while the Slytherins have better brooms, the Gryffindors have better people on their brooms. He then tells Harry to get the Snitch or die trying. The game begins, and as soon as Harry is circling through the air looking for the Snitch, a Bludger streaks toward him, and continues to aim for him, even after knocked away by Fred and George. While the two beaters are protecting Harry, the Slytherins are scoring goal after goal, and during the time-out talk, Harry requests that Fred and George return to the game, allowing him to fend against the Rogue Bludger for himself while he looks for the Snitch. Malfoy, the Slytherin seeker, laughs at Harry for his twirling evasions of the Bludger, and while he is laughing, Harry notices the Snitch next to his face. Harry pauses, is whacked by the Bludger, recovers quickly and flies at Malfoy, grabbing the Snitch and falling out of the sky.
Harry wins the game but lands painfully, and he is greeted on the ground by Lockhart, who immediately sets to repair his broken arm but makes a mistake and de-bones it. Harry is sent to the hospital wing where he must stay the night, waiting for his arm to re-grow itself through a lengthy and painful process. During the night, he is visited by Dobby, who explains that he had closed up the train platform and bewitched the Bludger, both in hopes that Harry would give up and return home and away from Hogwarts, where his life would be threatened because the Chamber of Secrets had been opened again. Harry perks up at this knowledge, wanting to know more from Dobby, but the house-elf is adamant about saying nothing more, and soon footsteps sound in the corridor and Dobby disappears. Dumbledore enters with Professor McGonagall, together carrying a stony figure that Harry soon recognizes as Colin Creevey, who has been petrified with his camera in front of his face. Dumbledore gravely reiterates what Dobby had said, that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again.
Analysis
This chapter illustrates the uselessness of Lockhart as a teacher, both when he de-bones Harry's arms instead of fixing it, and when he is flattered and manipulated by Hermione in her mission to obtain the restricted library book. Oddly enough, in this situation Hermione is the one persuading Ron and Harry to break school rules, instead of the other way around. Harry is not the instigator of the detective-work, as he usually is. He is hesitant to get involved in this situation; even though he wants the Heir to be caught, he does not necessarily want to take this potion with all of its risks, in order to determine whether Malfoy is the heir. Perhaps this is because Hermione is Muggle-born and frightened for her own well-being, but most likely it is because she feels competent to solve this mystery, and the author wants to show a situation in which Harry is not the main seeker of some Hogwarts truth. He is brave enough to enter dire situations, and he is loved deeply by people who help him along the way, but in this situation, it should be known that Harry is not the main person "looking" for adventure and trouble.
During the Quidditch game, we see a perfect metaphor for the good of Harry and Gryffindor versus the evil of Malfoy and Slytherin. As Oliver Wood notes, the Slytherins can afford faster broomsticks, but the Gryffindor have trained more and harder on theirs. When the seekers are facing off to find the Snitch, it is telling that Malfoy has the treasured Snitch dangling inches away from his face, but does not notice it because he is so busy ridiculing Harry. Harry, on the other hand, notices his goal immediately, and does not allow a blow from a Bludger to prevent him from flying for the Snitch with all his energy and determination. Malfoy is a character who has options and treasures laid out before him, but is so preoccupied with gloating about them that he never stops to use them properly. Harry, on the other hand, has very little, but is alert and determined and willing to make a full effort, and so he succeeds in this game instead of Malfoy.
Dobby's visit explains many mysteries that until this point had puzzled Harry, and it reiterates the importance of Harry's life to the magical community, as well as hinting further that Harry is more involved, more threatened, by the events at Hogwarts than he could possibly know or understand. Hearing the fear in Dumbledore's voice as Colin is brought to the hospital wing furthers this ominous sentiment; even the world's greatest wizard, and the Hogwarts headmaster, cannot fully understand how these events have come about.

harry potter and the chamber of secrets

Chapter Nine: The Writing on the Wall
Summary
Filch spies Mrs. Norris hanging from the ceiling, and explodes at Harry, accusing him of killing the cat. Dumbledore appears at this time and whisks Harry, Ron, Hermione, Filch and Mrs. Norris away, into Lockhart's nearby office, which Lockhart eagerly volunteered. They sit tensely among all of Lockhart's preening portraits of himself. Dumbledore examines the cat, Professor McGonagall frets quietly, and Snape sneers. Lockhart reassures them all in his curse-reversing expertise and Filch sobs. Dumbledore explains that the cat is not dead, but petrified, and that second- year students could not have possibly mastered the magic necessary for that degree of a dark spell. Dumbledore also says that soon the school will have enough grown Mandrakes to make a restorative potion, which Lockhart eagerly volunteers to make. Filch is unconvinced and explains that Harry knows he is a Squib and therefore attacked his cat, and Snape interrupts and says that the three students were in a peculiar place on the night of the Halloween feast. Ron, Harry, and Hermione explain the Deathday party, and Snape asks why they didn't come straight to the feast afterwards. Not wanting to explain about the eerie, disembodied voice, Harry explains that they were tired and wanted to go to bed. Snape does not believe them and recommends that Harry be taken off the Quidditch team until he is ready to tell the truth. McGonagall and Dumbledore quickly say that this will not be necessary. The three students walk up to their dorms, Ron explains what a Squib is, and Harry ponders what the Chamber of Secrets could possibly be.

Filch keeps a close watch on the scene of the crime, Justin Finch-Fletchley runs from Harry, seeming to believe that he is the instigator of the crime, and Ginny Weasley seems in utter terror of everything. In History of Magic class, while Professor Binns, the small, elderly, and boring ghost who teaches it, drones on, Hermione raises her hand and persuades him to explain the history of the Chamber of Secrets. We then learn that the original founders and namesakes of the four houses created Hogwarts as a place to bring up bright young witches and wizards, and that all went smoothly until Salazar Slytherin offended the other three by expressing his wish to exclude all Muggle-born wizards from the school. Slytherin left the school over this disagreement, but only after he built a hidden Chamber of Secrets, which contained a monster that would wipe out all non-pureblood wizards from Hogwarts. He said that only his heir would be able to control it. The students bombard Binns with questions until he grows annoyed, says it's all folklore, and returns to the original lesson plan.
This knowledge causes Harry to worry. When he was sorted by the hat the previous year, the Sorting hat had told him that Slytherin would make him great. When Harry thought how much he didn't want to be in Slytherin, the hat placed him in Gryffindor. He hopes he is not somehow connected to Salazar Slytherin. However, much of the school seems to think that he is. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione walk through the corridor with the writing on the wall, speculating where all the water came from the night of the attack and noticing a line of spiders hastily escaping through the window, they decide to look into Myrtle's bathroom for clues. Myrtle is as gloomy as ever, and the bathroom itself is rather depressing as well. After a few minutes they leave, only to run into Percy Weasley, who scolds them terribly for being in a girls' bathroom and for being in a suspicious place; this exchange upsets both Ron and himself.
That night, Harry, Ron, and Hermione speculate on whether Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin, and Hermione suggests that they could find out by making a Polyjuice potion, thus turning themselves into Slytherins and eavesdropping on Malfoy in their House common room. Ron and Harry are skeptical, but Hermione persists, saying that she could have a teacher write her a note to check out a book from the restricted section of the library, where that potion would be.
Analysis
In this chapter, Harry is burdened with secrets; first, he worries about the voice he has been hearing. He knows that a teacher would not believe him and he even questions whether Ron and Hermione believe him. He can think of no explanation for this phenomenon. Furthermore, he is worried that he is a Slytherin. From the beginning of the first book in the series, Harry was alarmed at the thought of getting placed into Slytherin House. He met Malfoy in Diagon Alley and from him learned about Slytherin's history, and from that moment on, he was wary both of Malfoy and of the House. The idea that a voice speaks of killing students terrifies Harry, and he is terrified further at the idea that he might be involved in a way he doesn't understand.
It doesn't help that other students are beginning to suspect him. He is an easy target, however, and he becomes more of one throughout certain events in coming chapters. In this situation, Snape severely mistrusts him. Dumbledore does trust him, and McGonagall is strict, but is a sports fan and so is adamant that Harry remain on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry is witnessing strange and frightening things, but he does not want to acknowledge that he could be anymore involved than anyone else. Trouble at Hogwarts often affects Harry, since the trouble always has Voldemort behind it in some way. Harry refuses to alert the teachers about the voice he is hearing.
J.K. Rowling makes the culprit very unclear and ambiguous. By the end of this chapter, when Hermione is conjuring up ways to slip into the Slytherin common room and prove that Malfoy as Slytherin's heir, the reader would have a good reason to suspect Malfoy; we know that he has called Hermione a Mudblood and grinned at the immobile petrified cat. He has ancient family roots in the Slytherin House, and he seems just malicious enough to be responsible for the harm caused. Furthermore, Percy Weasley is in a suspicious place at a suspicious time, and is extraordinarily upset at Ron for being there, too. Both of these boys could be seen as possible culprits. Rowling frames many different characters as possible culprits, including Harry himself, before she reveals the truth.