Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

With Dumbledore gone, everyone at the school is even more frightened. Harry thinks about his words concerning loyalty, but wonders whom he is supposed to ask for help now that everyone is terrified and confused. Harry and Ron also look out for any spiders they can find, but they all seem to have left the castle.

Harry notes that Draco is “strutting around the school” because Lucius was able to get rid of Dumbledore. In Potions, Draco wonders if they’ll get a decent headmaster now, one who “won’t want the Chamber of Secrets closed.” He wonders why the “Mudbloods haven’t all packed their bags by now” and says it’s a shame that Hermione wasn’t killed by the monster.

In the next class, Herbology, Ernie apologizes to Harry for suspecting him, saying that he knows that he’d never attack Hermione. Ernie wonders aloud if Draco might be Slytherin’s heir, but Harry says that he doesn’t think so. Then something catches Harry’s eye: several large spiders moving in a straight line, headed toward the Forbidden Forest.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Lockhart wonders why they all look so sad. He says that they’re all out of danger now because “the Minister of Magic wouldn’t have taken Hagrid if he hadn’t been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty.” Ron protests, but Lockhart shuts him down. Harry passes a note to Ron, resolving to go to the Forest that night.

Harry and Ron head down to Hagrid’s hut that evening under the Invisibility Cloak and take Hagrid’s dog Fang with them to the Forest. Harry lights his wand and follows the spiders along the path through the Forbidden Forest. They walk for half an hour until Fang starts barking wildly. The boys are terrified  until they see that it’s the flying car.

Then out of nowhere, something seizes Harry, Ron, and Fang and lifts them off the ground. They are carried into the heart of the forest until they come to a hollow that is lit enough to show hundreds of horse-sized spiders. The spiders call to Aragog, who turns out to be an old spider the size of an elephant. When the other spiders announce that they have found humans, Harry says that they are friends of Hagrid’s.

Harry explains that Hagrid is in trouble because the school thinks he is setting something to attack the students. Aragog explains that this also happened years ago: the school thought that Aragog was the monster that lives in the Chamber. Aragog is not that monster; Hagrid raised him from an egg. When Hagrid was discovered, he protected Aragog and took him to the forest.

Harry asks whether Aragog ever attacked a student. Aragog says no—the girl who was killed died in a bathroom, and Aragog never left the cupboard Hagrid raised him in. He says that the thing that lives in the castle is an ancient creature that the spiders fear more than anything else, and they refuse to name it. At that moment, the car returns, knocking the spiders aside and allowing Harry, Ron, and Fang to escape. The car drives as fast as it can until they reach the edge of the forest, where it leaves them. Harry and Ron go back into Hagrid’s hut.

Ron is furious with Hagrid for sending them there, but Harry says that they’ve found out important info: Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. They climb back up to the castle under the Invisibility Cloak and head back to their dormitory. But just before Harry falls asleep, he realizes one more thing they learned: the girl who died was found in a bathroom. Ron completes Harry’s thought: Moaning Myrtle might be that girl.