Hannah Abbot
Hannah Abbot is a second year Hufflepuff who is friends with Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley. When Ernie argues that Harry Potter must be the Heir of Syltherin, Hannah comes to Harry's defense.
Aragog
Aragog is a blind spider the size of a small elephant who lives in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid acquired Aragog as an egg from a traveler from distant lands, and hid him in a cupboard in Hogwarts. Tom Riddle blamed the death of Moaning Myrtle on Aragog, which caused Hagrid to be expelled. Hagrid released Aragog into the forest, and found him a mate: Mosag. Together they had many children. Aragog instructs his children not to eat Hagrid out of friendship, but he has no such qualms about Ron and Harry, who barely escape with their lives.
Professor Binns
Professor Binns is the History of Magic teacher at Hogwarts. He is the only ghost teacher at the school. He enters the classroom through the blackboard. After dying in front of the fire in the staff room, he got up the next morning and continued to teach as usual, leaving his body behind. His lessons are generally considered to be the dullest. He frequently gets the names of his students wrong. When Hermione asks him about the Chamber of Secrets, he is very surprised and somewhat reluctant, but relents and tells the students both the history and the legend.
Mr. Borgin
Borgin is the proprietor of "Borgin and Burkes," a shop in Knockturn Alley, London. He is obsequious to Lucius Malfoy while he is serving him as a customer. But when Malfoy leaves, Borgin makes a disparaging remark about him under his breath.
The Bloody Baron
The resident ghost of Slytherin Tower.
Katie Bell
Katie Bell is a Gryffindor girl a year older than Harry, one of the three Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Millicent Bulstrode
Millicent is a Hogwarts student in Slytherin house, in Harry’s year. She is large and square with a heavy jaw. Harry and Ron consider her ugly. When, in the dueling club, Snape partners Millicent with Hermione Granger, Millicent puts Hermione into a painful headlock. She leaves hair on Hermione's robe in the process, which Hermione saves for her Polyjuice potion. But the hair turns out to be from Millicent's cat, causing unfortunate side effects for Hermione.
Colin Creevey
Colin is a first-year Hogwarts student in Gryffindor House. He is short, with mousey brown hair. Colin is from a Muggle family. He takes a lot of pictures to send home to his father, a milkman. He is easily excited and a huge fan of Harry Potter. He constantly takes Harry's picture and asks him a lot of questions, which, conveniently for new readers, leads Harry to explain important information, like the rules of Quidditch. When Colin becomes petrified, Ernie McMullen accuses Harry of attacking Colin for annoying him and being Muggle-born. In fact, he was petrified when he saw the basilisk through his camera's lens.
Vincent Crabbe
Crabbe is a Hogwarts student in Slytherin house. Along with Goyle, he is one of Draco Malfoy's henchmen. He is thickset with a pudding-bowl haircut. He is mean, slow, and greedy. Ron Weasley turns into Crabbe by drinking Polyjuice potion.
Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore
Sir Patrick is the leader of the Headless Hunt. He excludes Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington from the hunt because Nick's head is not fully severed from his body. Sir Patrick arrives at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party with a team of headless horses and rudely upstages Nick's speech by beginning a game of head hockey. Nick asks Harry Potter to tell Sir Patrick that he finds Nick very frightening. But when he does this, Sir Patrick doesn't believe him.
Professor Armando Dippet
Professor Dippet was the headmaster of Hogwarts before Albus Dumbledore. He was manipulated by Tom Riddle to believe that Hagrid was responsible for Moaning Myrtle's death.
Dobby
Dobby is a house-elf with green eyes the size of tennis balls and bat-like ears who wears an old pillowcase. He speaks about himself in the third person and uses unusual syntax. He serves the Malfoy family, and will only be freed when they gift him clothing. His magical abilities include being able to apparate, disarm, and make objects levitate. He also seals the portal to Platform 9 3/4 and fixes the Bludger to attack Harry in Quidditch. Dobby is a trickster figure who disrupts norms and transgresses boundaries. He tries to protect Harry Potter, at great risk to himself, because Harry's defeat of Voldemort improved the lives of "lowly" magical creatures. His attempts to help Harry end up interfering in Harry's life and force Harry to overcome obstacles. He constantly punishes himself for betraying his master by protecting Harry. In the end, he is rewarded for his loyalty when Harry helps him get free of Malfoy through the exchange of Harry's sock.
Albus Dumbledore
Dumbledore is a wizard and the headmaster of Hogwarts. He is tall and thin with blue eyes and a long silver beard. He wears a long purple cloak and half-moon spectacles, and has a crooked nose. He has a pet phoenix named Fawkes. Harry Potter describes him as "the greatest wizard in the world." He was a Professor at Hogwarts fifty years prior to this story, when Tom Riddle and Rubeus Hagrid were pupils. He has a calm, kind, wise disposition.
Dudley Dursley
Dudley is a Muggle and Harry Potter's cousin, the son of Vernon and Petunia Dursley. He is overindulged by his parents, lavished with the attention and affection the Durselys deny to Harry. He attends a private school named Smeltings. He taunts and bullies Harry.
Petunia Dursley
Petunia is a Muggle and Harry Potter's aunt, the sister of his mother Lily. She is married to Vernon Dursley and is the mother of Dudley Dursley. She overindulges both her husband and her son as she neglects and punishes Harry.
Vernon Dursley
Vernon is a Muggle and Harry Potter’s uncle by marriage. He is married to Petunia and is the father of Dudley. He is large, with a very short neck and a bushy mustache.
He works as the manager of a drill-making firm and is conventionally ambitious. He is prejudiced, frequently enraged, and cruel to Harry.
Errol
Errol is the Weasley family’s pet owl. He is quite elderly, and exhausted but dedicated. He is a comical figure, often barely managing to deliver messages, and landing in odd places. He looks like a moulting grey feather-duster.
Fang
Fang is Rubeus Hagrid's Boarhound (which is another name for a Great Dane). He is lovable, loyal, and affectionately slobbering. He accompanies Harry and Ron into the forrest, where he is terrified of the spiders.
Fawkes
Fawkes is Dumbledore's pet phoenix. He is a magical bird who on his Burning Day bursts into flames and then is reborn from the ashes. He has beautiful red and gold plumage, with long golden tail feathers. He sings an "eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly" song. He is very loyal, can carry immensely heavy loads, and has tears that possess healing powers. All of these qualities help rescue Harry Potter from the Chamber of Secrets. His name is an allusion to Guy Fawkes Day, which is celebrated in Britain with fireworks and bonfires.
Argus Filch
Filch is the caretaker of Hogwarts. He has a pet cat called Mrs. Norris who helps him patrol the school. He is a Squib, meaning that he was born into a wizard family but with no magical abilities. This is why, according to Ron, he is bitter and hates Hogwarts students. He tries to learn magic trough a Quickspell course, which embarrasses him when Harry finds out. He blames Harry for the petrification of Mrs. Norris.
Justin Finch-Fletchley
Justin is a Hogwarts student in Hufflepuff house in the same year as Harry. He is initially friendly to Harry, and tells him that he was also accepted to Eton, implying that he is Muggle-born and of the upper class. During the Dueling Club, Justin is threatened by a snake until Harry Potter calls it off in Parseltongue, which Justin misinterprets as egging it on. Justin becomes afraid of Harry, convinced that Harry is the Heir of Slytherin. Ernie advises Justin to hide in his dorm. Justin becomes petrified when he sees the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick. After he is revived he writes to Harry and apologizes for suspecting him.
Professor Filius Flitwick
Flitwick is the Charms professor at Hogwarts and Head of Ravenclaw house. He is a small wizard of goblin ancestry who has to stand on piles of books to see over his desk. He is the accidental victim of Ron's broken wand. When Ginny Weasley is taken into the Chamber of Secrets, he bursts into tears.
Seamus Finnigan
Seamus is a Hogwarts student in the same year as Harry, also in Gryffindor house. He and his best friend Dean Thomas enjoy laughing at Lockhart together.
Cornelius Fudge
Fudge is the Minister for Magic. He is a short, portly wizard with grey hair. He wears a pinstriped suit, scarlet tie, long black traveling cloak, pointed purple boots, and lime green bowler hat. Under pressure from the Governors Fudge arrests Hagrid because he has "got to be seen doing something." He protests when Lucius Malfoy wants to suspend Dumbledore as headmaster, but doesn't stop him. He is therefore complicit in injustice through lack of will.
Godric Gryffindor
Godric Gryffindor was one of the four founders of Hogwarts. Gryffindor house was named after him. When Harry Potter is in the Chamber of Secrets he pulls Godric Gryffindor's sword out of the sorting hat, which Dumbledore explains is a sign that Harry truly belongs in Gryffindor house.
Gregory Goyle
Goyle is a Hogwarts student in Slytherin House in the same years as Harry Potter. He has bristly hair and long, gorilla-like arms. He is stupid and mean. Along with Crabbe, Goyle is one of Draco Malfoy's henchmen. Harry Potter transforms into Goyle when he drinks the Polyjuice potion.
Hermione Granger
Hermione is a Hogwarts student in Harry Potter's year, also in Gryffindor House. Along with Ron Weasely, she is one of Harry's closest friends. Hermione's parents are Muggle dentists. She is an excellent student who studies hard to get the best grades in school. Hermione has an analytical mind: She is good at suspending judgment, being observant, and figuring out the truth. Her devotion to books leads her to believe the false tales of Professor Lockhart, however, whom she develops a crush on. Draco Malfoy is threatened by Hermione's intelligence, and taunts her for being a "Mud-blood." Normally a rule-follower, she breaks many rules to find out the truth when Muggle-borns and Squibs are threatened. She is brave enough to steal ingredients from Snape's office, and competent at creating Polyjuice Potion, except for one mistake that gives her cat features. She also figures out that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk and how it moves about the school through the pipes. Even when she is petrified, her research helps solve the mystery.
Rubeus Hagrid
Hagrid is the groundskeeper at Hogwarts. He is a half-giant who is almost twice as tall as most people and about five times as wide, with a wild tangled beard. He lives in a cottage near the Forbidden Forest with his boarhound Fang. He is proud of his pumpkin patch, which he assists through a magic wand hidden in his umbrella. Hagrid has a fondness for large, dangerous creatures such as Fluffy the Hellhound and Norbert the Dragon (in the first book in the series), and Aragog the spider. Hagrid is very kind, and loyal to Dumbledore and Harry Potter. He was a student at Hogwarts, but was expelled by Armando Dippett after being framed by Tom Riddle as Slytherin's heir who unleashed the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Minister Fudge arrests him on the same charge fifty years later as a scapegoat. Dumbledore defends him, but it takes Harry's defeat of Voldemort for Hagrid to return to Hogwarts.
Hedwig
Hedwig is Harry's pet owl. Hagrid bought Hedwig from Eeylops Owl Emporium as a present for Harry's eleventh birthday. The Durselys lock Hedwig in her cage to prevent her from carrying messages to anyone in the wizarding world. As a result, she is bored and makes a noise that wakes up Vernon Dursley. She is disgusted by the soggy vegetables which are all that Harry has to feed her when Vernon has locked them in Harry's room. She is so wisely quiet during their escape that Harry forgets her and has to go back. Then she is happy to fly behind the car. She causes quite a scene when they crash into the wall trying to get onto the train platform to Hogwarts. And she becomes angry at Harry when they crash the car into the Whomping Willow, but forgives him by Christmas, when she nibbles his ear affectionately.
Madam Hooch
Madam Hooch is the flying teacher and Quidditch referee at Hogwarts.
Angelina Johnson
Angelina is a Hogwarts student, two years ahead of Harry. She is a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Professor Gilderoy Lockhart
Gilderoy Lockhart is a new Hogwarts Professor, teaching Defense of the Dark Arts, who is revealed to be a charlatan. He wears colorful clothes, curls his hair, and writes with a peacock feather pen. He built his career with self-promotion and charm. For example, he is the five-time winner of ‘Witch Weekly's’ Most-Charming-Smile Award. He attempts to get close to Harry Potter to capitalize on Harry's fame. Lockhart is the author of best-selling autobiographies, which he wrote by taking credit for the brave exploits of other witches and wizards, after erasing their memories. At Hogwarts, he alienates the other professors with his empty boasting, and is an entirely inept teacher. His ineptitude has real consequences, as his dueling club creates a dangerous episode with a snake, and his attempt to mend Harry's bones after a sports injury removes them instead. After Harry and Ron discover that he is about to flee rather than trying to rescue Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, they force him to accompany them on their quest. He tries to blast them with a memory charm, which ironically backfires, erasing his own memory instead. Lockhart is often the vehicle for ironic humor early in the story, but towards the end, he is punished for his selfishness.
Neville Longbottom
Neville is a Hogwarts student in Harry's year, also in Gryffindor House. He is round-faced and accident-prone, with a terrible memory. He has a pet toad named Trevor. He comes from a magical family, and was raised by his grandmother. He was discovered to be a wizard late in his childhood, when his uncle accidentally dropped him out of a window and he bounced. Snape mocks him in Potions class. Cornish pixies lift him into the air by his ears in and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Neville has little self-confidence. During the school panic over the Heir of Slytherin he buys talismans to protect himself because "everyone knows I'm almost a squib."
Draco Malfoy
Draco is a student at Hogwarts in Harry Potter's year, in Slytherin House. Draco is a thin boy with a pale, pointed face. He is often accompanied by two henchmen: Crabbe and Goyle. He is jealous of Harry for his fame and Hermione Granger for being the top student. Draco is the son of Lucius Malfoy, and feels entitled due to being from a wealthy pure-blood wizard family. His father buys his way on to the Syltherin Quidditch team by providing the fastest broomsticks. He insults Hermione with the slur "Mudblood" and declares "You'll be next, Mudbloods!" after Mrs. Norris is attacked. Harry and Ron suspect Draco of being the Heir of Slytherin, but this turns out to be incorrect. Draco enjoys the terror at Hogwarts. When his father manages to remove Dumbledore as headmaster, Draco struts around the school with pride. When Dumbledore returns, he sulks.
Lucius Malfoy
Lucius Malfoy is both Draco Malfoy's father and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Hogwarts. He is a pure-blood wizard who once supported Voldemort, before the Dark Lord went into hiding. Under pressure from the raids conducted by Arthur Weasley in his job at the Ministry of Magic, Malfoy sells some of his Dark Magic items at Borgin and Burkes' shop. In an attempt to discredit Weasley, and so thwart his proposed Muggle Protection Act, Malfoy plants Tom Riddle's diary on Ginny Weasley. He manages to get Dumbledore suspended temporarily as Headmaster of Hogwarts by threatening to curse the other governors' families. Malfoy mistreats his house-elf Dobby, until Harry Potter frees Dobby from servitude by tricking Malfoy.
The Masons
On Harry Potter's twelfth birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Mason are dinner guests at Number 4, Privet Drive, the home of the Durselys. Vernon Dursely hopes to make a major business deal on behalf of his employer Grunnings, a drill manufacturer, with Mr. Mason, who is a builder. The plan goes awry when the party is disrupted by Dobby destroying Petunia Dursley's pudding and an owl delivers a letter to Harry from the Ministry of Magic on Mrs. Mason's head. She has an intense fear of birds.
Professor Minerva McGonagall
Professor McGonagall is Head of Gryffindor House and is the Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts. She becomes Deputy Headmistress in Dumbledore's absence. She has jet-black hair worn in a tight bun and wears square glasses and an emerald-green cloak. In the first book, she turns herself into a cat. She is both strict and kind.
Moaning Myrtle
Myrtle is a ghost who haunts the first-floor girls' bathroom. She was Muggle-born and squat with lank hair, pimples, and thick glasses. When she was alive she was teased by Olive Hornby, so she returns to haunt her after death. She feels sorry for herself and takes pleasure in the misfortune of others. She attends Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party, where Peeves taunts her. She is very pleased when Hermione partially turns herself into a cat. When Ginny throws Riddle's diary into Myrtle's toilet, Harry discovers it through Myrtle's moaning. She was killed by the basilisk when the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the first time. She helps Harry and Ron find the entrance to the Chamber.
Ernie Macmillan
Ernie is a Hogwarts student in Harry's year in Hufflepuff House. According to Ernie, he is a pure-blood wizard, going back nine generations. He spreads rumors that Harry Potter is the Heir of Slytherin. He also advises Justin Finch-Fletchley to hide from Harry. When Justin is petrified, Ernie accuses Harry of being responsible. After Hermione is also petrified, Ernie apologies to Harry publicly for his accusation.
Nearly Headless Nick
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington is the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower who lived around 500 years ago. He has a dangerously wobbly head, a plumed hat, and a tunic with a ruffle. He is known as Nearly Headless Nick because his beheading was not completely successful. He was hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe, leaving him only partially decapitated. Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore excludes Nick from the Headless Hunt because his head is still (barely) attached to his body. Nick kindly helps Harry Potter escape Filch by convincing Peeves to create a diversion. In exchange, Harry agrees to attend Nick's deathday party and to tell Sir Patrick, ironically, how frightening he finds Nick. Although Nick is dead, the stare of the basilisk petrifies him, causing his normally transparent body to become smokey. Justin Finch-Fletchly escapes death from the basilisk stare by looking through Nearly Headless Nick.
Mrs. Norris
Mrs. Norris is Argus Filch's cat. She is a scrawny dust-colored cat with bulging yellow eyes. Hogwarts students must be careful not to break rules in front of her as she has a very strong connection to Filch, so he will know immediately. She is the first victim of the Monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron find her petrified, hanging by her tail, on Halloween night.
Peeves the Poltergeist
Peeves is a poltergeist at Hogwarts, blending humor and malice to stir up trouble whenever possible. He wears a bell-covered hat and an orange bowtie. He disrupts order and causes messes, frustrating Filch. This comes in handy when Nearly Headless Nick convinces Peeves to divert Filch from punishing Harry. He loves to instigate conflict, as when he informs Myrtle that Hermione was talking about her at the death day party. Peeves alerts the school when Justin and Nick are petrified, immediately blaming Harry Potter. Afterward, he mocks Harry Potter relentlessly with a rhyming song: "Oh Potter, you rotter, oh what have you done? You're killing off students, you think it's good fun –"
Madam Pince
Madam Pince is the librarian at Hogwarts. She is thin and irritable. Highly suspicious of the students, she guards the books zealously.
Madam Poppy Pomfrey
Poppy Pomfrey is the Hospital Matron at Hogwarts. She is very competent. She regrows Harry Potter's bones, restores Hermione's appearance after she accidentally gains cat features, and revives the students who were petrified by the basilisk. She is also firmly protective of her patients, often insisting that visitors leave so that they may rest.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a twelve-year-old wizard in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in Gryffindor House. He is skinny with untidy black hair, green eyes, and round glasses. He has a pet owl named Hedwig. He grew up at Number 4 Privet Drive with the Dursleys: Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley. Harry was unaware of his magical abilities until one year before, when his true past was revealed to him. He is the son of James and Lily Potter who were killed by Lord Voldemort when he was a baby. Harry survived Voldemort's attack and so is famous in the wizarding world as "The Boy Who Lived." Voldemort left him with a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. At the end of The Chamber of Secrets, Harry learns that Voldemort left a part of himself in Harry as well, which is why Harry is a Parselmouth with the ability to speak with snakes. In contrast to his fame in the wizarding world, Harry is isolated, neglected, and abused in the mundane Muggle world. His two best friends are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. When the Dursleys lock Harry in his room Ron comes to his rescue, bringing him home to his family at the Burrow, where Harry experiences a loving household for the first time. Harry is insecure about his identity. He secretly worries that the Sorting Hat placed him in the wrong house at Hogwarts and that he could be the heir of Slytherin. During the panic over the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, other Hogwarts students become afraid of Harry. As he endures the same social isolation in the wizarding world that he endured at home, he becomes angry. He is initially fooled by Tom Riddle because he relates to Riddle's experience of being an orphan. He is willing to break rules, assume responsibility beyond his years, and take risks to find out the truth and defeat Voldemort. He remains both brave and loyal to his friends. As an infant, Harry was saved by the love of his mother. Love allows him to emerge a triumphant hero of the story.
Salazar Slytherin
Salazar Slytherin is one of the four founders of Hogwarts. Slytherin house is named after him. He was a Parselmouth, meaning that he could speak with snakes. According to Dumbledore, he prized resourcefulness, determination, and a disregard for rules. Professor Binns explained that "Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school." Before departing, he created the Chamber of Secrets, with a monster inside that would purge the school of those "unworthy" to study magic, which could only be opened by his heir.
Professor Severus Snape
Professor Snape is the Potions Master Hogwarts and Head of Slytherin House. He has black, greasy shoulder-length hair, black eyes, and a long hooked nose. He is cold and sarcastic and has a particular dislike for Harry Potter. When Harry and Ron crash the car into the Womping Willow, Snape wants them expelled, and is disappointed when Dumbledore gives them another chance. In the dueling club, Snape easily overpowers Professor Lockhart, blasting him against the wall. He arranges for Harry to duel Draco Malfoy. Right before they start, Snape whispers something in Draco’s ear. Draco then casts a spell that summons a snake. When Harry speaks Parseltongue, Snape gives him “a cold and calculating look he didn’t like." While a minor character in this particular book, Snape is a major figure in the Harry Potter series overall.
Alicia Spinnet
Alicia is one of the Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She is two years above Harry at Hogwarts. She tries to convince Oliver Wood to take Harry Potter out of the Quidditch match for his protection when the rogue Bludger is after him. She also defends Hermione when Draco calls her a "Mudblood."
Professor Pomona Sprout
Sprout is Herbology Professor at Hogwarts and head of Hufflepuff House. She bandages the Whomping Willow, and fashions slings for its branches after Ron and Harry crash the car into it. She also tends to the Mandrakes so that they may revive the petrified students. Professor Sprout is an earthy witch, short and squat with fly-away hair and a patched hat.
Dean Thomas
Dean is a Hogwarts student in the same year as Harry, also in Gryffindor house. His best friend is Seamus Finnigan. Dean comes from a Muggle family, and like Harry, has difficulty knowing which classes to choose. He is a Chaser in Quidditch.
Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle
Voldemort is a powerful wizard, Harry Potter's nemesis and a symbol of evil. Those who fear Voldemort refer to him as 'He Who Must Not Be Named,' 'You-Know-Who' or 'The Dark Lord.' His birth name was Tom Marvolo Riddle, which he changed via anagram into Lord Voldemort. The son of a witch and a Muggle, Voldemort changed his identity out of resentment for his father, who abandoned his mother. She died shortly after childbirth so Tom Riddle grew up in a Muggle orphanage. When he was a student at Hogwarts, fifty years before Harry, he opened the Chamber of Secrets and used the basilisk to terrorize Muggle-born students, killing Moaning Myrtle. (He was the Heir of Slytherin, related to Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin through his mother.) He got away with it by framing Hagrid, who was then expelled from school. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter, Harry's parents. But he was unable to kill Harry, who was protected by his mother's love. Voldemort left Harry carrying a portion of himself, along with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead.
Arthur Weasley
Mr. Weasley is a wizard who lives at the Burrow. He has thinning red hair, and wears glasses and a long shabby robe. He is married to Molly Weasley. Together they have six children: Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. He works for the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. He appreciates the ingenuity of Muggle technology, and is thrilled to meet Hermione's Muggle parents to learn more about everyday Muggle inventions such as bus stops. He enjoys enchanting Muggle objects, such as his Ford Angola car. He doesn't mind bending the Ministry's rules, as he wrote a loophole into a law to allow him to enchant the car as long as he doesn't intend to use it. He is the author of the Muggle Protection Act. Although he is a pure-blood wizard, he is opposed to the pure-blood supremacist ideology espoused by Lucius Malfoy.
Bill Weasley
Bill is the eldest son of Arthur and Molly Weasley and brother of Ron Weasley. He was a past Head Boy in Gryffindor House who got twelve O.W.L.s. Bill works as a curse-breaker for Gringotts Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley visit him in Egypt over the Christmas holidays.
Charlie Weasley
Charlie is the second-oldest Weasley sibling. He is training dragons in Romania.
Fred and George Weasley
Fred and George are Ron Weasley's twin older brothers. They help Ron rescue Harry from his imprisonment at the Durselys'. When many students at Hogwarts suspect Harry of being the Heir of Syltherin, Fred and George lighten the mood by turning it into a joke. They also try to cheer up Ginny by jumping out at her, which frightens her instead. They are both Beaters for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and protect Harry when the rogue Bludger pursues him.
Ginny Weasley
Ginny Weasley is a Hogwarts student in her first year in Gryffindor House. She is small with bright red hair. She is the youngest child of Arthur and Molly Weasley, and the sister of Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, and Ron Weasley. Ginny has a crush on Harry Potter and is shy around him. But she is brave enough to send Harry a singing telegram on Valentine's Day. She seems to be a minor character in the plot, but is in fact central to the truth of what's unfolding: Voldemort uses Ginny to terrorize Hogwarts by manipulating her through his diary. She discovers the diary in her school books after Lucius Malfoy planted it there. She begins confessing her secrets to the diary, and then Tom Riddle (aka Voldemort) writes back to her, and comes to possess her. Under the power of Riddle/Voldemort, she opens the Chamber of Secrets, unleashes the basilisk, kills the roosters, and paints the threatening messages on the walls. She tries to get rid of the diary by flushing it down the toilet. And she attempts to tell Harry and Ron the truth, but is scared away by Percy. Voldemort also uses Ginny to lure Harry Potter into the Chamber of Secrets. When Ginny sees that Harry has defeated Voldemort and the basilisk, she looks "bemused." Her father admonishes Ginny in the end for not learning his lesson to "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." Malfoy is also using Ginny to undermine her family’s power, and in an effort to change the government of both Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
Molly Weasley
Mrs. Weasley is a pure-blood witch who lives at the Burrow. She is short and plump, with red hair and a kind face. She is married to Arthur Weasley. Together they have six children: Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. As a mother, Molly is loving and strict. She is very kind and welcoming to Harry Potter. She is worried when Ron, Fred, and George steal their father's car, and furious when they arrive back home. She yells at them, and also feeds them. When Ron and Harry steal the car again and crash it into the Whomping Willow, she sends Ron an explosive humiliating Howler. She is a fan of Gilderoy Lockhart. She makes all of her children, and Harry, hand-knit sweaters at Christmastime. She is ecstatic when Harry and Ron save Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets.
Percy Weasley
Percy is one of Ron's older brothers and a Gyffindor prefect. He is studious and ambitious. Ron also finds him pompous, as he constantly enforces the rules. Ron says that Percy wants to be the Minister of Magic. It turns out that a lot of Percy's odd behavior in the book is to hide his romance with the Ravenclaw prefect Penelope Clearwater.
Ron Weasley
Ron Weasley is a student at Hogwarts in the same year as Harry Potter, and also in Gryffindor House. He has red hair and freckles. He is particularly adept at wizard chess and terrified of spiders. His pet rat is named Scabbers. Along with Hermione Granger, Ron is one of Harry's two best friends. He writes to Harry over the summer repeatedly, but his letters are intercepted by Dobby. Concerned, he rescues Harry from imprisonment at the Dursleys' and brings him home to stay with his family. Ron is the youngest son of Molly and Arthur Weasley. He has six siblings: five older brothers, Bill, Charlie, Percy, twins Fred and George, and a younger sister, Ginny. The Weasleys are a loving family of pure-blood wizards who live at the Burrow. Ron's bright orange room is on the fifth floor, right below the attic containing the family ghoul. The Weasley family struggles with poverty, which makes Ron insecure. When Ron breaks his wand he makes do for the rest of the school year, suffering through frustrations and indignities. In a twist, his broken wand ends up preventing Lockhart from erasing his and Harry's memories in the end. Ron exhibits conventional prejudices against Squibs and Parselmouths. He is a loyal friend to Harry, accompanying him through many trials, including drinking the Polyjuice Potion, which disgusts him, and entering the Forbidden Forest, which terrifies him, and entering the Chamber of Secrets to rescue his sister Ginny.
Oliver Wood
Oliver is the Captain and Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He is very driven to win, and so wakes his team up early to practice and devises elaborate game plans. Before a Quidditch match against Slytherin, he tells Harry Potter: "Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today, we've got to."
