Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Chamber of Secrets/Chapter 11
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Chapter 11 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Dueling Club
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[edit] Synopsis
By morning, Harry's arm is better and he is discharged from the hospital wing after breakfast. He finds Ron and Hermione in Moaning Myrtle's washroom, already making the Polyjuice Potion. Harry tells them about Dobby's visit; Ron observes that if Dobby does not stop trying to help Harry, he is likely to kill him.
The news about Colin Creevey's Petrification has spread, and Ginny, who is in Colin's class, is distraught; also, there is a brisk business in Talismans and other supposedly magical protective objects. Neville buys a lot before being reminded that he is a Pureblood, but he says "they went for Filch first," and believes he may be a target due to his weak magical ability.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione sign up to stay at the school over Christmas after hearing that Malfoy is doing the same. But the Polyjuice potion is nowhere near ready, and they will need to raid Professor Snape's private stores for some ingredients. Surprisingly, Hermione volunteers to steal the ingredients if Harry or Ron can create a diversion. During the next Potions class, Harry tosses a firecracker into Goyle's Swelling Solution. The resulting splashed potion requires Snape to administer Deflating Draughts to everyone. While he is occupied, Hermione sneaks into Snape's office and retrieves Boomslang skin and Bicorn horn. After class has ended, Hermione adds the new ingredients to the potion, saying it will be ready in a fortnight.
A week later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione see a notice about a Dueling Club being started. Harry reckons it will be useful, so at 8:00 p.m. all three are in the Great Hall, only to find out that it is being taught by none other than Professor Lockhart, with Professor Snape as his assistant. In the first demonstration, Professor Snape throws Professor Lockhart across the room with an Expelliarmus jinx. Rather than try a second time, Lockhart breaks the students into pairs with Snape's assistance; Harry is paired with Malfoy, Ron with Seamus, and Hermione with Miss Bullstrode. Lockhart counts down and mayhem ensues: Malfoy jinxes Harry before the start signal, but Harry retaliates; Ron's wand misfires, doing something horrible to Seamus. Hermione and Millicent Bullstrode have dropped their wands and are wrestling—Millicent has Hermione in a headlock, and Harry has to break her out of it, a tough job considering Millicent is bigger than he is. Lockhart suggests they have one pair of students on stage to demonstrate, and suggests Neville and Justin Finch-Fletchley; Snape overrules him and suggests Harry and Malfoy. At the count, Malfoy conjures a snake that slides down the stage towards Harry. Lockhart attempts to eliminate it, but merely sends it flying ten feet into the air. When it lands, it seems to be preparing to attack Justin; Harry yells at the snake to leave Justin alone. Surprisingly the snake obeys. Justin makes a comment to Harry and leaves the Great Hall at a near run as Snape destroys the snake. Ron drags Harry out of the room exclaiming, "I didn't know you were a Parselmouth!" Harry does not know what that is, and Ron explains it is someone who can talk to snakes. Hermione adds that it is a very rare ability, and it is what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. Now Harry has to wonder—could he be the Heir of Slytherin?
Harry wants to explain to Justin exactly what happened, but next day's Herbology class is canceled due to snow. At Hermione's urging, Harry goes to the library to find Justin and overhears Hufflepuffs talking about why he has gone into hiding. Justin fears Harry is the Heir of Slytherin and would Petrify him next because he is a Muggle-born. Harry tries to explain what happened, but Ernie, the group's apparent leader, says that all he saw was Harry speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake towards Justin. Furious, Harry stalks out and runs straight into Hagrid, who is on his way to see the Headmaster about something that is killing his roosters. Leaving Hagrid, Harry trips over a Petrified Justin Finch-Fletchley and finds himself staring at Nearly Headless Nick, now black and smoky rather than his usual transparent white, and also apparently Petrified. Harry also notices spiders running away from the bodies.
While Harry is trying to figure out what to do, Peeves discovers him and determines that the most fun thing to do is summon everyone. Professor McGonagall arrives and sends everyone back to class. She assigns Ernie Macmillan to take Nick to the Hospital Wing while Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra take Justin. Professor McGonagall then leads Harry through a door guarded by a gargoyle (password: Sherbet Lemon), up a revolving spiral stone staircase and to an oaken door. Harry knows he has been brought to see Professor Dumbledore.
[edit] Analysis
Hermione's ongoing unbending is shown here in her willingness to raid Snape's stores for the ingredients they need for the Polyjuice potion. Her willingness to break the rules should not be much of a surprise to the reader, who has been watching her get steadily less stiff through this and the previous book; however, it is quite a shock to Ron, who will continue to believe that Hermione is rule-bound, despite evidence to the contrary, well into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The Dueling Club shows us Gilderoy Lockhart's continuing ineptness, as he is unable to block a simple spell from Snape, stop the student duels, or eliminate the snake that Draco had produced. By now, we should be starting to wonder whether Gilderoy is a wizard at all, or merely a very good self-promoter. It is curious that Hermione is still so apparently taken with him. Snape, of course, sees through Lockhart; Ron observes that if Snape had looked at him like he was looking at Lockhart, Ron would have run for cover.
In the dueling club, we also learn that Harry can talk to snakes, and that this is a very rare achievement, linked only to Salazar Slytherin and his descendants. Given that the school is now fearing the ongoing depredations of "the Heir of Slytherin", this is a major concern, of course; proof of the connection between Salazar Slytherin and Harry could not be any plainer, and Harry, who is unsure of his ancestry, cannot disprove even to himself that he could be the Heir. The only mitigating factor that we, as readers, have is the knowledge that Harry himself was not present when the petrifications happened. Harry knows this as well, but cannot prove it in the two cases preceding the Dueling Club, or the one following. (The final one, as we will see, largely proves his innocence; but that does not occur for several months yet.)
This whole episode throws Harry into a great deal of confusion. The Sorting Hat wanted to put him into Slytherin house; he remembers quite plainly that the only reason it didn't was that he didn't want to be there. Obviously, the Hat had recognized the link to Slytherin that is now made manifest by Harry's Parseltongue ability. Yet Harry has come to enjoy being a Gryffindor; is he there under false pretenses? This uncertainty, to a greater or lesser extent, preys on Harry for the remainder of the book.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
[edit] Greater Picture
Colin Creevey is the first Petrification of a student. The fact that he is in Ginny's class is apparently sufficient to cause her concern; in fact, her concern is caused by the slowly-dawning realization that she may be the one responsible for it, as it happened during a time that she cannot remember what she was doing.
The wrestling match between Hermione and Millicent Bullstrode is useful to our plot, as it is here that Hermione collects a hair that will later be used as part of Hermione's dose of Polyjuice Potion. This will, however, turn out to be something of a disaster as the hair in question does not come from Millicent herself.
We will learn in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that Harry's ability with Parseltongue is in fact due to a link with Slytherin; it will be a sideways link, though, as it is related to the piece of Voldemort's soul that adhered to Harry and remains with him. The author has confirmed in a later interview that Harry's parseltongue ability vanished with that soul shard, and he has not missed it since.
Dumbledore later quiets Harry's doubts by showing him that he has received the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat. "Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the Hat, Harry." While Dumbledore likely already knows about the soul shard, it is not something that he believes Harry is ready to hear about yet. It is only at the end of Harry's fifth year that Dumbledore finally tells Harry of the prophecy, which says either he or Voldemort must die. Dumbledore already understands that Harry will have to die in order to destroy the soul shard he carries; he believes, probably correctly, at the age of twelve Harry is too young to carry that weight of destiny.
