Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban-J.K. Rowling

How I found this book: I was so into the series by now that I borrowed this book from a friend to keep on reading. I did buy it for myself eventually.

Setting: The ’93-’94 school year, beginning weeks after book two, and taking place mostly at Hogwarts, with further glimpses of Diagon Alley, and the Shrieking Shack.

Main Characters:

Harry Potter: After managing to ‘accidentally’ blow up his ‘Aunt’ Marge, (really Uncle Vernon’s sister and no relation to Harry), Harry returns to Hogwarts for his third year with many worries and doubts. First off the escaped criminal, Sirius Black, is after him, though Harry doesn’t know why. Second, everyone, including his Divination teacher, seems to think he’s marked for death by his sighting of a large, black dog. Then there is the Dementors, the guards of Azkaban who are looking for Black, who make Harry relieve the most horrible moment of his life over and over, the death of his parents. And to top it all off, he’s developed a crush on the Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang, and he doesn’t quite know what to do about it. Life doesn’t get any easier for Harry in his third year.

Ron Weasley: One of Harry’s best friends, Ron keeps Harry’s spirits up during the hullabaloo regarding Black, even though he and Hermione seem to be at each others throats regarding their respective pets, Scabbers, Ron’s rat, and Crookshanks, Hermione’s cat. When Ron thinks Crookshanks has killed his beloved rat, he and Hermione spend weeks not speaking to each other, and he ignores the fact that Hermione is over-worked, and spread too thinly in what she is trying to do.

Hermione Granger: Harry’s other best friend, Hermione being studious and industrious, has enrolled in far too many classes this term, and is desperately trying to hold it all together while still maintaining her friendships…badly. Her temper is short, especially when it comes to Ron’s accusation that her cat, Crookshanks, is out to get his stupid rat, Scabbers. The two quarrel, often sticking poor Harry in the middle of it all.

Draco Malfoy: The nemesis of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he manages to not only try to have Hagrid sacked from his position at Hogwarts, but also tries to have an innocent magical creature killed for attacking him, (a situation Draco provoked.)

Professor Remus Lupin: The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, he is a shabby, sickly fellow, who look much older than his rather young age. He was once a great friend of James Potter, and takes Harry under his wing to help him against his problem with Dementors. There seems to be a lingering animosity and distrust between Lupin and Snape, causing Harry to warn his new, favorite teacher about Snape and what he’s capable of.

Professor Rebeus Hagrid: Now cleared of the crimes involving the Chamber of Secrets so long ago, Hagrid is asked to come on staff as the new Professor of Care of Magical Creatures. The problem is, Hagrid’s idea of a safe, harmless Magical Creature isn’t what most people would consider either ‘safe’ or ‘harmless’.

Professor Severus Snape: Harry’s still hated Potions professor; he has some secret history and lingering distrust of Lupin, and seems to be out to personally sack the new Defense teacher.

Sirius Black: A dangerous murderer escaped from Azkaban Prison, he is out on the loose, and many assume it is because he seeks to try and find a way to resurrect the Dark Lord. Harry knows that Black is really after him, but doesn’t know why. It is only later that he realizes that Sirius Black was not only once James Potter’s greatest and dearest friend, he is also Harry’s own godfather. What’s more, he is the very man who is responsible for selling out his dear friends to Voldemort, ending in their deaths.

Scabbers: More than a mere rat, Scabbers has a dark secret, one he’s been hiding for twelve years. He wasn’t always Ron Weasley’s rat, once he was a young man too, one who had torn allegiances and committed a great betrayal.

Plot: Now thirteen, life for Harry is certainly getting more complicated. After accidentally ‘blowing up’ his uncle’s sister, Harry nearly goes on the lam before being expelled for using underage magic. But before he gets far, he is found by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. Confused as to why the Minister would get involved in something like this, it is Mr. Weasley who tells Harry that Sirius Black, an infamous murderer has escaped prison and is looking for Harry. Now, as he starts his third year at Hogwarts, he is surrounded by the wraith-like, joy-sucking Dementors, who are both guarding the school and looking for Black. Harry’s particularly negative reaction to the Dementors, (he is forced to relieve his worst memory, his parents’ death), causes him no end of grief from Malfoy and his gang, and worse, his Divination teacher seems convinced that he will suffer an immanent death thanks to his sightings of a mysterious, large black dog all over the place. Not even Quidditch is a welcome relief when his broomstick is smashed in an accident. As Harry tries to slog through his difficult year, he begins to uncover some of the past of his parents and their lives, and just why exactly it was that his parents were killed that night so long ago. Harry now knows who it was that helped to kill his parents…and he would like nothing more than to see that person dead.

Themes:

Facing your fears: Harry’s plight with the Dementors is really Harry facing his own fears…his being that he’s more afraid of fear than of any one thing in particular, telling as Harry has had to deal with many more frightful things in his young life than most people have. Harry’s struggle to be able to face the Dementors without fear helps to teach Harry how to deal with all such difficult and fearful tasks in the future. Rather than being dominated by his fears, Harry seeks to find strength from them.

Revenge is a dish best served cold: Revenge is a key theme in the third story, and efforts on the parts of many people to get revenge on others. Of course, there is Draco’s typical revenge on Hagrid, as Draco wasn’t paying attention in class and made himself into a fool. There is Snape’s revenge on Lupin for the anger and resentment he felt towards Lupin, Black, and the long dead James Potter over childhood grudges decades old now. There is Harry’s desire to avenge himself on Sirius Black for the murder of his parents so long ago, denying Harry the normal childhood he’s always craved. And there is Black’s revenge on Peter Pettigrew, the friend who betrayed them all and who put Black in the position that he was in. It is a vicious cycle, revenge, one that always has nasty consequences. Thankfully, of all of them, it is Harry who has the clearest head, and makes the wisest decision, urging his father’s friends to not take out their revenge. It isn’t something James Potter would have wanted for them.

Parents are people too: Even when our parents are living, we tend to forget that they were once people too, and that they had friends, adventures, romances, and even made mistakes. Harry is only slowly learning these things about his own, long dead parents, and he is learning from the people who knew them best. Hungry for any knowledge of Lily and James he can get, he sucks up whatever Lupin imparts to him. Harry starts putting an image together of his parents, who they were, especially James, and what they were like. Of course, as with any image, it is just an image, and as we see in later books, Harry’s parents were the perfect people he builds up in his mind, just like ours aren’t.

Voldemort’s shattering of lives: While this is the only book where Voldemort has no direct influence in the book, his past crimes haunt people in Harry’s day. Not only are there hundreds who lost family members in the last war, but people like Sirius and Remus had their entire lives ruined by Voldemort, and Harry was left like several others, an orphan. It drives home to Harry just what the destructive nature of Voldemort was, and how much pain he has caused in so many lives, not just his own.

What it means to have ‘real’ family: While Harry loves the Weasleys, he doesn’t have a real family, as in terms of someone he connects to and loves like a father or mother. And the Weasleys didn’t know his parents or any of his history, so there is very little that connects Harry to them beyond affection. Finding out he has a godfather who not only loves him, but still wants him gives Harry something that he hasn’t ever had in his life before, someone who cares for him unquestioningly.

Every book sucks somewhere: This book actually has few things I think suck about it. If I had to pick anything sucky, it would be what fate doled out for Sirius Black. Jo Rowling, you are a cruel, merciless author sometimes, but I know, it has to be done. Poor Sirius is both bound by his impetuous nature, and the fact that life just dealt him a really crappy hand!

What did I like: Everything…but in particular, I liked the depth that Rowling added to all of her characters, something I felt lacking in book two. We see Harry starting to grow and mature, as well as Ron and Hermione, and realizing both where they were wrong, and what their limitations are. And we see their bond as friends growing as well, something that will be tried repeatedly over the upcoming years. I also liked how Rowling skillfully expanded even more to the story of Harry and Voldemort, showing the effect of Voldemort on the lives of all those who lived then, especially those who worked against him. And we get to learn more about the family that Harry never got to know, of James, and Lily, and their friends, (affectionately known as the Marauders in the fandom), and it has given us a whole history that, while never explored fully, adds depth to the series, and gives us a sense that this is a continuous world with real cause, effect, and a past.

How would I rate this wormy book: This one is a MONSTER WORM, and marks a turning in the series from the light, fun feeling of the first two books, to the heavier, darker tones that reflect the rest of the series. It also marks Harry’s official turning from child to teenager, and all the angst, woe, and difficulties that go with that. It certainly makes Harry much more believable and human, but at the same time taking nothing away from the heroic qualities he’s already displayed.