Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Chapter 11 Summary.
The Dueling Club
Chapter eleven of Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets, titled “The Dueling Club” deals with and elaborates on the growing suspicions that Harry is the Heir of Slytherin.
The Polyjuice Potion Progress
Harry wakes up on Sunday morning in the hospital wing with his arm fully healed. Madam Pomfrey checks his arm and deems him fit to leave after breakfast. Harry quickly dresses and heads to Gryffindor Tower to find Ron and Hermione, eager to discuss Colin’s attack and Dobby’s warning. However, he does not find them there. On his way, he encounters Percy Weasley, who congratulates him on his Quidditch performance but hasn’t seen Ron or Hermione.
Harry heads to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, suspecting his friends might be there. He finds them inside a locked cubicle, working on the Polyjuice Potion. Hermione explains they decided to start the potion as soon as they heard about Colin’s attack, feeling the urgency to uncover the truth. Harry shares Dobby’s midnight visit and the revelation that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before. Ron speculates that Lucius Malfoy might have opened it during his school days and has now passed the secret to Draco.
They continue preparing the potion, discussing the possible nature of the monster within the Chamber and how it might move around undetected. Despite the challenges ahead, they are determined to use the Polyjuice Potion to question Malfoy.
School Reactions
By Monday, the entire school knew about Colin Creevey’s attack, leading to heightened anxiety and rumors. First-year students start going everywhere in groups. Ginny, who used to sit next to Colin in Charms is particularly distressed. Fred and George’s attempts to cheer her up with pranks are stopped by Percy, who threatens to write to their mother.
A market for protective amulets and charms emerges, with students like Neville Longbottom buying dubious items despite not being Muggle-born. Neville replies that the Heir went after Filch first, and that it is common knowledge that Neville is almost a squib.
In the second week of December, Professor McGonagall collects names of students staying for Christmas. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sign up, noting that Malfoy is also staying. They consider his stay as highly suspicious, and see this as an opportunity to use the Polyjuice Potion on him.
However, the potion is only half-finished, and they still need rare ingredients such as a Bicorn Horn and some Boomslang skin from Snape’s private stores. Harry notes that he would much rather go one on one with Slytherin’s legendary monster than have Snape catch him stealing from his stores, but Hermione volunteers to steal them, stating that her clean record makes her the best candidate. She asks Harry and Ron to create some mayhem in the class as distraction, and Harry smiles feebly at the idea; causing mayhem in Snape’s class would be no less than poking a sleeping dragon.
Thursday’s Potions Lesson
Potions takes place in a large dungeons, and Thursday’s class was no different. Gryffindor had a combined lesson with Slytherin, and it was the lesson the trio chose to execute their plan.
Harry makes his Swelling Solution too runny, but he does not care. He waits for Hermione’s signal, and does not even pay attention to Snape’s sneering remarks about his watery potion. As Snape turns to leave, Hermione’s eye meets Harry’s, and she gives a nod.
Thinking quickly, Harry takes out a Filibuster Firework out of his pocket and aims it at Goyle’s cauldron. The cauldron explodes, showering everyone with the potion. Malfoy gets a faceful and his nose swells up like a balloon, much to Harry’s pleasure.
As Snape queues up people to administer a Deflating Draught, Hermione sneaks into the stores and returns with the front of her robes bulging. After everyone has received an antidote, Snape examines the exploded cauldron and threatens to expel the culprit once he finds them, but has no evidence. He looks straight at Harry as he says this, and Harry notices it, terrified.
With their mission accomplished, Hermione throws the freshly obtained ingredients into the potion, and declares it would be ready in a fortnight.
The Duelling Club
A week later, a notice about a new Duelling Club excites the students. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to attend, hoping it might help them defend against future attacks.
At eight o clock in the evening, the trio makes its way to The Great Hall. The Great Hall is transformed into a duelling arena, with the long dining tables removed and a large golden stage set up in the middle. The trio wonder who would be teaching them, and at that very moment Gilderoy Lockhart enters the Hall, accompanied by Professor Snape.
Lockhart announces that he has obtained special permission from Dumbledore to start this club, to help students learn self-defense. He introduces Snape as his assistant, which makes Snape’s upper lip curl in anger.
The demonstration begins, and both Snape and Lockhart turn to face each other. They bow, and Lockhart announces that they will cast their first spell on the count of three, with neither of them aiming to kill. Harry does not have much confidence in the last statement.
At the count of three, both Lockhart and Snape fire the disarming spell Expelliarmus, which ends up blasting Lockhart off his feet and smashing him in the wall behind. Lockhart gets up, and tries to play it cool.
Lockhart declares that what Snape did was an obvious move, and he could have easily stopped the spell but decided against it for demonstration purposes. Snape looks murderous.
Lockhart and Snape move through the crowd of students to make pairs. Snape separates the trio, by pairing Ron with Seamus Finnegan, Hermione with Millicent Bulstrode and Harry with Draco Malfoy.
Harry and Draco face to duel each other. Lockhart tells the students to start at the count of three, but Draco jumps the gun and hits Harry hard. After taking a moment, Harry retaliates with a Rictusempra, which hits Malfoy square in the stomach. Lockhart reiterates that students must only duel to disarm, but nobody listens to him. As Malfoy sinks to his knees, Harry hits him with a tickling charm. Draco, gasping for breath, attacks him with a Tarantallegra, which forces Harry’s legs to jerk around uncontrollably.
At this point, Snape takes charge and undos everyone’s spells. Everyone stops moving except for Millicent Bulstrode, who has Hermione in a headlock. Harry runs to pull her off, but it is difficult since the girl is so much bigger than he is.
The Parstletongue Incident
Looking around the scene, Lockhart decides it would be better to teach the students how to block unfriendly spells first. He asks for a volunteer pair, and Snape suggests Malfoy and Harry. Lockhart tries to teach Harry how to protect himself, but only ends up dropping his own wand. Meanwhile, Snape gives Malfoy a spell of his own.
The two face each other once again. At the count of three, Malfoy quickly casts a Serpensortia, which makes a long, thick snake emerge out of his wand. Snape lazily tells him to stay still and that he would take care of it, but Lockhart takes charge and fires a spell at the snake, which causes it to fly ten feet in the air and fall with a thud.
The snake only ends up angrier, and slithers towards Justin Finch-Fletchley; ready to attack.
Without thinking, Harry approaches the snake, and stupidly yells “Leave him”. Miraculously, the snake obeys him. He looks at Justin with a grin, but Justin assumes Harry was telling the snake to attack him, and storms off in fear and anger.
Snape steps forward and makes the snake vanish, but even he gives Harry a very shrewd, calculating look.
Harry feels all the eyes on him, and is suddenly made aware of the ominous muttering all around him.
Growing Suspicions
Ron and Hermione pull Harry aside and quickly take him to the Gryffindor common room. They reveal that Harry is a Parselmouth, meaning he can speak the language of snakes. They also tell him that Parselmouths are extremely rare, and often associated with Salazar Slytherin. Harry always knew that he could talk to snakes, and recalls the incident with the Boa Constrictor. However, he always thought it was a common trait that most wizards possessed.
Harry explains that he only asked the snake to leave Justin alone, but realizes that it looked like he was telling the snake to attack Justin. He argues that everyone should have heard him tell the snake to leave Justin alone, but Ron replies that they only heard him speak Parsletongue and could not understand it. Harry is surprised, since he never realized he was speaking a different language.
Harry has trouble sleeping that night, and wonders if he really is the Heir of Slytherin. He had zero information about his family and ancestors, and the sorting hat did want to put him in Slytherin after all. With an uneasy mind, he turns over and forces himself to sleep.
Harry tries to find Justin the next day to explain what happened, but overhears Hufflepuffs discussing their fears about him. Ernie Macmillan tells the group that he advised Justin to lay low for w few days and hide in the dormitory, since he was obviously “Potter’s next target”. He accuses Harry of being Slytherin’s heir, citing his Parseltongue ability and the fact that Justin let slip in front of Harry that he is a Muggle Born. Frustrated and angry, Harry confronts them, but fails to convince them of his innocence.
Nick and Justin
Storming out, he runs into Hagrid, who tells him that something has been killing his roosters this term. He suspects it is either a fox or a Blood-Suckin’ Bugbear. He also asks if Harry is doing okay, but Harry does not share the incident with the Hufflepuffs with him.
While walking through the castle, his mind still full of Ernie’s comments, he enters a particularly dark hallway and trips over something, head-long. Turning back, he squints to see what he tripped on, and feels his stomach dissolve. Lying in the hallway was the petrified body of Justin Finch-Fletchy. However, he was not alone. Next to him was the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, floating immobile and horizontal, about six inches off the floor. He had changed from his usual pearly white and transparent appearance to a smoky black solid. His head was half off, and his face, similar to Justin’s, expressed shock.
Harry stood there in shock and debated internally; should he make a run for it, or stay there and report the attacks. On one hand, no one would ever know he was there, while on the other he could not just leave them like that.
A few seconds later, a door next to Harry bangs open, revealing Peeves the Poltergeist. He starts to poke fun at Harry, but notices the bodies and immediately raises an alarm.
Students and teachers quickly fill the hallway, at the scene of the crime. Ernie Macmillan accuses Harry once more, but Professor McGonagall tells him off, and takes Harry to meet Dumbledore.
The chapter ends with Harry entering Professor Dumbledore’s office for the first time, unsure of his fate and scared to face consequences to actions he did not commit.
