Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Chamber of Secrets/Chapter 8
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Chapter 8 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Deathday Party
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[edit] Synopsis
October is marked by continuous rainstorms; the lake rises, the flowerbeds turn into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swell to the size of garden sheds. Oliver Wood, however, does not see any reason to let up on Quidditch practice, so it is no surprise that Harry is soaked and dripping mud one Saturday morning as he walks back to Gryffindor Tower after practice. On the way he meets Nearly Headless Nick, and they discuss their respective troubles: Nick is upset because his application to join the Headless Hunt has been rejected again, it seems that being nearly headless is not enough to qualify. Harry, meanwhile, is not looking forward to meeting Slytherin at Quidditch with the entire team mounted on new Nimbus 2001 brooms. As Harry is speaking, he is interrupted by Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat. Nick mentions that Filch is in a bad mood. Harry tries to make a quick escape but is thwarted by Filch's sudden appearance through a tapestry. Incensed at the water and mud dripping off Harry's Quidditch robes, Filch orders him to his office where he fills out a form recommending punishment for "befouling the castle." A loud noise interrupts him, and Filch charges off after Peeves in the hopes that he has finally done something unforgivable that will permanently ban him from Hogwarts.
During Filch's absence, Harry notices an envelope on his desk. It is for a correspondence course called "Kwikspell," intended to improve a person's magical abilities. When Filch returns, he notices the envelope has been moved and, becoming embarrassed, lets Harry go without being punished.
On exiting Filch's office, Harry meets Nearly Headless Nick again. Nick tells him that he arranged for Peeves to tip over a black and gold cabinet to distract Filch. Nick is relieved it worked and invites Harry to his Deathday Party to celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of his death, which occurred 31 October, 1492. He also invites Ron and Hermione, who are both keen to go.
On Hallowe'en, they descend to the Dungeons where they are met by Nick and a panoply of ghosts, including Moaning Myrtle and Peeves. The gathering is rather uncomfortable for living people, and when Peeves insults Moaning Myrtle sending her off in tears, Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide it is a good time to exit.
As they depart the Dungeon, Harry hears the same voice he heard in Professor Lockhart's office. He follows it upwards, with Hermione and Ron following, through the Entry Hall to the first floor. Sloshing through a puddle of water on the floor, he sees writing on the wall: "The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of the Heir, Beware." Mrs. Norris is hanging from a torch bracket, apparently dead. Before the Trio can react, students leaving the Hallowe'en Feast surround them. Malfoy's voice rings out: "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
[edit] Analysis
One of the main things that the author excels at is called "the set-up and the pay-off", the ability to write something that begs a question, followed by, at some later point, the answer which illuminates much more than the question was asking. This chapter contains a relatively minor instance of this: we see that Filch has, on his desk, an envelope from a course that seems designed to teach basic magic, and we see that Filch is horribly embarrassed by this. Why?
This is the first place that we get a concrete date for when the series is taking place within the books themselves. Unfortunately, this date conflicts with many of the days of the week reported in the story; specifically, for instance, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, we learn that Harry was orphaned on October 31. If his second year at Hogwarts starts in September 1992, as here implied by the date given for Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday, then he must have turned 11 on 31 July 1991. As his birth date then would be 31 July 1980, he would have been orphaned on October 31, 1981. The book explicitly states that the next day was a Tuesday; but November 1, 1981 was a Sunday. Similarly, days of the week are given for Hallowe'en and for all three tasks in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but do not line up with the days of the week in 1994 and 1995.
These failures of correspondence between the series calendar and our physical calendar are unimportant to the sweep of the story, so while they may be mentioned, they are provided more as a curiosity than as something for the scholar to concern himself with.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
[edit] Greater Picture
Moaning Myrtle's departure from the party proves somewhat critical for reasons that are fully explained later in the story. Because Peeves had so upset her, Myrtle floods the hallway outside her bathroom. While we don't go into the bathroom this time to see this, in a later instance, when someone "throws a book through Myrtle's head," Harry and Ron will enter the bathroom and find all of the taps turned on and water all over the floor and the hall outside. As an aside, one of the popular slang terms for someone starting to cry is "turning on the waterworks;" it seems that Myrtle takes the expression literally. We will find out in the next chapter that Mrs. Norris is Petrified; if the hallway had not been flooded, the basilisk's glance would have killed Mrs. Norris. Because Mrs. Norris saw the Basilisk's reflection from the water, instead of looking at it directly, she was spared. Mrs. Norris will be the first to avoid direct sight of the Basilisk, and through luck or design all the other victims of the Basilisk this time will equally avoid direct eye contact, but we will also learn that earlier, the same had not been true.
Harry has inadvertently discovered a secret about Filch: he is a squib. Squibs are born into wizarding families but have no magical abilities themselves. Filch is apparently attempting to overcome this "accident-of-birth" by taking a correspondence magic course. Harry's understanding, though, is incomplete at this point. While Harry now knows that Filch is trying to learn magic, he does not yet understand the import of this fact. Harry will learn the details in the next chapter.
It is worth noting that although the cabinet that Peeves knocks over to distract Filch is insignificant to the overall storyline of this book, it reappears in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince it is a major plot device. In both of these appearances, it is an important fact that it is broken.
