Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third installment in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. It was first published in 1999.

Plot
Harry Potter spends another horrible summer with the Dursleys in mid-1993. On July 31 (his thirteenth birthday), after midnight, he receives gifts and letters from Rubeus Hagrid, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, each wishing him a happy birthday. According to Ron, his dad, Arthur Weasley, won a Daily Prophet Prize Draw for seven hundred galleons. Mr. Weasley then took the family to Egypt to visit his eldest son, Bill Weasley using the prize money, with the remainder being used to provide Ron with a new wand to replace the one that was broken last year. Harry also learns that Percy Weasley is entering his seventh year at Hogwarts and has been named Head Boy. According to Hermione, she and her parents are currently spending the holiday in France. Another letter arrives from Hogwarts, saying third years are allowed to visit the village of Hogsmeade and that their parent or guardian needs to sign the permission form in order for them to do so.

Meanwhile, Vernon Dursley's sister, Marjorie "Marge" Dursley, comes to visit them. Harry agrees to behave normally during her visit, if his uncle will sign his permission form. After a few days with her, she insults Harry by calling his father, James Potter, a drunk. Harry loses his temper and accidentally inflates her. She floats away, and Harry decides to take Hedwig and his school things and run away, fearing he will almost certainly be expelled from Hogwarts, after using magic outside school.

He reaches Magnolia Crescent and sees a black dog staring at him. In his shock, Harry falls and the Knight Bus, a triple-decker bus designed for wizard transportation, arrives. The dog vanishes and is nowhere in sight. Harry meets the Knight Bus's conductor, Stan Shunpike and the driver, Ernie Prang. Harry departs with the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron in London. He learns from the Daily Prophet, Sirius Black, a convict and a follower of Lord Voldemort, broke-out of Azkaban. He is known as the first person to ever break-out of Azkaban. He was imprisoned for murdering thirteen people with a single curse in 1981, right after the Potters' murder. At the Leaky Cauldron, he meets the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, in person. To Harry's surprise, Fudge doesn't take any action against him, and books a room for Harry, where he will stay for the rest of the summer.

Harry spends the rest of the holidays in Diagon Alley, and on the last day of the holidays, meets up with Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys. To Ron's displeasure, Hermione adopts a cat, Crookshanks, who harasses Ron's pet rat Scabbers. At some point during the night before September 1, the day he leaves for Hogwarts, Harry overhears a conversation between Ron's parents, Arthur and Molly Weasley. From what he hears, he learns that when Voldemort met his downfall, Black lost everything, and is now trying to kill Harry. Harry realises that Fudge let him off because he was relieved to find Harry alive. He is unconcerned about Black, doubting that he could harm him at Hogwarts, with headmaster Albus Dumbledore around.

The next day, shortly before he boards the Hogwarts Express, Arthur tried to warn him about Black and makes him promise not to go looking for Black no matter what he hears. On the train, Harry, Ron, and Hermione share a compartment with Professor Remus Lupin, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher. After several hours, the train breaks down and a sinister, cloaked figure enters. It sucks the happiness out of Harry, who faints, until Lupin drives it off with a spell. Lupin explains that the creature was a Dementor, a guard of Azkaban, and that they were searching the train for Sirius Black. At Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy taunts him over his reaction to the Dementor. After the sorting ceremony, Dumbledore announces the two changes in staffing during the year: Lupin, and Hagrid, who has been made the Care of Magical Creatures teacher in lieu of the retirement of Professor Kettleburn. The dementors were to be stationed at every entrance to the grounds just in case Black tries to enter the castle.

Lessons start the next day. Harry, Ron and Hermione head to the North Tower for their first Divination lesson. They meet Sybill Trelawney, and predict future events using tea leaves. Harry sees a black dog in his tea cup, which Trelawney identifies as the Grim, the omen of death. This worries Harry as he remembers the black dog he saw when he ran away. In their next lesson, Transfiguration, Professor Minerva McGonagall assures Harry that Trelawney has predicted the deaths of a number of students, none of whom have died. In their Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Hagrid teaches them about hippogriffs (horse/eagle creatures). Although initially nervous, Harry successfully approaches and then rides a grey hippogriff named Buckbeak. Later in the lesson, Malfoy, who had not been listening to Hagrid's lecture, insults Buckbeak, causing it to break his arm with its talons. He is taken to the Hospital Wing, and Hagrid fears that he will take the blame for letting Buckbeak attack Malfoy, even though Malfoy provoked it in the first place.

Later in the week, in Potions, Malfoy returns with a broken arm, although it is implied that he is faking it, and Harry learns that Black has been sighted near Hogwarts. In Defence against the Dark Arts, Lupin teaches the third years about Boggarts, shape-shifters that take the shape of a person's worst fear. The class then take on the Boggart, forcing it to assume a shape they find amusing. When it comes to Harry's turn, Lupin repels the boggart for him, which takes the shape of a Crystal ball-like object. Harry is disappointed that Lupin does not let him fight the Boggart thinking that Lupin feels he is not up to the task.

When October arrived, third-years visit Hogsmeade on the weekend, and only Harry isn't allowed, because his uncle did not sign his permission form. Harry then spends the day in Lupin's office, drinking tea with him. Lupin tells him that he didn't have Harry practice the spell, assuming his boggart will become Lord Voldemort. Lupin was an old school friend of Harry's father, James. A few hours later, Ron and Hermione return saying that they visited every building except the Shrieking Shack, which is the most haunted building in Britain. They reach the portrait of the Fat Lady and see it slashed and the Fat Lady gone. When Dumbledore, Argus Filch, and Percy find her in another portrait, she says Black entered the castle. Every student is moved in the Great Hall to sleep, while teachers search the castle. They say Black might have escaped the castle, as there's no sign of him.

Meanwhile, Lupin becomes ill and Snape takes his place whenever he's absent. The first Quidditch match of the season arrives: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. But Malfoy's arm is broken, so the Gryffindor play against Hufflepuff in the first match. It is raining badly, and Harry sees a large black dog in the topmost empty row of seats in the Quidditch stadium, which appears to be the grim. Dementors enter the match, and Harry faints and falls from his broomstick after his happiness has been sucked from him. Dumbledore saves Harry, but his Nimbus 2000 broomstick flies into the Whomping Willow and is destroyed. Hufflepuff wins the match. Cedric Diggory, the Seeker and Captain of the Hufflepuff team, catches the Golden Snitch, but after seeing Harry fall from his broomstick, requests a rematch, which is denied. After the match, Harry asks Lupin if he can give him private lessons on teaching him the spell to drive of Dementors in case another one arrives at the next match. Lupin says he will, but after the Christmas holidays citing his frequent illness.

During the holidays, while the staying students visit Hogsmeade, Harry is yet again not able to go. To bring some Christmas cheer to Harry, Fred and George reveal they know, apart from Filch, secret passages in and out Hogwarts. They give Harry the Marauder's Map as a Christmas present, and instruct him in using it. It shows Hogwarts' secret passages, corridors, classrooms, offices, common rooms, etc. and also shows every person's location within the castle and the grounds. Harry uses it to sneak into Hogsmeade. He then meets Ron and Hermione in Honeydukes where they are discussing what kind of candy to get Harry. Afterward they visit the Three Broomsticks, a pub run by Madam Rosmerta. They overhear a conversation between her, Minerva McGonagall, Cornelius Fudge, Filius Flitwick and Hagrid in which they discuss how Sirius Black betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, and how, when approached by another of the Potters' friends, Peter Pettigrew, he killed him and a street full of Muggles. Harry vows that when he finds Black, he will kill him, avenging his parents and Pettigrew.

For Christmas, Harry receives a new broomstick, the Firebolt; it's the best model ever released. Hermione sends it to McGonagall to test, because she suspects Black might have sent it to him and it could be jinxed. This causes Harry to cease speaking with her even though he knows she had good intentions.

Ron and Hermione start to row often after Crookshanks begins attacking Scabbers non-stop. Meanwhile, Harry starts his lessons with Lupin. Lupin tells Harry that the spell to drive off Dementors is called the Patronus Charm, instructs him in how to cast one, and lets him practice on a Boggart. Harry cannot produce one at first. This, however, is to be expected; the Patronus Charm is well beyond O.W.L. standard. After a number of lessons, he becomes quite good, but doesn't master it entirely.

As March arrives, a new Quidditch match approaches: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. A few days before the match, McGonagall gives Harry back the Firebolt. Harry and Ron go to make up with Hermione, but on the same day Scabbers disappears ruining any chance for Ron and Hermione's reconciliation. Just as Harry is about to catch the Snitch, Cho Chang, a fourth year Seeker for the Ravenclaw team, screams. Harry looks around and sees three Dementors in the stands. He reacts instantly, sending a full-fledged Patronus at the dementors. Harry catches the Snitch, winning the match before Cho can. Lupin complements Harry on his Patronus, and shows Harry that the "dementors" were really Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and the Slytherin team captain Marcus Flint dressed as dementors trying to sabotage Harry. However, at night, Ron sees Black, slashing his curtains while sleeping, in the boys' dormitories. Everyone thinks it might be a nightmare, but the curtains were indeed ripped, and the replacement portrait, Sir Cadogan admits he let Sirius Black into the Tower as he had the password, which Neville Longbottom had written down and misplaced. The students were sent to the Great Hall, and the school was fruitlessly searched. The Fat Lady resumes her duty guarding Gryffindor Tower.

While on another Hogsmeade trip, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle provoke Ron. Harry, under his Invisibility Cloak, attacks the trio and Malfoy catches a glimpse of Harry's head and later reports it to Snape, who interrogates Harry after he returns from Hogsmeade. He finds the Marauder's Map, but isn't able to discover it's true identity as he doesn't use it properly. Lupin is summoned where he feigns ignorance about the map. Afterward, he brings Harry to his office where he confiscates the map.

Via a letter from Hagrid, Hermione finds out that the Ministry has decided to execute Buckbeak. The date is still to be set. She sees Harry and Ron and tells them this. The awful event causes them to reconcile. After she sees Malfoy mock Hagrid, Hermione smacks him in the face. She then accidentally skips Charms. In Divination, Hermione finally explodes and drops the class. Lavender Brown notes that this matched one of Trelawney's predictions at the start of the year.

When May arrived, the Quidditch final approaches: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. During the match, Gryffindor leads 80-20, and Harry catches the Snitch, winning the Quidditch Cup. After the match, he takes a glimpse of Crookshanks walking with a black dog.

When June approaches, their final exams arrived. Fred and George are taking their OWLs, while Percy is taking his N.E.W.T.s. After Harry's Divination final, Trelawney genuinely predicts that Voldemort's servant will return to him this night, and Voldemort will once again rise to full power. Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to Hagrid's cabin even though he asks them not to. Hagrid says Buckbeak is to be executed, after the incident with Malfoy. Hermione finds Scabbers in a milk jug and returns him to Ron. After the trio depart, Dumbledore, Fudge, a representative of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, and the executioner, Walden Macnair, arrive. Buckbeak is apparently executed, and Scabbers escapes to the Whomping Willow.

Harry, Ron and Hermione run after him, where they see the black dog and Crookshanks. After Ron catches Scabbers, the dog grabs him by the foot (breaking his leg in the process) and pulls him in a passage under the Willow. Harry, Hermione, and Crookshanks follow after them. The passage leads them to the Shrieking Shack. They find Ron, Scabbers, and Sirius Black, who is an Animagus. Lupin arrives, saying he saw them at the map. It is then revealed that he is a werewolf. He tells the story about his time at Hogwarts and how all his friends became Animagi to support him. He tells them that Pettigrew could become a rat, and is in fact Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.

Snape arrives and tries to arrest Lupin and Black, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione, curious to hear the rest of the story, stun Snape. According to Lupin, Pettigrew was the Potters' secret-keeper, and he, not Black, revealed the whereabouts to Voldemort. He was a spy for Voldemort, and he is his servant. After the Potters' murder, Black confronted Pettigrew, who killed the twelve muggles and faked his own death by cutting his finger and turning into a rat and escaping, framing Black for the crimes. Black was innocent all along and means no harm to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He broke out of Azkaban after seeing the Weasleys in Egypt in the Daily Prophet. He saw Scabbers and immediately recognized it was Pettigrew in his animagus form (Pettigrew was missing a finger, Scabbers was missing a toe). He searched for Pettigrew to kill him and avenge the Potters. He and Lupin force Scabbers to turn into Pettigrew. Before Lupin and Black can kill Pettigrew, Harry stops them, saying that James would not want his two best friends to become killers. The group takes Pettigrew back to the grounds, where he will be handed to the Dementors.

Unfortunately, the full moon rises, causing Lupin, who had not taken his potion, to turn into a werewolf and allowing Pettigrew to turn into a rat and escape. During Wormtail's escape he knocks out Ron. Harry and Hermione to run after Lupin and Black (who is transformed into a dog). After seriously injuring Black, Lupin flees to the Forbidden Forest. However, a hundred of Dementors arrive and suck the happiness from Harry, Hermione, and Black. Before they all faint, Harry sees a familiar figure across the lake, who conjures a powerful, stag shaped Patronus that drives all the Dementors away.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron are taken to the Hospital wing, and Black is taken to West Tower, where he is sentenced to a Dementors Kiss. When Dumbledore arrives Harry and Hermione try to tell him what actually happened. Dumbledore tells them that there is no time. He gives them instructions and bids them good luck. Hermione reveals she has a Time-Turner, a device that will take them back through time, which explains why throughout the year, their had been occasions of her taking multiple classes at the same time, and apparently disappearing into thin air. Harry and Hermione travel three hours into the past, watching themselves in the previous events. They manage to rescue Buckbeak before Macnair can execute him. While the "other Harry and Hermione" and Ron enter the Shrieking Shack, Harry and Hermione hide in the Forbidden Forest. During this time Harry tells Hermione about the man he saw across the lake and how he thinks it was his father who conjured the Patronus. After two hours, Harry goes to see himself, Hermione, and Black fainting from Dementors. He discovers that the silver stag he saw earlier across the lake was not cast by his dad, it was himself and conjures a powerful Patronus that drives all the Dementors away. When it returns to him, he pets it and realises that it was "Prongs." He and Hermione fly on Buckbeak to West Tower, after Black has been sent there. They free him, and he flies on Buckbeak and escapes before the time restores itself to normal.

Lupin resigns, after everyone discovers that he is a werewolf. Harry felt bad for not letting Lupin and Black kill Pettigrew, after he escaped. Dumbledore says Harry saved Black, an innocent man, from a terrible fate. Now that Pettigrew escaped, he owes a life debt to Harry for saving him. Before departing, Lupin gives Harry back the Marauder's Map. Gryffindor wins the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup. The students return to London aboard the Hogwarts Express. An owl from Black arrives on the train. Black admits he bought Harry the Firebolt, wrote and signed a note to allow Harry to visit Hogsmeade, and gives Ron the owl (later named Pigwidgeon by Ginny), as it's Black's fault Ron no longer has a rat. After arriving to King's Cross, Harry heads back to Little Whinging with the Dursleys, and Ron says he will contact Harry, whether they are going to go to the final of the Quidditch World Cup. Harry is also happy he now has a true family member to depend on.

Book chapters

 * 1) Owl Post
 * 2) Aunt Marge's Big Mistake
 * 3) The Knight Bus
 * 4) The Leaky Cauldron
 * 5) The Dementor
 * 6) Talons and Tea Leaves
 * 7) The Boggart in the Wardrobe
 * 8) Flight Of The Fat Lady
 * 9) Grim Defeat
 * 10) The Marauder's Map
 * 11) The Firebolt
 * 12) The Patronus
 * 13) Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw
 * 14) Snape's Grudge
 * 15) The Quidditch Final
 * 16) Professor Trelawney's Prediction
 * 17) Cat, Rat and Dog
 * 18) Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
 * 19) The Servant Of Lord Voldemort
 * 20) The Dementors' Kiss
 * 21) Hermione's Secret
 * 22) Owl Post Again

Errors

 * In the British edition of the book, as Harry does his summer assignment in the first chapter, "Owl Post", he uses the textbook A History of Magic by Adalbert Waffling. But the real author of the book is Bathilda Bagshot, as mentioned in other books and a point emphasised in Deathly Hallows. The American version and later editions of the English version corrects this error, however.
 * Before Harry and Hermione go back in time, it mentions that Buckbeak is tied to a tree. But when they go back in time, Buckbeak is tied to a fence.
 * When Harry is buying his books at Flourish and Blotts, it mentions that he is being served by the manager. But when Harry was staring at the book 'Death Omens,' it says that he is being served by the assistant of the store.
 * The length of time Sirius has known Pettigrew is hiding at Hogwarts is inconsistent. From Mr. Weasley's conversation at the Leaky Cauldron in chapter four, Sirius has known about it for several months. But in the Shrieking Shack in chapter eighteen, Sirius says that he first learned about it the night he escaped from Azkaban.
 * When they first come out of the Shrieking Shack, the order is Crookshanks, Lupin, Pettigrew, Ron, Snape, Harry, Hermione, and Sirius. However, when they go back in time, the order is now Lupin, Pettigrew, Ron, Hermione, Snape, Harry, and Sirius. (Again, not a mistake, Rowling listed them in their pairs. Hermione was helping support Ron who was chained to Pettigrew who, in turn, was chained to Lupin. Bringing up the rear were Harry and Sirius with the unconscious Severus Snape under the influence of Mobilicorpus)
 * In June, Fred and George Weasley find out they have scraped "a few O.W.L.s apiece". However, in subsequent books, it is firmly established that O.W.L. results are sent home by owl and are not received until August. A possible explanation for this would be that when Harry and company receive their results, the Ministry of Magic is at war with Voldemort which could have made test grades a lower priority.
 * It says "Ron crawled to the four-poster and collapsed onto it". But when Professor Lupin comes in, it says "his eyes flickered over Ron, lying on the floor". This could not be, as Ron should still be on the bed. Crookshanks was on the bed, and 'on the floor beside him.... was Ron' Ron moves from this position to 'protect' Harry. 'If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too' at this point he is standing, 'clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright'.
 * Mr. Weasley says that Ron and Harry have ended up in the Forbidden Forest twice. But only Harry has been in the forest twice. Ron went once to see Aragog with Harry in Chamber of Secrets, but the other time Harry went was for detention in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Ron wasn't there (he was in the movie, but not the book).
 * When Harry and Hermione leave from the hospital wing using the Time-Turner, Dumbledore says it is ten minutes until midnight, but on the way back to the ward after they rescue Sirius, they hear Dumbledore say to the other versions of them that it is five minutes to midnight. (This could mean that they took five minutes extra to return to the hospital wing)
 * Chapter sixteen (Professor Trelawney's Prediction) takes place in June 1994. In the beginning of that chapter, Harry Potter reads a note from Hagrid and says, 'Buckbeak's appeal - it's set for the sixth.' The night after the Hippogriff's appeal, Remus Lupin is forced into a werewolf form by the full moon, which means that this happened on the night of June 6th, 1994. The web page HP-Lexicon.org also backs this up. However, a brief look at lunar phase calendar sites such as 1994 and lunar phases in 1994 definitely shows June 9th, 1994, as a new-moon night, which means that a full moon could not possibly rise three days earlier. (It is possible that like dates and days not matching up in the Harry Potter series to the real world, JK Rowling slightly adjusted the moon's phases to fit the story.)
 * On the American version of the cover, the front art is the night that Harry and Hermione save Sirius and Buckbeak. However on the back side of the cover, the moon is crescent when it should be a full moon.
 * When Lupin looks at the Marauder's Map and sees Harry, Hermione, and Ron going to Hagrid's hut for Buckbeak's appeal, the Harry and Hermione from the future are not far behind them. Doesn't this mean that Lupin would have seen two sets of Harry and Hermione on the map? Also Snape saw the map and would have seen the same thing. (Professor Lupin claims the map never lies.)
 * The cover depicts Harry and Hermoine riding Buckbeak. Harry's legs are shown to be in front of Buckbeak's wings. However, when Harry was in Care of Magical Creatures and rode Buckbeak for the first time, Hagrid had told him to sit behind the wing joint (as he did in the movie).
 * Sirius Black says that Voldemort has been in hiding for fifteen years. He's actually been in hiding for twelve years (almost thirteen at the time that he says it), about the same amount of time since Black was imprisoned. Voldemort went into hiding right after he was ripped from his body after failing to kill Harry. Of course, Black could just be rounding off to an approximated number (fifteen years), but this seems unlikely since he keeps talking about being in Azkaban for twelve years, being that the two time frames are almost exactly the same. Sirius also says to Pettigrew 'you haven't been hiding from me for 12 years, you've been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters'
 * During chapter fifteen (pg. 308) it says, "A minute later, Katie had put another penalty past the Slytherin Seeker". When the correct word should have been "Keeper" not "Seeker".
 * In Chapter 12, Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor, it is commented that all of the Ravenclaw team is on Cleansweep 7 brooms, but later, Lee Jordan Comments that Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker is on a Comet 260 broom.

Style
""He's friends with that dog," said Harry grimly"

- chapter 17


 * There is possible foreshadowing at the Christmas lunch in chapter 11:


 * Page 228 - "I dare not, Headmaster! If I join the table, we shall be thirteen! Nothing could be more unlucky! Never forget that when thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!"
 * Page 229 - "I doubt," said Dumbledore, in a cheerful but slightly raised voice, which put an end to Professor McGonagall and Professor Trelawney's conversation, "that Professor Lupin is in any immediate danger."
 * Harry and Ron are the first at the table to stand up, doing so at the same time, and neither actually dies. Before that, however, Dumbledore "raised" his voice, and his is the first death mentioned of those in attendance.


 * A similar bit of foreshadowing involves Sirius, whose animal form is several times mistaken for the grim, a creature connected with death, and Sirius is first to die.
 * Another bit of foreshadowing takes place in the chapter "Aunt Marge's Big Mistake". When Uncle Vernon watches the news report about Sirius Black, he gets mad that the reporter didn't say where he escape from and comments, "Lunatic could be coming up the street right now!" He does not know that in a week, this will be true.

Behind the scenes

 * This is the only book in which the US and British covers depict the same scene, albeit with different artwork.
 * Although somewhat darker than the previous two books, this one holds the distinction of being the only Harry Potter book where no one actually dies during the events of the book (with the possible exception of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where the Basilisk, a magical creature of indeterminate sentience, was the only being to die).
 * This is the only book where Voldemort is not seen, only mentioned, whether in past or present.
 * This is the only book in the series where the title is not mentioned within the book itself.
 * This is the first of two books in which the title refers to a character, the other being the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
 * One of the biggest morals from the series is that it is not one's abilities that make them who they are; it is their choices. However, the climax of this book possibly creates a predestination paradox, which, essentially, negates the doctrine of free will.