這個夏天結束前,哈利本來應該能夠順利重返霍格華茲。但人算不如天算,家庭小精靈多比突然造訪,警告他若是回到學校,將面臨生命危險!為了讓哈利徹底「斷念」,多比不但攔截了所有朋友們寄來的信,還用魔法陷害他,害他慘遭禁足。
但哈利始終很清楚,自己渴望回到霍格華茲。他想念那座藏著秘密通道和幽靈的城堡,想念他的魔法課程、由貓頭鷹送達的郵件,以及馳騁天際的魁地奇。彷彿聽到了他內心的呼喚,好友榮恩駕著飛天車,硬是把他從姨丈家給救了出來。
升上二年級的哈利,因為擊退佛地魔的英勇事蹟,成為全校的風雲人物,嚮往已久的校園生活,似乎有了極佳的開端。但危機卻也在此時悄然而至,先是無人的走廊出現了詭異的耳語聲,接著竟發生一連串襲擊事件。
管理員飛七的貓、崇拜哈利的一年級學弟……遭到「石化」的被害者陸續增加。難道,多比的警告成真了嗎?犯罪現場留下的不祥訊息「密室」又代表著什麼意義?一個埋藏了五十年的可怕秘密,正一步步引領哈利走向險境……
----中文簡介擷取自中譯本《哈利波特(2):消失的密室》,皇冠出版
The Dursleys were so mean that hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.
And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.
But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone--or something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry Potter himself?