Bright Summaries - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

On Harrys birthday, he finds a mysterious creature in his bedroom while the Dursleys are entertaining one of his Uncle Vernons most important clients downstairs. The creature introduces himself as Dobby, a house-elf whose life is devoted to serving his owners. He has come to warn Harry that his life will be in danger if he returns to Hogwarts. When Harry refuses to consider not returning to school, Dobby tosses a large cake onto the kitchen floor and, as a result, the Dursleys punish Harry by locking him in his room. However, his best friend Ron Weasley and his brothers arrive in a flying car to rescue him and take him to their home, where Harry meets Rons parents, Arthur and Molly Weasley, and his younger sister Ginny.

When Harry goes to Diagon Alley to buy his school books, he meets his new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart. He also crosses paths with Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius, who takes a book out of Ginnys cauldron in the hope of starting an argument with Arthur Weasley. However, he eventually gives the book back to Ginny.

On the first day of term, Harry and Ron are unable to get onto platform nine and three-quarters because the magical gateway has sealed itself shut. They decide to take Mr Weasleys car and fly it to school, but the car crashes into an extremely violent tree called the Whomping Willow when they arrive, and both boys are given detention.

It does not take long for Draco Malfoy to prove that he has not changed over the holidays: near the start of term, he calls Hermione a Mudblood, which is a derogatory term for a witch or wizard whose parents are Muggles (non-magical individuals). He has also been made the Seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team, pitting him against Harry once again.

Strange things begin to happen at Hogwarts, starting when a message announcing that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened is painted on a wall in blood, and Mrs Norris, a cat who belongs to Filch, the caretaker who is also a Squib (someone born into a wizarding family who has no magical powers themselves), is found Petrified beside it. Harry also hears threats being hissed in a mysterious voice. Harry, Ron and Hermione decide to solve the mystery, and Malfoy is their top suspect.

They learn that Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, is rumoured to have hidden a monster in the depths of the school. According to the legend, the only person capable of controlling this beast is the heir of Slytherin, who will use it to purge the school of Muggle-born students. The three friends decide to use Polyjuice Potion, which allows the drinker to take on the appearance of someone else, to interrogate Malfoy and figure out whether or not he is the heir. Unfortunately, it becomes clear that Draco is not the heir, but the three friends do learn that the Chamber was opened 50 years ago, and that this led to the death of a student.

Harry gets his arm broken by a Bludger during a Quidditch match. He is taken to the Hospital Wing, where he is visited by Dobby, who repeats his previous warnings. Later, another student called Colin Creevey is brought in because he has been Petrified, just like Filchs cat.

During a Duelling Club meeting, Malfoy uses a spell to conjure a snake to attack Harry. However, Harry instinctively speaks to it in Parseltongue, the language of snakes a language that was also spoken by Salazar Slytherin and Lord Voldemort. The next day, Harry stumbles across another student who has been Petrified, leaving the entire school convinced that he is the culprit.

Harry and Ron find a diary in the girls toilets, which are haunted by the ghost of Moaning Myrtle, a former pupil who died years ago. Harry takes the diary and discovers that all the pages are blank, but when he tries to write something in it, the diary responds and tells him about the first time the Chamber of Secrets was opened. The diarys previous owner was called Tom Riddle, a former student who was in Slytherin. Riddle convinces Harry and Ron that it was Hagrid who set the monster loose on the school and, shortly afterwards, someone steals the diary from Harrys dormitory.

When Harry hears the mysterious voice speaking again in a corridor, Hermione has a burst of inspiration and rushes off to the library to confirm her hunch. However, she is Petrified before she gets the chance to tell the others her theory. Harry and Ron go to visit Hagrid so that they can talk to him about what they know, but the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, shows up to arrest Hagrid while they are there. They hide under Harrys invisibility cloak, and before Hagrid leaves the house, he loudly declares that If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all theyd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders (p. 279) as a parting message to the children. Meanwhile, Dumbledore is suspended from his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Harry and Ron decide to trust Hagrid, and follow a trail of spiders into the Forbidden Forest. This leads them to Aragog, an Acromantula (giant talking spider) that Hagrid raised, which was mistaken for Slytherins monster. Aragog tells them that the real monsters victim died in a bathroom, and the children realise that it must have been Moaning Myrtle.