CHAMBER OF SECRETS VS. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

 Chamber of Secrets has a lot in common with Phantom of the Opera:

1. The villain's lair is deep under ground and contains a lot of water
2. The villain has an unassuming first name (the Phantom=Érik, Voldemort/Riddle=Tom)
   
3. The villain conceals his identity (Érik behind a mask and the mirrors, Tom Riddle behind his youthful appearance and his diary)
   
4. The villain communicates with the innocent, bullied outsider heroine (Christine/Ginny) without revealing his face (Érik through the mirror, Riddle through his diary). He gains her trust until she trusts him completely
   
5. The villain takes the heroine into his underground, watery lair
6. The heroine is saved by her love interest, a young idealist and (in Harry's case, future) agent of law and order: Raoul the military officer/Harry the future Auror (wizarding military/police)

Quantum Harry reiterates the Red Riding Hood parallels (redheaded innocent Ginny=RRH, Riddle/Basilisk=Big Bad Wolf, heroic Harry=Huntsman), but I can't unsee the PotO parallels that are far clearer.

Given that Rowling has majored in French and has French ancestry herself (Fleur Delacour=flower of the court, Bellatrix Lestrange=strange warrior [Lestrange is a real Anglo-Norman surname], Draco Malfoy=dragon of ill faith - besides the pale and platinum-blond Malfoys and their neoclassical estate bring to mind the Bourbons of the eighteenth century - and, the icing on the cake, Ron and Hermione call their son Hugo Granger-Weasley - a Victor Hugo reference? Harry's childhood with the Dursleys calls to mind both Cosette and Cinderella [and Dudley reforms just like Éponine!], but also Marius with the Gillenormands: an orphan whose late mother married for love, raised by a conservative, "Philistine" maternal family who tries to squash the creativity out of him and keep his parentage top secret [like Harry has Dudley and Cosette has Éponine, Marius also has a spoiled stepsibling as a foil, his lieutenant cousin Théodule] Lupin concealing himself as a werewolf calls to mind both Triboulet [Rigoletto] and Quasimodo - plus the Lupin surname, not only as Canis lupus but also as Arsène Lupin!), I think all the Phantom echoes in Chamber were intentional on Rowling's part! Chamber is a whole-plot reference to Phantom set in Hogwarts...

TENNIS BALLS, MY LIEGE

This is a #4thCentennial post about tennis, Anglo-French relations, warfare, and masculinity. It also explores a more peaceful, better way in which a conflict could have been solved (unfortunately, it was not the way it unfurled in history):

FRENCH AMBASSADOR.

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,

desires you let the dukedoms that you claim

hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

KING HENRY V.

What treasure, uncle?

The treasure chest full of tennis balls as it appears in The Hollow Crown, starring Tom Hiddleston

(AKA Loki, plus best Cassio ever in the history of Othello).

EXETER.

Tennis balls, my liege.

The fuzzy yellow balls of present-day tennis.

KING HENRY V.

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.

His present and your pains we thank you for.

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,

we will, in France, by God's grace, play a set

shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler

that all the courts of France will be disturb'd

with chaces. And we understand him well,

how he comes o'er us with our wilder days,

not measuring what use we made of them.

We never valu'd this poor seat of England;

and therefore, living hence, did give ourself

to barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common

that men are merriest when they are from home.

But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,

be like a king, and show my sail of greatness

when I do rouse me in my throne of France.

What a shame that Henry V chose to settle those matters not with rackets, but with cannons!

A lot of lives could have been spared if there had just been a game of tennis between the two future brothers-in-law. Just Henry and Louis, each one with a racket, sending one another a ball to and fro, and no casualties at all. But, you know, boys will be boys and war will be war... and royals will go balls to the wall over even the slightest squabble.

In fact, that was not the point. The Dauphin's intentions were far more sinister. In fact, Louis just wanted to send his brother-in-law a wordless message with the following implications:

-Henry, you've got no balls (of the gonad kind).
-Henry, suck my balls (of the gonad kind)!!!
-Henry, you're more comfortable wielding a racket than wielding a sword.

Of course, those were major insults to the royal honour, and the declaration of war was impossible to avoid. For Louis was a warmonger of the highest degree who burned with revenge to confront the English...

DAUPHIN

Say, if my father render fair return,
it is against my will; for I desire
nothing but odds with England: to that end,
as matching to his youth and vanity,
I did present him with the Paris balls.

EXETER

He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe:
and, be assured, you'll find a difference,
as we his subjects have in wonder found,
between the promise of his greener days
and these he masters now: now he weighs time
even to the utmost grain: that you shall read
in your own losses, if he stay in France.

KING OF FRANCE

Tomorrow shall you know our mind at full.