The Dueling Club
chapter eleven of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry, Hermione, and Ron start the Polyjuice Potion, but when Lockhart forms a Dueling Club – and Harry is exposed as a Parselmouth – the school assumes Harry to be the heir of Slytherin. His case isn’t helped when he’s the first to find a Petrified Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick, and McGonagall takes him to Dumbledore.
“We’d've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion,” Ron explained…. “We’ve decided this is the safest place to hide it.”
(by Sheena Kristen Sy)
“As long as it’s not -” Harry began, but he ended on a groan.
(by Laurence Peguy)
“Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me?”
(by Heather Campbell)
Harry wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at him like that he’d have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
(by Tealin Raintree)
Snape cried: “Expelliarmus!” There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet.
(by gerre)
“Scared?” muttered Malfoy, so that Lockhart couldn’t hear him. “You wish,” said Harry out of the corner of his mouth.
(by Helene Sirois)
“It matters,” said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, “because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That’s why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent.”
(by Heather Campbell)
about the chapter
Something You May Not Have Noticed
So it’s probably reasonable to guess that Snape wouldn’t have volunteered to run a Dueling Club with Lockhart all on his own. I think it’s fair to assume that Dumbledore really, really owes him for hanging around and making sure Lockhart doesn’t get anybody killed. But what’s really interesting is that he completely sets up Harry’s exposure as a Parseltongue – he puts Harry and Malfoy on stage, and then seemingly suggests to Malfoy that he use the Serpensortia spell to throw a snake in front of Harry. But here’s the question: why?
It’s certainly possible that this is just a meaningless string of coincidences that conveniently help push the plot forward. After all, Harry’s the only one to this point who knows he’s a Parselmouth. It’s also possible that Dumbledore set this up because he suspects Harry’s a Parselmouth, and wants to find out for sure – but he certainly doesn’t seem suspicious that Harry’s the one behind the strange events. I’m chalking this one up to a suspicious coincidence for now, but I’d love to hear what others’ thoughts on it are.
The Power of Magic
Professor Sprout apparently is working on the Mandrakes herself, now that they’re needed to “revive Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey.” But what about Nearly Headless Nick? Can a potion be used to revive a ghost? It must be able to somehow, but I confess I’m rather curious as to how that would work.
Life at Hogwarts
It’s funny that Harry thinks of his adventure in Potions this way: “Deliberately causing mayhem in Snape’s Potions class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye.” I have to wonder whether he’s aware at this point that the Hogwarts school motto is “Never tickle a sleeping dragon” – a motto Rowling has said she considers to be “good sound practical advice.” Clearly it’s good sound practical advice that Harry isn’t taking as he flings a firecracker into Goyle’s cauldron.
The Boy Who Lived
This isn’t the first time Harry’s been an outcast at Hogwarts, but the suspicion that plagues him after he’s revealed to be a Parselmouth does mark the first time his classmates are genuinely scared of him. We can see already that this experience isn’t something he deals with particularly well; in fact he storms off in a wave of fury. It’s understandable – from his perspective, his classmates behavior is completely senseless – but it doesn’t bode well for someone who’s as famous as he is, and has a knack for being at the center of attention when he least wants to be.
Something to Remember
This is the first time we really meet Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, and the other Hufflepuffs in Harry’s year. They certainly distrust him for the time being, but in time they’ll prove to be important allies to Harry.
I’m gonna also say that Serpensortia was a coincidence – most likely Snape just wanted to terrify some students and thought this would do the trick after the Mrs Norris incident. Or he may have been hoping to uncover the real heir, and he would also be Parselmouth. But I just can’t see how this could have been orchestrated for Harry.
hpboy13 said this on April 23, 2009 at 9:44 pm
About Polyjuice Potion: This is supposed to be a very complicated potion to make. We’ve seen equally or less complicated potions where it’s important when and in which direction to stir and in which order to add the ingredients. Here Hermione steals two ingredients when it’s convenient, then throws them into the cauldron and stirs away.
Kim said this on April 28, 2009 at 7:16 am
I always thought that Professor Sprout would take the Mandrake potion and then destroy it, by boiling or burning it, to bring Nearly Headless Nick back.
Loader Lady said this on April 29, 2009 at 12:28 pm
about the snake: he told him the spell because it’s just a very slytherin thing to do. He wanted to show him high magic he can’t perform and also of course the symbol of Slytherin. I think there’re lot of reasons, but he definitely didn’t know about Parselmouth
Rika said this on May 3, 2009 at 8:02 am
See and I always thought that they would mist the potion through him somehow, that way the potion is still reviving the material. I do like Loader Lady’s Idea of Boiling or burning it however. I can see how the steam would work to revive him.
Tallnerdygirl said this on May 7, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I love the idea of boiling/burning the potion to revive Nick. It hadn’t occurred to me, but it fits perfectly with the wizarding world.
In terms of the snake…. I go back and forth. The look Snape gives Harry after he speaks in Parseltongue certainly makes it seem like Snape wasn’t expecting it. But it’s such a coincidence! And if Dumbledore were scheming on this one, it would certainly fit right into his plan. But it’s probably true that Rowling intended it to just be a coincidence that moves the plot. Dumbledore is so conniving, it’s hard not to dive headfirst into conspiracy theories when he’s involved sometimes. ;)
John Kearns said this on May 12, 2009 at 7:01 am
I think the chapter also highlights the mind set of the Hufflepuff House where friendships/loyalty come before rational thought. Hurt one Hufflepuff and you insult them all.
grrreg said this on September 11, 2009 at 2:08 am
Knowing only what is in books 1 and 2 about Snape, you’d have to conclude coincidence on the snake/parseltongue thing.
However, knowing the entire series, I am leaning heavily towards the idea that something more is going on here. Snape never wasted a moment letting slip that Lupin was a werewolf even though Snape was loyal to Dumbeldore. He also never wasted an opportunity to harass Harry even though he was constantly saving Harry’s life.
We also know Dumbledore “sees all and knows all”, so to speak, of life at Hogwarts. I would not put it past Dumbledore to have asked Snape to look into this more as he knew full well that the Chamber was real and who had opened it the first time. We now know that Snape was on Dumbledore’s side the entire time and thus was probably doing Dumbledore’s bidding while not missing a chance to harass Harry at the same time.
It also seems from later in this book and later book that Dumbledore suspected that Voldemort had made a horcrux. He already suspected that something had happened to Harry when Voldemort attempted to kill him. He seemed not the least bit surprised that Harry could speak parseltongue even going as far as saying later in the book “You can speak parseltongue Harry, because Lord Voldemort can speak parseltongue”. Dumbledore did not suspect for a second that Harry had opened the chamber or caused the petrifications because he knew full well who was doing it..just not yet exactly how.
My guess is that Dumbledore engineered this as a test of the theory he was probably developing in regards to Voldemort and horcruxes.
rilian said this on September 26, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I don’t think Dumbledore had arranged this, it’s not like him, I mean, the hability of Parseltongue has important implications, negative ones, and the fact that everyone learns that Harry has it is not like Dumbledore. He wanted Harry no to stand out above the rest, at least no more than he already does, so why would he put him in that unpleasant situation?
Paula said this on October 26, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Kim, that just made me laugh soo loud. You’re right, “then throws them into the cauldron and stirs away.”
Joyce said this on October 31, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I’ve never thought about whether or not the snake spell was a deliberate attempt on Snape’s part to show Harry as a parseltongue. I’ve gone back and forth, reading the arguments on here, but I think Paulo’s argument is the most conviincing as regards Dumbledore – assuming he did suspect that Harry was a parseltongue, I don’t think he would deliberately cause Harry to suffer the negative whispering of the whole school just to check if he was right or not. I don’t imagine he would want to draw too much attention to the idea of a link between Harry and Voldemort either.
As for Snape – I’m not so convinced. It’s possible he had his own suspicions and wanted to test them, and he certainly wouldn’t worry about causing (emotional or social) harm to Harry. I’ve always taken his expression to be one of surpressed surprise, but maybe it was something more.
Caitlin said this on November 20, 2009 at 5:47 pm
John, I think Snape and Dumbledore probably had discussed the need to find out whether there was a Parselmouth at school. They both knew that Voldy was somehow behind the attacks, and exposing a Parselmouth would be an important clue. Snape clearly did not expect Harry to be the person who would be able to control the snake. He had probably hoped that some OTHER person would be implicated.
However, it surely isn’t difficult to understand why Snape presented the danger to Harry rather than to some other student? First, he knows that Harry cannot die, so he is the one student who will actually be safe. Second, he never misses the opportunity to show petty malice to Harry – he wants to give him a good scare. Third, he hopes to make a quick end to the Duelling Club so that he doesn’t ahve to play any more silly games with Lockhart.
I’ve never understood why the Trio went to such elaborate lengths to steal the Polyjuice ingredients. Why didn’t Harry just send Hedwig off to Hogsmeade with an order?
Grace has Victory said this on November 25, 2009 at 4:52 pm
I agree with Paula and Caitlin that it seems unlikely that Dumbledore would want Harry to be publicly exposed as a Parselmouth. Later on, at the end of Goblet of Fire, Fudge even accuses Dumbledore of trying to hide the fact that Harry can speak Parseltongue. I’m sure the info about Harry’s ability was useful to Dumbledore, but it just doesn’t seem like a situation that would be engineered by the headmaster, who seems to keep only a select few “in the know” at any given time.
As for Snape, his intentions are less clear. Snape does believe that Harry was being less than truthful the night Mrs. Norris was attacked, so it’s possible that he suspects Harry has some kind of connection to the opening of the Chamber. But Snape also just has an inherent dislike of Harry (and to be fair, Harry had just created a huge mess in Snape’s class earlier in this chapter when he lobbed the firecracker into Goyle’s cauldron, and Harry was sure Snape knew it was him)… so it’s possible that Snape just wanted to humiliate Harry in front of the school by getting Malfoy to conjure something that Harry would be completely unprepared for. Either way, I’m sure Snape delighted in the ostracism Harry experienced from his fellow students following this event.
A line from the chapter that makes me smile is that Harry eavesdrops on the Hufflepuffs in the library while “hidden in the Invisibility section.”
Andrea said this on February 13, 2010 at 10:18 am
Isn’t it interesting, too, that Harry learns his trademark spell-Expelliarmus-from his most hated teacher? I bet Snape had no idea that Harry would take that spell and use it to not only save his own life (Harry’s), but the lives of so many others in the end?
Jennifer C. said this on February 26, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Consider the Possibility that Snape was trying to expose Draco as the agent of Voldemort. He was, after all, the son of a known deatheater, and Snape told Draco the spell.
Johan said this on April 19, 2010 at 9:11 am
Ooh, Johan, that’s an interesting theory.
I’ve always imagined (after discovering that Snape does have a history for this kind of thing) that Serpensortia is Snape’s own spell, and this would be a good opportunity to show it off.
There is good logic to the theory that Dumbledore’s behind this whole business, but it just doesn’t seem his style, as others have been pointing out here.
Oh, and excellent observation, Jennifer C!
Laura said this on July 8, 2010 at 11:29 am