He meets bosom friends Ron and Hermione on board the Hogwarts Express and soon finds himself with them in Gryffindor: the home of the fearless and brave. However, Harry also has many enemies at Hogwarts, most notably the arrogant Draco Malfoy and the obnoxious Potions Master Snape (both associated with Slytherin). And from a fight with a Halloween troll to his first exhilarating Quidditch match - not to mention the novel's climax in which Harry fights Voldemort for the second time in his young life - there's never a dull moment in the first year of his new adventure. .
Wrong. When the school caretaker's cat is found petrified (actually paralyzed and in a coma, but technically still alive) along with the chilling message that the "Chamber of Secrets is open", fear and suspicion begin to arise - and, of course, only get worse. when the students also start to petrify. No one can figure out who is to blame, only that he calls himself "The Heir" and seems to be on the warpath.
But, as our young heroes well know, if you want the mystery to be solved correctly, you must do it yourself. Which they do - with the help of brewing a Potion of Polyjuice, mysterious memories from a sentient journal, and a truly terrifying excursion to see a giant spider named Aragog. The climax of the book is a visit to the main room, which lies beneath Hogwarts and contains yet another deadly threat that Harry must face.
But, of course, this is an early Potter book, and there's more to it than noise and danger. Comic relief comes in the form of the half-witted, self-absorbed Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and the toilet ghost Moaning Myrtle, who, in true Rowling style, turns out to be the key to the story's central plot twist.
The third book in the series follows Sirius Black, a crazed mass murderer who has just escaped from the magical prison of Azkaban. As a result, hordes of Dementors - dark, faceless creatures that "suck the soul" from their victims and serve as Azkaban's guards - infiltrate Hogwarts to patrol Black, who is supposedly chasing Harry. To make matters worse, our usually tough hero reacts badly to the Dementors, which cause him to pass out on the train and even lose an important Quidditch match.
Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione fight even more than usual over their pets, Crookshanks the cat and Scabbers the rat. But what seems like a light-hearted subplot turns out to be a major factor in one of the series' biggest twists and turns, revealed in the last few chapters...and which naturally also involves Black and Lupine. Oh, and hippogriffs and time travel, if that's not enough to convince you.
Aside from the sheer brilliance of the plot in this book, Rowling also provides some interesting commentary with Dementors, which symbolize depression and make Harry struggle with his past trauma. Indeed, while Goblet of Fire is widely regarded as the "jumping point" into the darker themes of the series' second half, Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely where those themes start to take root.
But the Order can do little about Dolores Umbridge, a newly appointed and highly sadistic Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts who perpetuates the Ministry's lies about Voldemort. When Harry openly challenges her in class, she responds by subjecting him to chronic punishment, during which he must write lines with a "bloody pen" that carves words into the back of his hand. Despite this torment, he and the rest of the students disagree with Umbridge and form a secret defense organization for themselves called Dumbledore's Army.
On top of that, Harry has frequent, agonizing visions of Voldemort while he sleeps, and has to take Occlumency lessons from Professor Snape to prevent them. It's a different kind of torture: Snape forces himself into Harry's private memories every class and relishes the opportunity to hurt him. Of course, Snape's own twisted motives are revealed when Harry accesses his memories, one of which is a bitter fight with Harry's father.
In this penultimate issue, everything changes for an explanation in which Harry learns all about Voldemort's family and, so to speak, "origin story". Dumbledore is giving Harry these lessons in order to prepare him for a future epic battle with Voldemort, presumably to keep his enemies closer. What Harry doesn't know is that Dumbledore is planning something more - a plan in which he, Harry, is getting more and more inexorably entangled with each passing day.
At the same time, Harry suspects Malfoy (always a nefarious character) of colluding with Voldemort and begins to obsessively hunt him down on the Marauder's Map. But each new lead seems to be a false twist, and Harry becomes increasingly frustrated by the lack of evidence when he knows Malfoy is guilty. Oddly enough, he was lucky only in Potions lessons. Getting used from
Wrong. When the school caretaker's cat is found petrified (actually paralyzed and in a coma, but technically still alive) along with the chilling message that the "Chamber of Secrets is open", fear and suspicion begin to arise - and, of course, only get worse. when the students also start to petrify. No one can figure out who is to blame, only that he calls himself "The Heir" and seems to be on the warpath.
But, as our young heroes well know, if you want the mystery to be solved correctly, you must do it yourself. Which they do - with the help of brewing a Potion of Polyjuice, mysterious memories from a sentient journal, and a truly terrifying excursion to see a giant spider named Aragog. The climax of the book is a visit to the main room, which lies beneath Hogwarts and contains yet another deadly threat that Harry must face.
But, of course, this is an early Potter book, and there's more to it than noise and danger. Comic relief comes in the form of the half-witted, self-absorbed Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and the toilet ghost Moaning Myrtle, who, in true Rowling style, turns out to be the key to the story's central plot twist.
The third book in the series follows Sirius Black, a crazed mass murderer who has just escaped from the magical prison of Azkaban. As a result, hordes of Dementors - dark, faceless creatures that "suck the soul" from their victims and serve as Azkaban's guards - infiltrate Hogwarts to patrol Black, who is supposedly chasing Harry. To make matters worse, our usually tough hero reacts badly to the Dementors, which cause him to pass out on the train and even lose an important Quidditch match.
Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione fight even more than usual over their pets, Crookshanks the cat and Scabbers the rat. But what seems like a light-hearted subplot turns out to be a major factor in one of the series' biggest twists and turns, revealed in the last few chapters...and which naturally also involves Black and Lupine. Oh, and hippogriffs and time travel, if that's not enough to convince you.
Aside from the sheer brilliance of the plot in this book, Rowling also provides some interesting commentary with Dementors, which symbolize depression and make Harry struggle with his past trauma. Indeed, while Goblet of Fire is widely regarded as the "jumping point" into the darker themes of the series' second half, Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely where those themes start to take root.
But the Order can do little about Dolores Umbridge, a newly appointed and highly sadistic Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts who perpetuates the Ministry's lies about Voldemort. When Harry openly challenges her in class, she responds by subjecting him to chronic punishment, during which he must write lines with a "bloody pen" that carves words into the back of his hand. Despite this torment, he and the rest of the students disagree with Umbridge and form a secret defense organization for themselves called Dumbledore's Army.
On top of that, Harry has frequent, agonizing visions of Voldemort while he sleeps, and has to take Occlumency lessons from Professor Snape to prevent them. It's a different kind of torture: Snape forces himself into Harry's private memories every class and relishes the opportunity to hurt him. Of course, Snape's own twisted motives are revealed when Harry accesses his memories, one of which is a bitter fight with Harry's father.
In this penultimate issue, everything changes for an explanation in which Harry learns all about Voldemort's family and, so to speak, "origin story". Dumbledore is giving Harry these lessons in order to prepare him for a future epic battle with Voldemort, presumably to keep his enemies closer. What Harry doesn't know is that Dumbledore is planning something more - a plan in which he, Harry, is getting more and more inexorably entangled with each passing day.
At the same time, Harry suspects Malfoy (always a nefarious character) of colluding with Voldemort and begins to obsessively hunt him down on the Marauder's Map. But each new lead seems to be a false twist, and Harry becomes increasingly frustrated by the lack of evidence when he knows Malfoy is guilty. Oddly enough, he was lucky only in Potions lessons. Getting used from
