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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189006

<snip chapter outline>
> 
> 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?

Carol responds:
It's hard to know why JKR does anything, but one reason may be her intended audience. Young readers like comedy, especially broad comedy. Also, it won't do to be tragic to early in the story and scare them off. It was a stroke of genius to make Moaning Myrtle comically annoying rather than pitiable, for example. Maybe JKR is following Shakespeare in mixing comedy with tragedy, which he apparently did for a variety of reasons ranging from entertaining his audience to realism (life seldom consists of pure tragedy or pure comedy) to the understanding that the comic always verges on the tragic. Comedy is funny only if it results in only minor injuries or temporary difficulties, not serious injuries, death, or permanent emotional distress.

Did you have any particular incidents in mind when you asked this question?
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> 2. What is Snape up to with his "Wrong place at the wrong time" speech?

Carol:
You can never tell with the mysterious Severus. Maybe he's actually attempting to be fair--or appear to be--but certainly he wants to make it clear that their presence at the scene of the crime is suspicious. Possibly, he hopes to scare them into confessing whatever they know. I doubt that he thinks any of them actually attacked Mrs. Norris, if only because not even Hermione would have the skill or power to perform Dark Magic. He may simply be trying to discover why they weren't at the Halloween feast--and remembering what happened the previous year on Halloween (the Troll) and/or their entering the forbidden corridor the previous year and nearly getting killed. Someone dangerous is at Hogwarts, and Snape, who is protecting Harry despite appearances, would not want him anywhere near that person.
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> 3. What would have happened if Harry had told Dumbledore about the voices?

Carol:
It would have sped up the storyline considerably since DD (who can't, I think, hear the Basilisk himself even though he must suspect what it is and certainly knows the identity of the Heir of Slytherin) would have known for sure that Harry was a Parselmouth. As it is, I'm almost certain that he asked Snape to find that out, which is why Snape later had Draco cast Serpensortia in the dueling club and why he looked so shrewd (rather than shocked) when Harry actually spoke it. At that point, DD must have set up the protections for Harry if and when he found and entered the CoS. Meanwhile, I would hope that he put additional protective spells on the school, which could be why no one was actually killed even when the Basilisk started attacking Muggle-borns. Had they been killed, I think he would have had to abandon his plan and close the school. (DD is also, of course, missing a key puzzle piece. He doesn't know about the diary, and, as he later says to McGonagall, "The queestion is not who but how."
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> 4. Why didn't JKR introduce Squibs in SS/PS?

Carol:
Well, she did introduce the idea that a child from a Wizarding family might not be as magically powerful as his parents (though Neville's use of "all Muggle" leads to confusion), and she does introduce the concept of prejudice against what eleven-year-old Draco refers to as "the other kind" of Witches and Wizards, but the actual terminology (including the insult "Mud-Blood") isn't yet important and she wants to save it for CoS where it's crucial to the plot. It's also important that Harry not know the term Squib so that he can truthfully claim innocence when Filch accuses Harry of Petrifying Mrs. Norris because he knows that Filch is a Squib.
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> 5. How does the explanation of Salazar's reasons for excluding Muggle-born students compare to contemporary wizards' reasons? (Malfoy, Black, etc.)

Carol:
I didn't have time to reread the chapter, just to skim it, so I can't be sure, but obviously, modern Witches and Wizards are no longer in danger of being persecuted. I think that Salazar's fear of treachery by Muggle-borns has metamorphosed into a sense that Muggle-borns are magically inferior because of their nonmagical blood (an ancient idea retained into modern times. Draco isn't afraid of Muggle-borns; he just turns his nose up at them and looks down on people who marry them (or Muggles).
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> 6. Are you surprised that Harry expected students to think he was Slytherin's heir at this time?

Carol:
Not really. He has no idea who or what Slytherin's heir is (neither do the other students), and he *can* hear the voice in the walls. (Of course, the idea becomes more plausible later after the revelation that he's a Parselmouth.)
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> 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?

Carol:
I gave it no more thought than Harry did. Ginny was just a first-year and Ron's little sister, not an important character that I should be interested in. Now, of course, the reason for her paleness and concern is obvious, and I think that I should have noted the difference between her apparent fear in this instance and her courage in standing up to Draco at Flourish and Blotts. JKR is cleverly hiding clues in plain sight here as in other books.
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> 8. Neither Ron nor Harry has heard of Polyjuice Potion---if you were their teacher what would your opinion of them be?

Carol:
Snape talked about it in class and even told them which book the recipe is in (of course, he also pointed out that it was in the Restricted Section of the library). My opinion of them would be that they were students who didn't listen in class and liked to goof off--exactly what Snape knows to be true. (He would also know that Hermione *did* pay attention. I don't think, however, that he expected her to obtain the book and learn to make such a difficult potion as a second-year.)
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> 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?

Carol:
I suspect that they would have found the recipe for Poly-juice Potion (the improved version) in the Prince's book, and maybe Harry would suddenly have become "good" at Potions rather than relying on Hermione. JKR must have found out very quickly that the plot wouldn't work and also realized that it made much more sense to keep Snape's background a mystery until Book 6. I see foreshadowing of HBP in other chapters, but not that much here.
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> 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?

Carol:
We see Harry using or attempting to use Dark Magic in HBP and DH, and, of course, Snape uses AK for the greater good in HBP. But I think we're meant to think of Dumbledore, who, as we later learn, has the Elder Wand but apparently never uses it to cast Dark spells. (It's the one Hallow he's worthy of using, as he tells Harry at King's Cross.)
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> 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?
>
Carol:
Aren't you going to enlighten us? What was the event?

Carol, thanking Potioncat for a delightful discussion