The Marauders Read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Fanfiction

Old School Wednesdays presents an ballsy reread of The Harry Potter series past J.One thousand. Rowling. THIS MONTH ON THE RE-READ: we accept a look at book 3, our favorite in the series. WILL Information technology STAND THE Test OF TIME.

Old School Wednesdays is a weekly Book Smuggler feature. We came upwardly with the idea towards the end of 2012, when both Ana and Thea were feeling exhausted from the never-ending overflowing of New and Shiny (and oftentimes over-hyped) books. What meliorate mode to snap out of a reading fugue than to take a mini-vacation into the past?

This time, on our Old School Midweek journey, we go on our OSW characteristic for the first one-half (ok, two-thirds) of 2016–The Epic Harry Potter Re-Read with our joint review of the first book!

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author: J.K. Rowling

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Publisher: Bloomsbury (UK) / Scholastic (US)
Publication Engagement: Outset published 1999
Hardcover: 317 Pages

Harry Potter is lucky to reach the historic period of thirteen, since he has already survived the murderous attacks of the feared Dark Lord on more than one occasion. But his hopes for a quiet term concentrating on Quidditch are dashed when a maniacal mass-murderer escapes from Azkaban, pursued by the soul-sucking Dementors who guard the prison house. It's causeless that Hogwarts is the safest identify for Harry to be. But is it a coincidence that he can experience eyes watching him in the dark, and should he be taking Professor Trelawney's ghoulish predictions seriously?

Stand lonely or series: Volume 3 in the Harry Potter series

How did we get this book: Bought

Format (eastward- or p-): Print

Previously on the Epic Harry Potter Re-read:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Rock / Harry Potter and the Magician's Stone

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

**All reviews/discussions on this re-readalong will contain inevitable spoilers–if yous don't want to exist spoiled, best expect away. YOU Take BEEN WARNED.**

REVIEW

Ana's Take:

Well. Well, well, well. This one IS as good as I remembered. Permit's put aside the fact that I spent this book drowning in a puddle of my ain tears (all the moments with Lupin striking me hard in the feels), why practice I love Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and so very much?

For many reasons. Permit me constitutional.

I will start by saying that to my consternation, this is not one of The Tomes. In my retention (and I proceed going dorsum to retentiveness x expectation because what else is going to happen when yous are re-reading?), this was 1 of the Big Ones. There is and then much that happens in this book, I was surprised when I picked upwards a copy to read now and it was so… sparse. This turned out to be a good thing in the stop and is perhaps one of the reasons why this book is and then proficient: it's taut, it's tense, it's perfectly plotted and it doesn't waste matter time. Speaking of fourth dimension, the simply moment when its conciseness was perhaps not so perfect was the last two capacity and how the volume doesn't play and so much with the fourth dimension travel chemical element as it could have. At least not in the way that the movie did – this is where the pic was an improvement in the story considering of non only the added visuals simply besides in the interconnected style that the fourth dimension travelling plot unravelled (and who didn't similar to see Malfoy slapped TWICE past Hermione?).

The Prisoner of Azkaban is probably where – despite the fact that Harry and his friends were in serious danger before this point what with facing Voldemort twice – these kids kickoff growing upwardly. The first two books had a definitely kidlit camber to them whereas the third book sounds more grown-upwards, reads more like YA and is darker and more than mature than its 2 predecessors. It'southward less magical in that starry-eyed, naive way and more than realistic in how it presents the failings of magic, how it definitely shows to these kids that the magic globe is non perfect – far from it. Y'all have creatures like the Dementors who are land-sanctioned torturers; y'all have a flawed justice system that is gamed by those with more than power (like the Malfoys vs Hagrid or the World vs Lupin). You lot have the start of an exam of how un-perfect not only the system is but also how people – even loved ones – are imperfect and sometimes fifty-fifty, problematic (Dobby's treatment in the previous volume and the house-elves storyline were just the offset).

"Your fave is problematic": going through my head as I read because nosotros revisit Harry's begetter's childhood and the privileged manner that he and his group of friends ran rampant at Hogwarts. I forgot the horrible prank that Sirius Black played on Snape, a life-threatening "prank" that had no real repercussion. It's no wonder Snape hates Sirius-Lupin-James so much – they were bullies. And I feel that the story so far does make a point of showing that they were not perfect. History is shown to repeat itself even, with Harry and HIS group of friends running rampant with their privilege, thinking they tin can get away with everything. There is a moment when Snape tells Harry that the entire world is worried nearly Harry's safety and yet he throws that away without thinking of the consequences. Yes, Harry IS a kid and that's part of information technology, of form, but the narrative doesn't let him go away with information technology. In fact, dangers abound, people do get hurt and in the end our heroes don't become everything that they want.

Consequences, shades of grey and all that.

This is a book that sucker-punches you lot multiple times. Harry'due south dad is not the perfect goodie 2 shoes Harry thought him to exist. His all-time friends where assholes who grew up to take terrible lives. Ane of them spent twelve years at the worst identify imaginable as an innocent man and NO ONE BELIEVED HIM. Not even his best friend Remus.

The relationship between Lupin and Harry as teacher-pupil is one of the strongest one: Lupin is non just a corking teacher but he besides talks to Harry and the other students equally equals. To lose Lupin as a teacher is a blow. Just not as big as a blow as That Moment, that precious moment when Sirius and Harry have a eye-to-heart convo and Sirius invites Harry to live with him and for a blissful one-half an hour Harry thought he was free of the Dursleys. I cried anguished tears the first time I read this and I wept again at present.

"Your fave is problematic" #2: I remain dumbfounded at the Dursleys' mental and physical abuse of Harry and how that is not a problem for the muggles social services or for the magical community. I remain dumbfounded that the way the narrative shows how terrible they are is by emphasizing their physical appearance with fat shaming and past mocking their looks.

With that said, this THE book for coolness factor: this is where nosotros get to read about Hogsmeade and butterbeer; where we get the time-turner and the Firebolt; the MARAUDER'S MAP; the Night bus. The dementors, the Patronus spell. Too: Underground Cat Spy Crookshanks. AND Professor Trelawney and her prediction (and so that throwaway foreshadowing annotate from Dumbledore's saying that information technology'due south only the SECOND time she had a real prophecy).

This i definitely stands the test of fourth dimension and I dear it more than I loved drinking butterbeer at Hogsmeade (and I loved that a whole lot).

Thea's Accept:

WELL. WHAT ANA SAID. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite volume of the serial, information technology's my favorite motion-picture show of the franchise, and all in all is what I think of when I think of Harry Potter. This is the volume that I always return to re-read–information technology'due south the book that starts to show the griminess of the wizarding globe, it's the book that tells us more than near Harry's origin story (his past is such a mystery to him and anybody is trying ot protect him from himself which is so frustrating), it's the book that introduces the Maurauder's Map and the Fourth dimension Turner and SIRIUS BLACK AND LUPIN! Oh, right, and it also seeds futurity books in the series in a major way (Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, SIRIUS Black AND LUPIN!).

Suffice it to say, this is my favorite book for a reason, and it is i that most assuredly stands the test of fourth dimension.

Ana has already covered so many of the aforementioned feels I had while reading this volume, and so I'll effort non to repeat her likewise much–only I have to affect one bespeak that she emphasizes to re-emphasize its importance. Thematically, Prisoner of Azkaban is dissimilar than the prior two books. It's the first time that nosotros truly start to question things in the Wizarding World–we see the many injustices of the system considering nosotros sympathize with folks like Lupin and Hagrid, who are systematically and institutionally discriminated against, even deprived of their very livelihoods, because of the prejudices and power-machinations of others. The world of magic may exist wondrous and total of chocolate toads, Zonko's and butterbeer, just it's also a earth that allowed a monster like Voldemort to rise to power, where back-door deals are struck with vile creatures like the Dementors, where throwing someone in Azkaban without full trial or bear witness is commonplace, and where innocent animals and those afflicted with magical incurable conditions are preyed upon past the more powerful.

Beyond this night underbelly of Harry Potter's wizarding world, Azkaban is ALSO the first time that we question everything we idea we knew about Harry and his family unit and his by. J.K. Rowling is at her finest, most stiff writing in this third book as she pulls the rug out from readers not merely once, only multiple times. It'south like a large throw carpeting, secretly on superlative of a sleek chic rug, on meridian of a trap door, that hides a secret subterranean room with another carpeting. Sirius Blackness is revealed to be a serial killer to Muggles, a series murdering sorcerer to the magical community, a prison escape artist impervious to Dementors (supposedly), and a loyal minion to Lord Voldemort. But and so, nosotros acquire he doesn't just want Harry to please his Dark Lord–he also turns out to have been friends with the Potters. Best friends, in fact, to James. The best homo at the wedding, as some other thing fact. The godfather to Harry himself, to peak it all off. Sirius is never who we call back he is in this volume, and every bit Harry learns more almost his parents and this detail friend, his entire world view shifts, once more.

Related to Sirius Blackness and his many backstories, Harry learns another very important lesson for the offset time in this book, that will follow him and his friends and serve them well in the coming darkness. Sometimes, the people in power and those y'all choose to trust are not telling you the truth. And sometimes, you accept to intermission the rules in order to do the correct thing, because the rules–and the authorisation figures behind those rules–are wrong. I love that about this volume, and this series overall.

Across these two thematic primal threads, the other reasons to honey Azkaban are bountiful. I love that Hermione challenges her friends and stands against them at times in order to keep them prophylactic and brand the right decisions (howdy, mystery Firebolt present)–simply every bit I love her dedication to her studies, her terminal realization that sometimes even her superhuman smarts need a pause, and that she CAN take huge police-breaking gambles for the greater proficient. I loved the new characters nosotros meet in this volume, in particular Professor Remus J. Lupin–who also is such a principal figure in the series, a father-type-figure to Harry, and a hell of a Defence force Against the Dark Arts professor. Sirius–well, how can anyone not beloved Sirius and his many layers and everything he has endured in Azkaban, being abandoned by all his friends? And then the characters we already know and love also reveal greater depths in this book–peculiarly Professor Snape, who seems to exist a merciless jerk bully to Harry and his friends for no reason (and we finally start to see why he loathes Harry, who looks so like his male parent, then much).¹ Fred and George come up in the clutch this time, too, with their giving Harry the Maurader's Map; Percy is endearing if pompous equally Head Male child (and starts to show signs of the bad things to come).

And then of course there are the magical artifacts and other wonders: We see the Womping Willow's truthful purpose, the Shrieking Shack, we become to Hogsmeade for the commencement time, and learn about the wonders of the village'due south Butterbeer and joke shops and sweet shops and pubs. In the moving picture, which I mentioned earlier is my favorite of them all, one thing that isn't done very well is the missing joy and terseness of Quidditch! Human being, I love quidditch, and the quidditch loving cup, and everything that is at stake for Gryffindor in this book, and I miss that in the after films as well. I do agree with Ana that the time turner and the resulting double-scenes in the film are superior to those in the book–but the book is still infrequent in this regard. I LOVED the dramatic fourth dimension-turning consequences, the rescue of Buckbeak, the danger with Remus and Sirius and Snape and the Dementors.

I mean… damn. This volume is practiced. It's as good today every bit it was when I commencement read it–and that is why it's deserving of the highest marks in my opinion.

The verdict: Prisoner of Azkaban is perfection to me now, just as it was to me fifteen or then years agone.

Rating:

Ana: ix – leaning toward x

Thea: 10 Firebolt broomsticks out of 10

About the Epic Harry Potter Re-Read:

Extending through August, we volition be re-reading each volume in the Harry Potter serial past J.Grand. Rowling. (Nosotros'll too be re-watching all of the movies, but we won't be reviewing those.) Why are nosotros doing such a thing? Because we are nostalgic for these books that nosotros basically grew upward with; because we've had so much fun with re-reads over the past year, especially for Old Schoolhouse Wednesdays (see Percy Jackson and The Dark Tower); and well-nigh of all, because this August, nosotros Volume Smugglers are going to lookout Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London. AAAAAA!!!!

Are you lot also a Harry Potter fan? Are you lot new to the books? Do you want to bring together our re-read fun? Well you're in some serious luck (and yous don't fifty-fifty demand Felix Felicis) because here'southward the total schedule.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone – January 27

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets – February 24

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban – March 23

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire – April 27

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix – May 25

Harry Potter and The One-half-Blood Prince – June 22

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – July 27

Join us, won't yous?

Buy the Book:

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Source: https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2016/03/old-school-wednesdays-harry-potter-re-read-harry-potter-prisoner-azkaban.html

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