Prisoner of Azkaban: Chapters 13 & 14

Wizard rock of the week: “The Ravenclaw Seeker” by The Remus Lupins

(with apologizes to dear William)
Wizards, Muggles, and Squib-persons, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Maggie, not to excuse her
The sloth that bloggers do haunts after them
The good is oft hidden in old posts…

I have no fantastic, tragic, or otherwise exciting reason for being more than three (!!!!) weeks behind in our blogging adventure. Chalk it up to almost-simultaneously packing, moving, getting very sick, being overly social, and too busy with work. I gulped with shame when I read that my inspiration for this blog, the talented Leigh Butler, managed to blog after surviving root canal surgery. So now you all really do have permission to shoot me very angry stares. And… *shifts feet guiltily* in my rare moments of spare time I’ve been entirely caught up watching this instead of blogging…

Ahem.

But I am incredibly flattered and grateful to the dozens of you still stopping by regularly in the hope of a new post. A hope that was in vain… until today. Thank you for your patience and kindly forgive my negligence!

My goal this week is to catch up. Today’s post covers Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen, which, by rights, I should have covered way back on February 16th. The rest of the week I’ll do my darndest to get us back on track, even if I have to steal a Time-Turner to do it.

There’s quite a lot going on in these chapters. We’ll read about trickiness from Malfoy and Co., wise advice from Hagrid, and some brilliant Snape-directed snark from students past. They also contain the account of one of my favorite Quidditch matches and the very first droplet from the forthcoming sea of raging hormones (*bonus points if you can guess which Disney movie to which I just vaguely alluded).

And now, the post!

Chapter Thirteen: Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw

What Happens:

Hermione and Ron are having their biggest fight to date, which is less-than-fun for Our Hero Harry. On the upside, the Gryffindor Quidditch team is thrilled with Harry -- and the Firebolt's -- performance at practice, and even Madam Hooch can't stop admiring it. On the way back to the castle, Harry's sure he's seen something... that turns out to be Crookshanks.

The morning of the match, all the typical elements are in place: nervous Harry, swaggering Malfoy, gambling Percy (showing off for Penelope, of course), and uptight Wood. As the teams get ready to start, Harry notices that the other Seeker is a very pretty girl named Cho Chang. Lee Jordan's commentary is predictably hilarious, this time focusing on the attributes of the Firebolt more than the match. As the match goes on, Harry realizes that Cho is more than just a pretty face; she's a skilled Seeker, too. He spots the Snitch and races off to catch it, only to spot three dementors looming out onto the pitch. Without hesitation, he pulls out his wand and sends a Patronus down to face them. It works; the dementors don't affect him at all, and he catches the Snitch to secure Gryffindor's victory.

Landing, Harry's thrilled that he beat the dementors, until Professor Lupin notes that they weren't really dementors, just Malfoy & Co. trying to mess Harry up. Harry doesn't mind, though; they won the match and he scared the lving daylights out of Malfoy. A win-win! Fred and George start a raucous party in the common room. Hermione's the only person who doesn't join in, claiming she has far too much work to do, and spends the evening shooting dark looks at Ron.

Harry wakes up in the middle of the night as Ron screams hysterically about Sirius Black. The whole House wakes up and Professor McGonagall intervenes. Ron is convinced he wasn't dreaming; he really did see Black standing over him with a knife. Skeptical, McGonagall asks Sir Cadogan, who cheerfully confirms the whole story. A man had the whole week's worth of passwords and read them off a slip of paper.... which formerly belonged to one Neville Longbottom.

Commentary:

My favorite line in the whole chapter has got to be Fred's: "Excellent, are we carrying on?" Always good for a chuckle, weren't you, Fred? {sadness}

I know Ron and Hermione's relationship is characteristically argumentative from the get-go, but this is is really the first time they have a significant argument. It's easy to retrospectively see that they're both being rather stupid, but if you were one of them it would be hard to see beyond your own anger. We'll see more of this in GoF, and there it's escalated to jealousy problem.

Let's take a moment, in preparation for the match, to talk about our friend (?) Percy Weasley. He's not a total jerk yet, just the least-liked sibling. But even here at Hogwarts where he's successful and hard-working, he's still pretty insecure about his family. Why else would he make such a ridiculous bet with Penelope? Does he need to gamble 10 galleons from his girlfriend just to prove how nonchalant he can be about the money his family doesn't have? This is a faint glimmer of attitudes that will come into full force in his adulthood. So pay attention, mmmkay?

The match is brilliant, not because of the Quidditch, but Harry's confrontation with the, ahem, dementors. It's always fun when Harry can solidly one-up Malfoy, especially in such a public venue.

Hermione, of course, can't enjoy the party because her workload is too heavy. She and Ron do balance one another out nicely; without her, no one would keep Ron from failing every class from laziness. Without him, she'd constantly freak out about grades and homework. Seeing them apart accentuates their weaknesses.

Looking back, the incident with Black in the dorms is the first glimmer that things might not be all that they seem. We've been told Black is a murderous psychopath. For him to spare the five defenseless teenagers is uncharacteristic of his public persona.

Poor Neville. Always with good intentions... that go horribly awry. This whole thing could be laid squarely at Sir Cadogan's feet, though; if he weren't such an idiot, Neville wouldn't have needed to have the passwords written down. But then, if Black hadn't attacked the Fat Lady, none of this would've happened either.

Chapter Fourteen: Snape’s Grudge

What Happens:

Black's second successful attempt to penetrate the extra security puts the castle in panic mode. Harry feels rather uncomfortable about the secret passages, and can't decide if he should tell an adult about them. Despite the unpleasantness of the break-in, Ron is in the spotlight for the first time and is loving it. Neville, on the other hand, is having a worse time of it. The students, faculty, and his family are all making the poor kid feel terrible.

Hagrid invites Harry and Ron for tea. Much to their surprise, he upbraids them for treating Hermione so badly. Hermione, it turns out, has been doing all her coursework plus all the investigating and preparation for Buckbeak's trial. Ron and Harry feel guilty about this, but not guilty enough to set things right. They're busy planning their next Hogsmeade adventure, which Hermione overhears, and she warns them she'll tell McGonagall if she sees Harry in Hogsmeade again. Both boys ignore her, but Harry decides to take the Invisibility Cloak on the next village visit.

The day of the visit, however, things don't go exactly as planned. Neville, also banned from Hogsmeade, can't seem to take a hint as Harry tries to get rid of him and sneak off to Honeydukes. He and Ron have a nice afternoon visiting all the shops, and are just taking a look at the Shrieking Shack when Malfoy and his cronies arrive, making fun of Hagrid. Harry takes his chance; he flings mud at the Slytherins as Ron guffaws. It's great fun until the Cloak slips off and Malfoy catches a glimpse of Harry's head. Harry rushes back to Hogwarts as fast as he can, but it's too late.

Snape greets him just as he climbs out of the one-eyed witch statue. Harry tries to find believable excuses but Snape is having none of it as he marches Harry to his office. He makes matters worse, insulting James to bait Harry. Snape finds all the Zonko products -- and the Marauder's Map -- in Harry's pockets. Snape tries to make the map show him its secrets, but all he gets are some sophomoric insults. To Harry's surprise, he summons Snape to the office. More to Harry's surprise, Lupin covers up for him and Ron arrives, trying to help Harry with an alibi. Astonished at his luck, Harry leaves the office without punishment. Lupin asks for a quick word. He's deeply disappointed in Harry's lack of sense, but confirms that he did actually know the original map-makers. Harry is just starting to think about this when a teary-eyed Hermione arrives. Buckbeak lost his appeal and faces execution.

Commentary:

Ahh, the great question pops up again: just how much does Snape know? And is it via Legilimancy, or just his past experiences?

I feel a little sad for Ron here. The only reason he's famous is because was almost killed. Maybe this makes sense; after all, that's the reason Harry's famous too. But Ron doesn't take the spotlight well, and we'll see more of his spotlight-hungry consequences in GoF and HBP. Always overshadowed by family and friends, Ron has a long way to go until he's legitimately grown up. Patience, young sidekick. We'll get there.

Here's another good demonstration of Harry and Ron's youth and (arguably normal) recklessness. There's a murderer on the loose and there have been two close calls, but all the boys can think about is sneaking Harry back into Hogsmeade to go to the joke shop. It's very normal teenage boy behavior, and gives a nice zest of realism to the story. Serious as he can be sometimes, in the end Harry's just trying to be a normal kid.

Alright, now the meat at the end of the chapter. Of course Malfoy narked the instant he was back at Hogwarts, and of course Snape found Harry. But questions linger. How did Snape seem to know exactly where Harry would reappear from the passageway? Did he recognize the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs? Did he have any real idea about the map's abilities?

Since he called Lupin to answer his questions, I'll bet Snape knew exactly who the mapmakers were. I'm not sure how commonly know the Maurauders' nicknames were, I bet Snape knew (remember, he spent a lot of time trying to get them in trouble and find out Lupin's secret). I don't think he really understood the map's true purpose, though. It seems like a closely-guarded secret Snape couldn't have known... unless he was doing Legilimancy on Harry.

Obviously, it's impossible to really know, but if Harry and Ron hadn't been distracted and actually helped with the appeal, would Buckbeak have fared better? Or did the corrupt Ministry process doom him from the start, no matter who would've worked in his defense? I suppose it all works out in the end, but here, halfway through the book, it's a stark reminder that our actions or inactions affect others... sometimes seriously.

On that rather unhappy note, I bid thee goodnight!