Prisoner of Azkaban Chapters 3 - 4

She Knows, She Always Knows!

In Chapter 3, in the article in the Daily Prophet about Sirius Black, Harry reads that Fudge informed the muggle prime minister of Black's breakout from Azkaban. In the 6th book, we can actually get a first hand account of Fudge meeting with the prime minister. It amazes me how well Rowling integrates the books. In an interview with Rowling, she revealed that she wrote the chapter about Fudge's interaction with the muggle prime minister long before the 6th book was written. She had a hard time deciding where she would place it in the series. At one time, she considered placing it in Chamber of Secrets. One more example of excellent integrating that we see in these chapters is that it's mentioned that the Irish quidditch team put in an order for seven new Firebolt racing brooms and that they were favorites in the world cup that year. We find out in the 4th book, that they indeed made it to the quidditch world cup finals against Bulgaria.

The One Good Thing...

about living with the Dursleys is that Harry has remained humble and grounded. Dumbledore points this out to the Dursleys in the 6th book, but we can see evidence of that right now. One thing that is so endearing about Harry is that he constantly underestimates how special he is. It's not that he has any special magical abilities or powers others don't, but it's that he posesses the character and moral fiber that allows him to use his magical abilities to better others; and yet, he remains innocently oblivious of the impact he has on others. He's the very opposite of Gilderoy Lockhart.

Because we get the story from Harry's point of view, we rarely get to see what others think of Harry, but we can get an idea from how they treat him. Although Harry would never admit it, he must be endearing to others. He's won many people over just like Voldemort did, but unlike Voldemort, who manipulated people into liking him, Harry is naturally endearing. Here are a few examples: Fortescue must have taken a liking to Harry because he gave him free sundaes at his ice cream shop every half hour while Harry was doing homework; Hagrid, Dobby, and Colin Creevey are probably Harry's biggest fans; and we even see that McGonagall has taken a liking to Harry, though she rarely openly shows it.

A Little Rusty on the Detective Work


Over the summer, Harry must of gotten a little rusty on this detective abilities. I'm speaking here of his interaction with Fudge. Harry thought it was a little suspicious that he got off so easily after blowing up his aunt. Harry did figure out that Fudge let him off easy because Black is after Harry, but what Harry failed to do was think about Fudge's motivations. We know from the last book what kind of man Fudge is. He's mainly concerned about saving face. This case is no different. Fudge's intentions in meeting Harry at the Leaky Cauldron were less than noble. He knew that if anything happened to the "Boy who lived," then that would be a political disaster. The public would think that if Black killed Harry, he could kill any one of them. Fudge would be ruined. Harry should have picked up on this.

Priorities

Harry behaves in Diagon Alley like I imagine a lot of 13-year-olds would. He finds it mildly tempting to blow a bunch of money on something he would use for school, but finds it almost impossible not to blow his whole fortune on the best racing broom in the world despite already owning the 3rd best racing broom in the world. I know some people who would have bought the broom anyway... and they're not even 13.

Have yourself a very Harry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Gryffindorks!


I'm happy to see that wizards spend Christmas the same way muggles do. I'm especially happy that Harry finally gets Christmases that every kid deserves. It says a lot about the Dursleys that Harry considers the empty walls of Hogwarts at Christmas more of a home than the one he grew up in. It also says a lot about the level of loyalty of Harry's friends that they're willing to stay behind to be with Harry for Christmas.

Props to J.K. Rowling to not make religion an issue with Christmas. After reading the books, we assume everyone in the wizarding world celebrates Christmas. Rowling simply tells her story without having any kind of social or political agenda, although many social issues of the times are reflected in the story, Rowling doesn't use Harry to push her views on her readers.

Where do the teachers go during the holidays? Don't they have families to go home to? I guess for Dumbledore, Hogwarts is home. For most of the teachers, it seems they have no lives outside the one they know at Hogwarts.

Lastly, this Christmas, let's take a leaf out of Rowling's books and show a little more love this season. Happy Christmas!

Prisoner of Azkaban Chapters 1 - 2

Merry Christmas, Gryffindorks! As one blog reader pointed out, it's been a while since my last post. Well Diane, you can Huffle-shove-it. Here's your bloody post! :)

Overview



Each Harry Potter book has its own plot and unique storyline, but each book contributes to a large, overarching plot about Harry. The first two books do very little to move the "big" plot forward. Rather, their role is to introduce us to the wizarding world and give some background on the "big" story. On their own, they're probably geared toward the 9-12 year-old age group. In Prisoner of Azkaban, we see a jump in the level of maturity of the story. I really enjoy that as Harry gets older, so does his target audience. This book is also the first book to really further the "big" plot. I like that in this book, we move away form the formulaic plot of the first two. This is also apparent in the movies, helped by the change in directors from Chris Columbus to Alfonzo Cuaron.

I forgot to give my ranking of Chamber of Secrets in my last post. Here's a recap.
My Rankings:
Of my favorite books in this series, I rank Sorcerer's Stone 6th out of 7.
I rank Chamber of Secrets 7th out of 7. Ha.
I rank Prisoner of Azkaban 4th out of 7.

The Return of the Beefeaters

The Fat-porkers have reached new levels of nastiness in this story, especially with the addition of Vernon's sister, Aunt Hairy Jowles McGruff. Uncle Saltporker and Aunt Dunglips have not changed in their attitudes toward Harry since we last saw them; in fact, if anything, they loathe him even more. The only thing that has changed is that little Roastbeefy is now roughly the size of a baby elephant seal.



Like Wicked

A few months ago, I saw a production of the musical, Wicked. For those of you who don't know what Wicked is, it is the Wizard of Oz told from the perpective of The Wicked Witch of the West (Elpheba) and Glinda. In that musical, we get to see the same story we've known for years, but we get a completely different side of it. The reason I bring this up is because I can liken it to Harry's world. It is a story about wizards, but it is not told from a human perspective as you might expect. It is told from a wizard point of view and things from the muggle world must be explained to the reader. Anyway, that's just something I was thinking about while I was reading this chapter. Random, I know.

For New Readers... or Just People Like My Mom

If this book is the first book from the Harry Potter series you read or if you haven't read the first two books in a long time, J.K. Rowling does a fantastic job of getting the reader caught up on background information from the first two books without taking too much of the reader's attention. She carefully weaves it into the first two chapters without slowing the story down. Takes a special talent to do that.

Chamber of Secrets Chapters 16 - 18

Well Gryffindorks, these are the final chapters of the book. The book finally reaches its climax. I have to tell ya, I was surprised by the endings of all the books. Rowling is so good at putting in good plot twists at the end, yet, if you look back, the evidence is all there. She doesn't just pull it out of her rear. It's all believable.

Voldemort's Arrogance

Riddle is Voldemort?!? It gave me chills when I read that for the first time when Riddle rearranged the letters of his name. Creepy. One thing that is noteworthy is that we see that even when he was sixteen, Voldemort was extremely arrogant. The adult Voldemort underestimated the power of love and sacrifice. In this book, he underestimated Harry's abilities. We'll discover that throughout the series Voldemort continually underestimates the traits he values least.


Expelliarmus

Harry and Ron get the best of Lockhart before entering the chamber (Not hard to do). To do this, Harry uses the expelliarmus spell. This is one of the first offensive spells Harry learns and as we'll see, it becomes his trademark move. This is the first instance when it really comes in handy.


Man Behind the Mask

When Lucius meets with Dumbledore at the end of this book, at one point the author says that Lucius' expression was "masklike." I don't think Rowling used that adjective lightly. I think she knew that it carried with it huge significance as we'll later find out.



A Typo?!?

Yes, a typo. In the last couple of pages of the book, there's a preview of the next book, Prisoner of Azkaban. In the description, it says that Harry runs away after blowing up his nasty Aunt Petunia. See anything wrong with that? I do! We know he blows up his Aunt Marge, not Petunia. I'm surprised the editors let that one slide.
To Sum Up...

This book was actually my least favorite of all the books, but that's like chosing a least favorite Christmas present, or if you're Sam Orme, your least favorite They Might be Giants album. This book pretty much gets left in the dust in the big scheme of things until the sixth book when a ton of stuff from this book becomes relevant again. I love the sixth book because of all those "ah hah!" moments when we can remember something that was referenced in the second book. I hope you've all enjoyed reading. Tell your friends about the blog and let's get this party a little bigger. Stay tuned for Prisoner of Azkaban next. I've already started reading.

P.S.

On more than one occasion, when writing the title of my post, I've accidentally written "Chamber of Secrest." I'm not sure what Ryan Seacrest has hiding in his chamber, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out.

Chamber of Secrets Chapters 14 - 15

Why the Megaphone?

When Professor McGonagall rushes onto the Quidditch pitch to cancel the match, she uses a large megaphone. Don't we learn in the 4th book that the Sonorus can be used to magically magnify one's voice? Hmmm.

Pudgy McDunderhead

In this chapter, we get our first glimpse of Cornelius Fudge and we also get a good idea of what kind of person and minister he is. You'll notice that he cares much more about public opinion than justice. Do you think J.K. Rowling intentionally used this character to take a jab at politicians? You'll also notice that Fudge is conflicted. He likes his power and likes to please the public and those with influence, but also respects, and to a degree, fears Dumbledore. We'll see how Fudge reconciles these two conflicting views in Book 5. Fudge likes having Lucius Malfoy in his back pocket because of the influence he has, but also knows that Dumbledore is popular in the wizarding community. In this chapter, I don't think Fudge cares so much about the safety of the school as he does his own position.



Always the Gentleman

You'll find that Dumbledore rarely loses his temper. Even so, you can tell when he's at a hightened state of emotion. Rowling describes this as having a "fire" in his eyes. You'll notice that Rowling loves to use eyes as a distiguishing feature of someone. i.e. Dobby's tennisball-like eyes, Lucius Malfoy's cold, gray eyes, Harry's identical-to-his-mother's green eyes. Rowling will again use eyes to describe characters who will appear later in the series. i.e. Karkaroff's smile that doesn't quite reach his cold eyes, Mad-eye Moody's crazy eye, Voldemort's red eyes. Speaking of Voldemort's eyes, does anyone else find it ironic that Voldemort's eyes are red but his house colors were green and Harry's eyes are green, but his house colors are red?

Prophetic Words

As Dumbledore left Hagrid's cabin, he said, "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." These words not only prove prophetic in this book, but in the final book when Hogwarts is at its greatest need of help. Without spoiling too much about the final book, notice that in this book, Harry's the one who needs the help at Hogwarts, but in the final book, Harry is the help that is given to Hogwarts by other who ask. Interesting, huh.

Spiders



If there's any part of the series that should give you the heeby-jeebies, this should be it. I just want to applaud Rowling's creepy description of the acromantulas. yeesh!


Answer to the quiz:

1.) C.

2.) F.

3.) D.

4.) B.

5.) E.

6.) A.

Bonus: Ronald - It seems Rowling arbitrarily picked his name.

Good job Tara, you were pretty close!

Hang in There Gryffindorks!

Again, sorry for the long hiatus. The second year of dental school is by far the busiest, but that's no excuse. You'll get getting a new post shortly. In the meantime, take a whack at this trivia question:

Match these characters' names with their origins:


__1.) Albus ------------------------A.) A character from Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale"

__2.) Argus -----------------------B.) Old Norse for "Having the Gods' Power"

__3.) Dumbledore -----------------C.) Latin for "White"

__4.) Ron ------------------------- D.) 18th century English for "Bumblebee"

__5.) Snape -----------------------E.) An English Village in North Yorkshire

__6.) Hermione -------------------F.) In Greek mythology, a watchman with a hundred eyes



(All but one of these origins are verified by JKR. In other words, the meanings were intentionally given to these characters. Bonus point to who can tell me which name's meaning was not intentionally given by JKR.)

Chamber of Secrets Chapters 12 - 13

He's been looking dreadful for days

Fawkes, the Phoenix is Dumbledore's pet bird, although the books never say where he got him. Fawkes is an interesting pet for Dumbledore because Fawkes possesses traits that Dumbledore most highly values. It mentions in the books that Phoenixes make highly faithful pets. Loyalty is a character trait very highly valued by Dumbledore and we'll see that come out at the end of this book. If I could pick three character traits that describe this series as a whole, they would be friendship, love, and loyalty. We've seen a lot of friendship in Sorcerer's Stone, but those bonds will be tested further as the series goes on. Another ability Fawkes possesses is the ability to be reborn from its own ashes. This is another ability highly prized by Dumbledore, but we won't find out just how much and why he values this attribute until the last book.



Speaking of loyalty... how about those Weasleys, eh? They are not only extremely loyal to Dumbledore, but to Harry as well. We see that in some of the small acts of kindness toward Harry. For instance, in this chapter, Fred and George unquestionably believe Harry is not the Heir of Slytherin and go so far as to make light of it so as to convince others that the idea of Harry being the Heir is ludicrous.


Ghosts

I'm surprised I haven't talked about them yet. One thing has concerned me throughout the series: I could nail down the properties of ghosts about as well as I could grab a hold of one myself. They can walk through solid objects with ease, yet are sometimes subject to physical forces. Nearly-headless Nick, for example, is able to be wafted away by a fan. This must mean that he can have physical contact with air. Myrtle was upset by a book being flushed down her toilet. Maybe it was just an emotional thing, but she shouldn't have even felt the book go through her. Another thing Myrtle can do is flood the bathroom. How can she affect water like that if she goes right through stuff. Do ghosts have a limited ability to physically affect their surroundings? I don't know.


I'm Sorry Won Won

I ragged on Ron in my last post, so I feel I need to make up for it. Even though Ron incorrectly jumps to conclusions a lot, he does have one advantage over Harry: he know a lot more about the wizarding world. This proves useful in a lot of cases. In this chapter, Ron warns a naive Harry about Riddle's diary, citing many instances when books have proven harmful to their readers.

Extremely Important Connection

So, Harry keeps Tom Riddle's diary. It mentions in this chapter that Harry feel drawn to it and can't throw it away. We don't find out how important this is or why Harry can't throw it away until the 6th book. We also find out in the 7th book why Harry is drawn to this particular magical object. We find out in this book that Harry and Tom Riddle are very similar people. Their similarities, and differences, we play a larger role later in the series. One noteworthy piece of information in this chapter is that the diary was from a muggle shop. I think the diary is a symbol for Riddle himself. Riddle resents growing up in the muggle world and seeks to prove how special he is. He therefore, took a mundane muggle object and made it extremely special. It's interesting if you note that similarity and even more interesting if you've read the 6th book and know just how significant the diary is.



You Dork!

When Harry is inside Riddle's memory, he finds himself in Headmaster Dippet's office. Harry tries to get Dippets attention, but Dippet shows no reaction. So, fearing Dippet might be deaf, Harry speaks louder. How dense are you, oh "chosen one?" Deaf is deaf unless in England, deaf means "old fart who is hard of hearing."

Half-Blood

Riddle mentions to Dippet that he is half-blood: muggle father and witch mother. It's interesting that in Half-blood Prince, the 6th book, that the real Half-blood Prince also had a muggle father and witch mother. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the only use of the words "half-blood" in the series until the 6th book.

How good are you?

Alright you Gryffindorks, lets see how good you are at solving plot elements. As we've already mentioned, several clues in this book lead us to the conclusion that the monster in the chamber of secrets is some kind of serpent. Harry, being a thick 12-year-old believes Riddles version that it was Hagrid's spider that killed the girl. Don't fall for the smoke and mirrors, readers, stick to the facts!