Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban

By J.K Rowling

Harry is having a fine time with the Dursleys at the start of his school holidays.One day,Uncle Vernon’s sister,Marge,comes to stay with the Dursleys.At dinner,Aunt Marge insults Harry’s deceased parents and he gets angry.Accidently,he inflates Aunt Marge who flies up and everyone asks Harry to put her down but he just runs away.He hates the Dursleys and thinks that he had enough of them treating him as a servant.Aunt Marge continues to stay at their house.Harry runs away and gets picked up by the Knight bus which is an emergency transport for a stranded witch or wizard.It drops him off at the Leaky Cauldron.It is a special place as in its backyard ,by tapping a few bricks with the wand,a magical doorway to a place called Diagon Alley appears,where there are lots of wizarding shops including Gringotts and the only wizarding bank ,run by the goblins.At Diagon Alley,Harry meets the Weasleys and they all go to the railway station where they can board the train to Hogwarts.

On their way to Hogwarts, Dementors,the guards of the wizard prison Azkaban,come to search for Sirius Black on the Hogwarts Express.It is very scary when they search for the escaped prisioner Sirius who is Harry’s Godfather.Harry faints ,as he hears a screaming sound of his dead mother in his head.Dementors have the power to make a person reveal the darkest moments of their lives and this was Harry’s one of those moments.Lupin wakes him up and they soon reach Hogwarts.Dementors are unable to find Sirius as he is not in the train.When Harry and the Weasleys reach Hogwarts,they find that Professor Lupin is a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

At Christmas,Harry gets an unexpected new broomstick as a gift which Professor McGonagall takes away from him.Hermoine tells the professor about the gift being from an unknown person and they fear that this person could be Sirius Black who they think wants to kill Harry.Everyone believes that Sirius was a spy for Lord Voldemort who was supposed to keep the Potters ,James and Lily safe but actually Voldemort kills them.

After the death of Harry’s parents and Voldemorts downfall,Sirius has a wizard duel with Peter Pettigrew ,a friend of James and supposedly kills him.Because of this ,Sirius is sent to Azkaban by the Minister of Magic.

One day,at Hogwarts,a boy named Draco Malfoy gets hurt by Buckbeak ,a hippogriff.Hippogriffs are creatures that are part giant eagle and part horse.He attacks Draco in the Care of Magical Creatures Class ,whose teacher is Hagrid. Buckbeak goes to a hearing because he supposedly hurt Draco very badly . For this , the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures decides that Buckbeak should be executed .On the day of execution,Ron ,Hermione and Harry go down to meet Hagrid .While they all are at Hagrid’s hut ,they find Scabbers ,Ron’s pet rat who had been missing for a long time .Then suddenly, the people who were going to execute Buckbeak ,arrive and Harry ,Ron and Hermione hurry back to the school as they didn’t want to be seen by them .But then Scabbers bites Ron’s finger and escapes .Ron runs after him but a big black dog appears who pulls Ron towards the Whomping Willow while Ron tries to hold onto one of the roots with his leg but it snaps and he gets dragged under the Willow. Hermione and Harry try to get into the Willow to save Ron but the branches of the tree swirl around and hurt them. Hermione’s cat,Crookshanks, helps them get under the Whomping Willow. They save Ron but waiting under the tree is Sirius Black himself.

This is very interesting . While they are in the tree ,Professor Lupin comes and joins them .After him comes Professor Snape .Later,they all come out of the Willow . Lupin then turns into a werewolf and attacks Harry and his friends.Soon Sirius goes to the lake at Hogwarts and passes out but then the Dementors find him .Harry drives them away with a spell but passes out himself and wakes up in the hospital wing as he hears the Minister of Magic ,Cornelius Fudge and Professor Snape talking about the previous night’s incident .

It is very frightening when the Dementors, who feed on happiness and good feelings and can also suck out the soul of people called the Dementors kiss, come near the lake and Harry has to drive them away on his own.When Harry wakes up, he gets to know that the Dementors are going to perform the Dermentors Kiss on Sirius.He and Hermoine try to explain to Cornelius that Sirius is innocent but he doesn’t believe them.

Dumbeldore tells Harry and Hermoine to go back in time where they save Buckbeak who helps them save Sirius.

It is a very exciting book and I am thrilled every time I read it.I have already read it about five times and am still fascinated by it.