Writing on the Wall

A possessed Ginny writing the messages on the wall

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter? Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

— Tom Riddle's soul speaking to Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets

The Writing on the Wall referred to two messages written on the walls of the second-floor corridor outside Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

They were written by Ginny Weasley during the 1992–1993 school year when she was under the possession of Tom Riddle's diary during the second opening of the Chamber of Secrets. The messages were written in such a way that they could not be erased from the wall.

History

The Chamber of Secrets

The Writing on the Wall

Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. For many years, the founders worked together, but then differences began to arise: Slytherin only wanted to admit students coming from purely magical families (Pure-bloods) and keep Muggle-borns out, who he deemed as untrustworthy because of the great conflict between wizardkind and muggles. He was unable to convince the other three founders of this since they thought otherwise and as a result, Slytherin left the school, but not before building a secret chamber in the castle which would be called "The Chamber of Secrets" and inside it concealed a Basilisk. When a true heir of Salazar Slytherin returns to Hogwarts, the heir would open the Chamber and unleash the basilisk to purge the school of all who were "unworthy" to study magic.

Later, Slytherin's true heir Tom Riddle was born and he sought to finish Slytherin's noble work of purging the school of all Muggle-borns.

During the school year of 1942–1943, Riddle opened the Chamber and the Basilisk petrified several students and killed a girl, Myrtle Warren. Armando Dippet, who was Headmaster at the time was thinking about closing Hogwarts, but in order to keep the school open, Riddle stopped the attacks and framed Rubeus Hagrid and his pet spider Aragog and the former was expelled. The only person who believed that Hagrid was innocent was Albus Dumbledore who kept an annoyingly close watch on Riddle after the expulsion. Riddle later left Hogwarts and began travelling the world, experimenting with the Dark Arts, he would ultimately arise as the feared Lord Voldemort.

First message

"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE."

— The first message

The first message

The first message written by Ginny Weasley said "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir... beware". The message was discovered on 31 October, 1992 on the wall by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger when they left Nearly-Headless Nick's deathday party when Harry suddenly heard a disembodied voice speaking which Ron and Hermione were unable to hear.

They arrived at the corridor where Harry thought he could hear the voice, where they saw that the corridor was flooded with water from Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom. Then they saw the first message written on the wall, as well as Mrs Norris, the pet cat of the caretaker Argus Filch, who had been petrified (by looking at the Basilisk's gaze reflected in the water on the floor) and was hanging from a torch, put there by Ginny.

Filch tried to clean the message away with Mrs Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, to no avail.

The meaning of first message would be translated as: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened", means that the basilisk had been released. "Enemies of the heir" means Muggle-Borns or "Mudbloods" (those who were "unworthy" to attend at Hogwarts). And "... beware". means that the basilisk would be hunting for these Muggle-Borns in the school.

Second message

"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."

— The second message

The second message

The second message written by Ginny said "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever". When this message was discovered, Minerva McGonagall decided that Hogwarts would surely have to close. After this discovery, Harry and Ron went down into the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny, taking the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart who had unintentionally revealed his lifestyle of fraudulence to the two boys. Harry was parted from the both of them when Lockhart attempted to wipe their memories and then his spell backfired on him and then rock fell and Harry was left on the side of the road to the Chamber while Ron and Lockhart were on the other side.

Harry found Ginny unconscious and was dying, then the memory of Tom Riddle appeared who confessed to Harry how he used Ginny to carry out the attacks. He had Ginny write the second message in order to lure Harry down to the Chamber so they could meet. Soon Tom Riddle revealed himself as not only the Heir of Slytherin, but also Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter's archenemy. Riddle summoned the Basilisk and tried to attack Harry, but Harry was able to defeat the Basilisk with the help of Albus Dumbeldore's pet phoenix, Fawkes along with the Sorting Hat and the Sword of Gryffindor and with the Basilisk fang that pierced Harry's arm which Fawkes was able to heal, Harry stabbed the diary with the fang, the memory of Riddle disappeared, the diary was destroyed and Ginny woke up and was saved.

Outcome

It is unknown what happened to the two messages after Hogwarts was saved and the Basilisk defeated, but given the fact that Filch tried to scrub the first message off on Hallowe'en night, but couldn't do so, it could be possible that they are still there or else removed in another way. Another theory is that when Tom Riddle's diary was destroyed, the messages simply vanished, as that magic might have been involved when they were written. Whatever the case was, the messages were never seen or spoken of ever again.

Behind the scenes

The Writing on the Wall as it appears in Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells

The Writing on the Wall as it appears in Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells

• In the GBC version of the game, only the first message was seen while the second one was only mentioned and there's no sign of it anywhere, not even near the first message. But unlike in the GBC version, the second message is seen both in the book when Harry, Ron and Lockhart head to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and and on-screen in the film when the teachers leave after McGonagall announced that Ginny had been taken into the Chamber.
• In the book, the messages were written in paint. In the film they were written in blood, possibly referring to the Basilisk voice: "Blood... I smell blood...":
• The second message actually came true, despite the message intending to refer to Ginny Weasley. Given how the Basilisk was a female, and Harry killed it in the Chamber of Secrets, her skeleton would lie in the Chamber forever. This is evidenced when Ron and Hermione went there in 1998 and used one of its fangs to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's Cup.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells