During the summer holiday after Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Dursleys have locked away Harry's school equipment. On Harry's twelfth birthday, a house elf called Dobby appears and warns Harry that he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts. When Harry insists he will return to the school, Dobby uses magic to sabotage a dinner party hosted by Harry's uncle, Vernon Dursley. The Ministry of Magicsends Harry a letter warning that he risks expulsion if he uses magic outside Hogwarts again. No longer afraid of Harry's magical abilities, Uncle Vernon says Harry cannot return to Hogwarts and fits bars on Harry's window.
Ron Weasley and his older twin brothers Fred and George rescue Harry in a flying car, and take him to spend a pleasant month at their home, The Burrow. Ron's younger sister, Ginny, who is about to start at Hogwarts, develops a crush on Harry. While the children are buying school books in Diagon Alley, Lucius Malfoy, the father of Draco Malfoy and even more arrogant, provokes a fight with Ron's father, Arthur Weasley.
At the start of the school term Harry and the Weasleys go to London King's Cross railway station to catch the Hogwarts Express. Harry and Ron are the last to try to enter Platform 9¾, and the wall between platforms 9 and 10 will not let them through. The boys steal the flying car and fly to Hogwarts. On arriving, they crash into the Whomping Willow, which immediately attacks, damaging the car and breaking Ron's wand. The battered car retreats into the Forbidden Forest. Professor Snape catches the boys sneaking into the Great Hall and tries to have them expelled, but Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, opposes this.
Harry finds that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is the celebrity Gilderoy Lockhart, who has required pupils to buy copies of all his books. Lockhart sets them a test consisting entirely of trivia questions about himself, but proves incapable of controlling a group of pixies.
Harry begins to hear a voice that whispers about its desire to kill but is inaudible to others. A message magically written on a wall proclaims, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware" - with school caretaker Filch's cat petrified beside it. Persuaded by Hermione Granger, the History of Magic teacher recounts a legend that Salazar Slytherin, one of the school's founders, built a secret chamber in the school, and sealed it so that only his true heir could open it. This would unleash a monster that would kill all pupils whom Slytherin considered unworthy. Harry, Ron and Hermione conclude that the most likely heir of Slytherin is Draco Malfoy, who constantly insults "Mudbloods", pupils from non-magical families. They hatch a plan to disguise themselves as Slytherin House pupils by means of Polyjuice Potion and spy on Draco.
During a Quidditch match Harry's arm is broken by a Bludger that inexplicably targets only him. While in the school's hospital he wakes up to find Dobby tending him. The house elf confesses that he blocked the entrance to Platform 9¾ and bewitched the Bludger, in both cases to exclude Harry from the school. Dobby flees when Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bring in a younger pupil who has been petrified. Harry hears Dumbledore conclude that the Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened.
While Harry, Ron and Hermione are making the Polyjuice Potion, a long and complex process, Lockhart sets out to teach the pupils magical duelling. In a duel with Harry, Draco, coached by Snape, conjures a snake. Harry orders it stop threatening a pupil, and it obeys. Ron concludes that Harry is a Parselmouth, in other words he has the very rare talent of conversing with snakes, for which Salazar Slytherin was famous. Rumours that Harry is the Heir of Slytherin spread through the school. After being accused by a group of pupils, Harry finds, lying petrified on the floor of a passage, the student whom the snake threatened and one of the school's ghosts.
Harry and Ron use the Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves temporarily as Crabbe and Goyle, Draco's muscular but dim sidekicks. Draco, fooled by the disguise, tells them he is not the Heir but wishes he could help him.
A few weeks later Harry and Ron hear a ghost, Moaning Myrtle, in one of the girls' toilets. Myrtle shows them an empty 50 year-old diary which dropped through her out of thin air. One evening Harry starts writing in the diary, which magically produces written replies from "Tom Riddle", who claims to have sealed the Chamber of Secrets when it last opened, 50 years ago. The diary transports Harry's mind back to the Hogwarts of 50 years ago, where Riddle finds 13 year-old Hagrid looking after a huge spider-like creature and accuses him of opening the Chamber.
There are no further petrifications in the next four months, and the rumours about Harry fade away. Then Harry finds that the diary has been stolen, and Ron points out that only a Gryffindor student could have done it, as no-one else would have known the password to open the magical door of their quarters. The following day Hermione and another girl are petrified. Professor McGonagall fears the school will have to be closed to avoid further casualties. Harry and Ron visit Hagrid's house, using the Invisibility Cloak that Harry inherited from his father in order to evade the curfew that has been imposed to keep pupils away from danger. Almost immediately Dumbledore and the Minister for Magic arrive, and the boys hastily take cover again under the Cloak. The Minister announces that, as a precaution, Hagrid is to be imprisoned in Azkaban until the emergency is over. Lucius Malfoy then arrives to announce that the school's governors have suspended Dumbledore from the position of headmaster. On his way out, Hagrid drops a hint to Harry and Ron, who are still concealed, that they should "follow the spiders".
After several days Harry spots some spiders apparently moving towards the Forbidden Forest, and the two boys slip out that night. In the heart of the Forest they are captured by giant spiders, led by Aragog, whom Hagrid had been tending when Riddle accused him of opening the Chamber of Secrets. Aragog explains that he was not the monster of the Chamber, but was imported as an egg, and fled the school after a girl was killed in a toilet. He will not eat the boys but cannot restrain his brood from attacking. Harry and Ron are rescued by the flying car, which has been hiding in the Forest ever since its encounter with the Whomping Willow.
The boys realise that Moaning Myrtle may be the ghost of the girl killed 50 years ago. On the way to the toilet she haunts, they are intercepted by Professor McGonagall, and Harry tells her they are going to visit Hermione, who is still petrified. In the hospital Harry extracts from Hermione's hand a note that leads them to think the monster is a Basilisk and may be emerging via Myrtle's toilet. On their way there they hear that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber by the monster. The rest of the staff insist that Lockhart is best qualified to handle the situation, and he goes to his rooms "to prepare". Harry and Ron go there to tell him what they have discovered, and find him packing hastily. Lockhart admits that he stole the credit for "his" exploits from other wizards and witches, after wiping their memories. He tries to wipe the boys' memories, but Harry disarms him with a spell. The two march Lockhart to the toilet haunted by Myrtle, who says that, as she died, she saw the monster by a sink. When Harry gives the order "Open!" in Parseltongue (snake speech), the sink moves aside to reveal a passage. In a tunnel under the school, Lockhart steals Ron's wand and tries to memory-wipe the boys. However Ron's wand has been unreliable ever since it was broken, and the spell backfires on Lockhart.
Ron stays to look after Lockhart while Harry moves forward. He finds a wall decorated with carvings of snakes, which opens when given the order in Parseltongue. On the other side Harry finds a long chamber, with Ginny lying at the end beside the diary. As he examines her, Tom Riddle appears, looking exactly as he did in Harry's vision of 50 years ago. After stealing Harry's wand, Riddle explains that he is a memory stored in the diary. Ginny started writing about her adolescent hopes and fears, and Riddle won her confidence by appearing sympathetic, draining energy from her in the process, and gained enough strength to make Ginny open the Chamber. Ginny threw away the diary when she realised she was responsible for the attacks, and it later came into Harry's possession. From diary conversations with Harry the virtual Riddle learned his own identity – he is the young Voldemort. Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, appears and drops a bundle at Harry's feet. Riddle opens a door in the wall and the basilisk slides out. Fawkes blinds the monster, so that its glare is no longer dangerous, and Harry finds that the bundle is the Sorting Hat and contains a magnificent sword. Harry kills the basilisk, but only after being bitten by the creature's venomous fangs, one of which breaks off. As Riddle gloats over the dying Harry, Fawkes weeps over the wound and cures him. Harry stabs the diary with the broken fang, it bleeds ink, and Riddle screams and vanishes. Ginny revives and they return to Ron, who is still watching over the memory-wiped Lockhart.
Fawkes uses his magical power to airlift all four out of the tunnels and then leads them to the office of Professor McGonagall, who is temporarily head of the school. Dumbledore and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are also there, and Harry tells them the whole story. Dumbledore revokes his threat to expel the boys if they broke more rules, and gives them Special Awards for Services to the School and Gryffindor enough points to win the inter-House competition. When Harry mentions his earlier fears that he was the Heir of Slytherin, Dumbledore says that Harry chose Gryffindor House, and only a true member of that House could have used Godric Gryffindor's sword to kill the basilisk.
Lucius Malfoy bursts in, accompanied by Dobby. Dumbledore says the governors have just reinstated him as head of the school, after hearing of Ginny's abduction. Understanding mimed hints from Dobby, Harry accuses Malfoy of slipping the diary into one of Ginny's books during the fracas in Diagon Alley. As Malfoy leaves with Dobby, Harry slips a sock into the diary and returns the diary to Malfoy. Malfoy throws away the sock in disgust and Dobby catches it. Under house-elf law this "giving of clothes" frees Dobby from servitude to the Malfoys. Enraged at the loss of a servant, Malfoy draws his wand, but Dobby magically knocks Malfoy down, and Malfoy retreats. All of the basilisk's victims are revived.
Harry Potter, aged twelve when the book opens, is a trainee wizard who lives with his magic-hating aunt and uncle during Hogwarts' summer holidays. The evil wizard Voldemort killed his parents when he was one year old, tried to kill Harry, and then disappeared. As well as being brave, Harry is considerate. His adventures often lead him to break school rules, but his quick thinking sometimes enables him to talk his way out of trouble.
Ron Weasley, the sixth of Arthur and Molly Weasley's seven children, is the same age as Harry, and a fellow member of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts. Rowling describes Ron as the ultimate best friend, "always there when you need him". Hermione Granger, the daughter of an all-Muggle family, is Harry's other closest friend, but often disapproves of his rule-breaking. However she is determined to avert the threat to Muggle-born students at any cost, and undertakes a mission that would get Harry and Ron expelled if they were caught. Her exceptional intelligence and magical skills help them to solve mysteries, and sometimes enable her to gain help that teachers would give to no-one else, but do not prevent her having a mild crush on Gilderoy Lockhart.
Ron's elder brothers, the identical twins Fred and George Weasley, are also in Gryffindor, and are the school's tricksters. Ginny the youngest of the Weasleys, is eleven years old, in her first year at Hogwarts, and also in Gryffindor. She develops a crush on Harry, but is sensible enough to dump the mysterious diary when she suspects it is controlling her.
Tom Riddle is the personality of the sixteen year old pupil who later became Voldemort, copied into an enchanted diary 50 years ago. The copied personality is handsome and charming, but quite as callous as the original.
Wealthy and influential Lucius Malfoy is a former supporter of Voldemort who claims to have seen the error of his ways, but keeps many Dark Arts objects in his mansion. Malfoy wishes to exclude from schools of magic all who are not pure-blood wizards. His son Draco is equally prejudiced, and is Harry's worst enemy among the pupils.
Under the laws of house elves, Dobby is bound to serve the Malfoy family. However he resolves to protect Harry when he learns of Lucius Malfoy's plan to open the Chamber of Secrets. After Harry's ruse frees him from servitude, Dobby displays magical powers that deter Lucius from attacking Harry.
Professor Albus Dumbledore, the silver-haired headmaster of Hogwarts, is generally regarded as the most powerful living wizard with the possible exception of Voldemort. When the Chamber of Secrets was last opened Dumbledore, then Transfiguration teacher, was the only one who suspected Riddle. Rowling described Dumbledore as the "epitome of goodness".
Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled woman with hair tied in a tight bun,teaches Transfiguration, is in charge of Gryffindor House, and becomes temporary head of the school when Dumbledore is suspended from the position. According to Rowling, "under that gruff exterior" is "a bit of an old softy".
Hagrid, a half-giant nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand was broken, but Professor Dumbledore let him stay on as the school's gamekeeper. Hagrid is fiercely loyal to Dumbledore and quickly became a close friend of Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Gilderoy Lockhart has just been appointed as the school's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, a post that few apply for, because recently no-one has lasted long in that job. His numerous books claim credit for magical feats performed by others, whose memories Lockhart wiped. In fact he is a coward who is skilled only in memory-changing spells.
Moaning Myrtle is the ghost of a weepy girl killed in one of Hogwart's toilets by the basilisk when it was let loose 50 years ago.
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, is more concerned about public relations than about the fairness or effectiveness of his actions.
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