It’s hard to fall in love with an earnest, appealing young hero like Harry Potter and then to watch helplessly as he steps into terrible danger! And in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the much anticipated sequel to the award-winning Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, he is in terrible danger indeed. As if it’s not bad enough that after a long summer with the horrid Dursleys he is thwarted in his attempts to hop the train to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to begin his second year. But when his only transportation option is a magical flying car, it is just his luck to crash into a valuable (but clearly vexed) Whomping Willow. Still, all this seems like a day in the park compared to what happens that fall within the haunted halls of Hogwarts.
Chilling, malevolent voices whisper from the walls only to Harry, and it seems certain that his classmate Draco Malfoy is out to get him. Soon it’s not just Harry who is worried about survival, as dreadful things begin to happen at Hogwarts. The mysteriously gleaming, foot-high words on the wall proclaim, “The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware.” But what exactly does it mean? Harry, Hermione, and Ron do everything that is wizardly possible—including risking their own lives—to solve this 50-year-old, seemingly deadly mystery. This deliciously suspenseful novel is every bit as gripping, imaginative, and creepy as the first; familiar student concerns—fierce rivalry, blush-inducing crushes, pedantic professors—seamlessly intertwine with the bizarre, horrific, fantastical, or just plain funny. Once again, Rowling writes with a combination of wit, whimsy, and a touch of the macabre that will leave readers young and old desperate for the next installment.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
1. THE WORST BIRTHDAY
2. DOBBY’S WARNING
3. THE BURROW
4. AT FLOURISH AND BLOTTS
5. THE WHOMPING WILLOW
6. GILDEROY LOCKHART
7. MUDBLOODS AND MURMURS
8. THE DEATHDAY PARTY
9. THE WRITING ON THE WALL
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
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
For Sean P. F. Harris,
Getaway driver and foul-weather friend
THE WORST BIRTHDAY
Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry’s room.
“Third time this week!” he roared across the table. “If you can’t control that owl, it’ll have to go!”
Harry tried, yet again, to explain.
“She’s bored,” he said. “She’s used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night—”
“Do I look stupid?” snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache. “I know what’ll happen if that owl’s let out.” He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia.