Chamber of Secrets Chapter 11

Wannabe

Harry, Ron, and Hermione have had some good experience playing detective after they solved some of the mysteries in Sorcerer's Stone. They may be getting over-confident. Ron especially is quick to jump to conclusions, but usually the wrong ones. When it comes to detective work, it's usually Hermione or Harry who come to the right conclusions. I think Ron may be getting a little jealous of Hermione and Harry, but I also think it may be an attempt to prove to Harry that he's not a stupid sidekick. Another theory is that this may be an unconscious attempt to impress Hermione. Throughout the series we get little hints that there may be feelings between the two, but this is perhaps the earliest clue we get.


I'm right. You're wrong.

Even though our little trio are only 12, we see some teenage mentality coming out already. I'm talking specifically about their lack of faith in the ability of adults. They somehow think they know more than the faculty do about what's going on at Hogwarts. Here are a couple of examples: When asked about the disembodied voices, Harry lies to Lockhart and to Snape/Dumbledore/McGonagall. The trio also are certain Draco is the heir of Slytherin and rather than finding an adult, they decide to break into Snapes storecupboard to get incredients to make polyjuice potion.

Shouldn't the Ministry be involved?

When Hagrid was at Hogwarts, he had his wand snapped during his third year by the ministry. You should have figured out by now that Hagrid's wand in concealed in his umbrella. In this chapter, Hagrid has to ask Dumbledore for permission to put a charm around the hen coop. Does this mean that Dumbledore knows that Hagrid can still use his wand? That wouldn't surprise me. Dumbledore's been known to disregard the authority of the minisitry. Shouldn't Hagrid have to ask permission from the ministry to use magic since they were the ones who snapped his wand? Leave it to Dumbledore to do things his own way.


That Muggle-loving fool

At the end of the chapter when McGonagall takes Harry to Dumbledore's office, she says the password which is "Lemon Drop." If you will recall, I mentioned way back in the first chapter of Sorcerer's Stone that the fact that Dumbledore likes lemon drops is a metaphor for is unpredjudiced feelings toward muggles. His password is just another subtle reminder of that fact. I will keep bringing up these clues along the way. I think Rowling purposely places these small reminders along the way because this becomes a huge issue later in the series for Dumbledore, the ministry, and Voldemort.