Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I finished Chamber of Secrets two nights ago and already started in on Prisoner of Azkaban.  I couldn't help it, I just had to keep reading.

Sadly, as I was rereading Chamber of Secrets, I forgot to keep a notebook nearby for note-taking.  I'm a little upset that I didn't do this because there are so many things I wanted to be able to talk about in this post, but I probably won't remember them all.  What I might try to do is flip through the book as I go along here to find bits that I found important elements of fiction (Rowling's prose, foreshadowing, irony, etc.)

If there's anything I must say about the book, it's how much Rowling's prose improved from Sorcerer's Stone.  That book lacked a lot of the detail her later books possess, but it's evident that Chamber of Secrets was worked on heavily before being published.  The book feels as though it was written for a slightly more mature audience.

All that aside, the book was a thrill to reread.  What I really enjoyed most was knowing what was going on as Harry, Ron and Hermione experienced their second year at Hogwarts, especially as all the pieces start falling together.  Harry hears a disembodied voice; shortly there after, Mrs. Norris is Petrified and the message on the wall daubed in red pain claims that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware; the whole school finds out Harry's a Parsletongue as he calls a snake off of Justin Finch-Fletchly; Colin Creevy is Petrified; Nearly Headless Nick and Justin-Finch-Fletchly are Petrified; Harry and Ron find out Malfoy has no idea what's going on; Ginny is acting strange the entire book; Hermione puts all the pieces together and dash to the library, only to find herself and Penelopy Clearwater Petrified moments later.

And Harry and Ron turn out to be brilliant young detectives after finding the piece of paper stuck in Hermione's Petrified hand.  They piece together everything that happened, down to Moaning Myrtle's possible cause of death.

It was exhilarating to read these parts again.  I got goosebumps as I read about the Basilisk in Hermione's notes.

What I loved most was knowing that the diary was a Horcrux, and that Nagini the snake had yet to be turned in to a Horcrux.  I also loved knowing that Tom Riddle used the Basilisk to kill Myrtle to turn his diary into his second Horcrux.  I always wondered if, while writing the first book, she came up with the entire plot for the rest of the series.  There are a lot of plot holes.  For instance, Voldemort is described as being the most feared dark wizard "for" (as opposed to "in", which I think was what she meant) a hundred years (in Prisoner of Azkaban, right at the start) but a mere fifty years ago, as of Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle was a 16 year old boy attending his last years at the same school.  Still, it doesn't  make sense because only about 35 to 40 years prior to Voldemort's rise to power, Dumbledore had defeated the evil wizard Grindelwald in 1945.  The first book starts in 1991, 11 years after Harry's birth in 1980.

So a mere 48 years prior to Prisoner of Azkaban puts Grindelwald at the top of his power, where Dumbledore "defeats" Grindelwald in what is described as an amazing duel (he really just sat down and talked to Grindelwald, convincing him to hand over the Elder Wand, which Grindelwald did).  Go back another 40 years, and you're looking at Grindelwald and Dumbledore as teens.  She probably should have said "the most feared Dark wizard in fifty years".  Would have made much more sense, especially since Grindelwald was claimed to be the most feared dark wizard of his time as well.  So "in" a hundred years doesn't make sense either.

Moving on ...

A name popped up in the beginning of the book that I recognized immediately.  Mafalda Hopkirk is the woman that sends the letter to Harry's house after Dobby levitates Petunia's dessert, letting it crash to the floor.  In Deathly Hallows, Mafalda Hopkirk is the woman Hermione transforms in to using Polyjuice Potion.

Later on in Chamber of Secrets, I realized there was a bit of a ... mess up.  Madam Pomfrey talks about the Mandrake plants, stating that they're getting moody and secretive.  Wouldn't Professor Sprout be reporting this?  I suppose either one could, but I just assumed Professor Sprout would report the growth of the Mandrake plants since she's taking care of them (and not Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse).

Anyway, there were a few comical part I enjoyed, such as Fred and George Weasley escorting Harry from class to class, clearing a path in the halls saying, "Out of the way, seriously evil wizard, coming through, on serious dark wizarding business" or something like that.  Always gets me each time.  Wish that would have made it in to the movie.

Anyway there were many more things that I very much enjoyed about the book but I can't think of them off the top of my head.  I promise I'll try to keep a journal of my read through Prisoner of Azkaban.  I'm going to recommend that Google implements Margin Notes in to their Google Play Book application.