Chapter 11: The Dueling Club

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Chapter 11
The Duelling Club
Scholastic Press, US
Chapter starts on page 182
Summarized by Emma
Project initiated and supervised by theclarebear


Main Events:
- Harry learns that he shares the gift of parseltongue with Salazar Slytherin himself. Students in Hufflepuff suspect Harry of being the heir.
- The trio work on the Polyjuice Potion.
- Once again, Hermione uses her portable, waterproof fire.

Characters Featured:
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Severus Snape, Gilderoy Lockhart, Minerva McGonagall, Justin Finch-Fletchey, Hannah Abbott, Millicent Bulstrode, Colin Creevey, Professor Filtwick, Seamus Finnigan, Rubeus Hagrid, Ernie Macmillan, Draco Malfoy, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sinistra, Dean Thomas, Ginny Weasley, Fred and George Weasley

Characters Mentioned:
Albus Dumbledore, Salazar Slytherin, the Dursleys, Molly Weasley, Professor Sprout

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Spells and Magic:

- Expelliarmus - Disarming Spell
- Finite Incantatem - ends a spell's effect
- Rictusempra - Tickling Charm
- Serpensortia - conjures up a snake out of the caster's wand
- Tarantallegra
- Parseltongue - one's ability to talk to snakes

Magical Items Used or Mentioned:
- Polyjuice Potion & ingredients
- Deflating Draft
- Swelling Solution

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Summary:
The arm has healed during the night and Gryffindor took the lead in the House Cup. Harry finds Hermione and Ron brewing the Polyjuice Potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and tells them what he learned from Dobby. They all suspect Malfoy.

The following Monday, everyone has heard about Colin. The youngest students, especially Ginny, are very afraid. Students start trading amulettes. McGonagall collects the names of those who are going to spend Christmas at Hogwarts. Malfoy is staying, so the trio decides to try the Polyjuice during the holidays. Harry causes mayhem at Potions to distract Snape while Hermione steals bicorn horn and boomslang skin from his private stores. They both get away even though Harry gets the feeling Snape knew it was him.

A dueling club is opening and the trio decides to enter. It turns out that Lockhart is teaching and has Snape as an assistant. Snape makes Harry partner Malfoy and Hermione partner Millicent Bulstrode. They are supposed to try and disarm each other, but Harry and Malfoy go further, causing Snape to step in and stop them. Harry and Malfoy are chosen by Snape to demonstrate how to block unfriendly spells. Malfoy conjures a snake. Lockhart, trying to get rid of it, accidentally throws it towards Justin Finch-Fletchley. Instinctively, Harry commands the snake to leave Justin alone and it obeys.

Justin storms out of the Great Hall, clearly not happy. When Snape has gotten rid of the snake, Harry notices how everybody is giving him strange looks. Ron and Hermione drag him back to Gryffindor common room and ask why he never told them he's a parselmouth. Harry tells them he has spoken to a snake before but that he never knew there was anything unusual about it. The others tell him that Salazar Slytherin was a famous parselmouth and that people didn't understand Harry was stopping the snake that attacked Justin. Harry realizes it may be difficult to prove he's not a relative of Salazar Slytherin.

During the night, Harry asks himself whether he can be the heir of Slytherin. He tries to speak parselmouth and realizes the presense of a snake is needed for that. He also remembers how the hat told him he'd succeed in Slytherin, and decides to talk to Justin in the morning.

The following day, Harry can not find Justin. He overhears some Hufflepuffs talking about Justin hiding in his dormitory, as he thinks Harry wants him dead, knowing Justin is a half-blood. Apparently people believe Harry is the heir, that he attacked Colin and Mrs Norris because they annoyed him and that he was attacked by Voldemort who wanted to be the only evil overlord. Interrupting them, Harry asks for Justin and tries to explain things but ends up storming away, knowing they are not convinced.

When bumping into Hagrid, Harry learns that a rooster was killed, although Hagrid thinks a fox committed the murder. Harry walks on and eventually finds Justin and Nearly Headless Nick paralyzed. Before he knows what to do, Peeves shows up and screams bloody murder. People come running and Ernie accuses Harry, but is silenced by McGonagall, who tells Harry to follow her to Dumnbledore's office.

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Quotable Quotes:

“So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm.” He shook his head. “You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you.” - Ron Weasley

“What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?” - Harry Potter

“Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done, You're killing off' students, you think it's good fun—” - Peeves the Poltergeist

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All summaries are © 2005 Immeritus, and are not to be reproduced without permission.
All Harry Potter characters and references are property of J.K. Rowling and © Warner Bros.

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