First Time Readers

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Ch 15-18

Episode Summary

Harry Potter is greater by far than Dobby ever knew. And it's greater by far than all of us podcasters know. So join Jon, Jenn, Danny, and Kristen as they talk over chapters 15-18 of the Chamber of Secrets. They talk over some theories about what will happen, impressions of the characters, and what Percy was doing...

Episode Notes

Chapter Fifteen - Aragog

Q1 - Who do you think would be the best person thus far to replace Dumbledore as headmaster?

• “Let me at him,” Ron growled, as Harry and Dean hung onto his arms. “I don’t care, I don’t need my wand, I’m going to kill him with my bare hands—”

Q2 - Is it irresponsible for Harry to leave the cloak at Hagrids because he doesn’t think he’ll need it.

Q3 - What animal do you hate or that creeps you out more than any other?

• “And you … you didn’t come from the Chamber of Secrets?” said Harry, who could feel cold sweat on his forehead.
• “The thing that lives in the castle,” said Aragog, “is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school.”
• Even as he reached for his wand, Harry knew it was no good, there were too many of them, but as he tried to stand, ready to die fighting, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow.

Q4 - At this point, who do you think had opened the Chamber?

Chapter Sixteen - The Chamber of Secrets

• Harry looked down at the pair of white rabbits he was supposed to be turning into slippers.

Q1 - What was Percy doing? Just kidding…

Q2 - Do we condone tearing out pages from old library books?

• “The heir of Slytherin,” said professor McGonagal, who was very white, “left another message. Right underneath the first one. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.” Professor Flitwick burst into tears. “Who is it?” said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. “Which student?” “Ginny Weasley,” said Professor McGonagall. Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him.

Q3 - Should they wait for another night to send the students home or should they send the students home immediately?

Q4 - Did you know Lockhart was a fraud from the beginning?

Q5 - Why did Dumbledore hire him?

• “No idea,” said Myrtle in hushed tones. “I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away…” She looked dreamily back at Harry. “And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh she was sorry she’d ever laughed at my glasses.”

Chapter Seventeen - The Heir of Slytherin

• A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry was looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him. “Tom — Tom Riddle?”

Q1 - Did you suspect Tom Riddle?

• “Haven’t I already told you,” said Riddle quietly, “that killing mudbloods doesn’t matter to me any more? For many months now, my new target has been — you.”

Q2 - What is your impression of Tom Riddle?

• “No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me,” said Harry abruptly. “I don’t know myself. But I know why you couldn’t kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother.”

Q3 - How do you think Voldermort lost his powers?

Q4 - How do you think Tom concealed himself in the diary? How does that magic work?

Chapter Eighteen - Dobby’s Reward

Q1 - What do you think of the Tom Riddle backstory?

• “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see its brain.”

Q2 - 200 points a piece for Gryffindor?!

Q3 - What do you think about Voldermort giving some of his powers over to Harry? 

• “It is our choices that make us what we are, far more than our abilities.”

Q4 - How much of a tool is Lucious Malfoy?

Q5 - Do you think it’s irresponsible for Dumbledore to let Harry have the diary back?

Q6 - What do we think of Dobby?

• Collective yays when Dobby is a free house elf.

Q7 - Is Elf magic as powerful as wizard magic?

• “Harry Potter is greater by far than Dobby ever knew.”