Throughout the Harry Potter series, there are dozens of vitally important locations, and one of the most important has to be the Chamber of Secrets. Tucked deep below Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets has a deep history within the magical school, and that history is filled with some dark twists and turns. Directly tied to Slytherin, it’s things like the Chamber of Secrets that lead people to believe that Slytherin is the “evil” Hogwarts house.
Neither the contents of the Chamber of Secrets, nor the room’s purpose, is widely known in the wizarding world. Despite the secrecy of the chamber, it did become a major part of the Harry Potter series with the second installment, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets. From that second installment onward, the chamber remained important as it served to provide the heroes with a way to destroy a tricky horcrux much later on.
Who Created The Chamber Of Secrets?
The Chamber of Secrets was actually created by one of the founders of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin. After creating the Slytherin house, Salazar Slytherin would go on to contribute some surprising things to the magical school. The most shocking to some would be the chamber and the basilisk that can be found within it. This may seem like a strange move for one of the founders of Hogwarts, but as some diehard Harry Potter fans may already know, Salazar Slytherin was quite different from the rest of the other founders.
The chamber itself was created during the medieval era, though not right when the school itself was created. It seems that Salazar Slytherin ended up creating the chamber a bit later, for some surprisingly nefarious purposes. A large statue of Salazar Slytherin finds its home in the chamber, with the large basilisk residing inside the statue. The Chamber of Secrets was so well-hidden by the master of Slytherin that even different headmasters of Hogwarts were unable to determine whether the chamber and basilisk truly existed, or were just a legend.
Why Is There A Basilisk In The Chamber Of Secrets?
It may seem strange that one of the founders would put a creature as dangerous as a basilisk somewhere deep beneath the school, but it makes a lot more sense when considering Salazar Slytherin’s pure-blood obsession. After some time running Hogwarts with the other founders, Slytherin's issues with muggle-born students attending the school became too great. Luckily for all those muggle-born students, the other founders didn’t share Slytherin's views, which resulted in him leaving the school altogether.
Before he departed, Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets and placed a basilisk within it so that the heir of Slytherin could one day open it and rid the entire school of muggle blood. While that may sound extreme, Slytherin's hatred for muggle-born witches and wizards was so great that he turned his back not only on his friends, but also on the school that he founded. Unfortunately for the students of Hogwarts, one of Salazar Slytherin’s heirs, Tom Riddle, would find his way to the school and open the chamber.
How Many Times Has The Chamber Of Secrets Been Opened?
The film Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets points to the chamber being opened on two separate occasions, once during Tom Riddle’s time at the school and the other during Harry Potter’s time there. One of the most high-profile openings of the chamber was in Tom Riddle’s fifth year at Hogwarts, in which he would discover the chamber and take control of the basilisk within. Tom Riddle, the boy who would soon become Voldemort, would then go on a spree of terror, though no one would discover it was by his hand until years later.
During this time, Tom Riddle would ultimately be to blame for the death of the student who would become the beloved ghost, Moaning Myrtle. The tricky wizard was able to escape blame at this time by blaming Rubeus Hagrid and his pet, Aragog, for the attacks on the students of the school. While not a complete failure, this venture would prove to be one of the first failures of Voldemort’s life as he was forced to leave behind a diary-turned-Horcrux that also happened to house the essence of his youth in order to guide another to victory with the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
The chamber would then remain sealed until Harry Potter arrived at Hogwarts for his second year. Instead of being opened by some other unknown heir of Slytherin, a young Ginny Weasley was forced to open it. Controlled by the memory of Tom Riddle after Lucius Malfoy slipped her the diary, Ginny had no choice but to do whatever Tom commanded. The one saving grace of this era is that while Tom succeeded in harming students in his time, no Hogwarts students were killed in this era.
The opening of the chamber and the students that had been harmed caused Harry to leap into action. Fortunately, Harry was able to not only enter the chamber, but also battle against Tom Riddle and his basilisk while saving Ginny Weasley. This event turned out to be a massive blunder for Voldemort, as he was thwarted from fully reviving once again while also losing a Horcrux in the process.
It’s easy to forget, but Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were then the next people to open the Chamber of Secrets in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two. Ron managed to open the chamber thanks to having heard Harry speaking parseltongue in the past, and the two were able to further thwart Voldemort’s plans by destroying one of his Horcruxes with a fang from the long-dead basilisk. That marks the last time that the chamber was officially opened in the on-screen continuity, though it is worth mentioning that it was additionally opened in the mobile game Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.
Harry Potter is available to stream on Max.