Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

About the novel : 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel in the Harry Potter series, written by J. K. Rowling. The book follows Harry Potter, a young wizard, in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Along with friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry investigates Sirius Black, an escaped prisoner from Azkaban who they believe is one of Lord Voldemort's old allies.

The book was published in the United Kingdom on 8 July 1999 by Bloomsbury and in the United States on 8 September 1999 by Scholastic Inc.Rowling found the book easy to write, finishing it just a year after she had begun writing it. The book sold 68,000 copies in just three days after its release in the United Kingdom, and since has sold over three million in the country.[5] The book won the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo.

The film adaptation of the novel was released in 2004, grossing more than $796 million and earned notable critical acclaim. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.

Plot :

Harry is back at the Dursleys, where he sees on Muggle television that a prisoner named Sirius Black has escaped. Harry involuntarily inflates Aunt Marge when she comes to visit after she insults Harry and his parents. This leads to his running away and getting picked up by the Knight Bus. He travels to the Leaky Cauldron, where he meets Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, who asks Harry to stay in Diagon Alley for the remaining three weeks before the start of the school year at Hogwarts.

The night before he is expected to leave for Hogwarts, Harry learns that the escaped prisoner, Sirius Black, is a convicted murderer, and it is believed that he wants to murder Harry. On the way to Hogwarts, a Dementor boards the train, causing Harry to faint, but he is helped by the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin. Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that the Dementors will be patrolling the school in an attempt to catch Black.

Later on, Lupin's Defence Against the Dark Arts sessions prove far better than those of Gilderoy Lockhart's (Harry's uselessly vain ex-teacher). They have a fun lesson on Boggarts (see Magical Creatures in Harry Potter), and then learn about more Dark Creatures, though, when Lupin supposedly falls ill, Professor Snape, the much hated Potions Master, takes over and belittles Hermione's knowledge, much to her dismay.

At Hogwarts, Harry has several problems with the Dementors, including an episode at a Quidditch match, during which he faints and falls off his broomstick from around 50 feet in the air. His broom is smashed by the Whomping Willow. Working with Harry outside class, Lupin teaches him the Patronus Charm to repel Dementors.

On an unauthorised visit to the village of Hogsmeade (thanks to The Marauder's Map, given to him by George Weasley and Fred Weasley), Harry overhears some of his teachers talking with Fudge about Black, saying that Black was a friend of Harry's parents, but he betrayed them and gave Voldemort access to their house, and that he also killed thirteen Muggles and his former friend Peter Pettigrew.

Ron and Hermione's friendship later suffers when Ron believes that Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, ate his rat, Scabbers. At Christmas, Harry receives a mysterious present, a late-model Firebolt broom. Fearing it might be cursed, Hermione reports the gift to Professor McGonagall, which leads to more bad feelings between her and Ron and Harry.

Ron, Hermione, and Harry join the effort to save Hagrid's hippogriff, Buckbeak, from being executed for attacking Draco Malfoy, after Draco provoked him. Their efforts are unsuccessful, but Scabbers reappears shortly after they hear Buckbeak being executed.

Ron chases Scabbers, only to be attacked by a big black dog, which Harry has seen several times before. The dog drags Ron through a tunnel under the Whomping Willow into the Shrieking Shack. Harry and Hermione follow, and there is a brief standoff when they find Ron and Sirius, who has transformed from the dog. Lupin enters, and they explain the situation to Harry and his friends: Lupin is a werewolf, which led to his friends James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew becoming animagi. Lupin explains that Scabbers is Pettigrew in his animal form; he has been hiding from Black, whom he had framed for the murders of Harry's parents and the thirteen Muggles.

Snape arrives to apprehend Black but Harry, Ron, and Hermine knock him unconscious. Lupin and Black transform Pettigrew back into human form and prepare to kill him, but they are stopped by Harry, as he feels his father would not have wanted it and to give him to the Dementors instead.

As they move back toward Hogwarts, Lupin turns into a werewolf and becomes violent, having missed a dose of a potion he had been taking that would allow him to keep his human mind when in animal form. Pettigrew escapes again, and Black prevents Lupin, in his werewolf form, from attacking the others. Some Dementors approach Harry, Ron and Hermione.

When they wake up in the hospital, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are told that Black has been sentenced to receive the Dementor's kiss, which removes the soul of the recipient. Dumbledore advises Hermione and Harry to use Hermione's time-turner, a device she has been using to double-up on classes, which permits them to go back in time and save Buckbeak, who carries Black away to safety.

Sadly, Snape lets slip that Lupin is a werewolf, leading to his resignation. Harry visits Lupin before he leaves, and then they say goodbye to each other, and Lupin is certain that they will meet sometime soon (see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).

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Sources : Wikipedia.
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