The Writing on the Wall & The Rogue Bludger
chapters nine & ten of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
With Mrs. Norris Petrified, Professor Binns shares the legend of the Chamber of Secrets – and after securing permission from Lockhart, Hermione checks out the recipe for Polyjuice Potion so the trio can spy on Malfoy and learn more. Harry does defeat Malfoy in Quidditch (despite Dobby’s tampered bludger attacking him), but the mood of the castle grows darker when Colin Creevey is Petrified as well.
Dumbledore laid Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her.
(by Laura Freeman)
Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again.
(by glockgal)
My subject is History of Magic,” he said in his dry, wheezy voice. “I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends.”
(by Laurence Peguy)
“We’ll get you another autograph. Lockhart’ll sign anything if it stands still long enough.”
(by Tealin Raintree)
Madam Pince held the note up to the light, as though determined to detect a forgery, but it passed the test.
(by Laura Freeman)
“Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah sir, why didn’t you heed Dobby? Why didn’t Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?”
about the chapter
Some Things You May Not Have Noticed
After Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Lockhart’s office, they duck into an empty classroom to talk – but Ron and Harry are the only ones who actually do any talking. Hermione can’t remember what the Chamber of Secrets is, so what’s keeping her quiet? It seems to me she’s hovering between desperately trying to remember the significance of the Chamber, panicking at their very narrow escape from serious trouble (and in Harry and Ron’s case, expulsion!), and of course wondering what voice Harry could possibly be hearing. In just a few minutes, a whole lot has happened, and the trajectory of the trio’s year has changed dramatically.
By the way, how – on earth – is Dobby managing to do all this stuff to Harry? Stopping his mail, keeping him out of Platform 9 3/4, tampering the bludger – there’s just no way, under the laws of house-elves that we’re familiar with, that he could manage all this without being told to do something involving Harry by his masters. But surely, if his masters have something to do with the “terrible” plot, they wouldn’t want to prevent Harry from being at school when it happened. So what is it they are telling Dobby? I wasn’t planning on writing an essay from each book, but this is turning out to be too big of a mystery to solve in a couple of paragraphs. Let’s once again keep building clues and see where we are at the end of the book.
The Power of Magic
When Ron attempted to enter Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, he “suddenly withdrew his hand as though he’d been burned.” It’s certainly possible that he simply saw the sign and reacted quickly, but this being Hogwarts – where the stairs to the girls’ dormitory turn into a slide whenever boys set foot on them – it’s also quite possible the door handle is bewitched to burn any boy who tries to turn the knob. It is Hermione, after all, who eventually lets them in. On the other hand, Harry was able to get into the girls’ bathroom a year earlier when the troll went in after Hermione, so… who knows.
The Boy Who Lived
I can’t help but wonder what Dumbledore – and McGonagall and Snape, for that matter – thought of Harry, Ron, and Hermione being discovered at the scene where Mrs. Norris had been Petrified. The Deathday party would at least explain why they weren’t at the feast, but why on earth would they be up here? I doubt they discussed it much together, but certainly the professors each went to bed that night wondering, in their own way, why this Potter kid keeps turning up in unlikely places.
Oops
So, when Ron was three, Fred turned his teddy bear into a spider. When Fred was… five? Not that this isn’t the type of prank Fred might play, but it really doesn’t mesh very well with the wizarding world we know, where eleven-year-olds struggle to turn matches into needles. It’s possible this was “accidental magic,” like the type Harry inadvertently performed as a child, but Hagrid describes this as likely to happen when “scared or angry,” not playing a prank. Regardless of Rowling’s intention in including this little tale, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Something to Remember
It’s fascinating that Dumbledore seems to know who is opening the Chamber of Secrets, but not how the person is doing it. Despite Binns’s protests, it seems the Chamber does exist, and that Dumbledore indeed knows a thing or two about the last time it was opened. I’d actually suspect that Harry is misreading McGonagall’s face, too, and that she knows more than he thinks about it as well. So then – what is it that they know….?
You’re on to something in the “something to remember.” Based on what Jo has taught us, McG was at Hogwartrs, in the year above Voldy’s, so the Chamber would’ve been opened in her sixth year. So she definitely knows more than Harry thinks she does.
hpboy13 said this on April 19, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Ron says that Fred turned his teddy in a spider after Ron had broken his toy-broomstick. I always saw it as accidental magic: Couldn’t Fred be so angry at Ron for that, that he Transfigured his teddy?
I loved the artwork for chapter 9, but isn’t there more of chapter 10? I mean, the artwork on this page is only describing the first 3 pages of the chapter:(
It’s still great to read you site, though! :)
kim said this on April 20, 2009 at 1:14 am
I always wondered if Dumbledore ever asked Moaning Myrtle how she died.
I mean, if she told him the same she told Harry by the end of the book, Dumbledore would have a good idea where the Chamber opens to. We don’t know whether he can speak parseltongue (though I tend to think he could say something like “open”, even if he’s not fluent) but if he did, he would be able to enter.
But since it doesn’t look like he even knows where the entrance is, I’m forced to conclude he never talked to Moaning Myrtle’s ghost, which is a huge oversight from his part!
Lola said this on April 20, 2009 at 5:06 am
It always annoys me that the teachers, especially Professor Binns, treat the Chamber of Secrets as some sort of myth, since they know what happened 50 years ago. And Dumbledore isn’t stupid, he had to have known that a giant spider couldn’t petrify people….was dippet stupid enough to believe that?
Chloe said this on April 20, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Kim – good point about the toy broomstick making Fred angry. That must have been what Jo had in mind; I’ll adjust the way i wrote that comment to account better for that. Also, I’ve added another piece from chapter 10, so hopefully that fills in the gap a little better – sadly I don’t have much control over what artists have drawn! ;)
Lola – It does seem like a big oversight on Dumbledore’s part, or else a big plot hole. Rowling has told us that Dumbledore understands Parseltongue, so he certainly could have gotten in if Ron could do so later. I suppose it’s also possible that Dumbledore knows how to get in but doesn’t see the point in doing so if he’s not confident he can control the basilisk… maybe that would make more sense? Seems odd either way.
Chloe – I don’t think it was common knowledge that the Chamber opened. Lucius told Draco that it had, but he would have gotten his knowledge from Voldemort. But it definitely seems weird that Dippet would have accepted a story about an acromantula stunning people; maybe he just expelled Hagrid because politically he felt like he had to do *something*, and he figured Hagrid was in for it anyway?
John Kearns said this on April 20, 2009 at 5:26 pm
thanks for the new drawing:)
about Lola’s comment: the only reason I can think of, is that Dumbledore never asked, because Myrtle first started to haunt someone out of Hogwarts. After she got a restraining order, the chamber had stopped opening, so Dumbledore thought that maybe it wasn’t relevant enough (?) Also, Myrtle seems to have a weak spot for Harry: maybe Dumbledore did ask, but she just didn’t answer?
kim said this on April 21, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I really love that teddy bear story, regardless of whether it was actually possible. It’s underlined in my copy of the book, I think: there are certain lines that are just excellent in Harry Potter…I rarely see it in other books.
Hayley said this on April 21, 2009 at 4:16 pm
*whether or not
Hayley said this on April 21, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I think – regarding Dobby and how he managed to talk to Harry in Hogwarts and tamper with the bludger – that the Malfoys probably didn’t bother telling Dobby not to interfer and tell Harry something, because they thought Doddy was below them.
Dobby could have accidently eavesdropped on Lucius plotting to open the Chamber of Secrets, and then hurried to tell Harry. He couldn’t tell Harry what exactly was going to happen as that would be going against his master’s wishes, but he could give Harry a clue.
Even if the Malfoys knew Dobby knew about the Chamber of Secrets, they probably would have been too arrogant, and thought Dobby couldn’t do anything about it because he was only a house elf. Little did they know while house elves can not disobey a direct order, they can find a loop hole in their master’s orders, and therefore do something their Master didn’t order. The Malfoys, being so predujuice, wouldn’t have known this, as they consider anybody not a wizard and a pureblood underneath them. This would also fit in with when we learn later in the series that Voldemort left Kreacher to die in the cave, not realising the elves can be powerful magical creatures if they want to – so the Malfoys fell into the same pureblood arrogance as Voldemort did with Kreacher.
That’s just my idea though. And sorry if it doesn’t make much sense above :)
Maggie said this on August 14, 2009 at 2:27 pm
“Lockhart’ll sign anything if it stands still long enough.”
For some reason I always get an image of Lockhart signing a tortoise with his big peacock-feather quill when I read this line.
Phoebe said this on August 17, 2009 at 7:12 am
I always see Mrs. Norris as a kind of familiar for Filch. In the sense that he has some sort of empathic link with her, or can see through her eyes. Small wonder he went crazy after she was petrified. Well that and who else does he have, Ms. Pince?
grrreg said this on September 10, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Phoebe~ Lockhart signing a tortoise … he would wouldn’t he?
Mickey said this on September 24, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Regarding Fred turning Ron’s bear into a spider- I could have sworn I read somewhere that Wizarding parents are sort of expected to keep an eye on their children, and punish them if they do magic. After all, the Trace can’t pinpoint who performed the magic (we know this because Harry got the blame for Dobby’s hovering charm). So, if Harry had turned Dudley’s teddy bear into something horrible, the Ministry of Magic would have known- via the Trace- that magic took place in the Dursley home, the only person who can to magic there is Harry, and he is underage. Yet at the Weasley house, there is magic being performed all the time, and therefore there would be know way of knowing that that particular spell was performed by an underage wizard. It seems like an “oops” to us now, but through events in the later books (and I think an interview with Rowling) we see that it really isn’t.
Jessi said this on September 27, 2009 at 8:11 am
I tend to agree with Kim that Fred did a bit of accidental magic with the teddy bear. He was only five, after all, and little kids can get very angry about things that seem minor to adults. This only occurred to me last time I read the book, though – in the past I’ve always imagined Fred doing it deliberately, and it was like a huge revelation when I read that sentence a few months ago and realised he would only have been five!
Caitlin said this on November 18, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I’ve read the series twice. The second time I picked up on so much more than the first. I expect I’ll learn something new with each reading of it, no matter how many times I re-read it.
Sheri said this on January 13, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Wouldn’t you think that mandrake potion (or at least mature mandrakes) would be something you could buy at an apothecary in Diagon Alley or even Hogsmeade? Prof. Sprout says that mandrake is an ingredient in most antidotes, so it’s not exactly rare. You’d think that Snape would have some in that locked storeroom of his.
Billie said this on January 16, 2010 at 11:35 am
The first time I read Chamber of Secrets, it seemed to me that Ginny was a such a sensitive litte girl. She was so upset about Mrs. Norris being attacked, and seemed to cry a lot. Ron stocked up her behaviour to her love for cats, while Percy said she was crying due to worry over Ron being expelled. But rereading the book now, I see that Ginny was already aware that something more was going on, and it was terrifying her.
Also, I never noticed before how Dumbledore immediately knows who must be behind opening the Chamber. I wonder if he had any early theories as to how is was being done… Dumbledore always seems so on top of things.
Andrea said this on February 11, 2010 at 7:08 pm
One of my biggest questions with this chapter is if Riddle was the first heir to attend Hogwarts. I may be stretching, but Binns says, “… none would be able to open [the Chamber] until [Slytherin's] own true heir arrived at the school.” What exactly does “own true heir” mean? We know that the Gaunts (Riddle’s maternal family who are also heirs) were, uh, not too high class (I’m thinking of Dumbledore’s visit in HBP), so have they all evaded the chains of formal education for a thousand years?
Laura said this on July 8, 2010 at 3:47 pm