Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Chapters 18 & 19
Match ’em up! Identify the following characters with action they take in Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapters 18 & 19. Write the letter of the action in the space before the character’s name. I will post Answers tomorrow with responses to discussion point posts and my own thoughts. If you disagree with my answers, please do send me an explanation about where I went wrong. Click on “Chapter Quiz” for previous quizzes and discussion points.
1. ______ Harry Potter
2. ______ Hermione Granger
3. ______ Ron Weasley
4. ______ Crookshanks
5. ______ Cornelius Fudge
6. ______ Severus Snape
7. ______ Remus Lupin
8. ______ Sirius Black
9. ______ Peter Pettigrew
10. ______ James Potter
A. Tells the story of the 3 Marauder Animagi and boy Werewolf
B. Is horrified that students attacked a teacher
C. Knocked off the bed as Sirius reaches for Peter
D. “Prongs,” saved Snape from Werewolf as boy
E. Hides under Invisibility Cloak to surprise Black
F. Takes Scabbers’ true identity as a personal insult
G. The Potters’ Secret Keeper – and Betrayer
H. Saves Peter’s life
I. Does not appear in Chapters 18 & 19
J. “Padfoot” and Harry’s Grim
Discussion Points: Please write out your thoughts about (a) echoes and differences with the previous books, Stone and Chamber, (b) the most interesting elements in this chapter when viewed in the Deathly Hallows rear-view mirror; and (c) the importance of these Prisoner of Azkaban chapter in understanding the meaning of Prisoner and the series as a whole.
The Shrieking Shack! What does it mean? Why is this action the beginning of the rest of the novels? What are you thinking?
1.H 2.B 3.F 4.C 5.I
6.E 7.A 8.J 9.G 10.D
(a) Echoes: Again, the hold-on-to-your-hat finish, Ron whining, and Severus hating Harry and Harry hating him right back. Note, too, that it is in this chapter that Sirius says one of the signature lines of the series, that could really be about all us Muggles reading the books: “They didn’t see what they thought they saw!” This is perhaps Ms. Rowling’s best narrative misdirection pay-off. The Quirrell switcheroo was a surprise but none of the other surprise endings rate with the revelations in Prisoner to which we had abundant clues. A great fore-head slapping moment… We also get the forgiving or, better, the merciful Harry in the Shack, a great transformation from his blowing up people problem in the opening chapters. Check off ‘alchemical transformation.’
The Differences? Wow! Hermione blasts a teacher! It shakes her up quite a bit but she, Ron, and Harry act as the single tri-part soul they are when they zap Severus. I’m not sure I think Sirius’ self-restraint in killing Peter before Lupin tells the story is credible or Snape’s not blasting Black on sight but, given the needs of the story, I suppose it is understandable.
(b) Deathly Hallows rear view mirror: The Shrieking Shack is where Severus dies in Deathly Hallows and where his transformation is revealed. There in the presence of the Dark Lord he four times says he must “find Potter” “the Boy.” In Prisoner, he is as out of control as Harry is with Aunt Marge at book’s beginning, only worse for being an adult and unhinged. He tells Harry the simple truth, that Harry owes him his life, something that will only be more true in the next books, but he demands something like fealty “on bended knee.” If not for me, he says, “you’d have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black.” He wants Harry, anyone, to feel what he felt when Dumbledore told him that “Lily and James put their trust in the wrong person… rather like you, Severus. Weren’t you hoping the Dark Lord would spare her?” In Prisoner, Severus still blames Black and James/Harry for Lily’s death. After the Dark Lord’s return and Black’s death, Severus only wants, in the Dark Lord’s presence to “find Potter.” In terms of the plot it is time for him to tell Harry what he needs to know to defeat Lord Thingy. In symbolic terms and in light of the previous blast in the Shack, the Deathly Hallows Snape is confessing his need to find God to the Evil he once served. The serpent Nagini killing him there was the serpent in Prisoner internally possessing him. But Severus has his victory in emptying himself to Harry (kenosis) and looking into Lily Beatrice;s green eyes. Without the previous drama and madness in the Shack, this scene would have been relatively barren.
(c) These chapters are important for the book because we see for the first time Harry’s love. Peter Pettigrew begs everyone in the room to protect him — Sirius, Remus, Ron, and Hermione — before asking Harry to act as his savior. Harry is last and Sirius is enraged for the same reason; Harry is the last person Pettigrew should dare to ask mercy. As Malfoy said earlier, Harry should have beenhunting down the wizard who betrayed his parents. But Harry, not through love of the rat-man, but in the love he thinks his father must have felt for his friends and, perhaps, his understanding the consequences of murder on the soul, does act as Pettigrew’s protector. Harry also reveals, in addition to his Christ-like mercy that no one in the room understands but every one yields to, that he had been listening to Lupin when they talked about the Dementor’s kiss. Harry had said Black deserved the Kiss and Lupin had asked if anyone deserved a life robbed of its soul, its real life. Harry in the Shack says, “if anyone deserves that place [Azkaban, Pettigrew] does.” The adults in the room have confessed their faults, everyone except Severus, and Harry in this cathartic crucible and aptly named confessional shows the greater power within him. As Sirius says at book’s end, we see in the Shack that Harry is “truly his Father’s son.”