The Deathday Party
In which Harry, Ron, and Hermione attend Sir Nicholas's Deathday party, and Mrs. Norris ends up looking like the picture above.
Chamber of Secrets has never been my favorite book, but something I like more then the others is that it delves deeper into wizard culture. The first book paints a great picture of the wizarding world for you to start out with, and the second book kind of twists the lens and brings everything into focus. You get to read about things like Quidditch practice, ghosts, Dueling Clubs, squibs, and detentions and experience Hogwarts.
In this chapter, Harry is invited to Sir Nicholas's deathday party, the ghostly equivalent of a birthday party. Don't quote me on this, because I'm likely wrong, but I thought that all four of the Hogwarts house ghosts, Fat Friar, Bloody Baron, Grey Lady, and Nick, were all connected somehow through some sort of story. I realize it would take me ten minutes to look that up, but I'm being lazy. There's also a poem that was cut from CoS that is deliciously dreadful. You should check it out.
It's exceedingly sad that Nearly Headless Nick died by being chopped forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe and still can't is denied when he tries to join the Headless Hunt team. I'm not sure if J.K. Rowling's ghosts can or do move on, but I think that if Nick could run around with those headless hooligans for a year or two, then he would want to.
We also find out that Filch is a squib. I don't really have a lot to say about that, except that it makes sense, I guess.
And finally, we round out the chapter with a little murder . . . er, petrification. In the form of Filch's beloved cat, Mrs. Norris. There's writing in blood on the wall that reads "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE" (138). If you've been reading along, you might remember Hagrid's roosters or chickens (something like that) that he'd been keeping. Well, let's just say, he might have fewer chickens after this whole debacle. And we finish the chapter with Malfoy shouting, "'Enemies of the heir beware! You'll be next Mudbloods!'" (139), which automatically makes him a suspect. Dun. Dun. Dun. And the plot thickens.
Also, Happy Harry Potter Day. I celebrated with frozen yogurt (very wizardly). I hope you did something nice to celebrate the momentous occasion.
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