Chamber of Secrets: Chapters 11 & 12

Wizard rock of the week: “Potions Yesterday” by Draco and the Malfoys (note: this fabulous version is from the Anthology of Slytherin Folk Music album. The Malfoys so totally rock the bluegrass. Yeah. It’s awesome. Their folk set at Leaky Con was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and friends, that is saying something!)

Hi there! Welcome or welcome back, whichever applies to you :-) A few little news-y items before we dive in this week’s action-packed chapters:

The gentlemen of Dawlish and the Archies are celebrating the Advent season with an Advent calendar of wrock music! Every day until Christmas they’ll have a new song available to download for free (free!!!). Check it out here.

If you’re going Infinitus in Orlando next July, consider volunteering!! You’ll get to meet fabulous people and help make the event even better. Contact Christine for info. Also, Lena of The Butterbeer Experience is writing a freaking amazing musical called The Final Battle, which will be performed at Infinitus. Auditions are due soon!

Frankie Franco III, beloved member of the PotterCast quartet, is once again selling sketchbooks with samples of his work. I have the first volume and wowee, it’s great! Thrilled that Volume II came out so soon, I bopped over to PayPal right away. I highly encourage you to do the same!

Alright, to business. This week’s post covers Chamber of Secrets chapters eleven and twelve. I hope you brought your A-game; we’re gonna duel!

Chapter Eleven: The Dueling Club

What Happens:

Harry, Ron, and Hermione begin brewing Polyjuice Potion in Myrtle's bathroom. The students are far more cautious in the wake of Colin's attack. The first years, especially, are very nervous, and Neville fears that his "almost-a-Squib" tendencies have marked him as the next victim. With Christmas fast approaching, Hermione, Harry, and Ron are surprised- and suspicious - that Malfoy is staying at Hogwarts too. They decide that will be the perfect time to put their Polyjuice plan in action. However, some of the ingredients are very hard to find and Hermione resolves that they need to steal from Snape's office.

Harry uses a Filibuster firework to explode Goyle's Swelling Solution, causing the chaos Hermione needs to sneak in and out of the store room. Snape can't "prove" it was Harry, although he stares at him for a few tense moments. Hermione adds the final ingredients to the cauldron and anticipates it'll be ready in a matter of weeks.

All the students are intrigued by the newly-formed Dueling Club. Snape and Lockhart are the supervising teachers, and their demonstration at the first meeting doesn't teach the kids very much except how to drop a wand when attacked. When the students pair up, Snape sticks Harry and Malfoy together. Neither of them wastes this opportunity to do some damage to the other, and their duel quickly gets out of hand. Malfoy conjures a snake to attack Harry, but Harry inexplicably talks to the snake and tells it not to attack Justin. The students draw back in horror. Hermione and Ron whisk Harry away and ask him about his ability to talk to snakes. Harry remembers talking to a boa constrictor at the zoo before he knew he was a wizard and thinks nothing of it. Hermione and Ron, however, are worried, since Slytherin was famous for being a Parselmouth. Harry protests that he couldn't possibly be related to Slytherin, but Hermione disagrees. Who knows what kind of distant relatives Harry has in his wizarding heritage? To make matters worse, Harry can't help but remember the little Sorting Hat voice that promised he'd be great in Slytherin.

News of Harry's ability spreads through the school like wildfire. Everyone treats him with suspicion, even Hufflepuffs. Ernie Macmillian is certain that Harry is setting the monster on people who upset him and lists lots of circumstantial evidence. Frustrated, Harry runs into Hagrid (who's complaining about something killing his roosters). Hagrid tries to cheer Harry up, but it's not much use. Moments later, he turns a corner to find Justin Finch-Fletchley's Petrified form and the paralyzed ghost of Nearly Headless Nick. In the wrong place at the wrong time yet again, McGonagall sweeps in and and takes Harry up to Dumbledore's office as the students gawk at him.

Commentary:

Oh my, Harry, we are in trouble. I'm pretty certain that Snape, using Legilimancy, knows EXACTLY who threw the firework at Goyle's potion. I'm curious why he didn't accuse Harry, though. Perhaps 1) he doesn't want students to know he can read minds or 2) reading students' minds is forbidden, so any Legilimancy-gleaned evidence would be inadmissible in the court of Dumbledore. Hm. However, he gets petty revenge at the Dueling Club, which maybe is what he wanted all along.

The Dueling Club is, of course, where Harry first learns his "signature" Expelliarmus! spell. Interesting that he learns if from Snape, of all people.... ruminate on that, if you will.

It's very clever how the Parseltongue seeds were planted long ago. We, like Harry, completely accepted that his ability to talk to snakes was not a big deal at all. Suddenly, Harry feels stigmatized, poor guy, and is the subject of some very nasty gossip. I think this speaks to two things: 1) people's tendency to latch onto rumors and scapegoat people with little to no legitimate evidence and 2) how vulnerable we all are, especially at Harry's age, to the viscous things people say about us. Of course, all twelve-year-olds deal with gossip and rumor mongering, but not as serious as this. Retrospectively, however, the gossip that flies about Harry is giving him a thick skin for what's ahead, especially in OotP and DH.

And actually, Hermione is right about Harry's relation to Slytherin. If I remember my genealogy correctly, Harry is descended from Ignotus, the third Peverall brother, and I'm pretty sure that the Gaunts (descendants of Slytherin) are related to the Peveralls, or at least connected to them enough to own the Resurrection Stone (aka "Peverall Crest") ring. Voldemort, the true Heir of Slytherin, is Merope Gaunt's son, so he and Harry are actually related. But, I suppose, everyone is probably related on some level if you go back far enough, especially in the small Wizarding community.

Chapter Twelve: The Polyjuice Potion

What Happens:

Harry is silent on their trip up to Dumbledore's office. McGonagall ushers him inside, but Dumbledore isn't there yet. Alone among all of Dumbledore's fabulous possessions, he tries on the Sorting Hat. It just reiterates that he would have done well in Slytherin, and Harry angrily takes the Hat off. He turns around and notices a beautiful red and gold bird which looks very ill. After a moment, it bursts into flame and Harry yelps as Dumbledores enters. Rather than be upset, however, the headmaster smiles at Harry and notes that it's about time for Fawkes to be reborn.

Hagrid bursts in, protesting Harry's innocence, but Dumbledore assures both of them that he's not upset with Harry. Hagrid sheepishly leaves and Dumbledore simply asks Harry if there's anything he'd like to talk about. Harry has lots of troubled thoughts swimming around his mind but can't quite articulate any of them to Dumbledore, so he leaves quietly.

When the Christmas holidays arrive, most students go home. The castle is quiet and still. Only Harry, Hermione, the Weasleys, and Malfoy, Goyle, Crabbe, and a few others have chosen to stay. Christmas morning Hermione wakes Harry and Ron up early: the potion is almost ready. They plan to infiltrate the Slythrin common room that night. After the magnificent evening feast, Hermione leaves out two Sleeping Draught cakes for Crabbe and Goyle to greedily munch. After Crabbe and Goyle fall asleep, Ron and Harry take some of their hair and meet up with Hermione in Myrtle's bathroom to take the potion. Harry add's Goyle hair, Ron adds Crabbe hair, and Hermione adds Millicent Bulstrode hair to the their respective glasses. Transforming via Polyjuice isn't a very pleasant experience. Harry's amazed with the results- he looks and sounds exactly like Goyle. For some reason Hermione stays in her stall and refuses to come out, so Ron and Harry set off for the Slytherin common room alone. They're aren't quite sure where to go, and they have a run-in with a Ravenclaw girl and Percy until Malfoy finds them and leads them to the Slytherin entrance.

Once inside, he shows them a "funny" newspaper clipping Lucius sent him; Arthur Weasley is facing an inquiry at work for his involvement with the flying Ford Anglia incident. Malfoy thinks this is hilarious and Harry hopes Ron can restrain his anger. Malfoy continues ranting about Muggle-borns and other "scum" currently at Hogwarts. Harry and Ron are certain Malfoy is about to confess his identity as the Heir of Slytherin... but he stuns them by denying it. They do learn, however, that the Chamber was opened fifty years ago, before Lucius was at school.

Suddenly, Harry notices Ron's hair beginning to turn back to red. They mutter something about going to the hospital wing and run out of the Slytherin common room just as they re-transform into themselves. They dash back to Myrtle's bathroom to change and find Hermione, but she's still hiding in the stall. Myrtle looks delighted at Hermione's situation: her face is covered with hair, her eyes are yellow and she has cat ears and a tail. She used a cat hair instead of one of Millicent Bulstrode's and the consequences are horrible. Ron and Harry convince her to get help from Madam Pomfrey as Myrtle gleefully laughs at them.

Commentary:

The Sorting Hat's responses to Harry are absolutely no help at all. I wonder if he'd kept the hat on longer and had a more in-depth conversation things might have been less upsetting? But to what extent can the hat converse with its wearers? And just how much does the Hat know? Does it have any idea that Harry's walking around with a bit of Voldemort in his skull, or does he just see Harrys' traits and devise that he'd make a good Slytherin?

Oh my, if Harry had just talked to Dumbleore about all the doubts he was having.... he would have felt so much better. But at this point in the series, he and Dumbledore have only had one conversation (in the hospital at the end of SS), so it's understandable that Harry wouldn't be comfortable spilling his inner turmoils to Dumbledore.

There have been two conspicuous mentions of the dead roosters so far... A Clue! But one that's only detectable on one's second or third read-through.

Why do you think Malfoy chose to stay at school for Christmas? I don't think this is ever explained. Harry and the Weasley have good reasons, but isn't Malfoy always gloating about having a great family to go home to? Why didn't he spend Christmas with his parents?

I always feel sorry for Hermione and the consequences of the failed transformation, but it makes the most sense for her to stay behind. After all, would Malfoy have been as open with "Crabbe and Goyle" if someone else was there? Probably not.

Notice that when Harry and Ron are trying to find the Slytherin entrance, they ask Percy's girlfriend Penelope where to go. She's amazed they're asking her; after all, she's a Ravenclaw!! This little passage points to the otherwise ignored fact that members of different Houses do NOT have self-identifying House clothing like they do in the films. If they did, Harry and Ron would've known that Penelope was a Ravenclaw by her blue and silver tie. This is just a little pet peeve of mine about film costuming... and yes, it makes sense that in the films they needed an easy visual way to identity people's Houses... but it's so blatantly anti-canon! Gah.

The Slytherin password is "pureblood." Obviously, not all Slytherins are purebloods (see: Snape, Severus), so how do the half-bloods feel about the pure-blood superiority in their House? Are there any Muggle-borns among the Slytherins? Does the Hat select for heritage/family lines or just talents and abilities? It seems to me that being a Muggle-born Slytherin would be horrible.

Since they were wrong about Malfoy's identity as a the Heir of Slytherin, Harry, Ron, and Draco are really all in the same boat: none knows who the Heir is. Wrong about Malfoy again, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are back to the drawing board.

Have a wonderful week! Tune in next time for some embarrassing Valentines, memory-traveling, and false accusations!