[img align=right]http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqnveooz9Y1qlwog9o1_250.gif[/img]Our first selection for the Second Term of Book Club will be Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Thank you for voting! Please take this week to procure a book, eBook, or audiobook, if you don't have one in your possession and would like to participate. As a reminder, any member of Wizarding can join Book Club at any time.

Please post on this topic if you're reading for the first time as opposed to rereading. Spoiler tags for discussions will go into play if anyone is in that situation.

I'd also like to propose a loose schedule for Book Club. There are 12 weeks left of Second Term as of right now. We would have 10 weeks to work with if everyone is comfortable omitting this week and the week of December 25th for Thanksgiving and Christmas irl. I know a lot of people go on vacation or make trips to see family for a variety of holidays and may not want to be online as much.

Please read or listen at your own pace. I do ask that everyone be finished with HP2 by January 23rd (2 months from today), so that we can start Quidditch Through the Ages in the final 3 weeks of the term.

Eager to start :D

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are eating with your families! ^^

Go ahead and start reading and posting if you'd like. c:

I just wanted to leave a little wiggle room for people who don't readily have the book available.

I started listening to this after the first term ended, but it's been so disjointed I am going to start again tonight. :) Hubby's not home until Sunday, so it's a good time for me to get things done! Super excited.

AHHHHH Yeah! I am so ready.

I didn't know we decided on which to read first. I will be done though... maybe next time we can get a ping?

Is the audio book good? I don't tend to do well when the reader drones on and doesn't have any character.

I reread Chamber of Secrets (this time) in Hebrew! The details are all fuzzy hehehe Hebrew is not my first (or second) language, though it completely replaced the Spanish I used to speak/read/understand.

I bought the three harry potter world books on ebay. Being mailed to me from the USA. Yay!

The most prominent image I have of Chamber of Secrets was Dobby. I don't remember house elves at all from the first book (Were they in there at all??). I liked reading about house elves.

It's so interesting that you're familiar with multiple languages! The discrepancies in language interpretation and the connotations of words could account for your personal takes. I'm glad you brought up house elves.

Also, will the books you ordered be new reads or rereads? c:

[img align=right]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ca/bc/10/cabc10ecb3b0ead2f66ad6c2657c4e71.jpg[/img] For anyone to discuss: JK Rowling is an outspoken liberal herself. I think it was important to her to speak up through Hermione for the largely unseen dregs of wizarding society. On one side Hermione, a Muggleborn, is shocked and appalled that her delicious Hogwarts meals are the product of "slave labor." On the other side Ron, someone from an old wizarding family, has no qualms saying that house elves enjoy their servitude.

What are your thoughts on the great house elf debate? I'd also like to note that Hermione's crusade and her resulting club were omitted from the movies with the explanation that there's only so much time in a feature length film.

Well... in my younger days I was a vegetarian, and didn't wear/use anything made from leather. I don't know if getting older my values evolved or wore down... but years later I actually heard myself saying "cows were created to be meat for people" (I would never eat horse or even cat. Meat is not their purpose). So... house elves were created specifically, magically, to provide a service for a specific group of creatures known as magicians. I guess I am okay with that. I would want them to be treated kindly, as I would treat anything in my house and under my care (except for cockroaches), but I see them differently than slaves, who are humans (like myself, for the most part). People kidnap other people to make them slaves, and that is a denial of their human rights. House elves are not bought and sold, they belong to families.

I'm just starting to read the book (I've read it before, just not for a few years) but I'll jump in on the house elf debate!

I feel that house elves, as sentient and self-aware beings very much akin to humans of all sorts (not just witches or wizards), should have the say for themselves - not just as a species, but as individuals. It's just like with people - many of us in Western society view foreign cultural practices as barbaric and outdated, but members of the cultures who practice those things view them as very relevant and timeless and necessary. It's all a matter of perspective. Ron may be right - many house elves may enjoy their servitude, and it's not up to witches or wizards to try to "liberate" them or change their ways. It's up to individual house elves to do this for themselves if they so choose. I do think they have a right to fair pay and human rights/humane treatment (ie. Lucius Malfoy needs a few good lashes for the things he's done to his house elves), but the choice as to whether or not they remain as servants should be theirs and theirs alone.

Often, crusading for the rights of a group of people culturally distinct from our own only leads to further breakdowns and back-stepping in the group of people we're trying to change. Overall, anthropologists have found that change is best accepted when it is supported and promoted by local activist groups and relevant figureheads. If Hermione wants to liberate the elves, or at the very least even assess what percentage of the house elf population would like to be liberated, she should approach a house elf or group of elves that are already trying for liberation and rights and speak with and through them. Other elves are much more likely to respond favorably to those of their own kind who can directly understand their struggle than to a witch - part of the group that oppresses them in the first place.

In any case, I'm of the opinion that while the elves to deserve rights and protection and freedoms and fair wages, Hermione is trying too much, too hard, too quickly and the change needs to happen in a way that won't shock the elves and make them feel disconnected from their own roots, which can do more harm than good. I feel that witches and wizards should support a house elf's right to CHOOSE whether they remain as servants or not, not force liberation on them! :)

[img align=right]https://sarahsaysreadbooks.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/dobby-cos.gif[/img] @ Garnet I love your response! Your reasoning has a lot more depth than what I imagine people like Ron to believe.

Irl book clubs often gather at members' homes with themed food and drink. Could everyone post either a dish in general or a Subeta item image for a Chamber of Secrets party? As the hostess for tonight I will "provide" Harry's forgotten birthday cake, whipped cream and sugared violets, and a loin of roast pork.

How do you think Dobby came to know about Harry's defeat of Voldemort and Quirrell? Did Voldemort contact any of the Malfoys directly? Did Snape pass on word of what had transpired at Hogwarts because of his double agent role?

I was struck by how early Rowling had set up the importance of the Vanishing Cabinets and the Hand of Glory during my initial read of the series. This time, I'm kind of amazed as to how much Dobby alludes to Horcruxes in his first meeting with Harry at Privet Drive.

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sir " — Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper — "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't...powers no decent wizard..."

It's funny, my response was so in depth only because my girlfriend and I had recently been discussing something similar in real life that needed addressing and I recombined what she'd said about the RL issue to fit this idea. I feel like I should almost cite the information properly haha (Alewiina 2015). Otherwise I probably wouldn't have overanalyzed the question so much lol.

I'm bringing some yummies to the party!

As for how Dobby came to know, I think it was Draco. There's a quote at the end of the first book where Dumbledore says something akin to "What happened in [that room] between you and professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows." I'm assuming he meant the school knew literally what had happened - whether or not they all believed it to be true is another story. I think Draco, however, was attuned to anything to do with Voldemort because of his father and his family's history, so he would have either written to his farther right away, or told him after he came home. I'm sure Lucius had his own ways of getting more detailed information about the incident, too.

As for Dobby, well, again, the book states that a good house elf is seen and not heard - Dobby was likely present for much of the talk in the house, so he would have known however much Lucius knew. :)

I bring to the party somethings I made myself:

I think Dobby hear about the battle through Malfoy as well. I am sure he went home and talked about it with his parents even if he didn't actually believe it. I always assumed that Malfoy would talk a lot about the people he didn't like on the holidays.

I wonder though - maybe Malfoy actually talked to Dobby. Wouldn't that be an interesting twist? I know later in the series Malfoy went to another and talked about his feelings. Maybe he had done that in the past.

, I think you are right - Dobby was around a lot more than it seemed because he wasn't thought of as anything more than a servant. Maybe that is why Lucius was more mad about loosing him.

It makes sense.

I think I remember either Draco or Lucius at some point also saying something about good help being hard to find, so it makes sense why Lucius would be SO angry about losing Dobby if Dobby really was a good servant.

I just finished the seventh book, so this is from a different perspective and introducing a new topic, but in Chamber of Secrets, was the book called a horcux anywhere?

The word "Horcrux" isn't used expressly until Harry obtains the memory from Slughorn to view with Dumbledore in the Pensieve in the sixth book.

Lucius Malfoy actually tells Draco to shut up about Harry when they're all in Borgin and Burkes. Draco must have been venting about life at Hogwarts whenever he saw the opportunity to at home.

"'You have told me this at least a dozen times already,' said Mr. Malfoy, with a quelling look at his son."

Rowling really has a gift for foreshadowing things that become extremely important much later on in the series. More notable examples early in HP2: Snape and his Legilimency, and the importance of the Whomping Willow. Certain details that seem benign juxtaposed with Harry as a child become essential to some of the darkest plots of the series as Harry grows into a young man.

Anyone can pose questions or bring up any points for discussion regarding HP2! :)

[img align=right]http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc3cl6jIkA1qj3h95o5_250.gif[/img] Side note, I love the way Rowling writes about the Burrow. I get a real sense that it's this idyllic vacation-like haven for Harry.

Is it already too late in the term to be joining the book club?

Knowing what you know about Harry and each of the houses, what do you think would have become of Harry had the Sorting Hat placed him in Slytherin as it had originally considered?

If you had the opportunity to make and take Polyjuice Potion, who would you want to turn into and what would you do? Remember, you only have an hour, and you have to have access to a piece of them.

When Harry tells Professor Dumbledore that Professor Lockhart's Memory Charm backfired and left him with total amnesia, Professor Dumbledore comments, "Impaled on your own sword, Gilderoy!". Hmm. Do you think that Professor Dumbledore knows anything about Professor Lockhart's published lies before Professor Lockhart destroys his own memory? If he does know, why does he let Professor Lockhart teach at Hogwarts with a track record of Obliviating innocent people? And why let someone completely incompetent teach Defense Against the Dark Arts?

[img align=right]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/80/7c/e3/807ce38c1dc56ca536fec13de4e9819b.jpg[/img] Please feel welcome here. c:

We will be reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and discussing it until January 23rd. That will leave us with the final three weeks of this term to focus on Quidditch Through the Ages.

I still believe that Harry would have ultimately defeated Voldemort from any of the four Hogwarts houses, but that his personal journey to that end would have been drastically different.

His relationships with Hagrid, Malfoy, and Ron, had already been established prior to the Sorting Ceremony and first impressions are very difficult to overcome. ~ I would be my sister for an hour using Polyjuice Potion. She's a senior at university so I'm sure there are times when she needs to be two places at once. I'd like to see what it's like to be on the campus of one of the largest schools in the country. ~ I don't think Dumbledore or anyone else for that matter knew that Lockhart was a liar. I interpreted the, "Impaled on your own sword," quote to mean that the caster was hit by his own spell in an attempt to get someone else. Lockhart did found the school's Duelling Club with Dumbledore's permission after all. ~ You really gave me some food for thought, great questions! :)