Daily Book Excerpt: YA fiction/children’s books:
Next book on the shelf is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
I didn’t know what excerpt to choose! The dementor appearing on the train? The patronus training? Professor Trelawney – one of the goofiest characters ever created (brilliantly portrayed in the movie as well by Emma Thompson) – I just think her whole thing is so FUNNY. But … well … I decided to go with this one.
The “fat lady” has disappeared from her painting – which has now been slashed to bits. Dumbledore orders everyone in the school to go into the Great Hall and stay there until the entire castle has been searched. Crisis! Thank goodness we have the priggish git Percy in charge! Every school must have a fascist-dictator-in-training!
This is the book where Harry seems to start dealing, emotionally, with what happened to his parents. The dementors affect on him is devastating – he hears his parents last moments of life – screaming to one another, trying to save their baby son … Harry seems to be both weakened and strengthened by these glimpses into the horrors of the past.
Excerpt from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.
“The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle,” Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. “I’m afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately,” he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important.
Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, “Oh, yes, you’ll be needing …”
One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.
“Sleep well,” said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.
The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.
“Everyone into their sleeping bags!” shouted Percy. “Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!”
“C’mon,” Ron said to Harry and Hermione; they seized three sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner.
“Do you think Black’s still in the castle?” Hermione whispered anxiously.
“Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be,” said Ron.
“It’s very lucky he picked tonight, you know,” said Hermione as they climbed fully dressed into their sleeping bags and propped themselves on their elbows to talk. “The one night we weren’t in the tower …”
“I reckon he’s lost track of time, being on the run,” said Ron. “Didn’t realize it was Halloween. Otherwise he’d have come bursting in here.”
Hermione shuddered.
All around them, people were asking one another the same question. “How did he get in?”
“Maybe he knows how to Apparate,” said a Ravenclaw a few feet away. “Just appear out of thin air, you know.”
“Disguised himself, probably,” said a Hufflepuff fifth year.
“He could’ve flown in,” suggested Dean Thomas.
“Hoestly, am I the only person who’s ever bothered to read Hogwarts: A History?” said Hermione crossly to Harry and Ron.
“Probably,” said Ron. “Why?”
“Because the castle’s protected by more than walls, you know,” said Hermione. “There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can’t just Apparate in here. And I’d like to see the disguise that could fool those dementors. They’re guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They’d have seen him fly in too. And Filch knows all the secret passages, they’ll have them covered …”
“The lights are going out now!” Percy shouted. “I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!”
The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall, Harry felt as though he were sleeping outdoors in a light wind.
Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the hall to check that everything was quiet. Around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, Professor Dumbledore came in. Harry watched him looking around for Percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking. Percy was only a short way away from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who quickly pretended to be asleep as Dumbledore’s footsteps drew nearer.
“Any sign of him, Professor?” asked Percy in a whisper.
“No. All well here?”
“Everything under control, sir.”
“Good. There’s no point moving them all now. I’ve found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole. You’ll be able to move them back in tomorrow.”
“And the Fat Lady, sir?”
“Hiding in a map of Argyllshire on the second floor. Apparently she refused to let Black in without the password, so he attacked. She’s still very distressed, but once she’s calmed down, I’ll have Mr. Filch restore her.”
Harry heard the door of the hall creak open again, and more footsteps.
“Headmaster!” It was Snape. Harry kept quite still, listening hard. “The whole of the third floor has been searched. He’s not there. And Filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either.”
“What about the Astronomy tower? Professor Trelawney’s room? The Owlery?”
“All searched …”
“Very well, Severus. I didn’t really expect Black to linger.”
“Have you any theory as to how he got in, Professor?” asked Snape.
Harry raised his head very slightly off his arms to free his other ear.
“Many, Severus, each of them is as unlikely as the next.”
Harry opened his eyes a fraction and squinted up to where they stood; Dumbledore’s back was to him, but he could see Percy’s face, rapt with attention, and Snape’s profile, which looked angry.
“You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before – ah – the start of term?” said Snape, who was barely opening his lips, as though trying to block Percy out of the conversation.
“I do, Severus,” said Dumbledore, and there was something like warning in his voice.
“It seems – almost impossible – that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed –”
“I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it,” said Dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn’t reply. “I must go down to the dementors,” said Dumbledore. “I said I would inform them when the search was complete.”
“Didn’t they want to help, sir?” said Percy.
“Oh, yes,” said Dumbledore coldly. “But I’m afraid no demetor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am headmaster.”
Percy looked slightly abashed. Dumbledore left the hall, walking quickly and quietly. Snape stood for a moment, watching the headmaster with an expression of deep resentment on his face; then he too left.
Harry glanced sideways at Ron and Hermione. Both of them had their eyes open too, reflecting the starry ceiling.
“What was all that about?” Ron mouthed.
Azkaban is probably still my favorite Potter book. It was the second Potter book I read (didn’t read the first until I’d read 2 and 3). But this was the one that made me say “Okay, I get why people are going nuts over these things.”
I couldn’t put Prisoner of Azkaban down.
For me, this was the book where you Harry finally becomes a character I get. Up until this book, he seemed like a fairly cut and dry, 2-dimensional character. But the stuff he faces, and his reactions to it start to make him a little more than a fairy-tale character for me.
I like the bit with the deaths of his parents. You made a good point when talking about one of the other Potter books: that everything in these books comes so episodically. But that bit with his parents has a resonance that not much else in these books does. In part, I think, it’s because Harry realizes who he is…
Plus, with Azkaban, I finally get the feeling that there are bits of magic that are very, very dark and dangerous. Not just bad guys in that fairy tale sense. Maybe it comes with Harry realizing it, too. But I thought the idea of a Dementor is actually very, very frightening, and it made Azkaban a horrible place to think of too.
This is my favorite Potter book and movie, too. Loved the Marauder’s Map. Also, the movie added a really nice touch when Lupin stepped in front of Harry and the boggart turned into a full moon.
it’s my 4th favorite. with the exception of #2, they’ve gotten better as they’ve gone along. i think my current order is #5, #4, #6, #3, #1, #2.
Reserving judgment ’til #7 is bought and read, but I think this one is my favorite, too. The story just gets much richer, all at once.
Episodic is not necessarily bad – “Little Women” is episodic. Amado is very ditto. Just a preference thing.
Of course it’s not necessarily bad and I disagree that it’s a preference thing. I love Little Women. I love the Anne of Green Gables books – veyr episodic. I don’t think it works well in Harry Potter. I find myself yawning and saying “So?”
sarah – I think they’ve gotten better as they go along as well! The characters just have more and more depth – or maybe they’re just growing up – who knows. But by this last one, I was really amazed at how much I actually GAVE a crap about these fictional people!!