Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban Ch 22: Owl Post Again

[Mike Crudele]

No: HPFGUIDX 191241

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POA Chapdisc 22: Owl Post Again

Summary

Harry and Hermione make it to the hospital wing in the nick of time to replace their time-turned selves. Snape bursts in, with Fudge and Dumbledore in tow and accuses Harry of "doing something" to help Black escape. The next day, Hagrid tells the trio about the revelation of Lupin's secret to the whole school and his subsequent resignation from it. Harry rushes off to stop him, but Lupin insists he must leave. Lupin returns the Marauder's Map to Harry. Dumbledore shows up and Lupin makes a hasty exit.

Harry tells Dumbledore about the prediction Trelawney made, and Dumbledore gives her credit for her "second" real prophecy. Dumbledore also tells Harry that Pettigrew is now indebted to him for saving his life and that Sirius has told him everything about the Marauders having become animagi.

On the train home, Harry gets an owl post from Sirius that includes a consent letter for Hogsmeade visits. We learn that it was Sirius who bought the Firebolt. In the end, Harry looks forward to a more promising summer now that he can play the escaped murderer godfather card with the Dursleys.

Questions:

Everyone pull out your time-turners and give them about five thousand turns. Now that you are back where you were when you just finished reading this book for the first time


1.  Snape is raving mad and thinks Potter had a hand in Sirius's escape *before* Dumbledore drops the hints about "being in two places at once". Does Snape suspect time-turning was involved?

2. "Harry had the impression that Lupin wanted to leave as quickly as possible." Was he ashamed of himself in front of Dumbledore? Was this more evidence of his cowardice?

3. Dumbledore tells Harry that the life debt is "magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable". Knowing now how Pettigrew's debt plays out, are you satisfied with Dumbledore's proclamation? Do you think JKR did this supposedly grave issue justice?
 
4. Remember in the first book, how we learn of Snape's "life debt" to James, and how that comes to the fore in this book. Do you think this life debt "deep magic" is as powerful as the ancient love magic that Lily invoked when saving Harry? Do you see enough evidence of the "life debt" magic to be convinced that it exists?

5. Dumbledore also tells Harry that "the time may come when he will be glad he saved Pettigrew's life." For those Lord of the Rings fans amongst the group, how would you compare and contrast this James/Harry-Wormtail connection with the Bilbo/Frodo-Gollum connection?

6.  Did you have any idea what could possibly have been Trelawney's "first" real prediction? Tell the truth now, did you have any inkling that it would turn out to be *the Prophesy* of all prophesies?

7. How did Dumbledore know James's nickname was Prongs? Did he know about the Marauder's Map?

8. Disregarding the needs of the author for plot development, should Hermione have told Harry and Ron much earlier about the time-turner? If you were Hermione, would you have told the boys sooner?

9. There are so many more questions that could be posed from this chapter. But I'll leave it to our esteemed members to pose them? :o)

~Mike~
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