Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Characters

(Click the character infographic to download.) Chamber of Secrets is Book 2 of the Harry Potter series, so we've already been introduced to Harry. We know that he's embarrassed by all the attention...

(Click the character infographic to download.) If Hermione is the brains and Harry is the soul, Ron Weasley is the heart of the Harry Potter series. He is generous, loyal, kind, and a great friend...

(Click the character infographic to download.) From pretty much the moment Harry meets Hermione in the Hogwarts Express in Book 1, we know that her main character trait is braininess. She studies h...

We get into the specifics of Tom Riddle's diary in "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory." Here, we're just going to talk about Tom Riddle as a character. He is essential to the overall arc of the novels b...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Ginny Weasley is Ron's younger sister and the youngest child in the Weasley family. She is also the only girl. We don't get much of a sense of Ginny y...

Professor Lockhart is the second Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher they've had in as many years. In addition to embarking on his new teaching career, Professor Lockhart is also busy marketing h...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets presents two different kinds of prejudice. One is anti-Muggle-born bigotry, as when Draco Malfoy calls Hermion...

(Click the character infographic to download.)Draco is the son of a rich, pureblood wizard family. He's also spoiled, prejudiced, and envious. He's in Slytherin House, and he's Harry's arch-nemesis...

Hannah Abbot, like Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley, is a Hufflepuff second year. She listens to Ernie as he tells her all of the reasons he thinks Harry Potter is the Heir of Slytherin (...

Katie Bell is the third Gryffindor Chaser, along with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet.

Professor Binns is Hogwarts's only ghost teacher. He doesn't appear to have noticed that he has died; he's just continuing on in his routine of teaching History of Magic as though he were alive. Pr...

Mr. Borgin owns a shop in Knockturn Alley (a Dark magic street just off Diagon Alley): Borgin and Burkes. Harry lands there by accident thanks to a mishap with the Floo network. Lucius and Draco Ma...

Millicent is a second year Slytherin student. She is "large and square and her heavy jaw jutted aggressively" (11.72). We don't get much of a sense of what Millicent is like as a person in Chamber...

Penelope Clearwater is a Ravenclaw prefect. She is found lying Petrified next to Hermione, her pocket mirror abandoned nearby. Harry realizes that Hermione must have seen Penelope in the library an...

Crabbe is one of Draco's two stupid henchmen. He follows Draco everywhere looking vaguely threatening. He is such a fool that, when Harry and Ron leave two chocolate cakes on the banister near the...

(Click the infographic to download.) Colin Creevey is a Gryffindor first year. He is also a Muggle-born. He is incredibly enthusiastic about the wizarding world, and his constant questions for Harr...

Sir Patrick is a ghost and the leader of the Headless Hunt. He is clearly an extremely popular ghost who upstages poor Nearly Headless Nick at his own deathday party. When Harry tells Sir Patrick t...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Professor Dumbledore is the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He has a great gift for inspiring loyalty: both Hagrid and Harry...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Vernon Dursley is Harry's horrible uncle. He works for a drill company called Grunnings. On July 31st (Harry's birthday, conveniently forgotten by the...

(Click the character infographic to download.) We've said before that we don't understand Uncle Vernon, but we really don't get Aunt Petunia. Harry is her dead sister's child, whom she has raised s...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Dudley is the Dursleys' ridiculously spoiled son. Every day of their lives, they encourage him to think he's perfect. Dudley has grown to believe that...

Errol is the Weasley family's ancient owl. He still carries their mail, mostly, but sometimes things go astray when he collapses in the middle of a delivery.

Fang is Hagrid's rather slobbery boarhound. When Hagrid gets taken away to Azkaban temporarily, Hagrid leaves Fang in the care of Ron and Harry. They bring him with them into the Forbidden Forest w...

The Fat Lady's portrait hangs in front of the door to the Gryffindor dormitories. She will not open the door without the correct password.

Chamber of Secrets is the first Harry Potter book in which we meet Fawkes, the phoenix. Fawkes lives in Professor Dumbledore's office. Harry sees Fawkes on a Burning Day. He starts out looking old...

Argus Filch is the Hogwarts caretaker. He absolutely hates Hogwarts students and spends as much time possible trying to punish them for dirtying the castle. When his cat (and only friend), Mrs. Nor...

On the first day of second-year Herbology, a boy named Justin Finch-Fletchley introduces himself to Harry. He starts chatting about his family ["My name was down for Eton, you know […] Of course,...

Seamus is one of Harry's four dorm-mates in Gryffindor, along with Ron, Neville, and Dean Thomas. He and Dean are close friends. They enjoy laughing at Lockhart together, which sounds like a fun bo...

Marcus Flint is the Slytherin Quidditch team captain. He allows Draco Malfoy to play Seeker on the Quidditch team because Draco's father buys them all new Nimbus 2001 brooms. So Marcus isn't above...

Professor Flitwick teaches Charms. Poor Professor Flitwick becomes a victim of Ron's broken wand, when it shoots "out of Ron's hand in Charms and [hits] tiny old Professor Flitwick squarely between...

Goyle is one of Draco's two stupid henchmen. When Harry and Ron take Polyjuice Potion to turn into Crabbe and Goyle, we get some insight into the relationships between Draco and his two hangers-on....

Hermione's parents accompany her to Diagon Alley when she goes to meet Ron and Harry to buy supplies for the coming school year. They seem like nice people – maybe a bit nervous around magic, but...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Hagrid is the groundskeeper at Hogwarts. He was expelled from Hogwarts when he was a boy, so he is technically not permitted to do magic, but Harry st...

Hermes is Percy's owl, a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley when Percy made prefect at Hogwarts. Percy has been using him a lot. Later, we discover that he's been sending love letters to Penelope Clear...

Madam Hooch is the flying master at Hogwarts. She taught Harry how to fly in first year. Now, she referees Quidditch games.

Mafalda Hopkirk is a witch from the Improper Use of Magic Office who writes to warn Harry against using magic outside of school so long as he's underage (i.e., under seventeen in the wizarding worl...

Angelina is a fourth year Hogwarts student and Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Lee Jordan is a Gryffindor student and a great friend of Fred and George's. He applauds when Harry and Ron come in to Hogwarts from their flying car adventure: "Brilliant! […] Inspired! What an e...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Like Ginny, Neville is another one of those background characters in the early novels who have the potential to be main characters in the later books....

Ernie Macmillan is a Hufflepuff second year, a friend of Justin Finch-Fletchley's, and a pureblood who can "trace [his] family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks" (11.151). Ernie...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, is a pureblood wizard with lots of money and high social standing. He's also a complete snob, a bigot, and a Dark wizar...

Uncle Vernon invites Mr. and Mrs. Mason to Number 4 Privet Drive to make a deal for a major drill sale for his company, Grunnings. It turns out, unfortunately for Uncle Vernon, that Mrs. Mason has...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Professor McGonagall teaches Transfiguration; she is also Head of Gryffindor House. She's a no-nonsense individual with a strong sense of duty. There...

Moaning Myrtle initially seems like a joke character along the lines of Nearly Headless Nick, but she does have a couple of important functions in the plot of Book 2. She's a miserable, mopey ghost...

Nearly Headless Nick is the Gryffindor ghost. In spite of the fact that he's been dead five hundred years, he's still a fairly petty guy. He applies to join the Headless Hunt, a team of ghostly hun...

(Click the infographic to download.) Mrs. Norris is a cat belonging to Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch. She seems to act as a kind of spy for Filch, somehow informing him when students are breaking...

Peeves is the school poltergeist. He has no morals or concerns at all. As soon as the student body turns against Harry, Peeves starts following him around singing a song that starts, "Potter, you r...

Madam Pince is the Hogwarts school librarian. She is a "thin, irritable woman who looked like an underfed vulture" (10.21). She guards her books with her life and constantly shushes the students wo...

Madam Pomfrey is Hogwarts's no-nonsense school nurse. When Harry breaks his arm at Quidditch and Professor Lockhart manages to remove all of his bones, Madam Pomfrey grows them back. She also takes...

Professor Sinistra teaches Astronomy. She helps to carry Justin Finch-Fletchley's Petrified body up to the Hospital Wing at the end of Chapter 12.

(Click the character infographic to download.) While Professor Snape (the Hogwarts Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House) is a huge character in the Harry Potter series as a whole, he plays a...

Alicia Spinnet plays Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team; she's also a fourth year during the second book. She tries to intervene on Harry's behalf during the Gryffindor-Slytherin game: "Olive...

Professor Sprout teaches Herbology. She begins teaching the second years how to take care of Mandrake plants, which are magical plants with human-looking roots. Her work takes on new importance whe...

(Click the character infographic to download.)Dean is another one of Harry's four Gryffindor dorm-mates, along with Ron, Neville, and Seamus Finnegan. While the second years are talking about what...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Mr. Weasley is Ron's father. He works for the Ministry of Magic, in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. He loves Muggle culture and is fascinated b...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Ron's mother, Molly Weasley, immediately welcomes Harry into her home. She is the first really mothering figure that Harry can remember meeting. Compa...

Percy Weasley is a sixth year Hogwarts student and Ron's third oldest brother. He is a Gryffindor prefect, which means that he has the authority to discipline other students for breaking school rul...

(Click the character infographic to download.)(Click the character infographic to download.) Ron's twin older brothers are the pranksters of the Weasley family. When they help Ron break Harry out...

Bill Weasley is the oldest son of the Weasley family. He's a curse breaker for Gringotts Bank. He lives in Egypt; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley pay him a visit over the Christmas holidays, which leaves Perc...

Charlie Weasley is the second oldest son of the Weasley family. He works with dragons at a preserve in Romania.

Wood is the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team; he is also the team's Keeper. He is incredibly serious about Quidditch, arranging endless practices and battle plans to prepare his team for th...