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Suggest pagesMuggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Chamber of Secrets/Chapter 14
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Chapter 14 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Cornelius Fudge
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Harry, Ron, and Hermione discuss this revelation endlessly—none want to believe that Hagrid would have anything to do with a monster. And yet, they know he was expelled from Hogwarts and likes large and scary creatures, like "Fluffy," the giant three-headed dog that guarded the Philosopher's Stone the previous year. The attacks must have stopped after Tom Riddle turned in Hagrid. Otherwise, Tom would not have received the Special Services award. They decided to do nothing unless there are more attacks. The school seems to be returning to normal, and the Mandrake plants are maturing and almost ready be used to treat those who have been Petrified.
Starting in their third year, Hogwarts students can attend elective courses, so over Easter Break, the second-years are to select their third-year classes. Everyone wants advice on what to take, except Hermione, who eventually decides to take everything. Harry asks Percy, who pompously tells him to stay with his strengths. Feeling he has no strengths except Quidditch, Harry decides to take the same courses as Ron so they can work together.
Oliver Wood is mercilessly practicing the Quidditch team. The game against Hufflepuff House is coming up, and they have the best chance in years to win the trophy. Returning from practice, Harry discovers his dorm has been ransacked, apparently by someone searching for something. While reorganizing his things, Harry discovers Riddle's diary is gone. Harry surmises that a Gryffindor must have taken it; nobody else knows the password to the tower.
The next day, as Harry heads to the Quidditch pitch for the match against Hufflepuff, he hears the voice again. Ron and Hermione, who are with him, hear nothing, but something suddenly occurs to Hermione. With her usual cryptic comments, she heads to the library. Ron and Harry go to the Pitch, but just before the game starts, Professor McGonagall announces it has been canceled and orders everyone to their House Common rooms. She singles out Harry and Ron and has them follow her to the infirmary. There has been a double attack: a Ravenclaw girl and Hermione have been petrified. Both were found near the library, and Hermione was clutching a small mirror.
Professor McGonagall announces new restrictions, including a 6:00 p.m. curfew. A teacher must escort students between classes, and there is a ban on all evening activities, including Quidditch practice. She also says the school may close permanently.
The attacked Ravenclaw girl is a Prefect, Penelope Clearwater. Percy is in shock, apparently having believed Prefects were immune from attacks. Harry and Ron decide it is time to ask Hagrid what he knows about the Chamber of Secrets. Using Harry's Invisibility Cloak, they go to his hut, but before they can ask him anything, they are interrupted by a knock at the door. Harry and Ron hide under the Cloak as Professor Dumbledore and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge enter. Fudge apparently believes, like Harry and Ron, that it was Hagrid who opened the Chamber fifty years earlier. Over Dumbledore's protests, Fudge is sending Hagrid to Azkaban as a precaution. Ron whispers to Harry that Azkaban is the Wizard prison. Lucius Malfoy arrives with an Order signed by the Governors of Hogwarts calling for Dumbledore's removal as Headmaster, although Fudge objects. As he is leaving, Dumbledore says, "I will only truly have left the school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." As he speaks, he looks directly at Harry and Ron huddled under the Cloak. Malfoy and Dumbledore then leave. Hagrid says that if anyone wants to find some answers, they should just follow the spiders, and he leaves as well, escorted by Fudge.
[edit] Analysis
The revelation that Hagrid may be involved with the opening of the Chamber is clearly a hard one for Harry to deal with. The proof seems incontrovertible, Harry has actually seen the events of the day Hagrid was discovered. Harry's trust in Hagrid has been shaken, but still remains in place for the moment; it is only after the attacks start again that Harry feels he has to approach Hagrid to find out about the events that resulted in his expulsion.
In the meanwhile, the diary has been stolen; Harry seems to believe that it was a targeted theft, as nothing else of his has been taken. Harry and Ron have also concluded that it was someone in Gryffindor. Both of these facts could turn out to be significant. One thing that is certain at this point is that Harry will not be able to learn anything more about the night Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts by this route.
If Harry had braced Hagrid about those events, almost certainly he would also have had to explain how he had seen them, and the early revelation of the role of the diary would have significantly weakened the story. Thus, Hagrid's arrest at this point, or some other way of rendering Hagrid unavailable for the remainder of the year, is necessary to the story line. Having Hagrid arrested at this point also introduces us to Azkaban Prison and the fear wizards have of the place. From the title of the next book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we can figure that Azkaban will figure largely in it; and as it has been at least mentioned now in both this and the previous book, we can guess that Azkaban will reappear a number of times in future books as well.
From what we have seen of him already, we can gather that Lucius Malfoy is seldom, if ever, straightforward in his motives. In this case, he tells us that the Board of Hogwarts has seen fit to suspend Dumbledore for not preventing the attacks on the students. Readers are, by this time, well aware that his motives are seldom what they seem, and his machinations are extensive. It is a safe assumption that he has coerced the board into suspending Dumbledore; his evident air of satisfaction when delivering the document speaks to that. However, we are left wondering exactly what he hopes to gain by this action. Is his hatred of Dumbledore sufficient for this level of action against him? Or is there something more that we have not yet discovered?
Hagrid is careful to tell Harry and Ron about the spiders; we don't yet know why. We have seen the spiders acting oddly already, near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
- Before he leaves, Dumbledore seems to look directly at Harry and Ron, though they are under the Invisibility Cloak. Can Dumbledore really see them?
[edit] Greater Picture
It should be noted that a new attack occurs immediately after the theft of the diary. It is certain that the diary was deliberately disposed of; carrying something into a disused bathroom and flushing it down the toilet is not something that would happen accidentally. Almost immediately after the diary is stolen from Harry, there is another attack. If in fact the diary is somehow connected to the attacks, which seems likely, then equally it seems likely that the original owner has stolen it back for some reason. Additionally, we are told that the thief is almost certainly a Gryffindor student. We will find out that the diary is, in fact, associated with the attacks and with a Gryffindor student in the final chapters of this book.
We are led to believe, by what the Twins say, that Percy is distressed only because a Prefect has been attacked. Percy had quite plainly believed that Prefects would be invulnerable. Even so, his reaction appears to be extreme, until we learn in the end of this book that Ginny had caught him kissing Penelope Clearwater. Revelation of this romantic entanglement makes Percy's shock understandable at last.
The fact that Hermione runs to the library after Harry hears "the voice" again is perhaps the thing that will help Harry the most in his task of saving the day again: she is able to connect the fact that Harry is the only one that can hear a voice inside the walls with some details her own intelligence provides. She comes to the conclusion at this point that the monster is a Basilisk, which Harry can hear because of his Parseltongue ability, which allows him to speak to snakes. A Basilisk kills with its gaze if someone looks directly into his eyes. However, no one in this book has yet died, because they have seen the monster in an indirect fashion: Mrs. Norris reflected in the puddle of water outside Myrtle's bathroom, Colin through his camera, Justin through Nearly-Headless Nick (who sees it directly, but since he is already dead, it can't kill him again), and Hermione and Penelope reflected in a mirror Hermione was carrying. Hermione also guesses why the voice that Harry hears seems to pass easily through floors, and does not appear to have a source: the Basilisk uses the pipes to go through the walls of the school unmolested.
Lucius' motives in getting Dumbledore suspended are never entirely cleared up, but some clarification comes from the understanding that Lucius engineered the attacks, even though he apparently remains not entirely certain of the mechanism involved. Knowing that Lucius provided the weapon, we can see that his arranging for Dumbledore's suspension is an attempt to give the weapon free reign. Of all of the teachers at Hogwarts, only three seem to be willing to accept the idea that there might be a Chamber of Secrets that could contain a monster: Dumbledore, who had been at Hogwarts at the time, McGonagall, who accepts Dumbledore's word on it implicitly, and Lockhart, who is utterly ineffectual. By removing Dumbledore, Lucius is effectively halving the strength of the forces countering the monster.
