Summary
In response to the possibility that Sirius Black is roaming the halls of Hogwarts, Dumbledore promptly herds all the students into the Great Hall, which he has cleared of dining tables and filled with plush sleeping bags. There, they can sleep in safety under the supervision of faculty and the Head Boy and Girl. In the middle of the night, while pretending to be asleep, Harry, Ron, and Hermione overhear a hushed conversation between Dumbledore and Snape (Percy also stands awkwardly near them, attempting to act important). Snape assures Dumbledore that the third floor has been completely searched. It appears that if Sirius Black was in the castle earlier in the evening, he is longer there. Snape shares his strong suspicion that someone helped Black infiltrate the castle, perhaps a new member of the faculty, but Dumbledore vehemently denies that anyone at Hogwarts would assist him.
The weather is horrible in the weeks leading up to Gryffindor's first Quidditch match, which was supposed to be against Slytherin but is now against Hufflepuff. Malfoy has continued to exaggerate his arm injury so that the match would be switched and Slytherin could hold out for better playing conditions. The week of the match, Lupin apparently takes ill, so Snape substitute-teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts. He skips to a lesson at the very end of the curriculum, about werewolves, despite the class's instance that they left off on Grindylows. The day of the match against Hufflepuff, the weather is the worst it's been so far. Despite a valiant effort, Harry is sabotaged by the appearance of Dementors on the playing field, which causes him to fall off his broom. When he wakes up in the hospital wing, he is informed that Hufflepuff's seeker and new captain, Cedric Diggory, grabbed the Snitch before he realized that Harry was in danger. Diggory tries to argue for a rematch, but Madame Hooch, the school's Quidditch coach, declares it a fair win. And to make matters worse, after he fell, Harry's broom had been smashed to smithereens by the Whomping Willow.
Harry has many well-wishers visit him while he's in the infirmary. By the time Madam Pomfrey lets him leave, Lupin is back teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. He asks Harry to stay after class and offers his sympathy for what happened at the Quidditch match. Harry asks Lupin if there's a way to fight off Dementors, and Lupin tells him that there is a quite advanced spell for that very purpose. Harry convinces Lupin to meet with him later that week to teach him the spell in case he encounters more Dementors on the field. Since the Dementors obviously have a more severe effect on Harry than on his peers, Lupin agrees.
As Hogwarts approaches the end of the first term, all anyone can think about are the winter holidays. There's another trip to Hogsmeade scheduled for the last day of classes. At this point, Harry is resigned to the fact that he won't see Hogsmeade until Black is captured, but then on the morning of the trip, Fred and George Weasley pull Harry aside and gift him their most prized possession: the Marauder's Map. The Map shows every detail of Hogwarts' floorplan, even the tunnels hidden throughout the school and underground all the way to Hogsmeade. But what makes it magical is that it also displays the live whereabouts of everyone in the school. For a moment, Harry is hesitant to use it; he remembers something Arthur Weasley once told him: "Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it keeps its brain" (194). But in the end, the temptation of Zonko's magic shop and Honeydukes sweets win out, and Harry sneaks to the Village through a secret tunnel.
When he meets up with Hermione and Ron, they are both shocked to see him. Ron is thrilled (though angry at his brothers for never giving him the map) and Hermione is both disappointed in Harry for leaving and nervous that they'll be caught. They duck out of the blizzard and into the Three Broomsticks bar for butterbeer, but right after they take their seats, a group of Hogwarts professors walk in—McGonagall, Hagrid, and Flitwick—accompanied by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. The bar's owner, Madam Rosmerta, joins their group to gossip about new developments in the hunt for Sirius Black. To avoid being caught outside the castle, Harry ducks under the table and Hermione magically conceals their presence with a holiday tree. The ensuing conversation between the professors, the minister, and Rosmerta reveals a major bombshell of a secret: not only is Sirius Black Harry's godfather, but he was allegedly responsible for revealing Harry's parents' location to Voldemort so he could kill them.
Once the professors leave the bar, Harry makes his way back to the secret passage under Honeydukes, half-blinded with rage about what he just learned. Sirius Black was his father's best friend since childhood; at Hogwarts, the professors considered them almost brothers. And Black apparently betrayed his parents by selling them out to Voldemort. Now Harry understands what Malfoy meant when he said he would want revenge. He understands why Mr. Weasley told him not to go looking for Black. And they were both right; Harry does want to find Black and kill him himself.
Harry sleeps until noon the next day, and when he finally comes down to the common room, he finds only Ron and Hermione there. Everyone else has left for winter break. Ron and Hermione try to lift Harry's spirits, but he is in no mood to be cheered up. Immediately, his friends launch into a speech about how he should not go after Sirius Black. They understand they he wants revenge for what Black did to his parents, but if he went after him now, it would be a suicide mission, and that's exactly what Sirius Black wants. Ron suggests they visit Hagrid for some Christmas cheer, and Harry quickly jumps on the opportunity to confront Hagrid for never telling him about Black's history with his parents.
However, when they arrive at Hagrid's house, Hagrid is inconsolable, weeping about the possible fate of his Hippogriff, Buckbeak. Thanks to Dumbledore, Hagrid's job is safe as a professor at Hogwarts, but because of Malfoy's father's connections inside the Ministry of Magic, it seems inevitable that Buckbeak's trial will end in execution for his "attack" on Malfoy during their first lesson. Harry was all prepared to confront Hagrid about Sirius Black, but seeing how miserable he was over the news of Buckbeak, he leaves the issue alone. They promise Hagrid they'll testify on behalf of Buckbeak and do some research on the defense of magical creatures.
A few days later, on Christmas morning, Harry and Ron wake up to a small mound of presents in the common room. They receive the usual from the Weasleys, a homemade knit sweater from Molly, and a variety of treats. Harry finds a long, slender, package under the tree, unmarked except being addressed to him. Inside, he finds a Firebolt broom—the newest, highest-end broom on the market. Professional grade, used by the best quidditch players in the world. Ron is beside himself with excitement, and Harry can hardly believe his eyes. They both theorize who could've sent it. Ron suspects it was Dumbledore, or maybe Professor Lupin. Harry can't imagine who would send it, but thinks it surely couldn't have been either of them. When Hermione comes down from bed, she eyes the broom with grave suspicion. She thinks that if Harry doesn't know who sent it, he definitely shouldn't fly it. Harry and Ron disregard her concerns. But after Christmas dinner, Professor McGonagall comes back to the Gryffindor common room with Hermione and confiscates Harry's broom. She assures him that after she and Madam Hooch strip it down and make sure there are no hexes or curses on it, he can have it back. Harry and Ron are furious.
With the tensions running high between Hermione and the boys, they are all relieved for break to be over and their classmates to rejoin them around Gryffindor tower. When Harry's Quidditch captain approaches him about the possibility of having to replace him as seeker, Harry assures him that he is learning how to combat Dementors from Professor Lupin. Ron tells Wood that Harry got a Firebolt for Christmas, but it was unfortunately confiscated to be checked for hexes. This sends Wood straight to McGonagall's office to plead for Harry to be able to use the broom in their upcoming match against Ravenclaw. McGonagall responds with a resounding No.
Meanwhile, Harry and Lupin begin their private lesson on how to ward off the foul Azkaban guards. The spell required to do so is called the Patronus Charm, and the incantation is expecto patronum. Lupin warns Harry that it is very advanced magic and tells him not to be discouraged if he can't produce a full Patronus. A Patronus looks different for every witch or wizard, taking the form of a different animal for each of them. The way to produce a Patronus is for the person casting the spell to think of the happiest memory at their disposal and use those warm feelings to combat the hopelessness and misery upon which Dementors feed. After a few lessons, Harry is able to produce a partial Patronus, which Lupin assures him is quite impressive. A few days before the match, McGonagall returns Harry's broom to him; it was not hexed or cursed in any way. Harry extends an olive branch to Hermione, and the tension seems like it has almost fully lifted. Then, the same evening Harry's broom was returned, Ron goes up to his room to find a bloody stain on the floor, some ginger cat hairs, and not a trace of his pet rat Scabbers.
Analysis
Snape's animosity toward Lupin becomes increasingly evident as the novel progresses, while the mystery surrounding his character is further complicated and obfuscated. At the beginning of Chapter 9, Harry, Ron, and Hermione overhear Snape discussing with Dumbledore how Black could possibly have entered the castle. Snape says, "It seems—almost impossible—that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed—" but then he is promptly cut off by Dumbledore, who replies, "I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it" (166). We can deduce that Snape is referring to Lupin because the person he suspects is newly appointed, and between Hagrid and Lupin, Snape is clearly more suspicious of Lupin (he hasn't mentioned Hagrid once). Then, in Chapter 12, it becomes clear that Hermione has solved the mystery of Lupin's dark secret. When Ron wonders to Harry about what's wrong with Lupin, Hermione scoffs behind them and says "Well, isn't it obvious?" (236). Unwilling to humor Hermione's sense of superiority, Ron says, "If you don't want to tell us, don't." So, Hermione storms off without revealing what she knows, but the exchange reveals that whatever is wrong with Lupin, it isn't something that marks him as a villain. If it were, Hermione would surely keep Harry informed for his own safety.
A major theme in The Prisoner of Azkaban is false incrimination and wrongful conviction. At this point in the novel, most of the active indictments against possible wrongdoers are unresolved, the most major of them being Sirius Black. But there is also the ongoing sideshows of Crookshanks versus Scabbers, Buckbeak versus Malfoy, and Lupin versus Snape. The reader is reminded in Chapter 9 when Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit Hagrid that Hagrid was wrongly incarcerated in Azkaban prison for many months before his name was cleared. He still shudders at the thought of Dementors. Buckbeak's upcoming trial and possible execution prompt Harry, Ron, and Hermione to conduct research about past trials for magical creatures and their outcomes to try and clear Buckbeak's name.
By doing what is essentially the work of a defense counsel, they're putting the reader in a position to question the established authorities in the book. The Ministry of Magic isn't always right, and the Dementors who guard Azkaban, while they do technically work for "the good guys" by keeping dangerous criminals and dark witches and wizards from terrorizing the rest of the world, are themselves foul creatures who feed off of the hope of anyone within their reach—even innocents. When Ron finds what he believes to be evidence that Crookshanks ate Scabbers, yet another trial begins. At this point in the book, the reader is being asked to question which forces are actually good and which are evil, and what exists in the gray area in between.
Harry learns a great deal about his parents in these few chapters. With every encounter he has with another Dementor, he learns more and more about what he realizes was his parents' dying moments. The woman's scream he first heard on the Hogwarts Express turns out to be his mother absorbing the blow of a killing curse. Later on, when he's practicing the Patronus charm with Lupin, he hears his father James urging Lily to make a run for it with Harry. Then, in the Three Broomsticks, Harry learns that the cause of these distressed final moments was a major betrayal by James' best friend, none other than Sirius Black. But according to Cornelius Fudge, Black was especially impervious to the Dementors in Azkaban, as if their soul-sucking tendencies couldn't break him, as if he had too much hope for the Dementors to defeat. Though Harry feels blind rage toward Black, the reader may, in the thematic spirit of the novel, question whether Sirius Black is actually the villain of the story.
