Somewhat recently I have decided to reread the entire Harry Potter series again. It has been at least five years, probably more since I have done so, so I am well overdue. I have lost count how many times I have read the entire series, I would guess this is my 5th. I believe this is one of the greatest fictional things ever created. In this post, and ones following it as I read each subsequent book I will go over things like best characters, chapters, storylines, quotes, and things I learned.
Character Analysis:
Does a bear shit in the woods? Is Albus Dumbledore the highest rated character once again? Yes. Yet, he was yet again only significant in 3 of the 22 chapters. Nonetheless, he scored an 8.33 out of 10. I totally forgot how insignificant he is as a recurring character, at least in the first part of the series. It never feels like that, but he really is hardly around.
Sirius Black: The Prisoner of Azkaban himself secured the second highest character rating of the book at an 8.2, but was only significant in 5 of the chapters. That is understandable though, as he is largely a big mystery up until he finally reveals himself in the climax of the book. He was great in the short time he had in this book, and I look forward to more encounters with Sirius in the future.
Remus Lupin: He is hands down the best defense against the dark arts teacher Harry and company will ever have at Hogwarts. Lupin received an 8 out of 10 average, and what makes it very impressive is he was in 10 out of 22 of the chapters. Usually such a main character will have some lulls, but Remus was awesome pretty much every time he was present. Thus far he has been far and away the best main character of the series.
Hermione Granger: This was Hermione’s strongest performance thus far in the series, scoring a 6.6. She is also the only character so far to receive a 10/10 rating in an individual chapter, which she did in chapter 15, “The Quiddich Final.” Hermione started off the chapter by smacking Draco Malfoy in the face after he gloats about how he is responsible for Buckbeaks future execution. She then sticks her wand to his throat as she screams at him. Next, she bitches out professor Trewlawny in Divination class for always telling Harry he is in imminent danger and going to die. She calls Trewlawny a fraud and storms out of the class, announcing that she gives up on Divination. Then finally she is just really cool with Harry and Ron, thoroughly impressing them, and even cares deeply about Gryffindore winning at quiddich that afternoon.
Harry Potter: Harry had a good performance this book as well, scoring about a 6.3. He was overall quite solid throughout the book. There were only a couple of times he should have gone to a teacher or adult about a serious problem, and rarely did anything stupid, that pissed off his peers.
Ron Weasley: Ron took a bit of a backseat this book, as it was Harry and Hermione who got to have an adventure together in the end with the time turner as he was injured. He was fine throughout the book. Nothing spectacular, but still pretty solid. He had a little rough patch where he was a jerk to Hermione, when he blamed Crookshanks for killing Scabbers. To be fair, Hermione was being very unreasonable with Crookshanks the whole book, but Ron kind of poured it on her, when she was really down on herself, causing her to cry a couple different times.
Severus Snape: Snape had his lowest score yet at 6.4, but his character depth grew tremendously. We learned a lot more backstory with Snape, and his encounters with James Potter, Lupin, Black, and Wormtail. We learn were a lot of the hatred comes from for Black, how James saved his life, and why he is such a grouch all the time. He was truly really horrible to Harry and others this book. Most of the time, way too much. And he had a very low point in the end where he was so blinded by hatred that he wouldn’t listen to reason when he tried to send Black and Lupin to get the Dementor’s kiss, without a trial or anything.
Chapter Analysis:
Best Chapters: I am doing this one a little different because the last six chapters of the book were all phenomenal, and all felt like the climax of the book. They scored as follows in order: 9.5, 9, 9.5, 8.5, 9.5 8.5. Chapter 17, “Cat, Rat, and Dog,” led us on a chase through the whomping willow, through a secret passage, and into the Shrieking Shack. We met Sirius, then Lupin arrived, and everything we thought we knew started getting flipped. As readers we still weren’t convinced though, Lupin could have easily been bad, and Sirius the horrible murderer and betrayer that we thought he was.
We then had to wait another chapter or so, until we had the standoff in chapter 19, “The Servent of Lord Voldemort,” with professor Snape, who turned the tides using Harry’s invisibility cloak. We still aren’t 100% sure, but are now pretty convinced Black is good. Harry, Ron, and Hermione bravely attack and knock Snape out, choosing Black’s side. We then are shocked to see the appearance of Wormtail. They had him in their clutches but then chaos ensues when Lupin turns into a werewolf.
Later, after Wormtail escapes and all seems lost, we are treated to the awesome time traveling chapter of “Hermione’s Secret. We learn how Hermione has been getting to her classes all year, with the use of her time turner. This chapter feels like a secret mission Dumbledore sent Hermione and Harry on, to save the lives of Sirius and Buckbeak. The best part of the chapter, and the whole book is when Harry is watching the demeanors attack himself, Hermione, and Sirius from across the lake. He convinced himself that his father saved them, but then it hits him that it was really him the whole time. He bellows “EXPECTO PATRONUM,” and sends his stag out to save the day. Gives me chills every time.
Two other chapters worth noting are number 10, “The Marauder’s Map,” and number 15: “The Quiddich Final. In 10, Fred and George selflessly give Harry their treasured map that they stole from Filch, because Harry needed it more than them. Harry uses it and his invisibility cloak to visit Hogsmeade, and he finally gets to enjoy all of the sweets at Honeydukes. He also then learns a lot about Sirius, and that he knew his father back in school, from overhearing some of the professors while hidden under the cloak.
In chapter 15, J. K. Rowling actually does a brilliant chapter about quiddich, actually making the scoring system make some sense. I will talk more about that later though. This is also the chapter Hermione is a badass the whole time, and makes the chapter awesome. Both of these chapters received a 9/10. There were just so many very high ranking chapters in this book.
Storylines: This is where this book really sets itself apart from the first two. There are many great storylines throughout the book, and some that have already existed and were strengthened and given more depth here.
Harry vs. Voldemort: Most of the book deals with Sirius Black, originally thought to be Voldemort’s greatest supporter. We are given a serious moment from the doofus Professor Trewlawny, when her eyes roll back in her head and she gives a very real, and creepy prediction. She says that Voldemort’s greatest supporter will soon bring him back again, and he will rise and unleash a terror far worse than they have ever known. We assume this was Black, but the brilliant twist of it actually being the horrible Wormtail, was revealed after the correct prediction. Man they really screwed that up in the end, letting worm tail get away. If he had been killed or captured, who knows if Voldemort would have ever risen again to power.
Sirius Black: This is the main storyline of the book. It deals with Sirius, who is a great mystery to us the whole book. We are told that he is some awful villain who once killed a handful of muggles, as well as Peter Petigrew, with a single spell. This was one of J.K. Rowling’s greatest twists in the series, and it paid off very well. We came to find that Sirius was really Harry’s father’s best friend, and that Lupin was also a great friend as well. We go from hating Sirius for betraying James, to learning that he is a badass and can’t wait to read about how Harry is going to live with him over the Summer. If only Wormtail didn’t get away.
Harry vs. Draco and Quiddich: Rowling does a good job furthering Harry and Draco’s rivalry in this book. It is nothing too serious yet, but still is a very enjoyable storyline. The main thing Draco does to infuriate us this book is not listen to Hagrid in their first Care of Magical Creatures class. He ends up getting attacked by Buckbeak, and is minority injured. He makes a huge deal about it, and makes sure his father hears about it, so that Buckbeak is sentenced to execution. Draco then has a pretty funny chapter in potions where he makes Harry and Ron do a lot of his work for him because of his hurt arm. All of the things he does just makes Harry pissed off and motivates him to take it to him in Quiddich.
I have to commend Rowling here, she actually made a very good Quiddich storyline throughout the book. Gryffindore started out losing their first game to Hufflepuff, due to some dementors. They get it together and beat Ravenclaw with the help of Patronus lessons from Lupin. This sets up the Quiddich final against Slytherin, where if Gryffindore wins, they will be tied in wins and losses with Slytherin, so they need to win by at least 60 points to secure the championship. This provides them with some more meaningful strategy with when to catch the snitch, where as usually the seeker should just go for it right away. With how good Harry is supposed to be, quiddich matches should really generally only last a few minutes. Harry does a great job though tricking Malfoy into thinking he has seen the snitch a few times, leading him in reality away from it. The whole match was very well written and exciting. Gryffindore ends up winning of course, which ends up leaving us extremely satisfied.
Hermione’s tough year: Hermione bit off a little more than she could chew this year and took every class she was allowed to. Several times throughout the book we are dropped hints that she is using some kind of magic to keep up with all of her classes, but we really don’t care that much and don’t realize how significant it is until later. Then when we finally get introduced to the time turner, it doesn’t feel like some crazy thing out of no where to save the day, because it has been set up with Hermione’s story. Hermione also has her struggles with her relationship with Harry and Ron. She is very stressed with her classes, and that contributes to some of her unreasonableness with Crookshanks. She should have probably apologized sooner, but Ron certainly owed her a bigger apology than she did. She then had a tough time as she did what was right and told McGonnagal about Harry’s firebolt. You would think after what happened with the diary last year that Harry and Ron would be a little smarter about a mysterious firebolt out of nowhere, but that burden fell on Hermione. It was a tough year, but it felt very good as she made up with her two best friends, then became a baddass hitting Draco in the face, and telling Trewlawny off. Then she played a very large role in saving the day this time. It was a very god book for Hermione’s development as a character.
Quotes:
5. “Bad news, Harry. I’ve just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She – er – got a bit shirty with me. Told me I’d got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn’t care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first.” -Oliver Wood
Wood is a low key hilarious character, who just shows up when quiddich is happening. This quote pretty much sums up what he is all about. He could care less about a mass murderer on the loose, he just wants to win the quiddich cup. I can certainly relate to Wood a little bit.
4. ’Why so miserable, Harry?’ has said quietly. ‘You should be very proud of yourself after last night.’ -Dumbledore
‘It didn’t make any difference,’ said Harry bitterly. ‘Pettigrew got away.’ -Harry
‘Didn’t make any difference?’ said Dumbledore quietly. ‘It made all the difference in the world, Harry. You helped uncover the truth. You saved an innocent man from a terrible fate.’ -Dumbledore
This quote is a conversation between Dumbledore and and Harry. It was easy for Harry to be upset as they had Wormtail, but he slithered away. Dumbledore is simply trying to get Harry to look on the bright side, showing him that even though the outcome wasn’t ideal, he still accomplished a lot that night.
3. I didn’t think of Voldemort,’ said Harry honestly. ‘I – I remembered those dementors.’ -Harry
‘I see,’ said Lupin thoughtfully. ‘Well, well…I’m impressed.’ He smiled slightly at the look of surprise on Harry’s face. ‘That suggests that what you fear most of all is – fear. Very wise, Harry.’ -Lupin
I really like the whole concept of the dememtors and patronouses. The dementor represents fear and sadness, while patronous represents happiness. This was a clever interaction between Harry and Lupin. The whole book did a very good job with dementors, and I am glad they revisit them later on in the series.
2. “You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night…You know Harry, in a way, you did see your father last night…You found him inside yourself.”
This is a classic wise quote from Dumbledore after Harry is feeling down on himself. It is a nice sentiment, that the deceased live on in all of those they had affected in their lives.
1. “She’s cried a fair few times, yeh know. Goin’ through a rough time at the moment. Bitten off more’n she can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work she’s tryin’ ter do…Gawd knows yeh’ve had enough ter be gettin’ on with. I’ve seen yeh practicin’ Quidditch ev’ry hour o’ the day an’ night – but I gotta tell yeh, I thought you two’d value yer friend more’n broomsticks or rats. Tha’s all.”
Hagrid is not the brightest sometimes, but he does have his moments of wisdom. This one is about how Harry and Ron are pissed at Hermione and giving her lots of crap about telling McGonnagal about the firebolt and getting it taken away. Her two best friends are angry with her over something relatively trivial, and can’t tell how much they are affecting Hermione. Hagrid talks some sense into them, teaching a valuable lesson about friendship, which they still don’t quite get for a few chapters.
