Chapter 2-9 The writing on the Wall

• Filch thinks Harry killed his cat. Dumbledore takes Harry, Ron, Hermione and Filch with him to Professor Lockhart's office. Professor McGonagall and Snape follow. Dubledore examines Mrs. Norris. Professor Lockhart is hovering all around them making suggestions, saying that it was probably the Transmogrifian Torture curse that killed it and that he remembered a similar case in Quagadogou. Dumbledore finally establishes that the cat is not dead but Petrified. Filch is convinced Harry did it since Harry found out he's a Squib. Although Harry doesn't tell them he heard "a voice", they believe his story that he was at the deathday party although he was in the corridor without any reason to be there. Dumbledore promises to have Professor Sprout cure his cat with some Mandrakes. Lockhart offers to do it, saying he could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in his sleep. Harry, Ron and Hermione are told they may leave.
• Ron explains to Harry that a Squib is someone born in a wizarding family who does not have any magical powers.
• Filch guards the spot where his cat was cursed. He tries to remove the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover but with no effect.
• One day Harry goes to the library to meet with Ron. Ron is already there doing homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three-feet-long composition on The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards. Harry tells Ron that when Justin Finch-Fletchley saw him, he ran away, frightened of of him. Hermione emerges from between the bookshelves and tells them that all the copies of Hogwarts, a History have been taken out. Everyone seems to want to read about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.
• They have History of Magic class with Professor Binns. While giving a lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289 Hermione asks about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. Annoyingly he refuses with the reason that his subject is History of Magic, dealing with fact. He starts his lecture again continuing about a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers but Hermione asks him about the chamber again.
• He starts to explain the story. Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Slytherin wanted to ban muggles from entering the school and it came to an argument which made him leave the school. The story goes that he built a hidden chamber in the castle. Only his heir would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets to unleash the horror within and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic. The horror is believed to be some sort of monster which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control.
• Harry feels badly, remembering the Sorting Hat wanted to put him in Slytherin. He's afraid he might be Slytherin's heir.
• Ron, Harry and Hermione come to the place where Mrs. Norris was attacked and see a lot of spiders all in a hurry to get outside through a crack. Remembering that there was water on the floor when it happened, they enter the girls' toilet nearby where Moaning Myrtle always stays. She's there and they talk to her. They are 'caught' and sent away by Percy.
• Back in the common room they speculate about the identity of the Heir, Ron saying he believes it is Draco Malfoy. Hermione suggests using a Polyjuice Potion to transform themselves, temporarily, to look like three other people; three Slytherins. This way they can go into the Slytherin common room and ask Draco directly. Getting the recipe will be very difficult, since Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions, bound to be in the Restricted Section of the Library. They need to get a signed note of permission from a teacher to get the book.