An unwelcome house guest drives Harry to run away from the Dursleys. Any trouble he might have gotten himself into is waved away in light of a new unsettling threat after Harry’s life. A second threat — a mysterious and terrifying creature — tries to attack on the train to Hogwarts. Will either of these dangers succeed in getting to Harry? Will there be any new allies to help him?
Ready to find out? Here we go!
Podcasts:
Lexicon Podcast 16: So How Does the Map Work Anyway? by Steve VanderArk and Nick Moline
Is A Regurgitating Toilet Sentient? by Abby Koop
Reader’s Guides:
These guides were originally written in March of 2002. Since that time, a few edits were made here and there but basically the text remained the same. To get ready for this Canon Celebration, our editors have been revising each one. We’ve added fan artwork to the Guide which illustrates the text. At the bottom in the Commentary section we’ve added a gallery of additional artwork. So even if you’ve read our guides before, please give them another look. And if you’re doing a re-read of the first book, have the Guide to each chapter open as you go! I’m sure you’ll find a lot of information you didn’t know.
Calendars
Fitting the books into the real-life calendars isn’t easy! In fact, it’s impossible. But that didn’t stop us:
Day by day calendar of events in the book
Text Changes of the Editions and the Years
Differences between the British and American versions
Essays
Divination: The Theory and Practice of Prediction by Paul Dionne
An Elegantly Woven Tapestry: Plotlines in Prisoner of Azkaban by Amy Z
High Fidelity (or: How does the Fidelius Charm work?) by Anna L Black
Fears and Naïveté by Abby Koop
A View of the Map: Understanding How the Marauder’s Map Works by Steve Beers
Interesting Artwork
We have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fan artwork in our collection. Some subjects get a lot of depictions — Diagon Alley is a favorite topic, for example, and, well, of course it is! But there are a few pieces which illustrate more unusual moments in the text. Here are a few examples:
Harry meets Buckbeak the hippogriff in Care of Magical Creatures (PA6)
Harry, an injured Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley sharing a table in Potions class (PA7)
Remus Lupin receives a suspicious-looking potion from Professor Snape (PA8)
Harry catching the Snitch in driving rain, surrounded by Dementors (PA9)
Fred and George Weasley give Harry the Marauder’s Map (PA10)
Professor McGonagall confiscates Harry’s new Firebolt broom (PA11)
Artwork Challenge
We have tons of images of the Dementors and Divination. Snape and Potions lessons are another very popular topic. However, we have very few of the House ghosts apart from Nearly-Headless Nick or of Dean, Lee, and Seamus. Our Artwork Challenge for all you fan artists out there is to depict one of the lesser known characters in the series. If we really like your work, we may feature it in the Lexicon! Here are some suggestions from these chapters:
- Care of Magical Creatures class – we already have some featuring Hagrid and Buckbeak (PA6), but none of any other sessions featuring Flobberworms (PA8, PA11, PA16) (or from the later books, such as Nifflers, Unicorns, Bowtruckles, Thestrals or the Blast-Ended Skrewts)
- Astronomy class with students working on star charts, moons and planets (PA8, PA16)
- Hermione’s extra classes or classwork – Arithmancy (PA6, PA12) and Ancient Runes – or even Muggle Studies (PA6, PA12)
- a map showing the secret passageways out of the school (PA10)
- the other school Quidditch teams, such as Hufflepuff (PA9), Ravenclaw or Slytherin.
Send your artwork to [email protected]. By submitting it, you are giving us permission to display your work on the Lexicon. We would like to include your name with your artwork so you are properly credited, so when you send your work let us know what name to use. Please also include a way to get a hold of you so that if we decide to feature your work as part of our regular collection we can contact you for more details. All artwork we display remains the property of the artist and they retain all copyright.
Special Feature – Twelve Subjects
In almost every chapter, Hermione is hiding from her friends how she is getting to all of her classes or else avoiding Harry and Ron’s questions about the extra work she has taken on. In addition to the usual seven subjects (Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Herbology and Astronomy), she has additional classes her third year in Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy – another five. It’s probably a good thing there wasn’t another subject available or it might have been an unlucky total of 13.
While the question of how Hermione is managing the extra workload is very important to the plot, it is also interesting to think about why she wants to take all of the extra subjects. She was obviously unable to choose between them at the end of the previous year when Harry and Ron opted for Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Hermione loves books and learning and she is naturally studious. She is a Muggle-born from a family of dentists and therefore all branches of magical knowledge are going to be irresistibly enticing to her. However, even she knows that she can’t learn everything from books. Hermione’s tendency to read up on everything that she can first means that she can concentrate on the practical aspects of magic in class. And that dedication and focus is why Hermione is “the best student in our year” (CS10, HBP4), even while she is struggling with the demanding timetable arising from taking twelve subjects.
From the Atlas – Magical Creatures
The Care of Magical Creatures class taught by the “new-to-teaching” Hagrid doesn’t go very well. He assigns as the set text a book that attacks and the first creature he provides for them to study is quite a tricky one to work with. It doesn’t help that Hagrid prefers dangerous creatures to the everyday varieties. However, when you look at this map of creatures in the UK, it should strike you that Care of Magical Creatures must be an extremely important subject for young wizards and witches. They will need all of this care and protection information in their future lives within the wizarding world.
Coming up next week…
Answers to mysteries and questions will be forthcoming in the final exciting chapters 12-22 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Come back next week to see what we’ve discovered or remembered!