Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Time for my notes on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! If you missed my first post with my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone, you can check it out here. I don’t have as many points to make about this one, partly because it’s such a quick read and partly because I just didn’t take as many notes. :)

First of all, I absolutely adore the Weasley twins. ADORE. They’re two of my favorite fictional characters ever.  I want to have twin boys. I am going to name one of my kids Fred (though not necessarily one of my twins). I have selective memory as far as Deathly Hallows goes, and in my mind both Fred and George are alive and well and happy and creating havoc as usual.

An example of Weasley twin awesomeness from Chamber of Secrets, when Harry is suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin:

“Fred and George, however, found all this very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, ‘Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…’”

How much do I love them? Oh man, so much. How can you not just be completely enamored of them? They make my heart happy.

Okay, shutting up about the twins now. :)

In some not so warm and fuzzy news, I had definitely forgotten how freaking annoying Lockhart is. I just wanted to punch him every time he made an appearance. Maybe I’ve just gotten more violent since the last time I read this book, but he is the most irritating individual. I don’t think he came across as being that bad in the movies, he was just dumb. But man oh man, he’s annoying.

A couple of thoughts on the whole Polyjuice experience:

I know this is a recap of the books, but I just want to point out one of my favorite scenes from the Chamber of Secrets movie. Usually I’m not the biggest fan when they add things to movies that weren’t in the books, but I love Draco Malfoy and Tom Felton, and this scene was just brilliant. Tom's delivery of the last line is wonderful.

Haha, love it.

Also. Okay, so Hermione accidently uses cat hair in her potion and ends up all furry, with yellow eyes and cat ears and a tail. And she goes to Madam Pomfrey and she’s in the hospital for OVER A MONTH. That’s a freaking long time. What in the world did she tell Madam Pomfrey? They do mention that Madam Pomfrey is good about not asking too many questions, but Hermione almost turned into a cat and was stuck in the hospital wing for over a month, and we’re supposed to believe that everybody was fine with this and nobody got suspicious or said anything about it? Come on, really? Madam Pomfrey isn’t stupid. Neither is Dumbledore. And what did they tell her professors was wrong with her? I know Harry and the gang get away with a hell of a lot, but this time around it’s bugging me a bit more than usual.

In that same vein, when Harry and Ron heard that Ginny had been taken into the Chamber, WHY didn’t they tell McGonagall or Dumbledore what they knew? They ended up going to LOCKHART, who we all know is a bumbling idiot. I get that this is a series about Harry Potter so he always has to be in the thick of things, and I know that he has a bit of a hero complex which totally contributes to it, but sometimes he just drives me crazy. They had figured out the Chamber of Secrets and the basilisk, just freaking tell a competent teacher and let them deal with it! Even if Harry has to go along because he’s the only Parselmouth, that makes more sense than two 12-year-old wizards going with an idiot.

Okay sorry, rant over. In most of the books I’m perfectly fine with how Harry manages to end up in the middle of the big climactic scene, but this one in particular drives me a little crazy. Obviously. :P

To end on a happier note, I never realized how cool the entire jacket cover of Chamber of Secrets is. I guess I've never pulled it off the book to look at it as one continuous picture. But check it out! Isn't it pretty?

And that’s it for now! Prisoner of Azkaban is next and I LOVE that one, so expect lots and lots of comments. :)

Happy reading everyone.