Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets discussion, chapters 10-18

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets discussion, chapters 10-18

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1foggidawn
jun 1, 2010, 5:03 pm

In June 2010, members of the Hogwarts Express group are rereading and discussing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This thread is for discussing the second half of the book. (The thread for the first half can be found here.) The following chapters are under discussion in this thread:

10. The Rogue Bludger
11. The Dueling Club
12. The Polyjuice Potion
13. The Very Secret Diary
14. Cornelius Fudge
15. Aragog
16. The Chamber of Secrets
17. The Heir of Slytherin
18. Dobby's Reward

New readers beware: spoilers for this and other books in the series abound!

2lefty33
jun 18, 2010, 10:25 pm

Surely I'm not the first to finish. I suppose the month is only half over though.

So I love the end of this book. I love Riddle and Harry's confrontation. Harry and Dumbledore's chat is, as always, wonderful. It's our choices, far more than our abilities that show who we are. :D (Probably not exact wording ... I didn't look it up to be sure.)

Ron is particularly outstanding this book. He has a lot of really great moments and lines. He is so courageous for following the spiders with Harry when spiders are the LAST thing he would want to pursue. He steps up to doing some mystery solving when Hermione isn't there to lend her skills. The movie didn't do his character justice by half. Book Ron is so wonderful. Movie Ron isn't all that special.

I was thinking about teenager Riddle being told by Ginny all about Harry and how he defeated Voldemort. How interesting it must have been for a past version, who doesn't seem to be omniscient and know of his future downfall, to hear that he will later be conquered by a baby. No wonder diary Riddle was so keen to meet Harry. Voldemort's teen self was probably even more convinced than the average teen that he was invincible. I wondered whether, had Riddle come fully formed out of the diary, what would become of the bit of Voldemort wandering loose? Would there now be two Voldemort souls active? Could the wandering remains have also gained a body so that there were two embodied Voldemorts? There probably aren't really answers, and I'm not really looking for them. Just fun to think about.

In the series, this is the book I reread least often, but I should give it more credit. I had forgotten all the things I enjoy about it. I am impressed by Rowling's ability to give so much information important for later without making these early books sound like setup. They are each so wonderful in their own right in addition to being vital for later story. Amazing! :)

3pollysmith
jun 19, 2010, 3:57 pm

I agree lefty, in the movies Ron is like comic relief and his bravery and intelligence are down played.

about Voldy, hmmmm....maybe that little bit would be recalled once he had a body?

4foggidawn
jul 1, 2010, 7:29 pm

I'm almost finished with these chapters!

And, in case anybody was wondering, I am planning to start the threads for Prisoner of Azkaban later this evening.

5lefty33
jul 2, 2010, 9:10 am

Polly, I like that answer. The little bit of him would perhaps just be magically absorbed into the body created via Horcrux? Works for me!

6foggidawn
jul 6, 2010, 10:12 am

I did finish these chapters, just a couple days late, but find that I don't have much to say about them. The things I did have to say pretty much echo Lefty's sentiments in post #2 -- this is probably my least-favorite of the books, but I really enjoyed this reread. And I agree that Ron is better in the books than in the movies. I think movies in general tend to go for the cheap laugh rather than the nuanced bit of character development -- for example, in the movie of this book, Neville faints at the sight of a mandrake, which goes completely against the fact (as stated in the book) that Herbology is Neville's best subject. (That mini-rant should have been in the other thread, I guess, but it illustrates the point I was trying to make here.) I do enjoy the movies, if I can separate them in my mind from the books, but this is just one more way that the books are always better.