CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 9: Grim Defeat

[Karlijn]

No: HPFGUIDX 189679

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CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Chapter 9: Grim Defeat



The students get to sleep in the Great Hall for the night and Sir Cadogan
becomes the temporary Gryffindor guard. Oliver Wood is upset to hear the first
Quidditch match will be against Hufflepuff after training specifically for
playing against Slytherin. Professor Lupin is ill and is replaced by Snape who
is his acerbic self. And in the days running up to the first Quidditch match
the weather becomes worse and worse and the game is played during a foul storm.
Harry isn't distracted by the atrocious weather alone: he sees another grim and
the dementors attack. Result: Harry faints mid air (and lands himself in
hospital again), Cedric catches the snitch and Harry's Nimbus is smashed into
smithereens.



Questions:

1. A school-wide sleep-over, mixed gender (Hermione sleeps close to Ron and
Harry), and with 11 to 17 year olds ? Can you imagine this happening at your
school – both when you were young and/or for your kids nowadays - whichever
applies ? Especially with little to no adult supervision – only Percy seems to
be on patrol.

2. And speaking of Percy – where's the Head Girl and the Prefects ? Can you
imagine that Harry (through whom we `see' this magical world) would pay no
attention to them at all ?

3. Teacher Talk: When the Headmaster approaches, Harry quickly pretends to
be asleep. Do you think Professor Dumbledore knew he was listening in on the
conversation ? Was that the reason he cuts off Snape's insinuation that Lupin
helped Black get inside the castle or was it solely because he truly believes
Lupin didn't help ?

4. Snape taking over Lupin's class: What did you make of this and did it
give you a clue as to what was to come out ?

5. It wasn't till I was writing a version of book 6 myself that "teachers
taking over classes for others" became a problem to me – what do you make of the
class schedule for Hogwarts' students ?

6. Quidditch: what did you make of the fact that several of the experienced
and older quidditch players didn't think of protecting Harry's glasses in the
storm and that Hermione comes up with the solution ? Or is this a detail that I
notice as a bespectacled citizen ?

7. Quidditch: we also have the first introduction of Cedric Diggory. What
– if any – was your impression of him ?

8. Did you have an idea by this time what, exactly, Harry might be hearing
when dementors are near ?

Karlijn


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