Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Summary: Plot, Characters and Ending
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry's second year at Hogwarts, students are found petrified and a message announces that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Harry, who can secretly speak to snakes, is suspected. With Ron and Hermione he discovers that a monster lives in the Chamber and that a diary holds the memory of the young Voldemort.
It is the second book in the Harry Potter series.
| Character | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Harry Potter | Second-year student |
| Ron Weasley | Harry's best friend |
| Hermione Granger | Harry's brilliant friend |
| Ginny Weasley | Ron's little sister |
| Dobby | House-elf who tries to protect Harry |
| Gilderoy Lockhart | Vain new teacher |
| Tom Riddle | Memory of Voldemort as a student |
| Lucius Malfoy | Draco's father |
| Hagrid | Hogwarts gamekeeper |
How does the year begin?
The house-elf Dobby appears in Harry's bedroom and warns him not to return to Hogwarts. When Harry refuses, Dobby gets him locked in his room. Ron and his brothers rescue him in a flying car. When the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters won't let them through, Ron and Harry fly the car to school and crash into the Whomping Willow.
↑ Back to the topWhat is the Chamber of Secrets?
On Halloween, the caretaker's cat is found petrified beside a message in blood: the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir, beware. Legend says Salazar Slytherin built a hidden chamber with a monster to purge the school of students born to non-magic families. During a dueling club, Harry speaks Parseltongue, the snake language, and many think he is the heir. More students are petrified.
↑ Back to the topWhat is Tom Riddle's diary?
Ron and Harry drink Polyjuice Potion to question Draco Malfoy, but he knows nothing. Harry finds an old diary that writes back. It belongs to Tom Riddle, who shows him a memory of Hagrid being expelled fifty years earlier, blamed for opening the Chamber. Then Hermione is petrified. Hagrid is taken to Azkaban, and Lucius Malfoy forces Dumbledore out. Following Hagrid's clue, Harry and Ron meet Aragog, a giant spider, and learn the monster was not him.
↑ Back to the topWhat is the monster?
In Hermione's petrified hand is a page about the basilisk, a giant snake whose gaze kills; the victims only saw it indirectly. It travels through the pipes. Then Ginny is taken into the Chamber. Harry and Ron take Lockhart to the entrance in a girls' bathroom, where Lockhart's stolen wand backfires and wipes his own memory.
↑ Back to the topHow does Chamber of Secrets end?
Inside, Harry finds Ginny unconscious and Tom Riddle, the young Voldemort, growing stronger from her life. The diary had possessed her and made her open the Chamber. Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes brings the Sorting Hat, from which Harry pulls the sword of Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, Harry kills it, and he stabs the diary with a fang, destroying Riddle. Ginny is saved and the petrified students are cured. Harry tricks Lucius Malfoy, who planted the diary, into freeing Dobby by handing him a sock.
↑ Back to the topMore about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
This summary reveals the whole plot, including the ending.