Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Summary, Quotes and Themes

Published in 1998, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling sends Harry back to Hogwarts for his second year under circumstances that are immediately ominous. A house elf named Dobby has been trying to stop him returning to school by any means necessary, including dropping a pudding on his uncle's business guests. The warnings Dobby brings are not specific, but they are urgent: terrible things are going to happen at Hogwarts. Harry ignores them and goes anyway, and Dobby is proved right almost immediately.

What follows is one of the darkest and most psychologically complex plots in the early part of the Harry Potter series: a hidden chamber within Hogwarts, a monster of legendary danger, students and a cat found Petrified in corridors, and a growing suspicion that falls, inexorably, on Harry himself. The mystery at the heart of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is genuinely frightening not because of its supernatural elements but because of what it reveals about the wizarding world's deepest prejudices: the hatred of Muggle-born witches and wizards that structures the social world of Hogwarts just as it structured the ideology of Voldemort.

This page provides the complete guide to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It covers the full Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets summary, the central themes, the key moments of the book and comprehensive practice exercises.

 

Table of Contents

• About Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Overview
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Summary: Full Plot
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Key Objects and Magical Elements
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Major Themes
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Key Quotes
• Practice Exercises

 

About Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Overview

 

Detail	Information
Title	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Author	JK Rowling
Publisher	Bloomsbury (UK) / Scholastic (US)
Publication date	2 July 1998
Genre	Children's fantasy, young adult
Pages	251 (UK first edition)
Series position	Book 2 of 7
Film adaptation	2002, directed by Chris Columbus
Film starring	Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

 

What the Book is About

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second novel in the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Building on the world established inHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it follows Harry Potter's second year at Hogwarts, during which students and a cat begin to be found Petrified in the corridors, accompanied by a mysterious message written on the wall in what appears to be blood: ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.’ Harry, Ron and Hermione must discover what the Chamber of Secrets is, what creature lives within it, who opened it, and how to stop the attacks before a student is killed.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Summary: Full Plot

 

The Summer at Privet Drive

The book opens with Harry Potter having spent a miserable summer at 4 Privet Drive. The Dursleys have been ignoring him so completely that they have to stop themselves saying good morning. On the evening of an important business dinner Uncle Vernon is hosting, a small creature appears in Harry's bedroom: Dobby, a house elf with large bat-like ears, enormous eyes and a sock on one of his feet. Dobby has come to warn Harry not to return to Hogwarts. Terrible things are going to happen there. Harry must not go back.

Harry refuses. He has no life at Privet Drive. Hogwarts is his home. Dobby, failing to persuade him, levitates Aunt Petunia's pudding in the kitchen and drops it on Vernon Dursley's business guests to frame Harry for using magic outside school. The Ministry of Magic sends an owl warning Harry that he has violated the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery. Vernon, delighted, locks Harry in his room and puts bars on his window.

The Rescue and the Burrow

Fred, George and Ron Weasley arrive at night in an enchanted flying Ford Anglia to rescue Harry. They extract him from his room through the window, pack his trunk and fly to the Weasley family home, the Burrow. Harry spends the remaining weeks of summer at the Burrow with the Weasley family: Arthur, Molly, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. The Burrow is chaotic, warm, magical and everything the Dursleys' home is not. Harry has never been happier.

At the end of summer, the Weasley family takes Harry and Hermione to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies. At Flourish and Blotts, they encounter the spectacularly vain and famous author Gilderoy Lockhart, who is signing copies of his new books, all of which are on the Hogwarts required reading list. It is revealed that Lockhart has been appointed the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. They also encounter Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, who is cold and contemptuous, particularly toward the Weasleys. He is revealed to be on the Hogwarts Board of Governors and to have recent connections to the Death Eaters, though he claims to have acted under Voldemort's influence against his will.

Arriving at Hogwarts: Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

At King's Cross, Harry and Ron discover that they cannot get through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. They are locked out. The Hogwarts Express leaves without them. In a decision that is impulsive even by Harry's standards, they take the enchanted Ford Anglia and fly it to Scotland. The car, beginning to show signs of independence, runs out of magic as they approach Hogwarts and crashes into the Whomping Willow, a violent tree on the school grounds that attacks anything that comes close to it. The car ejects them, throwing their trunks onto the ground, and drives itself into the Forbidden Forest. Ron's wand is broken in the crash.

Professor Snape confronts them and is deeply pleased at the prospect of expelling Harry and Ron. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall are less delighted but more measured. They receive detention and a letter home rather than expulsion.

Gilderoy Lockhart and the First Signs of Trouble

The new school year begins. Gilderoy Lockhart is revealed almost immediately to be a spectacular fraud: vain, incompetent and obsessed with his own fame. His first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, in which he releases a cage full of Cornish Pixies and is immediately overwhelmed by them while Harry, Ron and Hermione deal with the aftermath, establishes him as a figure of comic ridicule. However, Lockhart's vanity and incompetence will become plot-significant later.

During Quidditch practice, Harry is confronted by the Slytherin team in possession of brand new Nimbus 2001 broomsticks, courtesy of Lucius Malfoy, who has also bought Draco's place as Seeker. Draco calls Hermione a ‘Mudblood’, a deeply offensive term for a Muggle-born witch or wizard. Ron tries to curse him in retaliation, but his broken wand backfires and he spends the rest of the day burping slugs.

The First Message on the Wall

On Halloween night, after Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party, Harry, Ron and Hermione discover Mrs Norris, the caretaker Filch's cat, hanging stiff and Petrified from a torch bracket on the second floor. On the wall above her, written in what appears to be blood, are the words: ‘THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.’ The school gathers. Draco Malfoy, seeing Harry near the message, says with delight: ‘Enemies of the Heir, beware? You'll be next, Mudbloods!’

Filch immediately suspects Harry, but Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall examine Mrs Norris and determine she is Petrified, not dead.

Also on this night, Harry discovers that he can hear a voice in the walls: a hissing, cold, disembodied voice that no one else can hear, which seems to be speaking about killing. He will hear it several more times as the attacks continue.

Duelling Club and Parseltongue

Professor Lockhart and Professor Snape establish a Duelling Club. During a demonstration duel, Snape disarms Lockhart effortlessly. Lockhart pairs Harry with Draco. Draco conjures a snake that begins to advance on Justin Finch-Fletchley. Harry speaks to the snake in Parseltongue, the language of serpents, apparently telling it to stop attacking Justin. The students watching see something entirely different: they see Harry hissing at the snake in a language that sounds threatening and dangerous, appearing to encourage it toward Justin rather than stop it.

The revelation that Harry can speak Parseltongue spreads through the school immediately and produces a dramatic shift in the atmosphere. Parseltongue is associated with Dark wizards, most particularly with Voldemort, who was a Parselmouth. The students who were already uncertain about Harry's connection to the attacks now have additional reason to be suspicious.

The Attacks Continue

Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick are found Petrified. Then Colin Creevey, who has been photographing everything obsessively since his first encounter with Harry, is found Petrified. Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunts one of the girl's bathrooms, provides a clue: something came out of the toilet the night she died. This points the trio toward the pipes.

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron and Hermione have been investigating. Hermione has been doing library research and concludes that the monster of the Chamber is a basilisk, a giant serpent whose gaze is instantly lethal. The reason no one has died is that all the victims saw the basilisk's eyes indirectly: through a camera (Colin), through a ghost (Nearly Headless Nick, who cannot die again), through water (Justin Finch-Fletchley saw its reflection) and through a mirror (Hermione herself, who had been researching the basilisk and was holding a mirror when she encountered it, along with Penelope Clearwater). Mrs Norris, the cat, saw its reflection in the water on the floor.

Tom Riddle's Diary

Harry discovers Tom Riddle's diary in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The diary is blank when he writes in it, but then it writes back: it is a magical object that responds, and the person writing back calls himself Tom Riddle. The diary shows Harry a memory from fifty years ago: a younger Dumbledore, a younger Hagrid and Tom Riddle accusing Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets and keeping the monster in a box in the school. Hagrid is expelled. The diary indicates that this was the first time the Chamber was opened and that the attacks stopped because Hagrid was expelled.

The diary is subsequently stolen from Harry's dormitory. Someone does not want him to know what is in it.

The Polyjuice Potion Plan

Hermione has identified the Polyjuice Potion as a way to discover whether Draco Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin. If they can temporarily take the forms of Slytherin students and question Draco in the Slytherin common room, they might get an answer. The potion takes a month to brew. Harry and Ron steal the necessary ingredients from Snape's office, narrowly avoiding detection. Hermione brews the potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

On Christmas Day, with most students gone home, Harry and Ron take the completed Polyjuice Potion and transform into Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione attempts to add the hair she obtained from a Slytherin girl's robe, but it turns out to be cat hair: she transforms into something between a girl and a cat, spends several weeks in the hospital wing, and takes no further part in the plan.

Harry and Ron, as Crabbe and Goyle, make their way to the Slytherin common room and question Draco. The good news: Draco is not the Heir of Slytherin and does not know who is. The bad news: neither do Harry and Ron.

Hagrid and the Spiders

As the attacks continue with no resolution and no monster caught, suspicion falls increasingly on Harry. Then Hermione is found Petrified in the library, clutching a torn page. Before anyone can examine what she was researching, she is taken to the hospital wing.

The Board of Governors suspends Dumbledore from his position as Headmaster. On the same evening, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, arrives to take Hagrid to Azkaban as a precautionary measure, on the grounds that he was responsible for the attacks fifty years ago. As Hagrid is led away, he says, clearly and for the benefit of anyone listening: ‘If anyone wanted to find out some stuff, all they'd have to do would be to follow the spiders.’ He also says: ‘Someone will need to feed Fang.’

Harry and Ron follow the spiders in the Forbidden Forest. They lead to Aragog, a giant acromantula, Hagrid's pet from the time of the first attacks fifty years ago. Aragog reveals that he is not the monster of the Chamber: the monster is something the spiders fear to name. He also reveals that the girl who died fifty years ago died in a bathroom. The spiders then attempt to eat Harry and Ron. The Ford Anglia saves them.

The Torn Page and the Revelation

In the hospital wing, Harry and Ron find the torn page that Hermione was holding. It is from a library book about magical creatures and describes the basilisk: a giant serpent born from a chicken's egg hatched beneath a toad whose gaze is instantly lethal. The way to move a basilisk safely is to use a mirror or another indirect reflective surface. This confirms Hermione's conclusion.

It also confirms that Harry has been hearing the basilisk moving through the pipes: Parseltongue is why he could hear it and why no one else could.

Ginny and the Chamber

The school is on the verge of being closed permanently when another message appears on the wall: ‘Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.’ Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber. Professor McGonagall tells the school. There is panic.

Harry and Ron go to Lockhart's office, intending to tell him what they know so that he can act. They find him packing, revealed immediately as someone who has no intention of doing anything heroic. When Harry and Ron explain that they know where the entrance to the Chamber is (Moaning Myrtle's bathroom: the sink with the snake engraving on the tap), Lockhart is forced, at wand point, to accompany them.

In Myrtle's bathroom, Harry speaks Parseltongue to the engraved snake, and the entrance opens: a pipe large enough to slide down. Lockhart attempts to Memory Charm Harry and Ron using Ron's broken wand. The spell backfires spectacularly: it hits Lockhart himself, wiping his own memory completely. The ceiling partially collapses, separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart.

Harry goes forward alone.

The Chamber of Secrets

Harry makes his way through passages beneath the school, past the shed skins of an enormous serpent. He enters the Chamber of Secrets itself: a long, dimly lit stone chamber with carved serpents along the pillars and a huge stone face at the end. He finds Ginny Weasley lying on the floor, apparently dead.

Beside her stands Tom Riddle, holding Harry's wand. Tom Riddle has been growing more solid as Ginny has grown more unconscious: her life force has been draining into him through the diary as he grows stronger. He explains everything to Harry with the particular pleasure of someone who has been waiting a long time to tell it.

Tom Riddle explains that he is Lord Voldemort: that ‘Voldemort’ is an anagram of his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He explains that he preserved a sixteen-year-old piece of himself in the diary fifty years ago, knowing that someone would one day find it and reopen the Chamber. He tells Harry that the real Hagrid was innocent: Hagrid kept Aragog as a pet and tried to help the spider escape when Riddle framed him, but he never opened the Chamber. Riddle opened the Chamber fifty years ago. The girl who died was Moaning Myrtle: she saw the basilisk's eyes directly and died in her bathroom. Riddle is revealed as the Heir of Slytherin.

Riddle summons the basilisk to kill Harry.

The Fight: Fawkes, the Sorting Hat and the Basilisk

At the moment of greatest danger, Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes arrives, carrying the old Sorting Hat. Fawkes claws out the basilisk's eyes: without its gaze, the basilisk cannot kill with a look. From the Sorting Hat, Harry pulls the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

What follows is one of the most dramatically compelling sequences in the series. Harry, now blind to the basilisk's lethal gaze but deafened by the sound of its movement through the chamber, fights and ultimately kills the basilisk by driving the sword of Gryffindor through the roof of its mouth. In its death throes, the basilisk drives one of its venomous fangs into Harry's arm. The basilisk venom begins to work. Harry has minutes to live.

He uses the basilisk fang to destroy Tom Riddle's diary, driving it through the pages. As the diary is destroyed, Tom Riddle screams and dissolves. Ginny wakes up. But Harry is dying.

Fawkes, weeping over Harry, cures the venom: phoenix tears have healing powers. Fawkes carries all of them out of the Chamber.

The Resolution

The truth emerges: Ginny was possessed by the diary. She opened the Chamber, commanded the basilisk through Parseltongue inherited from Tom Riddle's possession of her, wrote the messages on the walls and had no memory of any of it because the possession was so complete. She is horrified and guilty.

Dumbledore is restored as Headmaster. The Board of Governors, it transpires, were coerced into signing his suspension: Lucius Malfoy threatened the other eleven governors' families. When confronted by Dumbledore, Lucius is furious and humiliated. Dobby appears at this moment: he is Lucius Malfoy's house elf. The person who gave Ginny the diary was Lucius Malfoy himself: he had slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron in Diagon Alley. He gave it to her, knowing what it contained, to use her as an instrument for opening the Chamber to test whether Voldemort's diary might work.

Harry tricks Lucius into freeing Dobby by wrapping Tom Riddle's destroyed diary in Harry's own sock and throwing it at Lucius, who disgustedly peels it off and tosses it aside. Dobby catches the sock. A house elf who receives clothing is freed. Dobby is free.

Hermione, Colin, Justin, and all the other Petrified students are restored with the Mandrake Restorative Draught. Exams are cancelled. The school year ends.

Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

 

Chapter	Title	Key Events
1	The Worst Birthday	Harry's miserable summer; introduced to Dobby
2	Dobby's Warning	Dobby's warning; the pudding incident; Harry locked in his room
3	The Burrow	Rescue by Fred, George, and Ron; the Burrow; the Weasley family
4	At Flourish and Blotts	Diagon Alley; Gilderoy Lockhart introduced; Lucius Malfoy introduced
5	The Whomping Willow	Platform Nine and Three-Quarters blocked; flying Ford Anglia; the Whomping Willow
6	Gilderoy Lockhart	Lockhart as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher; Cornish Pixies; Draco says "Mudblood"
7	Mudbloods and Murmurs	Ron burps slugs; Lockhart's ineffectiveness; Harry hears the voice for the first time
8	The Deathday Party	Nearly Headless Nick's party; Mrs Norris found Petrified; the message on the wall
9	The Writing on the Wall	Aftermath of the attack; history of the Chamber; Draco's reaction; Harry's voice heard again
10	The Rogue Bludger	Quidditch match; rogue bludger; Harry's arm broken; Colin Creevey found Petrified
11	The Duelling Club	Duelling Club; Harry vs Draco; Parseltongue revelation; Justin Finch-Fletchley attacked
12	The Polyjuice Potion	Polyjuice Potion plan; brewing begins; Christmas at Hogwarts
13	The Very Secret Diary	Tom Riddle's diary found; Harry communicates with diary; diary stolen
14	Cornelius Fudge	Valentine's Day; Hagrid and Dumbledore confronted; Harry and Ron follow spiders
15	Aragog	The Forbidden Forest; Aragog; the Ford Anglia saves them
16	The Chamber of Secrets	Hermione Petrified; Dumbledore suspended; Hagrid taken to Azkaban; Ginny taken into Chamber
17	The Heir of Slytherin	Harry enters the Chamber; Tom Riddle revealed; basilisk summoned
18	Dobby's Reward	Fawkes; the sword of Gryffindor; basilisk killed; diary destroyed; Harry freed; Dobby freed

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Key Objects and Magical Elements

 

1. Tom Riddle's Diary

The diary is the most important object in Chamber of Secrets and one of the most important in the entire series. It is a small blank diary with the name ‘T.M. Riddle’ on it, which Harry finds in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. When written in, it writes back: it contains a magical echo of Tom Riddle at sixteen, preserved in the pages through a process the series will later identify as a Horcrux. The diary can show memories as if they were films.

The diary is described later in the series by Dumbledore as one of the most sinister objects he has ever encountered: a piece of Voldemort's soul, designed not just to preserve a memory but to pass itself off as a friend. Its destruction by the basilisk fang is the first act of Horcrux destruction in the series.

2. The Sword of Gryffindor

A magnificent silver sword with rubies in the hilt, pulled by Harry from the Sorting Hat in the Chamber of Secrets. The sword of Godric Gryffindor appears to a worthy Gryffindor in need. Its appearance in Chamber of Secrets is the first of several times it appears at moments of crisis in the series.

3. Fawkes

Dumbledore's phoenix, introduced in Chamber of Secrets, becomes one of the series' most important and most moving animal characters. Fawkes arrives in the Chamber of Secrets at the moment of greatest crisis, carrying the Sorting Hat, blinding the basilisk with his claws, and healing Harry's basilisk-venom wound with his tears. Phoenix tears have healing powers. Phoenix song gives courage.

4. The Mandrake

The Mandrake plants grown in Herbology throughout the year provide the Restorative Draught used to cure the Petrified students at the end of the book. The Mandrake subplot is one of the lighter elements of the book, particularly Professor Sprout's running commentary on their maturation, which functions as a parallel to the students growing up.

5. The Ford Anglia

Arthur Weasley's enchanted, flying, invisible Ford Anglia rescues Harry from his room at Privet Drive, takes him and Ron to Hogwarts (crashing into the Whomping Willow in the process), and saves Harry and Ron from Aragog in the Forbidden Forest by appearing from the trees and driving them to safety. The car disappears into the forest after this and apparently lives there for the remainder of the series, occasionally glimpsed by Hagrid.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Major Themes

 

Theme 1: Prejudice and the Treatment of Those Considered ‘Lesser’

Chamber of Secrets is the most direct examination of prejudice in the Harry Potter series, and it is specifically racial prejudice: the term ‘Mudblood’ as a slur for Muggle-born witches and wizards functions as a direct parallel to real-world racial and ethnic slurs. The ideology of Voldemort, as embodied in Tom Riddle's diary and in Lucius Malfoy's actions, is explicitly eugenicist: the belief that only those of ‘pure’ magical blood deserve access to magical education and the wizarding world.

The Chamber of Secrets itself represents this ideology institutionalised: Salazar Slytherin built it specifically to house a creature that would kill Muggle-born students. The prejudice is not merely interpersonal; it is architectural.

Theme 2: Identity and the Fear of One's Own Darkness

The most psychologically complex theme of Chamber of Secrets is Harry's discovery of the similarities between himself and Tom Riddle. Both are orphans. Both were raised without knowledge of the wizarding world. Both are Parselmouths. Both were considered for Slytherin. Harry's fear that he might be more like Voldemort than he wants to admit is one of the book's most honest emotional threads.

Dumbledore's resolution of this fear, when he tells Harry that only a true Gryffindor could have pulled the sword from the hat, is careful not to simply reassure: it is a statement about the primacy of choice. What matters is not that Harry shares qualities with Voldemort. What matters is what he does with them.

Theme 3: The Danger of Good Intentions and Misplaced Trust

Ginny Weasley trusted the diary because it seemed to be a friend. Dobby tried to protect Harry in ways that caused considerable damage. Lockhart's students trusted his reputation and found it hollow. Chamber of Secrets is consistently interested in the gap between what things appear to be and what they are: between the apparent villain (Snape, Hagrid, Harry himself) and the actual one (Quirrell in the first book, Tom Riddle's diary in this one).

Theme 4: Loyalty and its Demands

Ron accompanies Harry into the Forbidden Forest despite his terror of spiders. Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets alone. Fawkes comes when Dumbledore cannot. The book's climax is defined by acts of loyalty that require genuine sacrifice and genuine courage: not the performative courage of Lockhart but the quiet, determined courage of people who are frightened and go anyway.

Theme 5: The Abuse of Power and the Vulnerability of the Innocent

Lucius Malfoy uses an eleven-year-old girl as an instrument of his political and ideological agenda, knowing that she will bear the psychological damage of her possession for years. His targeting of Ginny is calculated: she is the child of his political enemy, she is young and therefore susceptible, and her Muggle-born status as a target fits his narrative. The exploitation of Ginny Weasley is one of the darkest elements of the book.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Key Quotes

• ‘It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’ [Albus Dumbledore]
• ‘Fame is a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does.’ [Gilderoy Lockhart]
• ‘You will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me.’ [Albus Dumbledore]
• ‘Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew.’ [Dobby]
• ‘Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat.’ [Albus Dumbledore]
• ‘Funny, the damage that can be done, eh, with the right magic. [Lucius Malfoy]
• ‘The very best of evenings to you.’ [Nearly Headless Nick]
• ‘We're all going to keep our fingers in our ears until it's safe.’ [Professor Sprout, on the Mandrakes]

 

Practice Exercises

A. Answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1. Who is Dobby and why does he try to stop Harry from returning to Hogwarts?
2. How do Harry and Ron get to Hogwarts after they miss the Hogwarts Express?
3. What does the message on the wall say after Mrs Norris is found Petrified?
4. Why do the students at Hogwarts become suspicious of Harry after the Duelling Club?
5. What is the Polyjuice Potion and why do Harry, Ron, and Hermione make it?
6. What does Hermione deduce from the torn page she is found holding?
7. Who is revealed to be the true Heir of Slytherin and what is their full name?
8. How does Harry kill the basilisk and what weapon does he use?
9. How does Harry free Dobby from the Malfoys?
10. Who actually opened the Chamber of Secrets and why did they not know they were doing it?

B. Match each character to their correct description.

 

Description	Character
A house elf who tries to protect Harry by causing a series of disasters.	Tom Riddle
A celebrity author whose entire career is based on other people's heroism.	Ginny Weasley
A sixteen-year-old preserved in a diary who is revealed to be the young Voldemort.	Aragog
Dumbledore's phoenix who heals Harry's basilisk venom wound with his tears.	Lucius Malfoy
A first-year student who was possessed through a diary without knowing it.	Dobby
A giant acromantula in the Forbidden Forest who reveals that Hagrid is innocent.	Gilderoy Lockhart
A Hogwarts ghost who died in a bathroom fifty years ago and was the basilisk's only victim.	Fawkes
A Malfoy family member who planted the diary on Ginny Weasley in Diagon Alley.	Moaning Myrtle

 

C. Write True or False for each statement. Correct the false ones.

1. Dobby is the Weasley family's house elf.
2. Harry and Ron fly to Hogwarts in an enchanted Ford Anglia.
3. The message on the wall says, ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.’
4. Hermione transforms successfully using the Polyjuice Potion.
5. Tom Riddle is revealed to be the young version of Lord Voldemort.
6. The basilisk's gaze kills instantly if seen directly.
7. Harry pulls the Sword of Gryffindor from behind a stone in the Chamber.
8. Fawkes heals Harry's wound with his feathers.
9. Dobby is freed when Harry tricks Lucius Malfoy into throwing him a sock.
10. The Chamber of Secrets was built by Godric Gryffindor.

D. For each theme below, identify two specific moments or elements from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that illustrate it. For each moment, write two to three sentences explaining the connection to the theme.

1. Prejudice and discrimination based on birth.
2. The danger of misplaced trust.
3. Identity and the fear of one's own darkness.
4. Courage in the face of genuine danger.

E. Write a response of 200 to 250 words to ONE of the following.

• Chamber of Secrets is fundamentally a book about prejudice. Using three specific examples from the novel, explain how JK Rowling uses the wizarding world to explore the mechanisms and consequences of discrimination.
• Dumbledore tells Harry that it is his choices that show what he truly is, far more than his abilities. Using the examples of Harry and Tom Riddle, analyse how JK Rowling develops this theme in Chamber of Secrets.
• Ginny Weasley is both a victim and an unwitting perpetrator in Chamber of Secrets. Discuss how JK Rowling develops her character and what the book says about the nature of responsibility for actions taken under another's influence.

F. Compare Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on the following dimensions. Write two to three sentences for each.

1. How the mystery is constructed and revealed.
2. The nature of the threat Harry faces.
3. The role of Harry's friends in the resolution.
4. The revelation of the true villain.
5. The themes explored.