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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Information, Rumors, and Fear
Prejudice vs. Respect
Friendship, Loyalty, and Bravery
Fate, Choice, and Identity
Rules, Rebellion, and Doing the Right Thing
Summary
Analysis
Ron and his brothers Fred and George are in a flying turquoise car, and they have come to rescue Harry. Ron explains that he had wondered why Harry hadn’t answered his letters. They pull the bars out of the window and load up all of Harry’s things for school, waking up Vernon in the process. Vernon tries to grab Harry as he piles into the car, but Fred and George are able to pull him into the car and then fly off.
Just when Harry is weak and vulnerable, Ron appears. He demonstrates his loyalty (he assumes that something must be wrong on Harry’s end, unlike Harry, who worries that his friends don’t care enough to write to him). He also proves how Harry often relies on his friend is in order to achieve his accomplishments.
Themes
As the boys drive home, Ron asks what’s happened to Harry. Harry tells him all about Dobby’s warning, the letters, and the pudding fiasco. Fred and George wonder whether Dobby was lying, as house-elves usually can’t use magic without their family’s permission. They think it might be a prank. Harry and Ron wonder whether Draco Malfoy, who hates Harry, might have done it. Fred and George mention that Draco’s father, Lucius, used to be a big supporter of Voldemort (though he said afterward that he’d been bewitched at the time), and that they are a very wealthy old wizarding family.
This speculation serves as an early example of the dangers of rumor and not having information. Harry and Ron’s assumption that Draco sent Dobby as a prank not only demonstrates their own bias against him, but it also blinds them to the danger that will soon be present within the castle. Later they will exhibit this bias again when they assume that Draco is the heir of Slytherin and is causing the attacks on Muggle-borns.
Themes
The boys continue home. Harry asks whether Ron’s father, Mr. Weasley, knows that they took the car to rescue him. Ron says no, he’s working that night. Ron explains that his father works for the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, which prohibits and regulates the bewitching of Muggle items. But Ron explains that his dad also really likes to bewitch Muggle items, like the car.
Ron’s description of his father’s work reveals that Mr. Weasley often breaks the rules that he is meant to enforce; again, Rowling highlights the ineffectiveness of the Ministry of Magic.
Themes
Fred, George, Ron, and Harry arrive home at the Burrow, which amazes Harry. It is a stone house with several stories, and it is very crooked. The boys try to sneak in, but they are immediately caught in the yard by Mrs. Weasley, who is furious that they snuck out and stole the car. After her rant at her sons, however, she immediately tells Harry how happy she is to see him and how she, too, had been worried about him.
Even though Mrs. Weasley disagrees with the way in which Fred, George, and Ron broke the rules in order to go get Harry, she understands the value in what they did because of the dire situation that the Dursleys had put him in.
Themes
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They go into the kitchen, and Harry is astonished. He has never been in a wizard house before, and he’s amazed to see objects like the enchanted clock whose hands point to words on the edge like “you’re late” and “time to make tea.” Mrs. Weasley makes the boys breakfast while still scolding them that they could have been seen by someone. At that moment, Ron’s little sister Ginny walks in, sees Harry, squeaks, and walks out. Ron explains that Ginny’s been talking about Harry all summer and will probably want an autograph.
As Harry returns to the world of magic, he also starts to be reinitiated into the ways in which many other people treat him. Ginny, like many others will this coming year at Hogwarts, views Harry as a celebrity and treats him differently only because she knows that he is famous. This will cause Harry to try to define his identity on his own terms and grapple with the ideas that other people have about him.
Themes
Fred, George, and Ron start to head up to bed, but Mrs. Weasley instead instructs her sons to de-gnome the garden. Harry offers to join them. De-gnoming the garden involves taking gnomes (small, potato-like creatures) by the ankles, swinging them in the air and hurling them as far away as they can. To the Weasleys it’s a chore, but Harry enjoys spending time with them.
As Harry spends time with Ron and the other Weasley boys, he regains the friendships and the love that he was never able to receive from his own family. This friendship becomes the ultimate support for Harry, and eventually enables him to be brave.
Themes
Fred, George, Ron, and Harry continue this process until they hear Mr. Weasley return to the house, whereupon they scurry back into the kitchen. Mr. Weasley is a thin, balding man with red hair like his children. He explains that his department made nine raids on wizarding houses, finding “shrinking door keys and a biting kettle.”
The items that Mr. Weasley finds illustrates an aspect of wizarding prejudice, as some people believe that it’s funny to create shrinking door keys or biting kettles, in order to sell them back to Muggles and take advantage of them. Later Rowling will reveal that the Malfoys, who have quite a bit of this prejudice, fear these raids.
Themes
Mrs. Weasley reenters the kitchen, furious with Mr. Weasley that he enchanted the car (which she did not know he had done). Mr. Weasley explains that it isn’t against the law: if no one is intending to fly the car, it’s not illegal to make the car fly. Mrs. Weasley points out that he wrote the law with a loophole in it. As they argue, Harry and Ron slip upstairs to Ron’s bedroom.
Even though Mr. Weasley has a good heart, this is another example of how the Ministry wants to appear to be doing the right thing rather than actually creating fair rules. The loopholes Mr. Weasley writes into the laws make them easily exploited—as even he himself does.
Themes
Ron’s room is covered in merchandise from his favorite Quidditch team: the Chudley Cannons. It is also filled with spell books, Self-Shuffling playing cards, and his rat, Scabbers, who is lying by the window. Ron admits that it’s a bit small, but Harry smiles and says: “This is the best house I’ve ever been in.”
