For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort, and might even have assisted in the deaths of James and Lily Potter—Harry Potter’s parents.
Now Black has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard him muttering in his sleep, "He’s at Hogwarts... he’s at Hogwarts."
Of course, Harry already had plenty to worry about. After inflating his nasty aunt and running away on the magical Knight Bus, he finds he’s being pursued by death omens at every turn. He receives two wonderful gifts: a top-of-the-line Firebolt broomstick, and the Marauder’s Map, a magical diagram of Hogwarts made by the mysterious “Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.” Hermione disappears frequently, burdened down by a seemingly impossible course schedule. And the soulless Dementors have come to guard Hogwarts—supposedly to protect Harry from Sirius Black, but they terrify Harry more than the fugitive ever could.
To strengthen himself against them, Harry reaches out to Remus Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who was once a friend of his father’s. Lupin teaches Harry about the Patronus Charm, a defensive measure well above the level of magic generally mastered by wizards Harry’s age. But even with his broom, his map, his magic, and his loyal friends, Harry isn't safe.
Because on top of everything else, there’s a traitor hidden at Hogwarts…
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the summer after Harry’s first year at Hogwarts has been his worst summer ever… the Dursleys more distant and horrible than ever before. But just as he’s packing his bags to return to school, a creature named Dobby the house-elf announces that if Harry goes back to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.
And it turns out, Dobby is right. Harry and Ron miss the Hogwarts Express, so they fly to school in a blue Ford Anglia, crash landing in the notorious Whomping Willow. Soon other worries accumulate: the outrageously stuck-up new professor Gilderoy Lockhart; a ghost named Moaning Myrtle, who haunts the girls' bathroom; the strange behavior of Ron's little sister, Ginny Weasley; rumors about the "Chamber of Secrets," a cavern buried deep below Hogwarts; and a magical diary owned by Tom Riddle, a Hogwarts student of long ago.
Harry is also shocked to discover that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes - a rare ability that Lord Voldemort also possessed - and that anti-Muggle prejudice exists in the Wizarding world, even affecting Harry's friend Hermione.
But all of these seem like minor concerns when someone starts turning Hogwarts students to stone: an evildoer said to be the fearsome Heir of Salazar Slytherin, on of the founders of the school. Could it be Draco Malfoy, Harry's most poisonous rival? Could it be Hagrid whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one person everyone at Hogwarts most suspects: Harry Potter himself?
This story introduces us to Harry Potter, an orphaned boy sent to live with his "horrible" Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their fat, obnoxious son, Dudley. Since Harry's parents were powerful witches before they were killed by an even more powerful witch, Harry has Generational Witchcraft in his background, making it very likely that he will be a wizard when he grows up. Vernon and Petunia know this, and since they hate Witchcraft and anything to do with it, they determine to try to raise Harry in such a way as to deny him any knowledge of his parent's proclivities.
Therefore, they do not tell him the truth of his parent's death, telling Harry they were killed in an auto accident. They also force Harry to live in a closet underneath the stairs, even though they have a perfectly good extra bedroom upstairs. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia deny Harry any parental love and compassion; in fact, all through this book, any non-witch folk -- like Vernon and Petunia -- are depicting in disgusting language. Non-witch people are known as Muggles , and they are depicting as being "dumber than a box of rocks", of being physically obscene, and of living the most boring, unimaginative lives possible. Witches, on the other hand, are depicted as being very smart, very "with it", of being physically normal, and of living wonderfully exciting lives, especially when they are in their Fantasy Reality, explained below. In a flashback scene to the time 10 years earlier when Harry's Mom and Dad were psychically murdered by evil Lord Voldemort on Halloween night, we learn that, instead of Voldemort's curse killing Harry as it had done to his parents, he was merely permanently scarred with a lightning bolt right in the middle of his forehead. [p. 14-15] Of course, a Christian would be immediately alerted to this turn of events because soon a supernaturally powerful global leader will demand everyone on earth take some sort of a mark in exactly this place on the body. Harry spends his first ten years totally unaware that he has Witchcraft in his background [Generational Witchcraft, p. 51] and that he might possess inherent "special powers". Suddenly, a letter arrives from the Hogwart School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, telling Harry that he has been accepted as a student, and informing him as to when classes begin. Of course, Uncle Vernon intercepts and destroys the letter. On the next day, two letters arrive, and Vernon destroys them. On the next day, many more letters arrive, this time coming in through windows, doors, and cracks. Finally, after the most stupid flight possible to avoid the letters, enough letters arrive at the boat on which Uncle Vernon has taken Harry that Harry finally gets his hands on one of the letters.
Harry is totally dumbfounded with the news that he is a Wizard, but he has to get free of the physical clutches of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. They have Harry on a boat headed for nowhere and they had every intention of keeping Harry from ever attending Hogwarts School. However, Harry receives supernatural assistance. A very huge man suddenly appears on the boat, out of nowhere, and forcibly removes Harry from the clutches of Uncle Vernon. His name turns out to be Hagrid, and he is the groundskeeper of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.
Soon, Harry finds his way through the dimensional portal at the train station, and on board the Hogwarts train, on his way to discovering new friends, and an entirely new, exciting life in the Fantasy Reality of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Suddenly, Harry finds himself and his friends in the exciting race to discover the Sorcerer's Stone, the occult symbol of reaching the final stage in the quest for eternal life.
