Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

From ArticleWorld

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second in a series of seven novels about a young wizard, Harry Potter, written by British author JK Rowling. This novel follows Harry Potter in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was published in 1998 and a film of the same name was released in 2002.

Beginning

The novel begins the summer before his second year at Hogwarts and Harry is living with the Dursley’s for the time. While there, a magical house elf named Dobby arrives at the Dursley home with warnings fro Harry. He tries to convince Harry to no return to school because danger awaits him. Harry, however, will hear none of it. Because the Dursley’s condone neither magic nor Harry himself, they have locked up his wand and schoolbooks for fear that he will use them against the family. Luckily, his best friend, Ron, steals his fathers flying car and rescues Harry from his virtual prison. He spends the rest of the summer with the Weasleys before returning to Hogwarts.

Adventure

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened and something is on the loose. Students are being turned into statues. The Chamber, originally built by Salazar Slytherin, can only be opened by his true heir and is to be used to rid the school students who are not of pure wizard decent. Many begin to believe Harry is the evil heir when he begins speaking parseltongue, the language of snakes, during a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. This ability is considered a dark art and is known to be spoken by none other than Lord Voldemort. Harry, Ron and Hermione race to find out what is truly going on. They intend to figure out what is turning students to stone, who the mysterious Tom Riddle is, and what happened to Ginny, Ron’s sister. They must race against time because Tom Riddles seems to be gaining strength as Ginny Weasley loses hers. Harry’s ability to speak parseltongue comes into play when he must defeat the basilisk, a snakelike monster.