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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Scene 23 Summary

  • Harry is transported into a scene in Hogwarts castle. There he sees a young boy watching as another student is taken down the stairs on the stretcher. She's dead.
  • Dumbledore calls to the boy from the top of the stairs. This is Tom Riddle and Harry is watching his memory from fifty years ago.
  • Tom asks Dumbledore if they're really going to close the school. Tom doesn't have a place to go home to so he's concerned. What if the person responsible for that girl's death was caught? Then no one would have to head home, right?
  • This is kind of suspicious behavior so Dumbledore asks Tom if there's anything he'd like to confess.
  • Naw, I'm good, Tom tells him.
  • Harry follows Tom as he heads off down the hall. Tom opens a door to reveal a young Hagrid in the room with a box.
  • Tom tells Hagrid that he's going to have to turn him in. Plus the thing in the box is going to have to die.
  • Hagrid protests that his pet Aragog didn't kill anyone but Tom is not having it. He blasts open the box and a huge spider escapes and rushes out the door and down the hall.
  • Tom stops Hagrid from going after the spider. He tells Hagrid that he'll be expelled for this. Ah, so that explains why Hagrid can't do magic.
  • Harry pops out of the diary in a flash of light to ponder everything he's seen.