- In Transfiguration class with Professor McGonagall, the second-years are changing animals into water goblets when Hermione asks Professor McGonagall if she'll tell the class all about the Chamber of Secrets.
- Well, it all goes back to when Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago. There were four founders—Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.
- Three of these guys got along fine…but one them didn't. Guess who couldn't play nice with others?
- Slytherin wanted to teach only students who came from pure-blood families. So he left the Hogwarts but, according to legend, he built a secret chamber before he booked out of the castle.
- His plan was for his heir to come back later and open the chamber and unleash horrors within on unsuspecting students with non-magical blood. Creepy.
- Professor McGonagall tells her students that the castle has been thoroughly searched and no one has ever found this hidden chamber. So of course it doesn't exist.
- But, like, just hypothetically, what would be in the chamber, Hermione asks. If it did exist?
- A hideous monster, of course. Something only the heir of Slytherin could control, Professor McGonagall explains. Lovely.
- After class, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discuss. If the Chamber of Secrets is real and it's been opened, that means the heir of Slytherin must be at Hogwarts.
- Ron suspects Malfoy. After all, he's a pure-blood and he hates Muggle-borns, right?
- Hermione's doubtful. That's pretty grand for Draco Malfoy.
- Maybe they could ask Malfoy's friends, Crabbe and Goyle? Ron suggests.
- Hmm… Hermione's got a plan.