Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Chamber of Secrets/Chapter 2
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Chapter 2 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Dobby's Warning
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[edit] Synopsis
The strange creature on Harry's bed introduces himself as Dobby, the house-elf. Dobby is unable to reveal the wizarding family he works for, as he starts hitting himself uncontrollably each time he tries. He also needs to punish himself for speaking badly of his masters and for leaving his home without consent, yet he did this in order to deliver Harry a dire warning: He must not return to Hogwarts for terrible events will happen at the school. Dobby is once again unable to provide more details. When Harry refuses to stay home from Hogwarts, Dobby taunts him about how his friends have not written to him all summer. When Harry asks how Dobby had known about that, he admits having intercepted Harry's letters hoping that if Harry felt his friends did not care about him, he would not want to go back to school.
Furious, Harry chases Dobby downstairs, where the Dursleys are having dinner with the Masons. Dobby then uses his powers to levitate Aunt Petunia's cake and threatens to let it fall unless Harry promises not to return to Hogwarts. Harry refuses, so Dobby drops the cake, filling the Dursley's spotless kitchen with cream before vanishing magically. The noise attracts the attention of the Dursleys, who blame Harry. At first it seems Uncle Vernon manages to gloss things over, explaining to the Masons that his nephew is slightly disturbed, but then an owl arrives with a message for Harry, scaring Mrs. Mason and dashing Uncle Vernon's hopes for a huge business opportunity.
The letter is an official warning from Mafalda Hopkirk at the Ministry of Magic. Apparently, Harry has violated the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery by performing a Hover Charm, and the letter states that further use of magic on Harry's part away from school could lead to his expulsion from Hogwarts. Uncle Vernon tells Harry to read the letter aloud, and decides to lock Harry into his bedroom and bar the window, now knowing that he can not use magic to break out.
Three days later, Harry is awoken by rattling at the bars across his window, and finds Ron peering in at him in the moonlight.
[edit] Analysis
Harry, it turns out, is once again being manipulated by forces beyond his control. In this case, a house-elf has apparently decided to try and keep him away from Hogwarts, nominally for his own protection. Harry, believing in his own strength, seems not to consider that there could be any danger to him at Hogwarts, at least not one serious enough to prevent him returning to the place he feels most at home.
The letter from the Ministry is clearly a surprise to Harry. While he had been cautioned about use of magic at home, he had not been aware that he was being monitored by the Ministry. Harry's obvious fear in the kitchen earlier, as far as we know, was occasioned purely by the concern that Vernon would hear him, and would be enraged at Harry's having violated the instructions he was given. Harry knows that Vernon still has significant power over him and can make his time most uncomfortable. Harry may also fear that Vernon may be able to prevent his returning to Hogwarts, a fear that seems manifest when Harry's bedroom is turned into a virtual jail cell.
Throughout the course of this chapter, the tension gradually mounts as the chances of Harry's returning to the place he loves seem to grow ever more remote. With the appearance of Ron at the window, there is an immediate sense of relief, but associated with this comes a question: Ron, equally, is underage. Though he is now aware of the situation, what can he do to help Harry escape it?
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
- How could Dobby, as a servant in another wizard household, be able to stop Harry's mail for all that time without his masters' noticing his absence?
- Why was Dobby's magic noticed, and not the magic that Hagrid used in the first book?
[edit] Greater Picture
Though we don't yet know this, as Dobby cannot tell Harry, it will turn out that Dobby is the house-elf of the Malfoy family. Perhaps not surprisingly, the poor condition of Dobby shows how the Malfoys treat their inferiors. We have already seen this attitude toward those the Malfoys deem less than themselves, as Draco has displayed it towards both Harry and Ron, and we will see that it continues almost throughout the series. It is the similarity of this shabby treatment of Dobby by his family, with the treatment of Ron, Hermione, and Harry by Draco, that leads the reader to guess, possibly even before Harry does, that Dobby is the Malfoy house-elf.
Dobby, while never a major character, will yet prove extremely useful to Harry during the course of the series. We can see here that Dobby is violating orders to speak to Harry; we gather that it is because Dobby is aware of how the lot of House-Elves have improved since the fall of the Dark Lord, and, aware that the Malfoys are somehow planning mischief at Hogwarts, has taken it upon himself to warn Harry. Dobby's freely-given loyalty to Harry will continue throughout the series, and will only be enhanced by Harry's treating Dobby with the respect due an equal. The contrast between Dobby's response to Harry's needs, and his responses to the Malfoys, provides something of an object lesson in the value of loyalty freely given against that which is demanded.
It should perhaps be noted here that Dobby's low expectations for treatment from humans seem to be common across all House Elves; we will see it again in Winky and Kreacher. Later, we will see that Ron also treats House Elves as menials, though both Harry and Hermione do not; Hermione is even moved to create a student organization, S.P.E.W., to try and get some rights for them. Perhaps Harry's being raised in a non-magical household, which has prevented him learning of the existence of house-elves, has also isolated him from the prevailing beliefs that house-elves should be treated as an under-class.
The specific thing that the Malfoys have planned is the return of Tom Riddle's diary to the school. It is always uncertain whether Lucius Malfoy is entirely aware of exactly what the result of this will be; the diary, we will later learn, had likely been given to him with information that would lead him to believe it was an anti-Mudblood weapon, though not precisely how it would act. If he had known that the weapon was only barely controlled and somewhat indiscriminate, it is likely Lucius would have balked at putting it in proximity to his son Draco.
It is mentioned elsewhere that stories about magic have a very real danger: by making anything possible and largely effortless, it becomes far too easy for the hero to succeed, and the story becomes uninteresting. The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery is one of the more intriguing ways that the author has developed to provide limits on the magic. Harry certainly could make his life easier by judicious use of magic during his summer vacations, but that would remove one of the points of interest in the story. The Dursleys, annoying as they are, will remain a useful contrast to Harry's life in Hogwarts, and his means of dealing with them without the use of magic will be a way of measuring his own increasing strength of character and maturity. The Decree will also provide a significant point of interest in the story in later books.
