Chapter Discussion Chamber of Secrets Ch. 9 The Writing on the Wall

[poohmeg20]

No: HPFGUIDX 189004

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> 1. This chapter is very funny. Why do you think JKR used so much comedy just as she's introducing the idea of the Chamber of Secrets?

One of the things I love about the series is how seamlessly JKR blends humor into just about every situation - it makes the books much more fun to read, and often shows things about the characters that couldn't be communicated as well without humor. It's like real life - hardly any situation is completely serious or completely humorous - it's usually a blend.

> 2. What is Snape up to with his "Wrong place at the wrong time" speech?

As Dumbledore said, the magic required was way beyond what Harry could have done at the time - and Snape knows it. But he can't resist any opportunity to see Harry squirm, so he wants to take advantage of Dumbledore's sympathy for Filch and a possible opportunity for a token punishment.

> 3. What would have happened if Harry had told Dumbledore about the voices?

If he had told him in front of everyone, the other teachers probably would have thought he was crazy initially - but Dumbledore probably would have figured about about the parseltongue pretty quickly, and maybe could have known what he was looking for. So maybe telling him privately afterwards might have been better.

> 4. Why didn't JKR introduce Squibs in SS/PS?

There wasn't really an obvious place to bring it up - and it left something to reveal about Filch in this book.

> 5. How does the explanation of Salazar's reasons for excluding Muggle-born students compare to contemporary wizards' reasons? (Malfoy, Black, etc.)

In this chapter, it's a third-hand explanation of Salazar's reasons (Prof. Binns' retelling of a book someone else wrote about it), but if his primary concern was that Muggle-born students would not be trustworthy, that may have had some factual grounds based on the wizard-muggle relations described in Dumbledore's notes in the Tales of Beedle the Bard. The contemporary anti-muggle bias doesn't seem to be based on those concerns - it seems to be just generic snobbery.

> 6. Are you surprised that Harry expected students to think he was Slytherin's heir at this time?

Not really - I think from the beginning he knew that other students would always be gossiping about him because he was different, and he's already had some evidence of that by this time.

> 7. Ginny is  pale, upset, worried how did these descriptions influence your opinion of Ginny the first time you read CoS, and how do you view the descriptions now?

The first time I read it, I didn't think anything of it - I didn't really feel like I knew her that well at this point, so I figured it was just how she was. Having finished the book, I know now that wasn't the case.

> 8. Neither Ron nor Harry has heard of Polyjuice Potion---if you were their teacher what would your opinion of them be?

I dont think that would surprise me greatly given their overall level of interest in academics. :)

> 9. At one time this book was going to be The Half Blood Prince. Who knows what the plot would have been, but do you see any sections in this chapter that seem to foreshadow or parallel HBP?

Absolutely - I think there are a lot of parallels between this book and HBP throughout. This chapter lays some groundwork for the horcruxes by getting into the story about the founders and the CoS, and describing Ginny's symptoms which we later find out are horcrux-related.

> 10. What do you think of Binns' comment, "Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't"? Is this brought up in any of the other 6 books?

I think that's a central theme to the whole series - choices matter more than abilities.

> 11. I have to confess, I had a really good question for this chapter that turned out to be based on movie contamination. I had such a bad case; I had to read the chapter several times before I accepted the event wasn't canon. All these years I thought it was an important moment in the Harry/Snape dynamic. So, what questions do you have?

Now I'm curious about what your question was. :)

poohmeg