Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by: J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are two novels that work really well to create a light hearted and magical tone for J. K. Rowling’s series.  The tone would shift to a darker and dramatic style as the central conflict of Harry having to defeat Voldemort came to the forefront in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  The tonal shift would be extremely jarring if it weren’t done gradually of course and J. K. Rowling hit a stroke of genius when she wrote the third Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, using a longer length to slowly phase in the darker elements before going right into the drama in book four.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is not the longest Harry Potter novel, but it does add four chapters when compared to the length of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  Rowling also uses Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to develop two small subplots that work as they tie into the main plot of the novel.  The first subplot involves Draco Malfoy getting a Hippogriff called Buckbeak killed after being cut when he didn’t listen to Hagrid and Harry, Ron and Hermione try to find a loophole to save his life.  It is the shorter of the two comprising only small portions of Chapters Six and Seventeen with mentions sprinkled throughout the novel.  The second subplot involves the Gryffindor Quidditch Team wishing to actually win the Quidditch Cup in Captain Oliver Wood’s final year at Hogwarts and comprises Chapter Nine, Eleven, Thirteen and Fifteen of the novel and with the short length it actually allows the story to work with the changing time as a distraction to the main events of Sirius Black escaping from Azkaban.

 

Chapter One, much like the first chapter of the previous novel is a recap of the events of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, except this recap sprinkles in information about how Ron and Hermione have been spending their summers which actually adds a necessity for it to be there.  Ron has been in Egypt, Hermione in France and Harry has been a permission slip for visits to Hogsmede.  Again like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets it only takes until Chapter Two for the main plot to be revealed as on the Muggle news it is announced that mass murderer Sirius Black is at large and dangerous.  It will be revealed later that he is the titular prisoner of Azkaban, but the plot continues in Chapter Three with Harry running away from Privet Drive after blowing up his aunt Marge, sees a giant back dog and catching the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron.  We get to see some insight into the mystery of Black’s connection to Harry as he was mentioned in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and in the way that Cornelius Fudge the Minister of Magic acts around Harry.  Now Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets established that if any more magic was performed at the Dursley’s, then Harry would be expelled.  Fudge overlooks this fact quite intentionally as Hogwarts is the only safe place for him and he doesn’t want to see him be killed by Black.  Chapter Four starts with Harry meeting up with Ron and Hermione after a few weeks of being in Diagon Alley alone which is Harry’s only real taste of true freedom.  Ron’s rat Scabbers has been ill since they came back from Egypt and Sirius Black escaped and Hermione buys herself a cat and it becomes a happy meetup, but before long it is time to go back to Hogwarts.

 

Chapter Five takes place entirely on the Hogwarts Express in the compartment where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom are talking while Professor Lupin, the replacement for Gilderoy Lockheart is sleeping and we are introduced to the Dementors.  The Dementors are the guards of Azkaban who have been stationed at Hogwarts to guard against Sirius Black and hopefully to catch him.  They are ghost like creatures that wear black cloaks and suck the happiness out of everyone they encounter.  Rowling created them as a metaphor for depression which is honestly a great idea especially considering how badly they affect Harry who passes out on the train after hearing his mother’s dying screams.  It is also interesting to note that Ginny was also affected more by the Dementor as Rowling notes she is cowering in the corner once it is gone, which can be assumed to be a reminder of what she did in the previous book.  Rowling also has the best cure written in as to what counteracts the effects of their presence, which is chocolate.

 

Chapters Six and Seven allow for development for four of the Hogwarts professors before continuing on to ramp up the action.  First we are introduced to the Divination Professor, Sybil Trelawney, who claims to see the future, but cannot be taken seriously as a professor as she predicts always the worst things.  She even predicts Harry’s death on the first day of class after seeing the Grim, a big black dog, in his tea leaves.  The next class is Transfiguration and we see Professor McGonagall’s opinions on Divination as a subject and she almost becomes unprofessional as a teacher as she finds it laughable.  She tells Harry simply not to worry about it.  Hagrid’s characterization is updated next as we enter the Buckbeak subplot as he is now teaching Care of Magical Creatures and is like a kid in a candy shop with his enthusiasm for teaching and his heartbreak as Buckbeak attacks Malfoy who of course was asking for it.  The fourth and final teacher who gets development is Professor Lupin who proves to be a competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher as his first lesson is how to defend yourself against a boggart, a creature that takes the form of a person’s greatest fear and is only defeated by laughter.  Lupin in this lesson immediately begins a good relationship with his students and even has Neville Longbottom demonstrate first in front of the class.  This is really the first time that someone has actually helped Neville with his self-confidence issues and he performs amazingly.  He also cares enough to stop Harry from facing the boggart as he believes it will turn into Lord Voldemort.

 

Sirius Black however presents his immediate threat in Chapter Eight as he enters the castle, goes to the portrait of the Fat Lady and terrorizes her to abandon her post.  This is the first time we’ve seen Hogwarts invaded from the outside and now we know that this is a serious threat to Harry and the other students of Hogwarts.  The castle is searched as the students sleep in sleeping bags in the Great Hall and Rowling gives this sense that the status quo has been shaken up and will never be the same.  Chapter Nine is the first chapter to introduce the Quidditch subplot as we take a break from Sirius Black and focus on the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff where for the first time Harry does not win.  He actually sees a big black dog which he thinks is the Grim, falls off his broom which is then destroyed by the Whomping Willow as hundreds of Dementors invade the stadium, and is stuck in the hospital.  The actual description of the Quidditch match takes up about half the chapter and it is a brutal match as there is a giant thunderstorm that drags it out for hours.  It nearly goes into the middle of the night before the Dementors show up.  This loss is not only a blow to Harry who loses his broom, but to both Oliver Wood the captain of the Quidditch team as it is going to be nearly impossible to win the cup and Hufflepuff Seeker, Cedric Diggory.  Diggory is an interesting minor character here as he knows that the match was not won fairly and demands a rematch which he does not actually get.  It says a lot about him that he wants to win fairly.  Chapter Ten gets us back to the plot about Sirius Black as Fred and George give Harry the Marauder’s Map, which allows him to get into Hogsmede through a secret passage where he hears he backstory of Black.  Sirius Black was James Potter’s best friend and was made Harry’s Godfather before betraying the Potter’s to Voldemort.  It had to be him as he was the Secret Keeper, put under magical contract to know the Potter’s location.  This makes the conflict personal and takes an extreme toll on Harry’s emotions.

 

Chapter Eleven is a nice tie in between the two plots as it is now Christmas and Harry receives a Firebolt from an anonymous source.  The Firebolt is the fastest racing broom in the world and it is to become the envy of everyone at Hogwarts.  After a humorous Christmas dinner, Hermione actually gets the new broom taken away because she thinks it could have been sent by Sirius Black and is probably cursed.  This creates a split between Harry, Ron and Hermione as the Firebolt is the only chance they have of winning the Quidditch cup.  Chapter Twelve continues the grudge as Lupin teaches Harry how to defend himself against the Dementors with the Patronus Charm.  Now the Patronus is a charm that creates a mist that shields you from the Dementors which is great.  Harry’s determination to learn this is seen immediately as it takes a lot out of him to uphold the mist with the happy memory.  Chapter Thirteen is the next Quidditch match which Gryffindor wins easily as the Firebolt is given back which helps with healing the relationship between Hermione and the others with the only notable event being some Slytherin’s having Harry send the Patronus at them as they dress up as Dementors.  Chapter Fourteen while there is nothing wrong with it is only there to flesh out Professor Snape and get the Marauder’s Map taken away so we can get to Chapter Fifteen “The Quidditch Final”.  The final match is of course against Slytherin and is just as tense as the first match against Hufflepuff as Gryffindor must be sixty points up before Harry catches the Snitch.  Rowling has you on the edge of your seat as the score is a variable and luckily Gryffindor actually wins the Cup for the first time in seven years.

 

Chapter Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen and Twenty act as the climax for the novel as after the party in the Common Room, Sirius Black breaks in and stands over Ron’s bed with a knife.  Professor Trelawney makes an actual prophecy about the rise of Lord Voldemort after Hermione storms out of her class.  The appeal on Buckbeak comes to Hogwarts and the hippogriff is slain in cold blood and immediately afterwards the giant dog drags Scabbers, Ron’s rat, into the Whomping Willow where the series has the big tonal shift which leads into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  We find that Sirius is innocent and it was Peter Pettigrew, a man who was supposedly one of the murder victims of Sirius, who betrayed the Potters.  Pettigrew turns out to be Scabbers as he, Sirius and James Potter began Anamagi to keep Lupin company while he has transformed into a werewolf.  Everything goes wrong as Pettigrew escapes, Lupin transforms into a werewolf as it is a full moon, the Dementors show up, Sirius is captured and Cornelius Fudge comes to Hogwarts to see the Dementor’s Kiss administered.  Everything has failed and while Chapter Twenty-One actually manages to allow Sirius and Buckbeak to escape as Harry and Hermione go back in time, the novel ends on a down note as Trelawney’s prophecy seems to be coming through.  The ending chapter is perfect as it leads nicely into the dark tone and Rowling gets across the message of no turning back now.

 

To summarize, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a novel that shows just how perfect Rowling is at writing these books now.  She manages so much and is expanding her story time to make the story better.  100/100.