chapter eleven of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry fumes over Sirius Black but calms down when he hears that Buckbeak is scheduled for a hearing – and he then receives a Firebolt for Christmas. After an entertaining Christmas dinner, however, McGonagall confiscates the broom, enraging Ron.
 

He stopped on a picture of his parents’ wedding day…. If he hadn’t known it was the same person, he would never have guessed it was Black in this old photograph. His face wasn’t sunken and waxy, but handsome, full of laughter. Had he already been working for Voldemort when this picture had been taken?

(by Drew Graham)

 

It was a Firebolt, identical to the dream broom Harry had gone to see every day in Diagon Alley.

(by Tealin Raintree)

 

“What’re you two laughing about?”

(by Tealin Raintree)

 

Snape’s mouth thinned and he pushed the hat toward Dumbledore, who swapped it for his wizard’s hat at once.

(by Heather Campbell)

 

“But surely you already knew that, Sibyll?” said Professor McGonagall, her eyebrows raised.

(by gerre)

 

“My dears! Which of you left his seat first? Which?”
…”I doubt it will make much difference,” said Professor McGonagall coldly, “unless a mad axe-man is waiting outside the doors to slaughter the first into the entrance hall.”

(by Heather Campbell)

 

Harry and Ron looked around at Hermione. They could see her forehead reddening over the top of her book, which was upside down.

(by Tealin Raintree)

 

about the chapter

Every time I read this chapter, I wonder whether Rowling had a deliberate reason for injecting so much humor into the Christmas break, or whether she might have just been an particularly goofy mood one day and decided to write Trelawney into the scene. McGonagall is just about the most straight-laced of any character in the books, but when she cracks, she provides for some of the funniest scenes Rowling has written. I love her exchange with Trelawney over Christmas dinner, and we’ll see this side of her personality poke out again with another teacher in a couple of years.
 

The Wizarding World

It’s such a cool element of the wizarding world that the characters in paintings are friends with each other. Every Christmas, it seems, the Hogwarts paintings gather together in groups to celebrate – in this case, Sir Cadogan is “enjoying a Christmas party with a couple of monks, several previous headmasters of Hogwarts, and his fat pony.” Sir Cadogan must throw a mean party – the painted monks we know of are rather prone to, um, indulgence, and surely Sir Cadogan wouldn’t be the type of guy that Hogwarts headmasters would particularly enjoy the company of. Maybe everyone just likes to laugh at him?
 

Life at Hogwarts

Rowling has mentioned in interviews that whether Hogwarts professors have spouses is classified information, but we do get a bit of a hint at the Christmas dinner as many of them seem to have left the school for the holidays. Dumbledore and the heads of houses are all present, so perhaps they still have duties at school, but I think it’s probably safe to assume that Filch, Hagrid, Trelawney, and Lupin don’t have families at home with whom they would prefer to spend the winter break. One question does come to mind, though: Harry, Ron, and Hermione take books out of the library during the break, so where’s Madame Pince now, during Christmas dinner? We know she doesn’t have a spouse, though it’s possible she’s with other family members. Surely she’s not still in the library…. right?
 

Here’s another aspect of daily life at Hogwarts that we rarely hear about: laundry. Harry mentions when his Sneakoscope falls on the floor that he never wears Uncle Vernon’s old socks “if he can help it.” Why would he not be able to help it? Only if all his other socks were dirty, of course. So the question then becomes, how do the students do their laundry? Do they leave it out for the house-elves? And while we’re at it, what about all the times we hear the entirety of Harry’s morning routine, and it never includes a shower? So many aspects of daily life that aren’t included, I just wonder how they all work….
 

Something to Remember

Another item worth paying attention to is Harry’s Sneakoscope. Ron mentions it might not work very well as it’s cheap, but Hermione wryly points out that Ron was doing something untrustworthy at the time it started going off unexpectedly. Yet none of the trio seems to notice when the Sneakoscope is going off on the Hogwarts Express, or in the Gryffindor dormitories when they’re the only three around. It’s worth another look at those scenes to see who’s around and why it might be going off.