Harry¹ Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had the unenviable task of introducing everything, but with Chamber² of Secrets, you march right into the adventure headlong.

After spending another miserable³ summer with the Dursleys, our boy Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is anxious to start his second year at Hogwarts, but a house elf named Dobby warns him he'll be in grave danger if he goes back.

He returns anyway and sure enough, once Harry joins up with his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), weird⁴ things start to happen at school--one of which being that students are somehow being turned into stone.

Pretty soon it becomes clear the Chamber of Secrets--a legendary⁵ hidden chamber of evil built by one of Hogwarts' founders⁶, the nasty Salazar Slytherin--has been opened. Legend says the chamber can only be opened by the true heir of Slytherin, and once it is, the beast within will be unleashed⁷ to purge⁸ the school of those undeserving to study there. In other words, it'll get rid of wizards and witches who come from non-magic heritage (or Muggles, as they're called).

This puts Hermione in particular danger since she comes from Muggle parents. Yikes. Harry has his hands full trying to figure this one out, especially since he is suspected as the one who opened the chamber.

重点词汇

Dursleys  n. 德斯礼（波特姨父）一家
Hogwarts  n. 霍格沃茨（魔法学校）
Slytherin  n. 斯莱特林（魔法学校学院之一，专出坏巫师）