CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 13: Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 189960

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, June Ewing <doctorwhofan02 at ...> wrote:
>
> > 1. Do you think that Hermione was right in accusing Ron of
> > being prejudiced against Crookshanks?
> 
> June:
> Ron was prejudiced against Crookshanks, you see it all through the
> book. Ron did not like Crookshanks because Crookshanks had nearly
> scalped him when he jumped over him at their first meeting and his
> reaction when he realized that Hermione bought Crookshanks instead
> of an owl was "You actually bought that thing?"

Geoff:
Prejudice is defined in my dictionary as "preconceived opinion that
is not based on reason or experience".

I think that, since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head because he was 
trying to catch Scabbers, he has every reason to dislike the animal and to 
be suspicious of its intentions. Hermione is obviously too wrapped up in
Crookshanks to see ant faults or accept any suggestion of them.


> > 3. Harry is still letting thoughts of the Grim bother him. Is
> > he right in thinking that the creature exists or were the
> > various apparent sightings just coincidences or products of his
> > over-excited imagination?

June: 
> The Grim turned out to be Sirius Black.

Geoff:
I would beg to disagree on that point. We need to remember that we are
considering how we viewed events as we read the book for the first time
and not allowing what we read in later books to colour our hindsight.

Let us look at some of the evidence. Harry has just walked out of Privet
Drive leaving with his baggage. He is a thirteen year old who has just
confronted an abusive uncle and set out without knowing precisely
where he is going and when he stops to collect his thoughts, he sees 
"the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes."
(POA "The Knight Bus" p.30 UK edition)

He then falls over as the Knight Bus appears and narrowly misses him.
He continues looking,  arousing Stan Shunpike's curiosity. "Choo lookin' 
at?" said Stan. "There was a big black thing," said Harry, pointing  
uncertainly into the gap. "Like a dog... but massive..."
(ibid. p.31)

So, Harry has seen something and not positively identified it.

Then, Harry is in Flourish and Blotts when he sees book called 'Death 
Omens'. "Harry continued to stare at the front cover of the book; it 
showed a black dog as large as a bear, with gleaming eyes. It looked 
oddly familiar..."
(POA "The Leaky Cauldron p,45 UK edition)

To add to Harry's uncertainty, there is the incident in the first Divination 
lesson when Professor Trelawney looks at Harry's tea leaves. "My dear," 
Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "you have the Grim."
"The what?" said Harry... "The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Professor 
Trelawney who looked shocked that Harry hadn't understood. "The giant,
spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen - the 
worst omen - of death!"
(POA "Talons and Tea Leaves" pp.82/83 UK edition}

Harry's thoughts are not improved when Ron reveals that he is frightened 
by the Grim after Harry reveals that he thinks he has seen one.

And just before he falls from his broom during the Hufflepuff match, 
"Harry saw something that distracted him completely: the silhouette of 
an enormous shaggy dog, clearly imprinted against the sky, motionless
in the topmost, empty row of seats"
(POA "Grim Defeat" p.133 UK edition)

So it is not surprising that Harry, at this point, is quite rattled, and the
appearance of the Dementors completes the events to cause his fall and 
increases his fears of what the sighting of the Grim might portend.
 
However, on the night before the Quidditch final, Harry has one further
incident to compound his worries: "...something caught his eye. An 
animal of some kind was prowling across the silvery lawn. Harry dashed 
to his bedside table, snatched up his glasses and put them on, then 
hurried back to the window It couldn't be the Grim - not now - not 
right before the match -. He peered out at the grounds again and, 
after a minute's frantic searching, spotted it. It was skirting the edge 
of the edge of the Forest now... it wasn't the Grim at all... it was a cat... 
Harry clutched the window-ledge in reliefas he recognised the bottle-
brush tail. It was only Crookshanks... Or was it only Crookshanks? 
Harry squinted, pressing his nose flat against the glass. Crookshanks 
appeared to have come to a halt. Harry was sure he could see something 
else moving on the shadow of the trees, too. And next moment, it had 
emerged: A gigantic, shaggy black dog, moving stealthily across the  
lawn, Crookshanks trotting at its side. Harry stared. What did this mean? 
If Crookshanks could see the dog as well, how could it be an omen of 
Harry's death?
(POA "The Quidditch Final" pp.223/24 UK edition)

This latter event is a continuation of a masterly piece of misdirection by 
JKR. We are gradually persuaded from the beginning that Harry is being 
tracked by this harbinger of death and Harry is obviously being seriously 
unsettled. And then we have this situation and JKR poses a different 
scenario. If Crookshanks can see the dog, how can it be spectral? So we 
have the question 'Who or what is this being?'

As I said previously, we only get the answer - in hindsight -later when 
the dog drags Ron away and is revealed as Sirius in his Animagus form - 
and we realise that most of Harry's sightings had been Sirius watching 
him. So Harry's worries had been fuelled by seeing Sirius and by being 
bombarded with information about the Grim - but Sirius was NOT the 
Grim.

> > 5. Were you surprised at the speed of Harry's reaction on seeing
> > the Dementors? Would you have expected that he would have a
> > similar reaction to that of the earlier Hufflepuff match?

June: 
> No, when I first read the book I knew that he would take them out.
> The only surprise was learning who it really was, lol.

Geoff:
Yes. After his previous encounters with (real) Dementors, I expected Harry
to waver; the speed of the action at this point masks the fact that he 
had not felt anything of their presence and seemed almost to get
out his wand and use it casually. Realising he had taken them out didn't
occur until I turned the page from p.193 to p.194.
:-)