thevoid99's Full Review: J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of A...
With the date of June 21, 2003 now drawing closer than ever, the year’s most anticipated book Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix from children’s novelist J.K. Rowling. Already, more clues from Harry Potter websites emerged about the upcoming book as fans begin to make several theories about what is coming next for the boy wizard and his fellow classmates at the Hogwarts School of Wizardry & Witchcraft. For more hardcore fans, they keep returning for the previous four books in Rowling’s acclaimed series to look for overlooked clues that might be important for Book 5. We now go back in this countdown to The Phoenix to what many fans have often touted as the Harry Potter book in the series, so far. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban.
In the previous Potter books for The Sorcerer’s Stone (Philosopher’s Stone in the U.K.) and The Chamber of Secrets, readers begin to learn about the young Harry Potter and his antics in Hogwarts as he learn about the deaths of his parents as well as the wizard who killed them, Lord Voldemort. While the previous books do stay true to its innocence and childlike tone while mixing it up with darker, suspenseful tones, on the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter grows up a bit more and learns more shocking truths behind the death of his parents as well as those who were close to them and Lord Voldemort in the past.
Whereas in The Sorcerer’s Stone, we get introduce to Harry Potter and his bleak life living with his cruel relative, the Dursleys, until we learn that he’s the son of wizard and witch as he goes to a magic school called Hogwarts. There, Harry learns about magic and gains friends in Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and the gigantic Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid as well as meeting enemies in student Draco Malfoy and potions teacher Professor Snape. In The Chamber of Secrets, things get a bit funnier and scarier in the book as we learn a bit more about Voldemort’s past and the powers he had accidentally transferred to Harry on the night he tried to kill him as a baby. Though The Chamber of Secrets was filled with scarier plots including giant killer animals and dark magic, the book still carried the innocent tone of a children’s book. On The Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling gives the book a more mature tone filled with more suspense and emotions than any of the previous Potter books. While the previous books were great in their own right, The Prisoner of Azkaban is truly J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece.
In The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts with a sense of foreboding in his head. A convicted killer by the name of Sirius Black has escaped the treacherous prison of Azkaban and is rumored to be Voldemort’s second-in-command. Potter meanwhile, is forced to be protected by teachers, the Ministry of Magic, and the guards of Azkaban called Dementors, black-hooded, soul-sucking creatures that fills your mind with your most bleakest memory. For Harry, even being in Hogwarts, doesn’t feel safe as he learns shocking truths about Black as well as dark secrets about those who knew his parents.
The third book is easily darker in some respects than The Chamber of Secrets mostly due to the story of Sirius Black. Harry himself begins to feel emotions that he can’t even control as he thinks more and more about his late parents. Meanwhile, he has to deal with things in his school as well as his rivalry with Draco Malfoy, the tension between Ron and Hermione over pets, and his chance to win the Quidditch Cup. While Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape, Professor McGonnagall, and school headmaster Professor Dumbledore are often the central characters in the Potter stories. There are a few more characters, old and new, that gets a chance to have their time in the series including fellow Gryffindor students Pavarti Patil and Lavender Brown, and the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge. The new characters themselves get to shine in many different ways. We get to see Harry’s Aunt Marge, his Uncle Vernon’s sister, who loves to torment Harry. We also meet two new people in the school staff, the wispy Professor Trelawney and a cooler Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher named Lupin. There’s also the late Potter’s friend Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black.
With the array of new characters, one might think there’s too many. Yet, Rowling makes sure these characters fit in to the story while making sure some of the old characters still bring in importance. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, there are more Quidditch matches (cheers from the Quidditch fanatics), more surprising twists, strange stories, new creatures, death omens, mad paintings, and spells to cast on your friends and enemies. The suspense and emotional tone is the real brains behind The Prisoner of Azkaban which is undoubtedly J.K. Rowling’s best book.
The story begins on a late quiet night in 4 Privet Drive where Harry Potter is quietly and secretly doing his summer homework in his small bedroom in the house of his vindictive relative the Dursleys. Harry never enjoyed the summer and he was lucky to obtain some of his schoolbooks for summer work while he already gotten into trouble with his Uncle Vernon over a phone call from one of Harry’s best friends, Ron Weasley, who comes from an all-wizarding family that have no idea on how to use Muggle things like telephones. The only good thing that did come for Harry this summer, after weeks of nerve-racking noises, he was able to use his pet owl Hedwig to send letters to his friends.
On that quiet, July 31st night, Harry turned thirteen and to his own surprise, he received birthday presents for the first time in his life. From Ron and the Weasleys’ elderly, feeble, family owl Errol, a little gadget called a pocket sneakoscope and a newspaper clipping of him and his family winning a contest full of money which they used to go to Egypt to visit Ron’s eldest brother Bill. From Hermione Granger, Harry got a broomstick servicing kit he can use to polish and clean his prized Nimbus 2000 racing broom. From the Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid, he got a biting book called The Monster Books of Monsters and a note from Hogwarts, which is a permission slip for third-year students to visit an all-wizarding village called Hogsmeade. While he was happy that he had birthday presents, the Hogsmeade permission slip seemed to be impossible to convince his Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia to sign and his day was about to get worse.
As he entered the Dursleys’ kitchen watching a television report about an escaped convict, Uncle Vernon told his family that he was going to pick up his sister, Marge. Harry was shocked to learn that his Aunt Marge was coming to visit for a week. Vernon told him that during Marge’s visit, he would have to act normal, don’t do anything funny, and pretend that he goes to an institution called St. Brutus’s Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. Harry makes a deal with Uncle Vernon to do all of the things if he can sign the permission form to go to Hogsmeade. Vernon decides to if Harry behaves for the week. For Harry, it was the worst birthday present ever as he hid all of his presents and book under a loose floorboard under his bed and told Hedwig to fly with Errol to stay with Ron for the week. Harry didn’t brood very long as Marge arrived with her bulldog Ripper as she began to criticize Harry and compare him to his fat, spoiled cousin Dudley. Marge’s constant criticism grew worse during the week as Harry starts to lose some control after Marge said some scathing things about his late mother and loses it completely at the end of the week after Marge insulted his father. Furious, Marge swells up like a balloon as Harry grabs his presents, Hedwig’s cage, and all of his school things in his trunk as he flees the Dursleys.
Harry runs away from the Dursleys but knew just now, he just did some hardcore magic and is almost certain that he will be expelled from Hogwarts for doing magic as an underage wizard. While trying to find things in his trunk, Harry sees the eyes of a gigantic black dog as he falls off his trunk and a gigantic purple bus almost hits him. A conductor comes out to help Harry as he learns it’s the Knight Bus, a bus for stranded wizards and witches, as he pretends to be a classmate of his and use the bus to London. Harry sits one of the bus’s beds as he reads the paper from a conductor that showed the face of the convicted killer he saw on TV a week ago. The conductor tells him that the killer is Sirius Black, rumored to be Lord Voldemort’s second-in-command, who had been in the treacherous wizard prison of Azkaban for 12 years for killing thirteen people, a wizard and 12 Muggles, with a single curse. The conductor also tells him that he heard about Harry blowing up his aunt as he wondered if he’d go to Azkaban for blowing up Aunt Marge.
Harry and the Knight Bus arrive at the Leaky Cauldron where he meets Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. Fudge assures Harry that he isn’t going to be expelled and his Aunt Marge is alive and well, while telling Harry to stay in the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley for the remainder of his summer. Harry is happy but asks Fudge if he could sign the Hogsmeade permission form, but Fudge couldn’t since he isn’t a parent or guardian as Harry goes into his room where he finds Hedwig and is overjoyed that he won’t deal with the Dursleys for the rest of the summer. Harry uses his summer at Diagon Alley to do all of his homework, refill his potion ingredients, get new robes, and refill his moneybag at the Gringotts bank where he inherited a fortune of money from his parents. While walking in Diagon Alley, Harry goes to the Quality Quidditch Supplies store where he sees the most amazing broomstick in the world, a Firebolt. Never in his life he wanted a great broomstick but it was extremely expensive and he didn’t need it since he already owns a good racing broom. Harry also goes to the bookstore to get his new books for classes including two new ones, Divination and Care of Magical Creatures where he learned the book Hagrid gave him was for Care of Magical Creatures. Harry sees another book of death omens that had a picture of a big black dog that shocks Harry.
Harry finally sees Ron and Hermione on the final day of his summer as the two are staying at the Leaky Cauldron with Ron’s family. Ron shows Harry his new wand as well as his pet rat Scabbers, who was looking very ill since he returned from Egypt. Harry notices that Hermione had more books than him and Ron since she is taking more classes than them. Hermione had some money left for an early birthday present to buy a new pet. They went to the magic pet shop where Ron decided to buy rat tonic for Scabbers until he was attacked by a large cat that was going after Scabbers. Ron was shocked to learn that Hermione bought the cat named Crookshanks as they went back to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry met up with Ron’s parents and his siblings that included the pompous, newly-elected Head Boy Percy, the troublemaking twins Fred & George, and Ron’s little sister Ginny, who is more embarrassed to see Harry, especially since he saved her life in the last story.
While the Weasleys and Hermione were packing their things, Harry overheard a conversation from Ron’s parents about Harry. Arthur Weasley is glad Harry is ok but isn’t fond of what’s going at Hogwarts with the Azkaban guards patrolling the school to the dismay of the school’s headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harry learned that Sirius Black had escaped to go after Harry and Harry is being protected by not just the Ministry but Hogwarts as well since Arthur told his wife that Black’s been repeating the words, “He’s at Hogwarts…” in his sleep. Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys go to King’s Cross-at the secret platform of 9 ¾ to the Hogwarts Express. Arthur Weasley tells Harry not to go after Sirius Black while at Hogwarts. Harry tells Ron and Hermione about what’s happening as they enter an empty train compartment where lying on a seat was a shabby looking man who is their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin.
On the way to Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione get into the excitement of going to Hogsmeade only to learn that Harry won’t be coming since he doesn’t have a signed form. He also meets up with rival Draco Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle, who tries to pick a fight with Ron and Harry until they saw Lupin who is still sleeping. The train suddenly stops as it begins to darken as Harry sees one of the Azkaban guards called Dementors, black-hooded, soul-sucking creatures who comes close to Harry as he passes out to a screaming voice. Harry becomes ill as Lupin has awoken and gives Harry some chocolate as they arrive at the school. Malfoy was in glee to hear that Harry had passed out as he and Hermione were sent to his house head and Transfiguration teacher Professor McGonnagall. Harry ensures McGonnagall and the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey, that he is fine as McGonnagall takes a meeting with Hermione. As they enter the feast and Sorting Ceremony, Dumbledore tells the students about the Dementors guarding the school grounds as well as announcing two new teachers to the staff. First was Lupin, who was looked at by Harry’s least favorite teacher Professor Snape with great loathing, and the second was none other than Hagrid who Dumbledore chose as the new teacher for Care of Magical Creatures to the delight of many students at the school.
Harry, unfortunately had to endure the taunting of Malfoy, who keeps doing fainting impressions as Ron is shocked to see Hermione’s schedule that had three classes all marked at the same time. Harry and his Gryffindor classmates went to the North tower for Divination where they ran into a mad painting of a hilarious knight named Sir Cadogan who shows them the way to the Divination room. They meet up with Professor Trelawney who tells them about predicting the future and make them see things with tea, as she is shocked to find that Harry has a death omen in his tea that looked like a big black dog. For Hermione, she found the whole Divination to be complete rubbish as she and the Gryffindors went to Care of Magical Creatures with Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins. Hagrid shows the students half-bird, half-horse creatures called Hippogriffs as Harry makes eye contact with a hippogriff named Buckbeak who bows to him. Malfoy decides to disrupt the class by offending Buckbeak as the animal’s steel-like talons scratched him as he got sent to the hospital wing and tried to get Hagrid in trouble.
Malfoy used the stunt as an attempt to get Hagrid fired as well as making Harry and Ron cut up his ingredients for Potions class. Harry and Ron’s forgetful friend Neville Longbottom meanwhile, is having trouble doing his potion since his greatest fear in the world in none other than Snape. Neville’s fear of Snape is then used for Lupin’s Defense lesson as he teaches the Gryffindors about a creature called boggarts, shape-shifting things that can turn into things you fear. Harry thinks of Voldemort first but keeps thinking of the Dementors as his fellow classmates defeated the things they fear by turning them into something funny. For Harry, he was becoming miserable with his growing thoughts on the Dementors, his inability to go to Hogsmeade, and the morose way Trelawney looked at him as his Gryffindor classmates Pavarti Patil and Lavender Brown annoy everyone with their love for Divination.
Harry’s mood was brightening up a bit with Quidditch practice as he and his teammates train to win the Quidditch cup until the first day of Hogsmeade visit as he meets up with Lupin. Lupin felt that Harry shouldn’t fight the boggart since it might’ve assumed the shape of Lord Voldemort that would’ve scared the class but Harry told him he thought of the Dementors. Then Snape came into Lupin’s office with a boiling cup he was supposed to give Lupin as his face geared towards Harry and Lupin with extreme loathing. After an enjoyable Halloween feast, the Gryffindors learn that the tower door painting of the Fat Lady had been attacked as the school staff learned that Sirius Black was in the castle. The students were forced to stay in the Great Hall for the night as Harry saw a meeting with Snape and Dumbledore as Snape suspected that Black came to the castle with someone’s help. The Gryffindors get Sir Cadogan as their temporary guard as McGonnagall tells Harry for extra precaution, he will have to do his Quidditch practices with Madam Hooch as the Gryffindor team captain Oliver Wood is upset that they’re not playing Slytherin, due to Malfoy’s injury, and they’re playing Hufflepuff with their new captain, Cedric Diggory.
Harry gets late for a Defense class where he learned that Lupin had been ill and the substitute was none other than Snape who made the Gryffindors learn about werewolves. Harry wondered why Snape hates Lupin so much as he had bigger problems in his Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. There, Harry saw a hundred Dementors sucking his soul as he heard the scream of his own mother just before Lord Voldemort killed her. Harry fell off his broom but survived as he found his own broomstick being destroyed by the Whomping Willow and Dumbledore being furious that the Dementors came to the ground. Just before the Christmas season, Ron’s twin brothers Fred and George give Harry an early Xmas present which was a secret map of Hogwarts that is led to Hogsmeade that is written by four men named Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Harry uses the map to go to Hogsmeade in secrecy as he sees Ron & Hermione as they walk into a pub where Harry sees Fudge, McGonnagall, Hagrid, charms Professor Flitwick, and pub owner Madam Romserta talking about Sirius Black.
Harry learns shocking truths about his connection Black and the wizard that he killed was one of his father’s old friends named Peter Pettigrew, as he finds himself filled with hatred so powerful that he wanted to kill Black. Ron and Hermione wanted to make Harry not do anything stupid but Harry’s hatred is so powerful, he wanted to talk to Hagrid but learned that Hagrid is upset over the fact that Buckbeak might be executed. On Christmas, Harry receives a new broomstick from no one as Hermione wondered thought it should be checked for jinxes since she thought it was sent from Sirius Black. The broomstick was taken away as Ron is furious with Hermione not over the broomstick but with her cat’s attempt to eat Scabbers while she’s having problems of her own working on Hagrid’s appeal and her own schoolwork, where Harry and Ron try to figure out how she is getting to all of her classes. Harry gets lessons to fight Dementors from Lupin as he hear more voices while later in the story, he learns more truths, including an intense confrontation with Snape, and shocking moments that will is heartbreaking to some of the series most devoted fans.
Overall, Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban is easily the best book of the series. The emotional drive of the story is the real meat behind “The Prisoner of Azkaban” as it would later follow the more ambitious fourth book Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. Already, the movie for the Prisoner of Azkaban is currently being made with Y Tu Mama Tambien director Alfonso Cuaron making the movie. Even the casting for the next Potter movie is filled with anticipation as Sir Michael Gambon (replacing the late Richard Harris) plays Dumbledore, Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew, Pam Ferris as Aunt Marge, David Thewlis as Lupin, Julie Christie as Madam Rosmerta, and Gary Oldman playing Sirius Black. If Cuaron sticks to the story and emotional intensity of the book, then The Prisoner of Azkaban could easily be the best Potter movie. Though The Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets are better introductions, the best Harry Potter book is The Prisoner of Azkaban as it takes the reader to J.K. Rowling’s mystical world of magic.
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