Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Chamber of Secrets/Chapter 15
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Chapter 15 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Aragog
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[edit] Synopsis
Security is tighter than ever. Harry and Ron are unable to visit Hermione in the infirmary. Teachers shepherd students around in little groups. Most students are upset and frightened, although Malfoy is seemingly pleased over having played some role in Dumbledore's removal.
About a fortnight later in Herbology, Ernie Macmillan, the Hufflepuff who had earlier accused Harry of being the Heir of Slytherin, apologizes and asks Harry if he believes Malfoy could be the Heir. Harry points out some spiders to Ron, the first they have seen since Hagrid's arrest, and comments that they appear to be headed for the Forbidden Forest. Ron is not cheerful over this news. As they are escorted to their next class, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry says that in order to follow the spiders, they will need his Invisibility Cloak, and they should take Fang. Professor Lockhart bounds into the classroom, gaily saying that with Hagrid arrested, the danger has passed. Ron wants to dispute that, but Harry reminds him that they were not actually there. Harry decides they should follow the spiders that night.
Waiting until past midnight for the Common room to clear, Harry and Ron make their way through the halls, crowded with teachers and ghosts looking for signs of the Monster. They get Fang from Hagrid's hut and, making their way into the Forest, follow the spiders by wand light. Hearing something large moving, they investigate. It is Mr. Weasley's flying car, wandering the Forest. As they look to see how it is doing, they are caught by giant spiders and dragged to a hollow among the trees. There they meet Aragog, the patriarch of a huge giant spider colony. Aragog, cranky at having his sleep disturbed, tells his children to kill Harry and Ron. Harry forestalls this by saying they are Hagrid's friends, and he is in trouble, arrested again for apparently opening the Chamber. Aragog admits he was believed to be the Monster, but he was not. The Monster is another creature, one that is an enemy to spiders, and such that he cannot even name it. Aragog was blamed for killing a girl, but he says the girl died in a bathroom, a part of the Castle he was never in. Hagrid kept him in a cupboard in the dungeon. As Aragog is unable to help them further, Harry says they will just go. Aragog says no, his children will not harm Hagrid on his command, but he does not have enough control over them to keep Hagrid's friends safe. As the spiders start their attack, Mr. Weasley's car screeches onto the scene. Harry and Ron bundle themselves and Fang into it, and it carries them back to Hagrid's hut, leaves them, and returns to the Forest.
Back in the Gryffindor dorm, Harry has a sudden thought: was the girl killed in the bathroom Moaning Myrtle?
[edit] Analysis
Hermione's being Petrified, as alarming as it is, is not without some good effects. Until now, Harry had been suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin, because of his being able to talk to snakes. Now, though, even the most suspicious of Harry's fellow students agree that Harry cannot be the instigator of the attacks, as he would not have injured Hermione. Ernie, in particular, announces his belief that it is not Harry but Malfoy who is the Heir; Ron's evident amusement at the idea is probably due to Harry and Ron having come up with the same idea several months previously.
We see here the truth to Hagrid's utterance that if people wanted to learn some stuff, they should follow the spiders. Whenever we have seen the spiders in the past, Harry has thought that it looked like they were trying to run away from something. It now seems that they were trying to run towards something. We find that they are apparently headed for a spider colony in the Forbidden Forest led by Aragog, perhaps feeling that the Acromantula colony will afford them some protection. It is from Aragog that Harry and Ron learn at least some of the truth about events at Hagrid's expulsion from Hogwarts. And Aragog also gives Harry a clue to where the entrance to the Chamber is.
It is, for a while, uncertain as to whether Harry will be able to use this knowledge, as they seem to be surrounded by masses of inimical and hungry spiders. The flying car being present and willing to help them seems fortuitous, but is an indication of the author's deftness at preparing situations to pay off in future chapters (and future books). We were led to believe that, having delivered Harry and Ron to Hogwarts and gone off to sulk in the Forest, the role of the flying car was done; we are pleased to see that in fact there is still something that the aging and ailing car can do for Harry. While it certainly seems odd, at first glance, to assign personality to a machine, we see that the car in this chapter does show personality, and that personality is consistent from the arrival at Hogwarts through this chapter.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
- The monster, now, has petrified Mrs. Norris, Colin Creevey, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hermione, and Penelope Clearwater. Is it targeting those who are not pure-blooded? Or is this random?
- The flying car has come to Harry's rescue; will it do so again, in a later book?
[edit] Greater Picture
There is very little in this chapter that will carry forward to later books. We will learn that Harry's guess, that the girl who died is Moaning Myrtle, is correct, and we will learn how she died. We see further illumination of Lockhart's character in this chapter. We learn of the existence of Aragog. However, rather than laying groundwork for future books, this chapter is almost entirely involved with the business of moving this book's story forward to its close.
Aragog's fate is revisited in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when he dies from old age and brings Hagrid, Professor Slughorn, and Harry together to mourn his death. Hagrid at that point will be surprised to find that Aragog's offspring do not grant him free passage, but rather actually try to attack him. Given their experiences in this chapter, neither Harry nor Ron is at all surprised by their behaviour.
Aragog's children will appear again in the closing chapters of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Hagrid will again assume that they are less dangerous than they are.
We will not see the flying car again, and while Moaning Myrtle will appear in future books, the circumstances of her death will not prove important after this book.
