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 letters from Rubeus Hagrid, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, each letter wishing him a happy birthday. According to Ron, his dad, Arthur Weasley, won a Daily Prophet Draw and he was awarded gold as a prize. Mr. Weasley then took the family to Egypt to visit his eldest son, Bill Weasley. Harry learns that Percy Weasley is entering his seventh year at Hogwarts and is 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 of 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. After a few days with her, she insults Harry by calling his father, James Potter, a drunk. Harry loses his temper and accidentally blows her up without his wand. She floats away and Harry decides to take Hedwig and his school things and run away, knowing he will be expelled from Hogwarts, after using magic outside school.

He reaches Magnolia Crescent and sees a black dog staring at him. Later 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. Fudge says Harry isn't expelled from Hogwarts, because he understands not all wizards can control their temper. He books a room for Harry, where he will stay for the rest of the summer. After several days, the Weasleys and Hermione arrive. Hermione has a pet cat, Crookshanks. She bought it for her fourteenth birthday, which would be on September 19. Following Percy's advice, Harry and Ron decide take two new subjects in their third year at Hogwarts: Care of Magical Creatures and Divination, while Hermione takes all five available subjects: C.M.C., Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies, despite being Muggle-born. At night before September 1, Harry overhears a conversation between Arthur and Molly Weasley. From what he hears, he learns that when Voldemort met his downfall, Black lost everything and in his mind, Harry is the only thing that stands in the way of Voldemort returning to full power. That's why he escaped from Azkaban, to find Harry. Harry assumes that's the reason Fudge didn't have him expelled.

On September 1, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione depart to King's Cross Station via Ministry cars. They board the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Ron and Hermione enter a compartment where Professor Remus Lupin is asleep. After several hours, the train breaks down and a sinister, cloaked figure enters. It sucks the happiness out of Harry, but Lupin wakes up and drives it off with a spell. The train then resumes its course. According to Lupin, it was a Dementor, a creature that guards the wizard prison, Azkaban. Apparently, they were searching the train for Black. The train arrives to Hogsmeade Station and Harry, Ron and Hermione take a carriage to the castle. After the sorting ceremony, Albus Dumbledore announces that there are two changes in staffing during the year: Lupin will be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, while Hagrid will be the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher (Silvanus Kettleburn retired). The dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds just in case Black enters the castle. After the feast, the students return to their dormitories.

Lessons start the next day. Harry, Ron and Hermione head to North Tower for their Divination lesson. They meet Sybill Trelawney. They predict future events using tea leaves and Harry has a black dog in his tea cup. Trelawney says that's the Grim, the omen of death. Later, they go to their Transfiguration lesson, where they learn what Animagi are. An Animagus is a wizard who can transform into one specific animal at will (Minerva McGonagall is a registered animagus and she can turn into a cat). Their next lesson is Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid teaches them about hippogriffs (horse/eagle creatures). Harry rides a grey hippogriff named Buckbeak. Draco Malfoy becomes jealous and insults Buckbeak, causing it to break his arm with its talons. He is taken to the Hospital Wing and Hagrid is blamed by the Ministry for letting it attack Malfoy, although Malfoy provoked it in the first place.

After a few days, Lupin leads the third-years to the staff room, where they learn the spell "Riddikulus". The spell turns a Boggart into something that would amuse the viewer, instead of frighten them. Boggarts are shape-shifters that take shape of someone's worst fears.

When October arrived, third-years visit Hogsmeade on the weekend and only Harry isn't allowed because his uncle didn't 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 be Voldemort. Lupin was an old school friend of Harry's father, James. Harry learns from Lupin that when the inmates of Azkaban are sentenced to death, the dementors perform the Dementors' Kiss to suck out their soul. 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 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 in the sky a cloud shaped like the Grim. Dementors enter the match and Harry faints 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, a sixth year and the Seeker and Captain of the Hufflepuff team, catches the Golden Snitch. 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.

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 in Hogsmeade. He then meets Ron and Hermione in the Three Broomsticks, a pub run by Madam Rosmerta. They overhear a conversation between her, Minerva McGonagall, Cornelius Fudge 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.

Ron and Hermione start to row often after Crookshanks has been 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 remove it, and lets him practice on a boggart. Can't produce it at first, however, that was to be expected; the Patronus Charm is well beyond O.W.L. standard. After a few days, 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. 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, Scabbers was missing and a parchment with passwords is laid in front of the Fat Lady. The students were sent to the Great Hall, and the school was fruitlessly searched. The Fat Lady refused to return, and she was temporarily replaced by a different portrait.

While on another Hogsmeade trip, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle provoke Ron. Harry, under his Invisibility Cloak, attacks the trio and Malfoy takes 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 then comes and 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. 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.

When May arrived, the Quidditch final approaches: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. On 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. Hagrid says Buckbeak is to be executed, after the incident with Malfoy. Hagrid finds Scabbers and gives it back to Ron. After the trio depart, Dumbledore, Fudge, the head of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures and the executioner, Walden Macnair, arrive. Buckbeak is 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 (injuring him) 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 Black, who was the dog. Lupin arrives, saying he saw them at the map. He then reveals that he is a werewolf, Pettigrew was a rat, and that they, along with James Potter and Black, were the Marauders.

Snape arrives and tries to arrest Lupin and Black, but Harry, curious to hear the rest of the story, stuns 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. Black wasn't after Harry. 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 avenging the Potters. He forces Scabbers to turn into Pettigrew. Before Lupin and Black could kill Pettigrew, Harry stops them, saying that James wouldn't 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 to turn into a werewolf and allowing Pettigrew to turn into a rat and escape. During Wormtail's escape he knocks out Ron having Snape to conjure him a stretcher, allowing 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 figure in a shape of a silver stag across the lake, who conjures a powerful Patronus that drives all the Dementors away. Before passing out, Harry sees someone who looks familiar petting the Patronous.

Harry and Hermione are taken to the Hospital wing and Black is taken to West Tower, where he is sentenced to a Dementors Kiss. Dumbledore trusts the trio and tells Hermione to save him. Hermione reveals she has a Time-Turner, a device that will take them back through time, which is how she was able to attend so many classes. Harry and Hermione travel three hours in 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 Harry 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 wasn't his dad, it was was himself and conjures a powerful Patronus that drives all the Dementors away. Harry then masters the Patronus and it takes the form of a stag (James in his animagus form). 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 discovered that he is a werewolf. Harry felt bad for not letting Lupin and Black kill Pettigrew, after he escaped. Lupin 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, he signed Harry's permission form to visit Hogsmeade and he gives Ron the owl, whom Ron names Pigwidgeon, 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 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. (This is incorrect, Mr. Weasley is still assuming Sirius is after Harry, not Pettigrew, and Sirius' night mumbles of "He's at Hogwarts".)
 * 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)
 * On the Marauder's Map, the possessive form of "Marauders" is incorrect. Since the Marauders were a group of students (thus, the term is plural), it should be "Marauders' Map."
 * Note that the book was written before it became a commonplace term to refer to the group as the Marauders; Nowhere in this book are they referred to as such.
 * 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.
 * 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 to' 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.
 * 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 Voldemorts old supporters'

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 first 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. The titles refer respectively to Sirius Black and Severus Snape.
 * 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.

Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban Harry Potter en de Gevangene van Azkaban Harry Potter i Więzień Azkabanu Гарри Поттер и узник Азкабана