CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chamber of Secrets Ch. 13: The Very Secret Diary

[poohmeg20]

No: HPFGUIDX 189071

<snip of the very nice summary>  

> 1.  Ron is very attuned to Hermione's crush on Lockhart.  Is he merely disgusted with her infatuation, or is this one of JKR's "anvil-sized hints?  Did you pick up on this the first time you read CoS?
> 

Megan:
I definitely took that as an "anvil-sized hint" the first time I read it - I was always slightly annoyed by all the time spent on the budding relationships in the series, but I thought by the standard romantic comedy formula it was pretty clear from the get-go that Ron and Hermione were going to end up together.
 
> 2.  What do you think is the source of Lockhart's appeal to women and girls?  Is it his looks and charm, or is there magic involved?  Do you think he's capable of one of Flitwick's Entrancement Enchantments?
>  

Megan:
The Lockharts of the world will always hold some mysterious appeal for a certain segment of the female population - women are perfectly capable of being every bit as shallow as men when presented with a pretty face with nothing behind it. However, I'm sure Lockhart would never want to have someone point that out, so he probably did have a few charms in his repertoire to at least temporarily enchant those not impressed on their own. I think it would be more like the kind of thing available at Zonko's than something Flitwick would teach. 


> 3.  Ron's initial reaction that the diary was dangerous proves correct, and he also correctly guessed that Riddle murdered Moaning Myrtle.  Ron's apparent knack for this led to a longstanding theory that Ron was a Seer.  What do these comments tell us about Ron?
> 

Megan:
Ron might not be as book-smart as Hermione, but he grew up in the wizarding world and had lots of exposure to the ministry through his dad, so even though he had never seen anything quite like that situation before, I'm sure he knew enough to be suspicious. Ron actually is pretty good throughout the series at assessing the safety of objects and situations - or at least making somewhat informed guesses.
 
> 4.  What did you think of Riddle after reading this chapter?  
>  

Megan:
He seemed kind of shady to me - I certainly didn't figure out on my own this quickly that he was Voldemort, but the whole diary situation seemed creepy. 

> 5.  Do you think Riddle's memory is part and parcel of his soul bit, or is it a separate enchantment, like the curses on some of the other horcruxes?  Why did he incorporate this feature into a horcrux and not simply create a separate memorial?  And (really going off on a tangent here) does the Sorting Hat employ the same kind of magic?
>  

Megan:
Good question! I think (I know someone will correct me if I'm wrong!) that the diary was one of the first few horcruxes created - so Riddle was probably still kind of experimenting at that point to see how much he could pack into it. If it is the same kind of magic as the sorting hat, maybe that's where he got the idea. 

> 6.  There are obvious parallels between the memory Riddle showed Harry and the ones Dumbledore shows Harry in HBP; in fact, JKR once considered revealing much of Riddle's history in CoS.  How do you think she intended to handle the information, and what do you think of how Riddle's story was handled here?
> 

Megan:
I can see where it might have worked to get into Dumbledore's memories at this point looking back now over the whole series - but from a practical perspective, the average reader isn't as invested in the series yet by book 2 as they will be by book 6. So I think it would have put some people off the series if there had been more background and time away from the core story in CoS. By the time HBP came out, anyone who was still reading was obviously interested enough for that information (and more, since we're still talking about it now!) Leaving off some of the background at this point also left more room to take the story in different directions in the intervening books without readers being tempted to do constant continuity checks (even more than they did anyway!)

> 7.  Why does Harry believe that Hagrid opened the Chamber?
>  
Megan:
He's working from a limited set of facts and assumptions at this point - he knows Hagrid is hiding something, and that's the main thing on Harry's mind that someone would want to hide. So from his perspective, it's a pretty logical conclusion. 

> 8.  The introduction of Tom Riddle in this chapter adds a dark and chilling element to the storyline, yet the chapter is also very funny, with visions of surly dwarfs carrying harps, Moaning Myrtle as a carnival contest, and Ginny's pickled-toad valentine.  What do you think of JKR's juxtaposition of humor and seriousness here?
>  

Megan:
To me, that's what is so great about the whole series - just like real life, there is a constant back-and-forth between the serious and the ridiculous. It's part of the whole theme of choices - the characters (and readers) can choose how seriously they want to take themselves or a situation.

> 9.  Please add any questions you may have. 
>  

Megan:
These were great questions - thanks for doing them! 

The only question I have is why Hogwarts still had Tom Riddle's trophy? Did they just never get rid of anything in the trophy room?