Re: The Boy Who Lived. Harry’s extraordinary DADA skills are already showing in this chapter. He is alert on his feet and uses Expelliarmus to stop Lockhart from erasing their memories. And you have only to see that at this point, Lockhart was already drawing out his wand to cast a Memory Charm on the boys. The Expelliarmus knocked Lockhart over though (I don’t think the spell was supposed to do that), proving that Harry’s skills still need polishing.

Something to Remember: Expelliarmus will not only prove to be quite useful during this epic moment with Lockhart, but will also save Harry’s life countless times in the future.

Another Something to Remember: The wardrobe full of the teachers’ cloaks Harry and Ron were hiding in during the teachers’ conference tickled the back of my mind. Wasn’t it the wardrobe Lupin used to teach the third years about boggarts in PoA?

Snape grips the back of a chair tightly when McGonagall mentioned a student has been taken into the chamber. This tugged at my heartstrings. Was this purely concern for Harry or concern for the whole student body in general? :)

I saw a similar comment on Ginny and Tom Riddle elsewhere on the Internet (the “TV Tropes” page on Harry Potter), with an additional note that you didn’t mention: Ginny and Tom Riddle communicate by written words rather than face-to-face, suggesting correspondence by the Internet, which many predators use. (It added that Rowling hadn’t had the parallel in mind at the time, but commented when someone mentioned it to her that it was a good warning.)

Hogwarts itself (in the form that it takes in the books) would be anachronistic whenever it was founded (at least by the late tenth century, but Professor Binns says it’s *over* a thousand years old, so it could be older than that – particularly in light of a recent revelation by Rowling that Merlin – traditionally dated to the fifth century – studied at Hogwarts). Back in the tenth century and before, castles were made out of wood rather than stone; stone castles don’t seem to have shown up in Britain until after the Norman Conquest.

Of course, wizards need not have followed Muggle architecture, and also, if Merlin (in his familiar legendary form) was real in Harry Potter’s world, then presumably the Arthurian legend was real in that world as well, with its attendant anachronisms of stone castles, knights in armor, and jousting in the fifth and sixth centuries. (Or it might be the same kind of slip-up as having the late 15th century Nearly Headless Nick dressed like an Elizabethan gentleman.)

I noticed this the second time I saw the movie. It struck me that, in the film, the entrance to the Chamber is circular, and it’s in the girl’s bathroom. A second circular entrance leads further into the chamber. A snake is slithering through the chamber’s walls, and the heads of quite a few snakes decorate the walls. The Chamber itself could be considered womblike. I won’t give a blow-by-blow account of all the symbolism, but you can find at least one such account online.

As I think more about it, I see that Tom Riddle and Ginny Weasley’s relationship resembles a child molester and his victim. I’m not saying that Tom does anything sexual with Ginny, but look at his methods: he’s a charmer and a seducer. He gets Ginny to trust him by sympathizing with her, and he gets her to confide her secrets and dreams to him. Later, having gained her intimate trust, he guides her into wrongdoing and into resulting shame, and later still he brings her to the point of utter powerlessness and vulnerability, where he’s ready to use her, seize her, possess her, and feed upon her.

I don’t know if JKR has any such experiences in her past, but I feel positive that, perhaps even subconsciously, concerns over sexuality and the misuse/abuse of sexuality are driving the imagery of these chapters.

If you think these comments are inappropriate for this forum, feel free to delete them.

I always did wonder why Riddle was able to discover the entrance considering it was in the Girl’s bathroom and though nobody uses it now, in his time there was no Myrtle there to ward of the plethora of girls who must have used it. He must have been desperate when he had searched every other place!

I just wanted to comment on the “something you may not have noticed”.. Professor McGonagall is a stern, serious teacher. Although she does have her softer moments and clearly isn’t mean, but strict. I see her waiting for the hubbub to die down as completely in her style of teaching. I can’t find my copy of book 2, but I picture her glaring at everyone until they realize she is ready to talk and stops having their own conversations. Many teachers do this as a way of not having to “yell” over everyone who is talking. Usually students will quiet down when they see that others are quieting down because she’s waiting for them. Dumbledore, on the other hand, is more eccentric and open, he chooses to get their attention by shooting fireworks or something fun to get them to notice he’s up there. Her way is usually seen as exerting more control because you’re not adding to the chaos and also students tend to feel like they’re interrupting the teacher even though she hasn’t said anything yet. just my two cents!