Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Pages 160-226

In the first chapter, Hermione approaches Lockhart at the end of class and asks for permission to get a book out of the restricted section of the library. They read about the painful and complicated steps to making and using Polyjuice potion, and by the end Hermione is the only one still interested in trying to make it. Their is also a quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor. The game begins, and as soon as Harry is circling through the air looking for the Snitch, a Bludger streaks toward him, and continues to aim for him, even after knocked away by Fred and George. Harry grabs the snitch, falls out of the sky, and wins the game. During the night, he is visited by Dobby, who explains that he had closed up the train platform and bewitched the Bludger, both in hopes that Harry would give up and return home and away from Hogwarts. He also sees a patient enter who has been petrified. Dumbeldore claims that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Ron and Hermione have spent the morning concocting the beginning of the Polyjuice Potion. In Potions class, Harry distracts Snape by throwing a firecracker into a Slytherin cauldron, splashing potion on the faces of students, while Hermione sneaks out of the room to get Polyjuice ingredients from Snape's personal collection. In the dueling club a snake is sent after him. He quickly diverts the snakes attention. Harry is relieved, but the class is terrified, and only after class does he find out through Ron and Hermione that he spoke Parseltongue-snake language-a feat for which Salazar Slytherin himself was famous. Harry begins to question if, in fact, he really could be the heir. Soon the term ends, and on Christmas day Ron, Hermione, and Harry open their presents and plan for their Polyjuice Potion adventure later that night. Unfortunately, they don't know where the Slytherin common room is, so they wander around, accidentally asking a Ravenclaw girl, and suddenly they run into Percy, who is emerging from a side room. Malfoy is pleased with himself for obtaining a copy of the Daily Prophet, a wizard newspaper, and he shows Ron and Harry an article about Ron's father being fined for bewitching a Muggle car. He says that he wished he knew who the heir was, so that he could help him, and finally he reveals information about a hidden chamber under his family's drawing room floor, in which dark wizarding paraphernalia is kept.