First Time Readers

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Ch 6-10

Episode Summary

If Albus hadn’t been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate, who knows what might have happened to this podcast. So join Jon, Jenn, Danny, and Kristen as they talk over chapters 6-10 of the Chamber of Secrets. They talk over some theories about what will happen, impressions of the characters, and what exactly happens to animals after they have been transfigured.

Episode Notes

Chapter Six - Gilderoy Lockhart

• “You’d better open it, Ron,“ said Neville, in a timid whisper. “It’ll be worse if you don’t. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and —” he gulped, “it was horrible.”

Q1 - What do you think Gran’s howler was about? And do you like the idea of howlers?

• At least the Howler had done one thing: Hermione seemed to think they had now been punished enough and was being perfectly friendly again.

Q2 - Thoughts on Lockhart?

• I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven’t they? All that business with He Who Must Not Be Named!” He glanced at the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead. “I know, I know, it’s not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award five times in a row, as I have — but it’s a start, Harry, it’s a start.”

Q3 - In their first Herbology lesson, Hermione won twenty points in twenty seconds by answering two questions correctly, yet Ron and Harry won a collective 5 points for defeating a fully grown mountain troll.

• “My name was down for Eton, you know, I can’t tell you how glad I am I came here instead. Of course mother was slightly disappointed, but since I made her read Lockhart’s books I think she’s begun to see how useful it’ll be to have a fully trained wizard in the family…”

Q4 - What do you think happens to the animals the students transfigure into objects?

Q5 - Thoughts on Colin Creevey?

Q6 - Do you think Harry should sell signed pictures and give the money to the Weasley family?

• I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples — though I wouldn’t say no to a large bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky.”

Q7 - Do you think Lockhart is a good wizard?

Chapter 7 - Mudbloods and Murmurs

Q1 - Do we like captain Oliver Wood, or is he a bit much?

Q2 - How much of Quidditch do you think is skill vs. the equipment you buy?

• “At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in,” said Hermione sharply. “They got in on pure talent.” The smug look on Malfoy’s face flickered. “No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood,” he spat.

Q3 - Should it be legal for a father to buy an entire team racing brooms?

• “If one word of it was true, I’ll eat my kettle.”

Q4 - Do you think anything Lockhart says is true?

Q5 - Why do you think Dumbledore hired Lockhart?

• Mudblooks is a really foul name for someone who was Muggle-born — you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards — like Malfoy’s family — who think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call pure-blood.”

Q6 - Do you have any theories on how Hagrid got expelled?

Q7 - At the end of the chapter what do you think the voice was/came from?

Q8 - What is the best/worst reason you ever got detention?

Chapter 8 - The Deathday Party

• Ginny Weasley, who had been looking peaky, was bullied into taking some by Percy.
• “You’d think that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the headless hunt.”

Q1 - What do you think Nick did to warrant getting hit 45 times with an axe in the neck?

Q2 - Do you think there should be some regulation against turning your wife into a Yak with kwikspell?

• “That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!” he was saying gleefully to Mrs Norris. “We’ll have Peeves out this time, my sweet.”

Q3 - What do you think a vanishing cabinet is? 

Q4 - Have you ever felt like you walked through a ghost?

Q5 - Would you rather go to a deathday party or a Halloween feast?

• And then Harry heard it. “...rip…tear…kill…” It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice he had heard in Lockhart’s office.

Q6 - What do you think this voice is?

Q7 - What do you think “Enemies of the Heir, Beware” means?

Chapter 9 - The Writing on the Wall

• “You,” he screeched, “You! You’ve murdered my cat! You’ve killed her! I’ll kill you! I’ll —” 

Q1 - Is murdering someone for murdering you pet an appropriate response?

• “If I might speak, Headmaster,” said Snape from the shadows, and Harry’s sense of foreboding increased; he was sure nothing Snape was going to say was going to do him any good. “Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

Q2 - Why did Snape defend the trio?

• “We weren’t hungry,” said Ron loudly, as his stomach gave a huge rumble.

Q3 - Why doesn’t Harry just tell the truth of what he heard?

• “I personally feel he should be taken off Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest.” “Really, Severus,” said Professor McGonagall sharply. 

Q4 - Is Ron showing bias when he is offended at mudblood, but sniggers at Squib?

Q5 - The clock chimed midnight after the meeting with Dumbledore…was the feast going till 11:30?

• When Filch wasn’t guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like ‘breathing loudly’ and ‘looking happy.’”

Q6 - Do you think the chamber exists? Where do you think it is? And what do you think the monster is?

Q7 - How cruel are Fred and George for turning baby Ron’s Teddy bear into a spider?

Q8 - Thoughts on Moaning Myrtle?

Q9 - How does Myrtle, who is a ghost, splash water all over the bathroom?

• Ghosts can pass through solid objects without causing damage to themselves or the material, but create disturbances in water, fire and air. The temperature drops in the immediate vicinity of a ghost, an effect intensified if many congregate in the same place. Their appearance can also turn flames blue. Should part or all of a ghost pass through a living creature, the latter will experience a freezing sensation as though they have been plunged into ice-cold water.

Q10 - Who would you transform into if you had a little bit of polyjuice potion?

• “Oh, come on, no teachers going to fall for that,” said Ron. “They’d have to be really thick…”

Chapter Ten - The Rogue Bludger

• “Homework: compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga werewolf! Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!”

Q1 - Lockhart's signature is loopy, do you think a person's signature tells a lot about them?

• “I’m drinking nothing with Crabbe’s toenails in it…”
• “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d be persuading us to break rules,” said Ron, “All right, we’ll do it. But not toenails, OK?”
• “It’ll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we’ve got to win today, we’ve got to.” “So no pressure, Harry,” said Fred, winking at him.

Q2 - How incompetent is Madam Hooch? (maybe a leading question…)

Q3 - Should this Quidditch match have been called off?

Q4 - Have you ever broken a bone?

• “This, sir?” said dobby, plucking at the pillowcase. “Tis a mark of the house-elf’s enslavement, sir. Dobby can only be freed if his masters present him with clothes, sir. The family is careful not to pass Dobby even a sock, sir. For then he would be free to leave their house for ever.”
• “If he knew what he means to us, to the lowly, the enslaved, us dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers how it was when He Who Must Not Be Named was at the height of his power, sir! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir…Of course Dobby is still treated like that, sir. But Mostly life has improved for my kind since you triumphed over He Who Must Not Be Named. Harry Potter survived, and the Dark Lord’s power was broken, and it was a new dawn, sir, and Harry Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the dark days would never end, sir.”

Q5 - What is Dobby’s deal?

• “If Albus hadn’t been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate, who knows what might have…”

Q6 - You think Dumbledore was really getting hot chocolate?

• “The question is not who,” said Dumbledore, his eyes on Colin. “The question is, how…”

Q7 - What does he mean?