HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN: MY THOUGHTS + DISCUSSION // HP CHATS

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! Today I’m bringing you the next instalment in my Harry Potter breakdown series! I’ll be doing a post for each book in the series, talking about different fan theories and random things I’ve noticed while reading the books! I’m having a blast re-reading the series, especially when I’m thinking about different fan theories in relation to whichever book I’m reading, it’s a lot of fun!

*spoilers for the whole series*

---

You can find my thoughts on book 1 & 2 here.

• theory nod: there’s a theory floating around on the internet, that Crookshanks is actually Lily & James’ old cat and I love it but also doubt it would ever be confirmed.

This one comes from Yedu Krishnan who says that when Hermione buys the cat at Magical Menagerie, the owner says they’ve had the cat for “quite some time.” Harry often wondered if their cat survived the attack by Voldemort when he was a baby. So when Crookshanks recognizes Scabbers/Wormtail and Sirius in their animagus forms, it’s a strong clue that Crookshanks was Harry’s family cat.

A related theory that I’m definitely not as fond of, is that Crookshanks is actually Lily. Which if she was a Maledictus I would sort of understand but, other than that I really really dislike this theory. You can read more about this theory here.

• another theory nod because I’m addicted: Draco is actually a werewolf. He’s always pale a looks ill and honestly wouldn’t that be the best secret ever? Like, they’re the Malfoys, they’re purebloods and nothing happens that they don’t make happen and oh shit they have a werewolf for a son, that would be the ultimate karma. My only problem with this is that I think Draco has to deal with enough shit later in the series without also being a werewolf.

A little theory that I’ve been thinking about for a while is was Azkaban somehow containing the Dementors? Like, obviously they’re pretty powerful creatures, but they seemed pretty chill in this book but off their rocker in all the others, so it’s like as soon as they’re let out of the prison they go a little nuts.

• another, another theory nod: I’m sorry, this is the last one! In Divination, Trelawney guesses that Harry was born in Midwinter and yeah, she’s wrong but also she’s kinda not. Harry was born in July but good old Voldie was born 31 Dec. “I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in Midwinter.” I mean, she wasn’t wrong because Horcruxes and all.

Honestly, is there are few scenes more iconic than Fred & George telling Harry that Wood was in the showers trying to drown himself because they lost a quidditch match where Harry almost dies. Hilarious, I love it.

I love learning about the dementors! It would have been so interesting to see if the dementors had really gotten to Harry, if they would have sucked Voldemort’s soul (Horcrux icky bits) out of Harry or not.

What’s Draco’s boggart? Because I’m convinced had we seen his participation in the class, his father would have stepped out of that closet.

Also, while we’re talking about depressing Draco things, do you think he could perform the spell to get a Patronus? Because I honestly doubt he could think of any memories happy enough required for a spell like that.

Yo, chocolate is poisonous to dogs, can someone pls tell Remus this. (or is that why he likes it so much???)

Do you ever think about how Hermione is technically older because of almost 10 months of time travelling almost every day because it just occurred to me and I’m never going to stop thinking about this.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Patronus’ a lot lately and can you imagine having a bumblebee Patronus or something small like a little cat or a bug? Like, there’s this massive soul-sucking dementor just cowering behind this tiny little bee Patronus? Absolutely comical.

I live for all the muggle-born kids who’s patronuses were pokemon or characters from cartoons. Like, imagine a dementor cowering before a magikarp! 😂😂

Do you think their patronuses would evolve as they got older??? Also, does anyone else think of Patronuses as Pokemon? Just me?

Just in general, I don’t think I really understand time turners in this world. Maybe I need to do more research but I don’t understand how the teachers & the ministry thought it would be a responsible or okay decision to give a 13 year old a time travel device – because I’m assuming you can also go forwards into the future too? And we all know that’s dangerous. So, I know that we all know that Hermione was only ever going to use the time-turner for class (excluding Saving Sirius and Buckbeak) but I’m assuming other students have used the time turner for a similar purpose in the past. (check) Honestly, I just don’t understand why time turners were never used to go back and kill Voldemort way back when. In general, I don’t think time turners make sense in this world at all because are you telling me that the only thing they’re used for in this series is helping Hermione go to extra classes????

• Also, on that note, who thought it was an okay decision to let a 13 year old girl that has suffered past trauma at school, take extra classes (which really starts to stress her out) for an ENTIRE year??? Like, I get an extra curricular or an extra elective for a term but an ENTIRE year? I can’t believe that this was not only okay’d by the staff & Dumbledore, but the Government too? And, did her parents know about it? Did they get a say? Ludicrous honestly.

I don’t understand the Wizarding Government. Truth serum is a thing (per the 4th book) so why didn’t they just give Sirius some truth serum because he would’ve been outta there real quick (if the Gov did the right thing, which would’ve honestly been an extra plot twist that would’ve made the story even better if they hadn’t). Anyway, if they had’ve done that Sirius would’ve raised Harry and this would’ve been a slightly different kind of story.

Do you think American wizards have a similar gun laws-issue? Do you think they go around yelling about their right to practice the forgivable curses, especially the killing curse? Do you think, similarly they also have slight variants of Quidditch in the Wizarding communities around the world, sort of like Soccer/Football?

Can you imagine how Lupin felt missing a lesson because of his “condition” and then coming back to class to find his best friend’s son has written an essay about how to kill him? I hate Snape, he is so impossibly messed up.

• I mean, if that isn’t enough he also wrote those essays in the hopes that someone would figure out that Lupin is a werewolf and then Hermione did.

Also, it’s mentioned in the order of the Phoenix (chapter 14) that it had been almost impossible for Lupin to find a job (it’s been 2 years). So what has happened in the past two years? Well, Snape let it slip that a werewolf had been teaching children and (chapter 15) he’s labelled as one. He is now The Werewolf, Remus Lupin. Also, it’s stated in the Daily Prophet article from said chapter that there was a big scandal so basically Snape told the whole world Lupin was a werewolf and the law responded with a law against werewolves. So not only did Snape ruin Lupin’s life but he ruined the lives of every werewolf in the UK. What. a prick.

I love him and he deserves the world but holy crap he really can’t teach. I would have loved to see him progress as a teacher throughout his year as a teacher but I’m pretty sure we see less of him throughout the series and in book 6 he’s not even in school.

I really think that so many background characters, especially Hagrid, deserved better development. I think if JK was able to give Hagrid the page time and was able to clearly show us how bad he was at his job then she also should have been able to show us him learning and getting better and becoming more comfortable as a teacher, instead of just having the golden trio feeling sorry for him behind his back.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVOURITE HP THEORIES?
ARE THERE ANY THEORIES I MISSED?
an