Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

On their first day back at Hogwarts, the third-year students begin their classes. As they look at their class schedules, Ron points out that “they’ve messed up [Hermione’s] schedule” (98), because she is scheduled to attend multiple classes at the same time. They attend their first class of the day, Divination, which is taught by the dramatic and deeply superstitious Professor Trelawney. They begin to practice reading tea leaves, and Professor Trelawney declares that Harry’s tea leaves show “The Grim [...] The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! [...] it is an omen—the worst omen—of death!” (107). Harry remembers the dog he saw the night he left the Dursleys, and Ron and Hermione argue about the legitimacy of Divination and Professor Trelawney’s declaration. During their first Care of Magical Creatures class, Hagrid presents the class with hippogriffs: half-horse, half-eagle creatures that are very proud and prone to attack if offended. Draco Malfoy, Harry’s archnemesis, insults one of the hippogriffs named Buckbeak, calling it a “great ugly brute” (118). Buckbeak attacks Malfoy and slashes at his arm. Hagrid carries Malfoy to the hospital wing, and later that night, Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to see Hagrid. Despondent, Hagrid is sure he will be fired as soon as Malfoy’s vindictive father finds out what happened. Although Malfoy’s arm wasn’t badly hurt, Malfoy says, “it’s still agony,” adding that he’s “covered in bandages” and “moanin’” (120). Harry insists that Malfoy is faking it, and the children offer to be witnesses and testify that Malfoy was in the wrong. Suddenly, Hagrid yells that Harry shouldn’t be wandering off and visiting him after dark, and he sends them back to the castle and tells them not to visit him after dark again.

A few days after the incident with Buckbeak, Malfoy returns to Potions class with his arm bandaged and in a sling, “as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle” (123). Professor Severus Snape, the head of Slytherin house who hates Harry and his fellow Gryffindor students, heavily favors Malfoy and his own Slytherin students. Snape orders Harry and Ron to help Malfoy complete his potion assignment for the day. Malfoy taunts Harry, telling them that “Hagrid won’t be a teacher much longer” (125), because Malfoy’s father is out for blood. Malfoy then brings up Sirius Black, and he comments that if he was Harry, “I’d want revenge. I’d hunt Black down myself” (127). Harry is confused, but Malfoy doesn’t explain. After Potions, Ron observes that Hermione tends to disappear and reappear at strange moments lately. They head to Defense Against the Dark Arts, where Professor Lupin has discovered a boggart—a shapeshifting creature that “can take the form of whatever it thinks will frighten us the most” (133). Lupin allows the students to practice facing the boggart and neutralizing it, but before Harry can have a turn, Lupin suddenly jumps in front and stops the boggart from taking the form of Harry’s worst fear. The boggart, facing Lupin, turns into “a silvery-white orb hanging in the air” (138). The boggart is defeated, and Lupin congratulates the class for a job well done. Harry doesn’t understand why Lupin didn’t allow him to face the boggart.