History Literature / HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets

* AttractivenessDiscrimination: After Gilderoy Lockhart accidentally lets slip to Harry and Ron that [[spoiler:his entire r&eacutesumé as a HunterOfMonsters was in fact done by several other people whose memories he erased]], he claims in his defence that his books wouldn't have sold otherwise because [[spoiler:the actual monster-hunters]] were all much less handsome than he.

[[folder:0 - C]]

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Nick's 500th Deathday cake says he died in 1492. Meaning the book must be set in 1992 even though it was published in '98.[[note]]The Deathday cake was the only piece of evidence in the first six books that gave a definitive answer to when exactly the books took place, leading the system of dating derived from it to be labelled the "Deathday Cake Dating" by fandom prior to the publication of Book Seven, which provided another piece of evidence agreeing with the Deathday cake, namely that Voldemort killed Harry's parents in 1981.[[/note]]
* AbortedArc: Ron learns that the Malfoys have a secret room in their mansion where they keep most of their illegal dark artifacts. He writes to his father and informs him, but we never hear if anything comes from it. Nothing in Draco or Lucius's later behavior suggests that he got in trouble for this, nor is it mentioned again. Knowing Lucius, he probably bribed, blackmailed, or threatened his way out of legal action, assuming the secret room was discovered in the first place.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Hogwarts has pipes wide enough for a huge snake to move around in. {{Justified|Trope}}, as the architect who introduced said huge snake to the castle specifically designed them to be that big.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Harry actually enjoys Fred and George's mockery about the whole "Heir of Slytherin" business because it assures him that they don't actually believe any of it, feeling it's ridiculous and ''should'' be mocked. It helps that both Ernie Macmillan (the most vocal accuser) and Malfoy show obvious irritation towards them whenever the twins do it in front of them.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Professor Binns insists the Chamber Of Secrets is a made-up legend. You can probably guess from the book's title that he's wrong.

* ArcVillain: The "Heir of Slytherin" (AKA [[spoiler:Tom Marvolo "Lord Voldemort" Riddle's living memory]]).

* ArtisticLicenceGeography: The newspapers that Snape shows Harry and Ron reporting the sighting of their flying car by Muggles mentions them being spotted flying over Norfolk. The boys are ostensibly trying to follow the Hogwarts Express train, and a direct route from King's Cross in London to Hogwarts in the Scottish Highlands (north-northwest of London) would not pass through Norfolk (northeast).
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The kids are shown going to classes on Valentine's Day but in reality, Valentine's Day 1993 was a Sunday.
* AttractivenessDiscrimination: After Gilderoy Lockhart accidentally lets slip to Harry and Ron that [[spoiler:his entire resume as a HunterOfMonsters was in fact done by several other people whose memories he erased]], he claims in his defense that his books wouldn't have sold otherwise because [[spoiler:the actual monster-hunters]] were all much less handsome than he is.

* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler:Lucius avoids prison time but suffers several blows to his ego. A twelve-year-old both stops his plan and tricks him into freeing Dobby, who takes the first opportunity to pay Lucius back for years of abuse by ''effortlessly'' blasting him down a flight of stairs.]] And Lucius also loses his position on Hogwarts' board of governors, which he could have avoided had he not threatened the other governors' families.

** Early in the school year, as Malfoy is mocking Harry over signed photographs, Ron tells him to "Eat slugs". In their next confrontation, at Quidditch practice, he casts a backfiring curse which makes himself ''vomit'' slugs.
* BringingBackProof: Professor Lockhart finds a shed piece of skin from the basilisk, and announces that he's going to take part of it back to the school to corroborate his story about heroically slaying the beast -- after [[LaserGuidedAmnesia wiping the memories of the witnesses]], of course.

* CallingTheYoungManOut: Mrs. Weasley does this twice over her kids using the flying car without permission. While the first instance is downplayed because kids left at night to save Harry from his cruel aunt and uncle, this makes the second instance all the more justified: Harry and Ron left in broad daylight, were spotted by a handful of muggles, nearly got killed by the Whomping Willow, broke Ron's wand, caused the car to get lost in the Forbidden Forest, and got Ron's father in trouble at work. And it all could have been avoided if Harry had just sent an owl ahead or if they had waited to see if the Weasleys could get off of Platform 9 3/4. Mrs. Weasley sends a Howler to Ron over this second instance, so that everyone in the Great Hall can hear it.

** All the victims of the Basilisk happen to see it indirectly, except for the last two victims who knew what the monster was and were deliberately looking around corners with a mirror. According to Tom Riddle it was the same way when the Chamber was opened in the 1940s, [[spoiler:other than Moaning Myrtle that is]].

[[folder:D - G]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: While not as tense and brooding as the final books, ''Chamber of Secrets'' presents a huge leap in violence from the first book. More importantly, though, it introduces elements that are flat-out horror and can be argued not to have been surpassed even in the final books. Harry hearing the Basilisk's macabre ramblings while the monster stalks the piping system and the sinister, hostile message in blood aren't even the only examples.

** However, [[spoiler:Ginny is forced by Tom Riddle to strangle the two school roosters because the rooster's call can kill the Basilisk.]]

* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: In the Quidditch match, the Slytherins at a distinct advantage over Gryffindor due to their [[BribingYourWayToVictory new brooms]], as well as a rogue Bludger forcing the Gryffindor Beaters to protect Harry instead of watching out for the rest of the team. This means that Slytherin is able to take an early 60-0 lead without much trouble. But Draco, instead of immediately trying to find the Snitch and win the game, gets so caught up in taunting Harry that he doesn't even notice the Snitch hovering ''inches'' above his own ear - but Harry does. This ends up costing Slytherin the game, and Flint tears a strip off of Draco for it.

** Harry and Ron steal Mr. Weasley's FlyingCar to get to Hogwarts after they find themselves barred from Platform 9 3/4. This results in Mr. Weasley facing an inquiry at work because some Muggles spotted his car, while the car itself crashes into a tree on the school's grounds and drives off into the Forbidden Forest. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by [=McGonagall=] when she points out other, more reasonable, things they could have done to get to Hogwarts, and Harry reluctantly admits to himself that stealing a car was pretty stupid.
** Despite the trio spending a month brewing the Polyjuice Potion to sneak into the Slytherin dorms, none of them attempt to figure out where those dorms ''are'' until they've already taken the potion and have to find the dorms before it wears off.

* EarlyInstalmentWeirdness:
** In early chapters, Rowling recaps the lore and events of the Philosopher's Stone as if the reader has not read the previous entry; Harry is a wizard, his parents were killed by Lord Voldemort, he goes to Hogwarts and so on. This eventually stops about half way through the series.

** Ron and Percy get into an argument and Percy uses his prefect authority to deduct five points from Gryffindor. This kind of thing never happens again and it's later established, or at least insinuated, in ''Order of the Phoenix'' that prefects ''can't'' give or take house points. (WordOfGod ''does'' say that prefects have the authority to do so, but it still never happens again in the text itself.)

* EatingOptional: When Harry visits Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party, there's a banquet of rotten food laid out for the ghosts. Hermione figures they let the food rot so that the flavours are strong enough for the ghosts to ''taste''.

** Draco spends so much of his first Quidditch match taunting Harry that [[FailedASpotCheck he doesn't notice the Golden Snitch hovering]] ''[[FailedASpotCheck just above his own head]]''. After Harry grabs the Snitch and wins the game for Gryffindor, Draco gets [[YouFool an epic ass-chewing]] from Flint (though Fred has to tell Harry about it).

* ExpositionParty: the night Harry rescues [[spoiler: Ginny]] from the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore arranges an impromptu feast in celebration, which everyone attends in their pyjamas. In what Harry describes as the most unusual Hogwarts feast he has been to, we learn that the petrified victims have been cured, Gryffindor wins the house cup, Hagrid is released from Azkaban, Lockhart is not returning as a professor the following year, and that the end of term exams are cancelled. Perhaps we should blame late night exhaustion on why he couldn't decide whether [[SkewedPriorities one of his best friends being alive and well was better than exams being cancelled]].

** Salazar Slytherin could be seen as this given that he was the one who [[spoiler:bred and raised the basilisk in order to purge Hogwarts of muggle-borns.]] Ron also suggests that the idea of pure blood supremacy originated with him.

[[folder:H - N]]

* HateSink: Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, manages to be an even bigger {{Jerkass}} and {{Fantastic Racis|m}}t than his son. He openly insults the Grangers for being Muggles and the Weasleys for being poor, harshly berates his son for his poor grades, glowers at the 14-year-old Hermione for being a Muggle-born, and, in his most loathsome act not directly connected to being a Death Eater, [[spoiler:has the 11-year old Ginny brainwashed to open the Chamber of Secrets]], [[WouldHurtAChild which could have killed several children]] and did result in said children being petrified, intending to take advantage of the situation to have Dumbledore sacked and Arthur Weasley's life ruined, all to settle a [[EvilIsPetty petty grudge]] with Arthur and rid himself of an incriminating dark artifact.

* HijackedByGanon: The book plays out like this. So a monster controlled by the Heir of Slytherin has been attacking students. At the end, we discover that [[spoiler:-- surprise! -- Voldemort]] was behind the entire thing. [[spoiler:Only it's not Voldemort himself, just a piece of his soul containing the memories of his sixteen-year-old self. Riddle even makes a point to explain his actions and motivations before revealing himself to be a young Voldemort, making it seem as though he was something of a PredecessorVillain]].

* IJustWantToBeFree: Dobby, the House Elf of the Malfoy family. His situation is so pitiful that even when the Malfoys ''aren't'' around, he inflicts punishments upon himself when he "misbehaves." [[spoiler:He's understandably ecstatic when Harry "frees" him at the end.]]

* IneptMage: Gilderoy Lockhart, who bungles it every time he has to do magic. Ron is also ''temporarily'' one when he has a broken wand, which makes his spells go awry, even though his skill and knowledge of magic are actually average.

** Harry [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] one such irony in the beginning of the book. While most kids look forward to the summer holidays, Harry dislikes it for being the three months out of the year he has to live with his horrible relatives.

* IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat: Harry assumed that Parseltongue was just a thing wizards in general could do. It's not until after he scares everybody at the Duelling Club that he learns it's an uncommon ability associated with Salazar Slytherin and dark wizards.

** While it doesn't ''remotely'' excuse him going out of his way to barricade Harry in his room and stop him from going back to Hogwarts, Vernon, from a ''purely technical'' standpoint, is in the right to be pissed off at Harry withholding from him that he's not allowed to use magic outside of school since he basically kept the Dursleys in a constant state of fear since he returned, even if Harry [[AbusiveParents had a very, very good reason for doing so.]] And even before that, since he never discovers [[MadeOutToBeAJerkass Dobby's treachery in spoiling Petunia's cake and]] [[FrameUp framing Harry for it]], as far as he's concerned Harry is guilty as charged in trying to cause even more grief for them.

* LivingMemory: The Diary of Tom Riddle. It looks like a blank book, but writing in it reveals it contains Tom's memories, left as a warning in case the Chamber of Secrets was open again. Also, [[spoiler: that last part was a lie; it's actually a Horcrux containing part of Tom's soul, capable of talking to who it pleases and still adamant to purge Hogwarts of the "unworthy."]]

*** While not explictly pointed out in the later books, this also ends up having another long-term repercussion. [[spoiler:While Dumbeldore can't officially prove Lucius was behind the reopening of the Chamber and get him arrested, he ''is'' able to use the incident as leverage to oust Lucius from the Board of Govenors. This removes Lucius' influence on Hogwarts, lessening his value as an asset when Voldemort returns (and ironiclly leaving Snape in a position to usurp that vacated influence to preserve his cover.]]

* NoSell: Draco calls Hermione "mudblood" which is a vicious wizard slur for a muggle-born witch or wizard. But since Hermione ''is'' a muggle-born witch, she's never heard the term before and only knows it's an insult from how the others around her react with fury.

[[folder:O - S]]

** Ron panics on the first day of term when he receives a Howler from Mrs Weasley.

** Lockhart gets a few good ones. He has this reaction during the Dueling Club when he realized that his arrogant comments were starting to push Snape too far (especially since Snape had just effortlessly defeated him in a duel). He has an even greater one when the rest of the staff suggest that he go into the Chamber of Secrets, as he had been bragging throughout the book that he could defeat the heir of Slytherin and the monster easily.
** Harry and Ron get this when the Polyjuice Potion starts to wear off in front of Malfoy and they start turning back into themselves. Cue a hasty exit. Hermione presumably got one as well when she took her dose, [[EpicFail because it turned her into a cat-person]].

* PaperworkPunishment: After Harry and Ron flew the car to Hogwarts, with disastrous results, they are given detention, and Harry is made to help the highly egotistical Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail. Lockhart tells Harry he must not expect a treat like this for future detentions

* PensieveFlashback: Although the actual Pensieve wasn't introduced until ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Riddle's diary displays this here, two books earlier.
* PeopleZoo: Early on, Harry has a nightmare where he's displayed in one, with a table on his cage saying "UNDERAGE WIZARD".

** Snape has a couple moments. During the Dueling Club, he quickly intervenes when Draco and Harry jinx each other and dispels Draco's snake when it goes for Justin. He also seems just as distraught as the other teachers when they learn that [[spoiler:Ginny was taken into the Chamber of Secrets]].

* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: When Harry and Ron first find Tom Riddle's diary, Ron warns Harry that it could be dangerous. When Harry incredulously asks how a book could possibly be dangerous, Ron tells him about all the freaky books his father's told him the ministry's had to deal with, including one that burns your eyes out, one that you can't ever stop reading, and one that curses you to speak in limericks for the rest of your life.
* RhymingWizardry: Harry threatens his {{Jerkass}} and [[DoesNotLikeMagic magic-phobic]] cousin Dudley with the words ''"Hocus pocus! Squiggly wiggly!"''.

* SecretPetPlot: During Hagrid's time at Hogwarts, he had a secret pet acromantula (giant spider creature), Aragog. Unforutnately, this happened to be the same time the Chamber of Secrets first opened; with the Beast of Slytherin's attacks threatening the future of Hogwarts, Tom Riddle turned Hagrid and Aragog in. Aragog was forced to flee into the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid was expelled.

* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE <-> I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.]] Other languages revise the anagram to make sense in their tongues -- or change his birth name. One of the funniest examples of this is the French version, which gives him the name "Tom Elvis Jedusor." Some other translations are even further out there -- in Danish he becomes "Romeo G. Detlev Jr." while in Icelandic he's "Trevor Delgome".

* SlowerThanASnail: While staying with the Weasleys, Harry plays a few friendly Quidditch matches with them. According to the narration, Ron's old hand-me-down Cleansweep broom is so slow compared to his own Nimbus 2000 that it's occasionally outstripped by passing butterflies.

* StarstruckSpeechless: When Ginny Weasley first meets Harry Potter -- the [[LivingLegend legendary]] Boy Who Lived -- she scurries away, unable to speak to him. Much later, in-universe and in RealLife, this is a DiscussedTrope when she admits that she had to learn to lose the uncharacteristic ShrinkingViolet behaviour and get to know him as a person.

[[folder:T - Z]]
* TauntingTheTransformed: The attempt to use [[{{Humanshifting}} Polyjuice Potion]] for infiltration goes slightly wrong when Hermione unknowingly uses a cat hair instead of Millicent Bulstrode's while making her share of the potion, leaving her with cat features that don't wear off in the allotted time. Moaning Myrtle is absolutely ''delighted'' to see this, gleefully remarking at what people will think when they notice that Hermione now has a tail.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Dobby talks this way, and not only when referring to himself. Later books reveal that this is a uniform pattern among house-elves.

--> '''Ron:''' Oh come on, no teacher is going to fall for that, they'd have to be really thick...
--> (In the next chapter) Since the disastrous episode of the Cornish Pixies, Professor Lockhart had not brought any live creatures to the class.

* WeaksauceWeakness: The Basilisk would die at the crowing of a rooster (presumably because it is hatched from a chicken's egg incubated by a toad). One wonders just how effective a weapon a Basilisk would be to a Dark wizard in any other situation, given everyone knows this and roosters aren't exactly hard to come by.
** As it turns out, [[spoiler:Tom Riddle]] anticipated this [[spoiler:and made Ginny kill all the roosters on the grounds to prevent any from stopping the Basilisk.]]

* WeNeedADistraction: When Harry, Ron and Hermione need to steal potion ingredients for the polyjuice potion, Harry shoots a firework into Goyle's cauldron and makes it explode, causing enough panic that Hermione is able to sneak into Snape's cupboards.

'''First line of chapter ten, "The Rogue Bludger":''' Since the disastrous episode with the pixies, Professor Lockhart had not brought live creatures to class...
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Or in this case, spiders? Poor, poor Ron. However, it speaks to his character that he goes into the Forbidden Forest anyway. It's even lampshaded by Ron in the [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets film]].

* WokenUpAtAnUngodlyHour: Ron, Fred, and George Weasley rescue Harry from the Dursleys in the middle of the night. The boys unintentionally woke the muggle family up. Harry and the Weasleys manage to escape from them.

* WontTakeYesForAnAnswer: After the attack on Nick and Justin, Hagrid bursts into Dumbledore's office to explain that he was talking to Harry only seconds beforehand and he'll swear that Harry's innocent in front of the Ministry if necessary. Dumbledore repeatedly tries to interrupt before half-shouting that he completely agrees with Hagrid.
* TheWoobie: InUniverse: Harry feels sorry for Tom Riddle upon learning that Riddle grew up in a Muggle orphanage, and returned there every summer. That is, until [[spoiler:Riddle reveals that he is Voldemort]].
* WreckedWeapon: Ron's wand winds up being broken in chapter five and causes him trouble for most of the book. When [[spoiler:Lockhart tries to use it to obliviate Harry and Ron]], the wand explodes.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: After the whole incident with the flying car, Professor [=McGonagall=] asks if it ever occurred to Harry and Ron to just ''[[StatingTheSimpleSolution send an owl to Hogwarts and let the school know they missed the train]]''.

* ArtisticLicenceGeography: The newspapers that Snape shows Harry and Ron reporting the sighting of their flying car by Muggles mentions them being spotted flying over Norfolk. A direct route from King's Cross in London to Hogwarts in the Scottish Highlands would not pass through Norfolk.

* PostMortemComeback: The entire basis of the plot; Voldemort hid bits of his memories in a book, [[spoiler:who took the form of Tom Riddle]], but it's inverted -- Voldemort himself was already alive then … somewhat.

-->''[[spoiler:[[ActuallyIAmHim I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.]]]]''

* GambitRoulette: Lucius' plan for {{revenge}} against Arthur Weasley involves [[spoiler:slipping Tom Riddle's diary to Ginny and waiting for it to cause trouble at Hogwarts]]. Lucius has no idea what [[spoiler:the diary is capable of]], basically goes on a hunch, and has little (if any) control of the situation once [[spoiler:the diary is out of his hands]].

* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: In the Quidditch match, the Slytherins at a distinct advantage over Gryffindor due to their [[BuyingYourWayToVictory new brooms]], as well as a rogue Bludger forcing the Gryffindor Beaters to protect Harry instead of watching out for the rest of the team. This means that Slytherin is able to take an early 60-0 lead without much trouble. But Draco, instead of immediately trying to find the Snitch and win the game, gets so caught up in taunting Harry that he doesn't even notice the Snitch hovering ''inches'' above his own ear - but Harry does. This ends up costing Slytherin the game, and Flint tears a strip off of Draco for it.

* {{Not}}: Moaning Myrtle uses the old-fashioned version. Someone tosses Tom Riddle's diary in the girl's bathroom haunted by Moaning Myrtle, hoping to get rid of it. It ends up hitting Myrtle, much to her dismay, though Harry points out that it couldn't hurt her, it would just go right through her. This is the wrong thing to say, as she complains that people will throw things through her just because she can't feel it, that it'll be ten points if it's through her stomach, fifty if it goes through her head. "Well, ha ha ha! What a lovely game, I don’t think!"

** Hermione realizes the threat of the monster of the Chamber of Secrets is so great that [[spoiler:the second she finds out what it is]], she ''rips a page'' out of a ''library book'' [[spoiler:just to make sure the information gets passed on to somebody should something happen to her before she can tell them. [[CrazyPrepared And that was a good call]], because that was exactly what happened.]]

* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: Some readers found the novel to be heavy in the {{Padding}} department, particularly the WackyWaysideTribe aspect. But the novel is quietly setting up ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' and, to some extent, foreshadowing ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. See the [[ChekhovsGun/HarryPotter Harry Potter Chekhov's Gun page]] for a list.

* AbortedArc: Ron learns that the Malfoys have a secret room in their mansion where they keep most of their more illegal dark weapons. He writes to his father and informs him, but we never hear if anything comes from it. Nothing in Draco or Lucius's later behavior suggests that he got in trouble for this, nor is it mentioned again. Knowing Lucius he probably bribed, blackmailed, or threatened his way out of legal action, assuming the secret room was discovered in the first place.

* AloneWithThePsycho: Harry sees an unconscious Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets, and tries to rouse her. He then sees Tom Riddle, looking semi-solid. Harry stands and says they need to run, ''now'' before the basilisk comes. Tom reassures him that the basilisk won't come until it is called. Slowly,[[spoiler:it dawns on Harry that Tom is way too calm considering the circumstances; sure enough, Tom reveals that ''he'' is the Heir of Slytherin. Also known as Lord Voldemort. Oh, and he has Harry's wand]].

* IdiotPlot: Everyone knows that the chamber was built by Slytherin, and the monster was placed there by Slytherin (famous for his ability to talk to snakes, and whose symbol is a serpent). In addition, Harry, the only person in the school who understands snakes, can hear it. Despite all of this, nobody in the school (except Hermione at the very end of the year) thinks that the monster could be some sort of snake.

* GreaterScopeVillain

* IncapableOfDisobeying: Dobby works for a wizarding family with a grudge towards Harry that are plotting against him. Dobby ''wants'' to help Harry, but can not warn him directly and his attempts to help anyway generally do more harm than good. Once Harry arranges for him to be freed, Dobby has nothing holding him back and he can lay his former master flat on his back to defend Harry.

** Ron and Percy get into an argument and Percy uses his prefect authority to deduct five points from Gryffindor. This kind of thing never happens again and it's later established, or at east insinuated, in ''Order of the Phoenix'' that prefects ''can't'' give or take house points. (WordOfGod ''does'' say that prefects have the authority to do so, but it still never happens again in the text itself.)

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The true identity of the monster lurking in the Chamber of Secrets is supposed to be a mystery until the last third of the book -- which did not stop multiple editions from spoiling it by heavily featuring snakes and snake imagery on their covers. The cover featured on this very page has the FinalBattle between Harry and Basilisk in plain view, thereby leaving nothing at all to the imagination.