Emma Watson Empire

Shortnend: Book 2

Chapter 1 The Worst Birthday

• Uncle Vernon hopes to get a big order of drills for his company from some rich builder, a Mr. Mason, and will invite him and his wife to dinner.
• On Harry’s birthday, sitting alone in the park, he spots a pair of green eyes staring back from a hedge.
• Harry has to stay in his room while he aunt and uncle entertain their guests. When he goes into his room, he finds someone sitting on his bed.

• Harry meets Dobby, a House-elf, when he has to stay in his room while a Uncle Vernon has a business dinner downstairs.
• Mr. and Mrs. Mason arrive for dinner with Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley.
• Dobby warns Harry not to go back to Hogwarts because if Harry does, he will be in mortal danger. Harry learns that Dobby has intercepted Ron and Hermione’s letters to make Harry believe he had no friends at the school.
• When Harry refuses to promise not to return to Hogwarts, Dobby goes downstairs to the kitchen and levitates the dessert, a cream pudding that was to be served to Dursley’s guests. Then he lets it fall to the floor.
• Immediately after, Uncle Vernon storms into the kitchen, raging with anger, showing him a letter which just arrived. The letter states that the Improper Use of Magic Office has found out that at 9:12 PM, in Harry’s house, a Hover Charm was used, and underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside of school, and that further spellwork may lead to expulsion from Hogwarts. His aunt and uncle were not aware of this fact.
• Uncle Vernon literally locks Harry up into the house, even putting bars on Harry’s window.

• Ron wakes Harry up. He heard about Harry being locked up from his father who works for the Ministry of Magic.
• He came together with Fred and George in their father’s flying car. After taking all his stuff and Hedwig they break out the bars, almost being caught by Uncle Vernon, and fly back to Ron’s house.
• They speculate about who’s House-elf Dobby is, highly suspecting Lucius Malfoy, father of Draco of Slytherin.
• Ron now understands it was not the fault of Errol, the Weasley’s owl, nor Hermes, Percy’s owl (a present for becoming Prefect), that Harry did not receive their letters.
• Harry is told that Mr. Weasley works for at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic together with a warlock called Perkins.
• They arrive at their house, the Burrow, near a village called Ottery St. Catchpole, where an angry and worried Mrs. Weasley is waiting for them. After a storm of angry words they enter the house.
• Harry sees a clock on the wall that does not have numbers. Instead, its hands point to: “time to make tea”, “time to feed the chickens” and “you’re late”. He also sees books on the mantelpiece with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking and One Minute Feast – It’s Magic! and hears Witching Hour on the radio with the popular singing sorceress Celestina Warbeck
• During breakfast, Ginny enters in her nightdress, giving a small squeal and running out again. After finishing breakfast, Fred, George and Ron have to de-gnome the garden. Harry offers to help since he never saw a de-gnoming before. Mrs Weasley takes a book of Gilderoy Lockhart’s from the mantelpiece. On it, written in gold letters, is the title Gilderoy Lockhart’s Guide to Household Pests.
• Mr. Weasley comes home after a rough night of work. He complains there were nine raids and old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on him when he had his back turned. All they came up with were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle. There was some pretty nasty stuff but that wasn’t his department. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some odd ferrets, but that’s the Committee on Experimental Charms.
• Mrs. Weasley quarrells with Mr. Weasley about him having enchanted the car to fly.
• Harry is being shown Ron’s room. It’s covered with posters of his favorite quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. In a corner, there is a pile of comics titled The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. Although Ron apologises that the room is a bit small and right underneath the ghoul in the attic, Harry says it’s the best house he’s ever been in.

• While staying with the Weasleys, Harry, Ron and the others receive a letter from Hogwarts with a list of the books they will require for their second year. They are:
The Standard Book of Spells (grade 2) by Miranda Goshawk
Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart
Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart
Holiday with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart
Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart
Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart
Wandering with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart
Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart
• Ginny will also start Hogwarts this year.
• Ron and Harry receive a letter from Hermione.
• In the afternoon they go and practice a bit of Quidditch in a small paddock, hidden from the public view. Fred is curious as to why Percy is behaving strangely. He got twelve O.W.L.s and hardly gloated at all; Ordinary Wizarding Levels, George explains. Bill, the oldest of the brothers, who was Head Boy at Hogwarts, got twelve too. He’s now working in Egypt for Gringotts. Charlie, the second oldest brother, is studying dragons in Romania.
• The next morning they will go to Diagon Alley to purchase their books. Mrs. Weasley offers Harry a flowerpot. Ron tells her that Harry has never travelled by Floo Powder before. After explaining that you have to throw a bit of floo powder into the fireplace and clearly state the name of the place where you want to go while stepping into the fire, Harry steps into the fire. Harry swallows a lot of hot ash while doing so, making him stutter the name of Diagon Alley and he ends up somewhere else.
• Harry finds himself in a wizard’s shop. When Harry prepares to leave, Draco and his father Lucius Malfoy enter and he quickly hides in a cabinet. They are attended by the owner Mr. Borgin. It seems Mr. Malfoy wants to sell some of his possesions; afraid of having a Ministry inspection. He talks about a rumor concerning a new Muggle Protection Act.
• Draco asks if he can have some object in the store; a Hand of Glory, which gives only light to the holder after inserting a candle, but his father tells him no. Finally Draco and Lucius leave and Harry also leaves the store, seeing that the store’s name is Borgin and Burkes.
• He starts walking, and sees a sign that says Knockturn Alley. He runs into Hagrid who takes him back to Diagon Alley. Hagrid happened to be there to buy Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent.
• Hermione, who was waiting at Gringotts, meets with Harry. The Weasley’s are just arriving, happy to see Harry back. Mr. Weasley is told by Harry about seeing Mr. Malfoy at Borgins and Burkes. He asks if he bought anything, eager to catch him for something. Hermione introduces her parents. After everybody has gotten their money, they will go off on their own, agreeing to meet in an hour at Flourish and Blotts to buy the necessary schooll supplies.
• After buying some ice cream, looking in the windows of Quality Quidditch Supplies, and buying ink and parchment, they meet with Fred, George and Lee Jordan in Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. They are looking at Dr. Filibuster’s Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. In a tiny junk shop they find Percy, looking into a book called Prefects Who Gained Power.
• An hour later they meet at the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts. Hanging above them is a large banner announcing Gilderoy Lockhart is there signing copies of his autobiography Magical Me. A reporter is taking photographs for the Daily Prophet. Lockhart sees Harry and makes him pose for pictures with him. He announces he will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts this year.
• Draco and his father enter the bookstore. Getting a very old battered book out of Ginny’s Cauldron he makes unfriendly remarks to Mr. Weasley about them being poor and they end up fighting. Hagrid finally stops them. Mr. Weasley has suffered a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy was hit in the eye with a copy of The Encyclopedia of Toadstools.
• Everybody goes back to the Leaky Cauldron from where Harry and the Weasley’s will go home by floo powder after saying good-bye to the Grangers.

• Holiday is over and Harry and the Weasley’s will go by car, their Ford Anglia, to Platform nine and three-quarters at King’s Cross to get on the Hogwarts Express. The car has been magically enhanced to be bigger from the inside then it looks on the outside.
• After having to go back for George’s Filibuster fireworks, Fred’s broom and Ginny’s diary, they finally start on their way. Running late, Mr. Weasley suggest to use the Invisibility Booster which he installed, but Mrs. Weasley refuses to let him.
• After Percy, Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Mrs. Weasley and Ginny enter, it is only Harry and Ron who need to pass through the wall to get to Platform nine and three-quarters. Instead of passing through, they crash into the wall. With the gateway sealed, Ron suggests to take Mr. Weasley’s car. Since his parents know how to Apparate, vanish and reappear at home, they don’t need the car.
• They start the car, make it invisible and start following the Hogwart Express. They have problems getting the Invisibility Booster to start properly so they decide to fly over the clowds.
• After a few hours, the engine starts to whine. As they finally see Hogwarts the car starts losing speed and in the end the engine dies completely. They crash into a big tree. Ron’s wand has snappd. The tree starts hitting them back, and they escape by driving the car in reverse a small distance.
• Looking through the windows, they see that the Sorting has already started.
• They get caught by Professor Snape who takes them to his office. Apparently they were seen by Muggles flying a car, and the story was printed in the newspaper, the Evening Prophet in an article with interviews with Mrs. Hetty Bayliss from Norfolk, Mr. Angus Fleet of Peeples and five more people saying that they saw the flying car. Snape also tells them he saw that considerable damage has been done to the tree, the Whomping Willow.
• They get a big lecture from Professor McGonagall and from Dumbledore but they don’t get expelled. Professor Snape had jeered to them about the fact that Ron’s father, who works at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, will not like to hear that his own son got caught with a flying car. He’s very disappointed to hear that they did not get expelled, even though they violated the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry.
• After eating some sandwiches and drinking two silver goblets full of iced pumpkins juice which Professor McGonagall had provided for them, they go back to Gryffindor Tower where they meet with Hermione. She tells them the new password “wattlebird”, and they enter the common room, where they are welcomed as heroes.

• During breakfast in the Great Hall, Ron receives a Howler by owl post from his mother, delivered by Errol. Opening the red envelope, his mother’s voice shouts like thunder through the hall, giving Ron a blastout for stealing the car to get to Hoqwarts. When it’s finished it bursts into flames and curls into ashes.
• Their first class that day is Herbology with Professor Sprout in the greenhouse outside the castle. While they wait for Professor Sprout, they see her coming, accompanied by Lockhart. Before entering, Lockhart talks to Harry about the car-incident and how ‘Harry has become publicity-hungry’, explaining that ‘Harry is also a bit known of course, all that stuff about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ but that’s not as good as winning Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row and ‘Harry has a start but he has to take it slower; that he will have more time for that when he is older’.
• In herbology, they will be repotting Mandrakes. Asking anybody if they know their properties, Hermione knows the answer; they are a powerful restorative. Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes, but are also dangerous since their cry is fatal to anyone who hears it. They start repotting them, taking the pots and compost, carefully avoiding the Venemous Tentacula because it’s teething. Harry, Ron and Hermione are joined by Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff. Justin tells them that he was down for Eton, but after showing his mother Lockart’s books, she began to see it might be usefull to have a wizard in the family.
• The next class is Transfiguration. Harry’s skills have gotten a bit rusty during the summer. Ron has worse problems. He had patched his wand with some Spellotape but it seemes to be damaged beyond repair.
• Sitting outside, Harry is approached by Colin Creevey, a first year from Gryffindor, who has a camera with him and wants to take a picture of Harry to prove that he met him. He’d like a picture together with Harry and he wants Harry to sign it. Malfoy, overhearing the conversation, starts making fun of them and they almost start a fight, stopped by Professor Lockhart who poses for a photo of himself with Harry. Harry, totally embarressed, wishes he knew a good Vanishing Spell.
• They enter Lockharts first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. He introduces himself by his title “Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award” adding “but I don’t talk about that. I didn’t get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her”. They get a test with personal questions about Lockhart which includes questions like what is his “favorite color, secret ambition and ideal gift”. All these answers are in his books, except that besides the other idea gifts mentioned, his ideal gift would be harmony and peace between magic an non-magic people. The he adds that he wouldn’t say no to a bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky. Lockhart introduces the class to a cage of Cornish Pixies. After letting them out of the cage, they start wrecking the classroom. Lockhart’s spell ¤ Peskipiksi Pesternomi has no effect and Harry, Ron and Hermione have to put them back into the cage. Hermione uses a Freezing Charm to immobilize some of them.

• Harry leaves for Quidditch practice. While he is walking, he is approached by Colin Creevy who shows him the moving picture of him and Lockhart. He keeps asking Harry all kind of questions about Quidditch, walking after Harry untill Harry finally manages to shake him off when he reaches the changing rooms. All the players are present; Katie Bell, Fred and George Weasley, Oliver Wood, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson. Wood gives them a long lecture about his new training program. After what seemed like ages they finally go onto the field.
• Marcus Flint and his Slytherins team arrives. He has a personal note from Professor Snape, allowing them to train their new Seeker Draco Malfoy! His father, Lucius Malfoy ‘bought’ his son’s place in the team by giving all of them a new Nimbus Two Thousand and One brooms. Malfoy starts making fun of Harry’s Nimbus Two Thousand and George and Fred’s Cleansweep Fives. Ron and Hermione come to see what is happening. They start arguing. Malfoy calls Hermione a Mudblood, one of the worst things to call a witch or wizard. They begin to fight, but Ron’s wand backfires on himself when trying to Hex Malfoy. They take him to Hagrid.
• Ron belches slugs. When they reach Hagrid’s cabin, Professor Lockhart is just leaving. Hagrid thinks there’s not much more they can do for Ron other than to wait for the the vomiting it to stop by itself. He tells them that Lockhart was giving him advice on how to get kelpies out of a well. Hagrid offers them some treacle fudge while they conversate about Lockhart, Malfoy and what Malfoy said. Next he shows them pumpkins he’s growing for Halloween, a bit big to be ‘normal’. Hermione supposes Hagrid used an Engorgement Charm, although he is not allowed to use magic anymore.
• Going back to the castle, Harry and Ron are told they will do detention at eight o’clock in the evening. Ron will polish the silver in the trophy room with Mr. Filch and Harry will help Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail.
• At eight he goes to his Lockhart’s office and he begins addressing envelopes for fans like Gladys Gudgeon and Veronica Smethley. Harry suddenly hears a voice saying things like “come.., let me rip you.. let me tear you.. let me kill you”.
• He finally is able to go back to Gryffindor tower. Half an hour later, Ron gets back with a sour arm from pollishing a Quidditch cup. He also had another slug attack all over a Special Award for Services to the School. Harry tells Ron about the voice he heard.

• October arrives and there is a spate of colds among the staff and students. Madam Pomfrey has a Pepperup Potion to deal with it. Squelching along the deserted corridors one day Harry encounters Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower. He looks troubled. He’s disappointed because he was not allowed to enter the Headless Hunt, an event a group of ghosts participate in who have been completely decapatated. In their letter they say that to be allowed to join, “one’s head needs to be completely parted with their body”, which Nearly Headless Nick’s is not. “Otherwise it would be impossible for other members to participate in hunt activities as Horseback Head Juggling and Head Polo”. The note is signed by Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.
• At the end of his conversation with Nearly Headless Nick, Filch burst in the corridor and takes him to his office for dripping mud from his shoes all over the castle. While Filch is thinking about an appropriate punishment for Harry, there’s a loud bang and he speeds upstairs to catch Peeves, presumed guilty of this mischief.
• Harry sees a purple envelope on Filch’s desk. On it, he reads the words “Kwikspell, A Correspondence Course in Beginners’ Magic”. Intrigued, he opens it and reads the parchment. It is a beginner’s course in magic with comments from those who have taken the course. Some of these read: Madam Z. Nettes of Topsham who used to be really poor in doing magic; now “her friends even beg her for the recipe of her Scintillation Solution” ...Warlock D. J. Prod from Didsbury improved his spells drastically with the course. Filch gets back to his office, and seeing the envelope in a different place, angrily sends Harry away, bewildered, without punishment.
• Afterwards he finds out that Nearly Headless Nick persuaded Peeves to make the noise Filch heard to create a diversion for Harry. He asks Harry to come to his five hundredth Deathday Party on Halloween, together with Ron and Hermione.
• Ron and Hermione hear about the invitation in the common room where Fred and George are trying to find out what would happen if you feed a Filibuster Firework to a salamander, which they “rescued” from a Care of Magical Creatures class.
• On Halloween they go to the party. The room is filled with ghosts; among which them Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost, the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin Ghost, Moaning Myrtle and Peeves. Peeves tells Moaning Myrtle some unkind things Hermione said about her and she bursts into one of her usual sobs and flees from the dungeon. The trio lie to Nearly Headless Nick that they are having a great time. Nick is proud of himself, telling them the Wailing Widow came all the way from Kent. A group of Head Polo playing ghosts on horses gallop into the room, Sir Patrick at the front.
• They decide to leave and suddenly Harry hears the voice again he heard in Lockhart’s office saying “... rip … tear … kill …” and “... so hungry … for so long …” and “.. kill … time to kill …”. They follow the voice and Harry hears it say “... I smell blood … I SMELL BLOOD!”. Then suddenly they see written on the wall “THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED, ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.” Underneath the sighn, hanging on a tornch bracket by her tail, is Mrs. Norris. Before they can get away from the place the corridor is crowded with students, trying to see what has happened.

• Filch thinks Harry killed his cat. Dumbledore takes Harry, Ron, Hermione and Filch with him to Professor Lockhart’s office. Professor McGonagall and Snape follow. Dubledore examines Mrs. Norris. Professor Lockhart is hovering all around them making suggestions, saying that it was probably the Transmogrifian Torture curse that killed it and that he remembered a similar case in Quagadogou. Dumbledore finally establishes that the cat is not dead but Petrified. Filch is convinced Harry did it since Harry found out he’s a Squib. Although Harry doesn’t tell them he heard “a voice”, they believe his story that he was at the deathday party although he was in the corridor without any reason to be there. Dumbledore promises to have Professor Sprout cure his cat with some Mandrakes. Lockhart offers to do it, saying he could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in his sleep. Harry, Ron and Hermione are told they may leave.
• Ron explains to Harry that a Squib is someone born in a wizarding family who does not have any magical powers.
• Filch guards the spot where his cat was cursed. He tries to remove the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower’s All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover but with no effect.
• One day Harry goes to the library to meet with Ron. Ron is already there doing homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three-feet-long composition on The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards. Harry tells Ron that when Justin Finch-Fletchley saw him, he ran away, frightened of of him. Hermione emerges from between the bookshelves and tells them that all the copies of Hogwarts, a History have been taken out. Everyone seems to want to read about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.
• They have History of Magic class with Professor Binns. While giving a lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289 Hermione asks about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. Annoyingly he refuses with the reason that his subject is History of Magic, dealing with fact. He starts his lecture again continuing about a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers but Hermione asks him about the chamber again.
• He starts to explain the story. Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Slytherin wanted to ban muggles from entering the school and it came to an argument which made him leave the school. The story goes that he built a hidden chamber in the castle. Only his heir would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets to unleash the horror within and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic. The horror is believed to be some sort of monster which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control.
• Harry feels badly, remembering the Sorting Hat wanted to put him in Slytherin. He’s afraid he might be Slytherin’s heir.
• Ron, Harry and Hermione come to the place where Mrs. Norris was attacked and see a lot of spiders all in a hurry to get outside through a crack. Remembering that there was water on the floor when it happened, they enter the girls’ toilet nearby where Moaning Myrtle always stays. She’s there and they talk to her. They are ‘caught’ and sent away by Percy.
• Back in the common room they speculate about the identity of the Heir, Ron saying he believes it is Draco Malfoy. Hermione suggests using a Polyjuice Potion to transform themselves, temporarily, to look like three other people; three Slytherins. This way they can go into the Slytherin common room and ask Draco directly. Getting the recipe will be very difficult, since Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions, bound to be in the Restricted Section of the Library. They need to get a signed note of permission from a teacher to get the book.

• Since the pixies incident, Pofessor Lockhart brought no live creatures to classes. He spent most of the class time reenacting his adventures. Harry was usually chosen to help him. So far Harry played a Transylvanian villager whom Lockhart had cured of a Babbling Curse, a yeti and a vampire. In the current lesson Harry has to play a Werewolf, Lockhart showing how he managed to perform a complex Homorphus Charm. Their homework assignment is to compose a poem about Lockhart’s defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf.
• Before leaving, Hermione flatters him about what he said in Gadding with Ghouls, thereby managing to get the necessary signed permission to get the book from the Restricted Library Section. Lockhart tells Harry that he was asked to be Seeker for the National Squad once but preferred to go into eradication of the Dark Forces instead.
• After getting Moste Potente Potions from the library, Harry Ron and Hermione go to Moaning Myrtle’s out-of-order bathroom. According to Hermione, it’s the most complicated potion she ever saw, requiring Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, knotgrass and some more difficult to get ingredients like powdered horn of a bicorn and shredded skin of a boomslang. They’ll have to steal it from Snape’s private stores.
• Harry has the Quidditch game against Slytherin. Oliver Wood gives his usual pep-talk. It’s Draco Malfoy’s first match as the Slytherin Seeker. Harry narrowly avoids a Bludger. George gives the Bludger a whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey but it changes direction in midair and heads straight for Harry again. This repeats itself. Fred also tries to beat the Bludger away with no effect. Slytherin leads sixty to zero and Fred and George call to Wood for a time out. They realise the Bludger has been tampered with and Harrry decides to handle the Bludger himself and let Fred and George play normally again. Harry plays on. He sees the Snitch above Malfoy’s head, but is hit by a Bludger which breaks his arm. He speeds for the Snitch and catches it with his unharmed arm and lands. Lockhart tries to fix his arm but ends up removing his arm-bones and Harry has to go to the Hospital wing.
• Madam Pomfrey is angry about what Lockart did but will manage to grow his bones back in a day with Skele-Gro. Ron and Hermione are with him and they suspect Draco tampered with the Bludger.
• Waking up in the night from the pain, he finds Dobby on top of him. Dobby confesses it was him who tried to prevent Harry getting through to Platform nine and three-quarters and who tampered with the Bludger. He explains to Harry about House-elfs in general. Dobby inadvertantly lets slip during his warnings information about the Chamber of Secrets, confirming its existence to Harry. Suddenly Dobby hears footsteps and disappears in thin air.
• Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall enter, bringing in a petrified, Colin Creevey and showing him to Madam Pomfrey. All the pictures in his camera are melted.

• Harry is healed and is excused from the Hospital wing. Harry looks for Hermione and Ron and finds them in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. They already started on the Polyjuice Potion. Harry tells them what happened to Colin, which they already overheard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick. He also tells them about Dobby. Now they know the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before. They speculate about what kind of monster is in there. Hermione thinks it might be able to make itself invisible or maybe it can disquise itself.. She read about Chameleon Ghouls who can do that.
• Everybody at Hogwarts is getting afraid and suspicious.
• Christmas is near and the holiday will be the perfect time to use the Polyjuice potion to get a confession from Malfoy. They still need the Boomslang skin and the Bicorn horn and will try to get it in next Potions class from Professor Snape. On Thursday afternoon, the lesson goes as usual, Draco harrassing Ron by flickering puffer-fish eyes at Ron and Harry. They are making a Swelling Solution. To create a diversion so that Hermione can sneak into Snape’s private stores, Harry throws one of Fred’s Filibuster fireworks into Goyle’s cauldron. It explodes, showering the whole class, Malfoy’s nose and Goyle’s hands swelling. Professor Snape calls for order and for everyone who has been affected to come to him for a Deflating Draft. Hermione manages to get the ingredients.
• A week later, there’s an announcement on the notice board that a Dueling Club will be started; first meeting that night. The trio decide to go, wondering who will be teaching. Hermione was told Professor Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young. Entering, they find out it is Professor Lockhart and that Professor Snape will be his assistant. They start the Wizard’s Duel demonstration. On the count of three, Professor Snape uses a Disarming Charm Expelliarmus to blast Lockhart off his feet. Next they will duel in pairs. Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, Ron with Seamus Finnigan, Harry with Draco and Hermione with Millicent Bullstrode. They are supposed to start on the count of three. Draco cheats and starts on 2, Harry is hit with a spell but manages to cast a counter Tickling Charm Rictusempra. Draco casts a spell again, Tarantallegra and Snape stops all duels by casting a ¤ Finite Incantatem. All stop, Lockhart helps up Ernie Macmillan and Miss Fawcett. Next Neville and Justin have to volunteer for a spell blocking demonstration, but Snape has Draco and Harry do it. Snape whispers a curse to Draco and when they start Malfoy casts a Serpensortia and a black snake comes out of his wand. Lockhart, trying to get rid of the snake, blows the snake ten feet into the air and it falls down again. Enraged, it slithers toward Justin. Harry, sprinting after it, comands it to ‘leave him alone!’ and miraculously it stops. Everybody is upset and Ron takes Harry away to the Gryffindor common room.
• Ron explains to Harry that he is a Parselmouth, someone who can talk to snakes. Speaking the snake language, Parseltongue, is not considered a good quality in general, since Salazar Slytherin was famous for it. The whole school will think Harry is a decendant. Harry is afraid of this, since the Sorting Hat had wanted to put him in the Slytherin house.
• The next day he wants to explain what really happened to Justin. He goes to seek him in the library. A group of Hufflepuffs are talking and Harry overhears their conversation. He hears Ernie Macmillan trying to convince the others that Harry is the Heir of Slytherin. Harry shows himself and tries to convince them of what he really did at the Dueling Club, with no effect, and goes away.
• Leaving, he bumps into Hagrid who tells Harry that his roosters are being killed. He continues and finds Justin and Nearly Headless Nick petrified solid. Peeves appears and starts to shout “ATTACK! ATTACK! ....” Professor McGonagall appears to the spot and takes Harry with her. Justin is taken to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy Department. Harry is taken by McGonagall to Dumbledore’s office by entering through a stone gargoyle with the password “lemon drop” and up a spiral staircase.

• Harry is left in Dumbledore’s office. He’s alone. He sees the Sorting Hat and tries it on to get some answers about it’s decision to put him in Gryffindor House. It reads Harry’s thoughts about him wondering and says the dicision was hard, Harry would have done well in Slytherin. Harry sees that he’s not alone, there’s a bird on a golden perch which suddenly bursts into flames. Dumbledore, who comes in, explains it’s a Phoenix. Its name is Fawkes. Bursting into flames means it’s their time to die and be reborn from the ashes. He also says it’s a shame Harry is seeing it on a Burning Day, normally it’s a beautiful creature.
• Hagrid bursts in, trying to explain that it couldn’t have been Harry who did the harm to Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, since he saw him a few moments before. Dumbledore never thought it was Harry and Harry is allowed to leave.
• Term has ended. Most students have gone home for holiday, so now they can play Exploding Snap without bothering anyone. On Christmas morning Hermione comes into Ron and Harry’s dormitory, telling them the Polyjuice Potion is ready and bringing them presents. Hedwig flies in, bringing a ‘present’ (a tooth pick) from the Dursleys. From Hagrid Harry got Treacle Fudge, from Ron a book called Flying with the Cannons, from Hermione a quill and from Mrs. Weasley a hand-knitted sweater and a plum cake.
• Christmas dinner is in the Great Hall. It looks magnificent, decorated with Christmas trees, holly and mistletoe. Enchanted snow is falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Hagrid is drinking goblets of eggnog. To get bit’s of the people to change into for the Polyjuice Potion, Hermione made some plump chocolate cakes, filled with Sleeping Draught. They know that Crabbe and Goyle will take them and then they will be able to get a hair from both of them. Hermione already got hers from Millicent Bullstrode while wrestling during the Dueling Club.
• Getting the hairs goes as planned. Ron and Harry also take their shoes and then they go to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. Hermione finishes the Polyjuice Potion and they take it. Ron changes into Crabbe and Harry into Goyle. Hermione refuses to come out of the bathroom stall and Ron and Harry go alone, only having one hour before the Potion’s effect will wear off.
• Searching for a Slytherin student to get them into their House, they are found by Draco Malfoy. He takes them to the Slytherin’s common room, passing through a concealed stone door with the password “Pure-blood”. Malfoy shows them an article from the Daily Prophet. It’s about Ron’s father Arthur Weasley who has been fined for bewitching a Muggle car. Draco’s father Lucius Malfoy, who is a governor of Hogwarts, has called for his resignation from the Ministry of Magic, quoting “unable to draw up laws and his Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately”. Draco mentions he wishes he knew who the Heir of Slytherin is, which means it’s not him. Harry asks if they caught the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets the last time. Draco tells him he presumes they did and that that person is probably still in Azkaban, the wizard prison. Ron starts changing back to his normal form and he and Harry quickly depart for Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. Getting back they find out that the hair from Millicent Bullstrode was in fact a cat hair, giving Hermione the appearance of a cat. They take her to the Hospital wing.

• Hermione had to stay in the hospital wing for several weeks. Harry and Ron visited her daily. She got a card from Professor Lockhart. While he and Ron are leaving, Harry pokes fun of Lockhart. Ron is wishing he had asked Hermione how many rat tails one is supposed to add to a Hair Raising Potion when they hear Filch screaming from the floor above.
• They run in the direction of the screams and they see a great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, coming from Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. They go into the bathroom and find out someone threw a book at her. They search for it and find it. Ron warns Harry it could be dangerous. He heard from his father about Sonnet of a Sorcerer which made people speak in limericks for the rest of their lives. It turns out to be the diary of T.M.Riddle. Ron remembers this name. Riddle got a Special Award for Services to the School, which Ron remembers because he had to polish it in detention in the beginning of the year. The diary is completely blank. It only shows the store which sold it; Vauxhall Road, London.
• Hermione is excused from the hospital wing. Harry tells her about the diary they found that had belonged to T.M. Riddle. Considering Riddle got a special award, and the Chamber was opened fifty years ago; the diary is fifty years old. Hermione thinks Riddle might have caught the Heir of Slytherin. The only problem is that the diary has nothing written in it. Wondering if it might be invisible ink, she tries to spell it to show by an Aparecium. She also tries a Revealer to reveal the text but it doesn’t show anything.
• Harry, convinced he somehow heard the name Riddle before, starts looking but only finds his name on an old Medal for Magical Merits on an old list of Head Boys.
• There’s no more attacks for some time. To boost up morale, Lockhart has arranged a feast for Valentine’s Day. The Great Hall decorated and he arranged dwarfs. Proudly he tells them the dwarfs will deliver Valentine’s Day Cards and he suggests that students ask Professor Snape to show them how to make a Love Potion or ask Professor Flitwick about Entrancing Enchantments. Late in the afternoon, a dwarf delivers a card to Harry. Harry embarrassingly tries to get away but the dwarf trips him and reads him the card. Draco Malfoy makes fun of him and picks up Riddle’s Diary which Harry lost when the dwarf tripped him. Harry shoots the diary out of his hand with an ¤ Expelliarmus and Ron catches it. Malfoy teases Ginny Weasly who has been watching, saying that Harry did not like her card much, implying it was her card. All Harry’s books were covered with ink from the fall, except the diary.
• At night he writes in the diary and it’s ‘owner’, Tom Riddle, starts writing back. Riddle tells Harry about what happened in his days at Hogwarts and about the Chamber of Secrets. He caught the person who had opened it and that person was expelled by the Headmaster at the time, Professor Dippet. He received a special award but was told never to talk about it. Harry asks who it was who opened the Secret Chamber and Riddle offers to ‘show’ Harry. Harry accepts and he is “pulled into the story” of what happened at that time. He is in Dumbledore’s office but it’s the office of Dippet. Harry is present as a spectator of the conversation between Dippet and Riddle. Riddle wants to stay over at Hogwarts for the holiday instead of back to the Muggle orphanage he is raised in. He is told he will not be allowed unless the attacks that have been taking place stop. Riddle leaves and encounters a fifty-year-younger Dumbledore in the corridors. Riddle goes down to the dungeon. There Riddle sees Rubeus Hagrid. He has kept a giant monster-spider as a pet hidden there. Riddle tries to kill it but Rubeus prevents him. Harry is ‘dragged’ out of the story. Ron comes in the room at that moment and Harry tells him that it was Hagrid who opened the Chamber of Secrets.

• Hagrid has always been fond off monsters as pets, but they are not one hundred percent sure it was him. As long as there are no more attacks they decide not to confront him. Everything had calmed down. Peeves stopped making fun of him; Ernie Macmillan asked him politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology and the Mandrakes were growing fine.
• All second years had to think about now was the subjects they wanted to take next year. Neville got lots of letters from wizards and witches in his family. Confused, he keeps asking people if Arithmancy sounds more difficult then Ancient Runes. Harry gets advice from Percy. He recommends Divination and Muggle Studies. Harry ends up choosing the same subjects as Ron.
• One day, Harry’s dormitory has been searched, the content of his trunk thrown everywhere. Riddle’s Diary is missing. He goes down to the common room to tell Hermione, who is reading a book called Ancient Runes Made Easy.
• The next day Harry hears ‘the voice’ agian, saying “Kill this time… let me rip… tear… “. Hermione suddenly says she thinks she understands something and speeds off to the library. Harry goes to the Quidditch pitch for the match against Hufflepuff. Before the match can begin, Professor McGonagall sprints onto the pitch with a megaphone, announcing the match to be canceled. All students have to go back to their House common room. Harry and Ron are taken by Professor McGonagall and shown two more victims of the latest attack, a Ravenclaw girl and Hermione. Both were found in the library. Hermione was holding a small mirror in her hand.
• Percy is in shock. The Ravenclaw victim, Penelope Clearwater, is a Prefect, like him.
• Ron and Harry decide to go to Hagrid to get information. They use Harry’s Invisibility Cloak to get out of the school at night unseen and go to Hagrid’s cabin. There’s a knock on the door, Harry and Ron hide under the cloak and Hagrid opens the door. It’s Dumbledore, followed by Ron’s fathers’ boss, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. Fudge is under pressure from the Ministry because of all the attacks, and has to take action. As a precaution, he sends Hagrid to Azkaban. There’s another knock on the door and Lucius Malfoy enters, bringing an Order of Suspension, signed by all twelve governors to suspend Dumbledore. As all leave, Hagrid says aloud that ‘if anyone wants to find out some stuff, all they would have to do is follow the spiders’.

• They have Herbology class. Professor Sprout sets them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Harry spots spiders during classes, all headed toward the Forbidden Forest.
• At night Ron and Harry sneak out of the school again using the Invisibility Cloak. They take Hagrid’s boarhound Fang with them. Using the spell ¤ Lumos to make some light with his wand, they enter the forest following the spiders. They run into Ron’s fathers’ Flying car which has turned wild from living in the forest. They are captured by huge spiders and taken to a vast hollow in the forest, crowded with spiders. They are addressed to by a huge spider, the size of a small elephant, called Aragog. Harry tells him that Hagrid is sent to Azkaban and that he is suspected of opening the Chamber of Secrets and setting a monster free. Aragog tells that it was years ago and that they believed that he was the monster, but in fact he is not. Hagrid received Aragog when it still was an egg, from a stranger, and he took care of him. Aragog was blamed for the death of a girl but Hagrid protected him. He even found a wife, Mosag, for Aragog. Aragog knows the real identity of the monster but does not want to tell it. At the end of the conversation Aragog tells them that they will serve as food for the other spiders but they are saved by the Flying car.
• They are left at the edge of the forest and they get the invisibility cloak back from Hagrid’s cabin and get back to the Gryffindor common room. Harry suddenly get’s an insight that the girl who died fifty years ago in the bathroom might be Moaning Myrtle.

• Exams are still on, even with the attacks going on. Professor McGonagall announces in the Great Hall that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting and that the people who have been Petrified will be revived at night.
• Ginny Weasley joins them at the table, looking nervous and wanting to tell Ron and Harry something but she decides not to when Percy joins the table.
• Ron and Harry try to sneak out to visit Moaning Myrtle to ask her some questions but are stopped by Professor McGonagall. They lie that they were about to visit Hermione and they are allowed to do so. Having to go there now, they discover a paper clutched in her hand. It’s a page from an old library book. It’s about the Basilisk, also known as the King of Serpents. This Snake has a murderous stare; all who are directly fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. It is the mortal enemy of spiders. The note goes on to say that the Basilisk only flees from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. Written under the information Hermione wrote “pipes”. Now Harry understands that the monster from the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk and because he can understand Parseltongue, he is the only one who can hear it moving through the plumbing pipes. Nobody died yet because nobody had looked directly into it’s stare. The entrance to the Chamber of secrets is probably in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.
• They decide they should tell everything to the teachers, and head toward the staff room. Just then, there is an announcement telling all student to return to their House dormitories and teachers to return to the staff room. Harry and Ron stay hidden in a wardrobe and overhear there has been another attack, and that the victim is Ginny Weasley who has been taken right into the chamber itself. The Heir of Slytherin left another message, “Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever”. Lockhart joins the teachers, arriving late. All teacher angrily tell Lockhart, who has been bragging all year long about himself, that now it’s time for him to be the hero; that he should go and rescue Ginny.
• Unable to wait any longer, Harry and Ron go to Lockhart to tell him what they know about the Chamber. Lockhart is packing his stuff, getting ready to leave Hogwarts as soon as possible. He is a coward, confessing that the stories in his books mostly didn’t happen to him. He ‘stole’ other peoples stories and put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn’t remember. Lockhart is on the point of putting a Memory Charm on Ron and Harry when Harry disarms him with an Expelliarmus. They take Lockhart to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom and ask her how she died. Myrtle tells them she was hiding because Olive Hornby was teasing her. She heard a different language, a boy talking, she opened the door and died and that the last thing she remembered seeing was a pair of great big yellow eyes.
• They find the entrance and Harry opens it, speaking in Parseltongue. The three of them enter and go down, falling miles under the school; probably under the lake. It’s completely dark and Harry lights the place with a Lumos. They find a snake skin. Lockhart manages to get Ron’s Spellotape wand and tries to perform a Memory Charm Obliviate. Ron’s wand explodes. The tunnel is blocked, Harry continues alone and finds the Chamber.

• Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets and finds Ginny, barely alive. He is awaited in the Chamber by Tom Riddle, not as a ghost but as a memory, preserved in his Diary. The diary is lying on the floor near a giant statue. Riddle has Harry’s wand. He tells Harry Ginny has been writing in his diary for months and Riddle enchanted her to open the Chamber of Secrets and ‘set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods’. She finally became suspicous and tried to get rid of the diary, which Harry later found.
• Riddle tells the real story of fifty years ago, how he framed Hagrid and how Professor Dumbledore, then Transfiguration teacher, suspected him. For months his new target has been Harry. He uses Harry’s wand and writes the words “TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE” in the air, then waving his wand the letters rearrange themselves to “I AM LORD VOLDERMORT”. Riddle is the Heir of Slytherin, he is Voldemort. Riddle claims to be the greatest sorcerer in the world, Harry contradicts him saying that Dumbledore is. Along with music, Fawkes the Phoenix flies in, bringing Harry the Sorting Hat.
• Riddle summons the Basilisk and it enters through the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Fawkes tries to protect Harry, attacking the Serpent and blinding it. The snake’s whipping tail sweeps the Sorting Hat into Harry’s arms, he puts it on. A sword falls out of it. As the Basilisk lunges at him, Harry drives the sword to the hilt into the roof of the serpent’s mouth, one poisonous fang sinking into his arm in the act.
• Fawkes cries tears onto Harry’s wound. Riddle realises it and as he is about to finish Harry of with his wand, Harry takes the basilisk fang and plunges it into the diary, thereby killing Riddle.
• Ginny wakes up. They return to Ron and Lockhart. Lockhart’s Memory Charm turns out to have backfired and has wiped out his memory. Fawkes takes them all back up to the castle and up to Professor McGonagall’s office.

• In Professor McGonagall’s office, Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Weasley have already been waiting after having been notified what had happend to Ginny. Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore are in the room too. Harry explains everything what had happened, avoiding mentioning Riddle’s diary or Ginny. When asked how he got out of there alive, Dumbledore intervenes by wondering loudly how Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, while he is supposed to be hiding in Albania. Harry explains it was his old diary.
• All Petrified people are better. Ron and Harry will both receive a Special Award for Services to the School. They explain what happened to Lockhart.
• Harry has a private conversation with Dumbledore. He hears that speaking Parseltongue is a power transferred from Lord Voldemort, the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, to him on the night he got his Scar. Harry, thinking that because of this he should be in Slytherin, is told that the sword which fell out of the Sorting Hat is the Sword of Godric Gryffindor and only a real Gryffindor could have summoned it out of the hat.
• Lucius Malfoy enters, followed by Dobby. He is told that they found the culprit. Although he can not prove it, Harry acuses him of putting the Diary into Ginny’s bag in Flourish and Blotts. Malfoy leaves angrily. By tricking Malfoy into it, Harry has Malfoy unknowingly set Dobby free. [*]
• Harry is hero again. Ron joins the fame. Both had won two hundred points each, securing Gryffindor winning the House cup for the second year running.
• Year’s finished and all head home on the Hogwarts Express. Ginny tells them what she wanted to tell them earlier. Percy has a girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater from Ravenclaw. She walked in on them, kissing. Harry returns to the Dursleys.