Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It is the second book in a series of seven Harry Potter books. The book was published on 2 July 1998. A film was theatrically released in November 2002.
While home with the Dursleys for the summer, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf, who warns him he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts. Harry is determined to return despite Dobby's dire warning. Dobby, seeing that he will have to use force, decides to drop a bowl of pudding on the kitchen floor through the use of a charm. Harry is blamed by the Ministry of Magic for Dobby's charm, and is told that if he does magic outside of school again, he will be expelled. The Dursleys, upon learning that he cannot do magic outside of school, have locked away Harrys books and wand; Mr. Dursley has screwed on bars to his window, making him a prisoner.
Fred, George, and Ron Weasley come to his rescue in their dad's flying car. After a pleasant summer together in the Weasley house, everyone heads to Platform 9 3/4 to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. Harry and Ron are unable to enter through the magical barrier between platforms 9 and 10. In desperation, they fly to Hogwarts in the car, crashing into the Whomping Willow and damaging Ron's wand. The semi-sentient car ejects them and their belongings and disappears into the Forbidden Forest.
Harry soon finds he is the unwanted center of attention of three people: the vain new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, a wizard perpetuating his own legend; admirer Colin Creevey, a young first year Gryffindor who endlessly takes Harry's photo; and Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley, who fancies Harry. Events take a bad turn when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and a monster stalks the castle, which literally petrifies several students. According to legend, the Chamber was built by Salazar Slytherin and can only be opened by his heir to purge Hogwarts of students who are not pure-blood wizards. Many suspect Harry is the heir, especially after he inadvertently speaks Parseltongue (the language of snakes), a rare ability Harry gained after Voldemort's murderous attack when Harry was an infant. Harry, Ron, and Hermione attempt to discover the Heir of Slytherin's true identity. Using Polyjuice Potion brewed by Hermione, they disguise themselves as Slytherin students, Crabbe and Goyle, hoping to learn from Draco Malfoy the identity of the heir. Malfoy, they learn, does not know the Heir of Slytherin, but he inadvertently provides Harry and Ron with an important clue about the Chamber. Unfortunately, Hermione mistakenly adds cat hair instead of human hair to her potion and assumes a feline appearance, and it takes a little more than a month to restore her normal human appearance.
The attacks increase throughout the year, petrifying students, including Hermione. Most horribly, a message written on a wall declares that a studentGinny Weasleyhas been taken into the Chamber where, "her skeleton will lie forever."
With Ron and Moaning Myrtle's help, Harry discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. They force Gilderoy Lockhart, a fraud who wipes clean other wizards' memories and claims their achievements, to go with them. Lockhart attempts to use Ron's broken wand to erase Harry and Ron's memories, but the spell backfires onto himself and brings the ceiling caving in, separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart.
Harry makes it to the Chamber where he finds an unconscious Ginny. He also meets a young man named Tom Riddle, who claims to be a "memory." Harry learns that Ginny, under the control of Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber. Voldemort, whose real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle (an anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort"), imprinted his memory in an enchanted diary, to one day continue the work he begun when he reopened the Chamber fifty years agoridding Hogwarts of non-pureblood wizards. It was Hagrid, a Hogwarts student at the time, who was blamed for the attacks and expelled.
Tom Riddle's memory grows more powerful as it steals life from Ginny's body. It tries to kill Harry by setting loose the Basilisk (the monster responsible for petrifying the students), but Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes arrives carrying the Sorting Hat, from which Harry draws out the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, destroying its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. He stabs the diary with one of the basilisk's fangs, and Riddle's memory is vanquished while Ginny revives from a near-death state. She fully recovers, as do the petrified students.
Harry realizes it was Lucius Malfoy who slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron when he encountered the Weasleys in a Diagon Alley bookshop, but he is unable to prove it. Dobby reveals he is the Malfoys' servant, and knowing their treachery, had been trying to protect Harry all year. In gratitude, Harry hides one of his old socks into the diary and hands it to Lucius. Lucius gives the diary to Dobby and has him open the diary up revealing the sock. This constitutes a gift of clothingthe traditional manner a master frees a house-elf from servitude. The freed Dobby is eternally grateful to Harry and protects him from an attempted reprisal from Lucius.
Dumbledore dispels Harry's fears that he is of a kin of Slytherin's rather than to Gryffindor's nobility. He tells Harry that it is his choices that define him, and he could not have wielded the sword of Gryffindor if he did not truly belong to that house.
