Harry Potter 3 Discussion

December

December’s gone. Hopefully the group is still hanging on, which would mean that we’ve all finished reading the third book in the Harry Potter series — Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

This was actually the last of the books that I saw the movie version of, oddly enough, so it was interesting when we reached the end and some of the things I remember (Snape standing between the kids and the werewolf, the kids luring Buckbeak away with ferret corpses…) didn’t happen.

I think this was the first book with a complex storyline, though even the first book (which focused mainly on introducing the world and characters) had some nice mysteries and clever surprises.

From the beginning, we see plenty of set up for the mystery of the Prisoner and who he was and what really happened the day that Harry’s parents were killed. I don’t think it was the sort of mystery we could be expected to have figured out? But it was fun nonetheless and I liked how much this personally mattered to Harry.

Once again, however, we see the adults acting like morons and the only sensible voice for the big events being our characters. The Buckbeak storyline pervaded more of the story than I remembered and yet somehow these kids are the only ones actually doing research and being reasonable about what happened?

Let’s not even talk about how unbelievable it was that dementors would be allowed to keep attacking Harry and that no adult AT ALL PERIOD EVER would have listened to the truth about Black, and the only real solution was to send the kids back in time to fix everything.

The scene in the Shrieking Shack felt VERY dark in comparison to the preceding books, and I have to wonder whether the adults actually would have allowed Harry to choose whether or not Wormtail was to die.

And I hate that poor Hermione seems to get injured or cause some issue that keeps her from being a part of the last two books. I was, however, VERY glad to read the scene with Hagrid, as it was one of the times when an adult gave them good advice and they listened to it.

Poor Hagrid. I still love him, flobberworms and all. Shame that the first Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher they’ve had who was really good had to leave.

And I still can’t stand Snape. Movie Snape was much more likeable, and even he was a pretty dark individual. Book Snape is pretty nasty.

And I love Crookshanks. Also, I may have cried a little during the early scene where Hedwig made sure that Harry got birthday presents for the first year ever. A little. Just a tiny bit.

I loved the bits with the boggart and how much Harry practiced to master his patronus, and the scene where he finally summoned the fully-formed patronus to protect himself from the Kiss was still hugely impactful.

The “rogue” Animagus thing is also interesting, and completely believable, given the way the students were able to create a polyjuice potion in the last book. Which really makes me think about just how dangerous and difficult it would be to have a magic school. NORMAL kids are impossible to control. Magic kids would be a huge nightmare. Like handing everyone a chainsaw, nailgun, and a box of dynamite on the first day of middle school.

Your Thoughts?

As always, hit me up in the comments with your thoughts on the book!

Related posts:

Harry Potter 1 Discussion
Harry Potter 2 Discussion
Harry Potter Book Club