Gryffindor Versus Ravenclaw
chapter thirteen of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Ron and Hermione refuse to speak to each other, but Harry tries out his new Firebolt – and after a heartening practice, Gryffindor soundly defeats Ravenclaw despite several Slytherins dressing as dementors in an attempt to frighten Harry. After the party dies down, though, Sirius Black wakes Ron in the middle of the night, standing over his bed with an enormous knife.
“Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it’s a slight list to the tail end – you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They’ve updated the handle too, a bit slimmer than the Cleansweeps, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows – a pity they’ve stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too….”
(by Heather Campbell)
Their Seeker, Cho Chang, was the only girl on their team.
(by Wacca)
She smiled at Harry as the teams faced each other behind their captains, and he felt a slight lurch in the region of his stomach that he didn’t think had anything to do with nerves.
(by gerre)
“That was quite some Patronus,” said a voice in Harry’s ear.
(by Tealin Raintree)
“Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!”
(by Patilda)
“IT WASN’T A NIGHTMARE!” Ron yelled. “PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!”
(by Tealin Raintree)
about the chapter
I always feel so bad for Neville at the end of this chapter. Clearly it’s a problem that he wrote the passwords down, but we’ll find out later it wasn’t really his fault they disappeared, and the real issue seems to stem from Sir Cadogan’s idiotic changing of the passwords several times a day so the students struggle to remember them. Of course, to be fair, nobody knows how Neville lost the passwords (including him), and Sir Cadogan does get in trouble too. Poor Neville.
Life at Hogwarts
I love that McGonagall shows up to the Gryffindor common room at one in the morning in her pajamas to send all the kids off to bed; clearly her bedroom is somewhere quite near Gryffindor Tower, so that she can keep an eye on her house. We soon find out why, too, as she’s also right there when there’s a disaster, and Sirius Black gets in. It won’t be the last time she comes to Gryffindor Tower in a hurry in the middle of the night. I wonder where exactly her room is (perhaps a passworded portrait down the hall from the Fat Lady?), and whether students know this in case of an emergency.
The Boy Who Lived
We’ve learned before that all the dormitories in Gryffindor Tower are labeled with the year of the students who sleep inside them. After Sirius Black makes it in, I’d be curious to know whether the teachers considered removing the signs and making the rooms anonymous as one more precaution for Harry’s safety. It might have helped Harry in his second year, too, when another student snuck into his room and searched his belongings.
There is MAJOR foreshadowing too; in Harry’s dream that is interupted by Ron’s waking up — Harry is “dreaming” of chasing a silvery figure through the woods — a foreshadowing of DH and Snape’s patronus leading Harry to Gryffindor’s sword.
Gary said this on June 28, 2009 at 4:52 pm
to Gary: wow! I never noticed that! I always thought it had something to do with learning the patronus-spell and wanting to find out more about the figure it would make….:O
I don’t think the non-labeling the doors would be considered. As much as Dumbledore and the teachers want to protect Harry, they assume Sirius is a mass-murderer and wouldn’t want the other kids exposed to him either.
kim said this on June 30, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Seriously, were past years at Hogwarts this crazy? If you were a new student during Harry’s second year, the Heir of Slytherin was wandering around, Petrifying people, during Harry’s third, there was a supposed mass-murderer able to get into Hogwarts. And it just got worse each subsequent year. I’m surprised more parents didn’t pull their children from school before Harry’s sixth year.
Natalia said this on July 9, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I think the students might know where McGonagall sleeps because in OOPT when Harry has the “snake-vision” Neville goes out to get help and comes back with McGonagall.
So either she sleeps in her office (like, there’s a passworded portrait in her office that leads to her bedroom) and Neville went to get her there, or the students know where she sleeps, or Neville just went out into the corridor asking for help and McGonagall heard him.
My favorite explanation is the office one, and it makes sense because in HBP Harry wakes up Slughorn by knocking at his office door with Ron after he’s taken the love potion, and the first time Harry gets into Dumbledore’s office he thinks something like “So this is were Dumbledore lives”.
Lola said this on August 10, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I agree with Natalia’s comment. I’d love to be able to go to Hogwarts, but I don’t think I’d would have liked to go when Harry was attending ;)
Maggie said this on August 15, 2009 at 9:40 am
I’ve always wondered where teachers slept. I think I read somewhere that McGonagall’s bedroom is actually in her office. Located in the corner somewhere…
Seán said this on August 17, 2009 at 12:38 pm
“It might have helped Harry in his second year, too, when the heir of Slytherin snuck into his room and searched his belongings.”
I always thought Ginny snuck in and took the diary back from him!
Sheri said this on January 15, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Sheri, sorry to be confusing – Ginny did sneak in, and when I wrote that I was thinking that she was possessed by the heir of Slytherin at the time. But I’m realizing in reading your comment that she did that of her own accord. So I’ll adjust the comments. :)
John Kearns said this on January 15, 2010 at 4:25 pm