The Boggart in the Wardrobe
chapter seven of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Malfoy shows up in Potions, faking that his arm is still hurt, and Neville gets in trouble with Snape yet again – but in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Lupin has Neville help him defeat a boggart, although he doesn’t give Harry a chance at it.
“How is it, Draco?” simpered Pansy Parkinson. “Does it hurt much?”
(by reallycorking)
Snape approached their table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, then gave Ron an unpleasant smile from beneath his long, greasy black hair. “Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley.”
(by somelatevisitor)
“Orange, Longbottom,” said Snape, ladling some up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see. “Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?”
There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape’s palm.
(by Gnatkip)
He raised his wand to shoulder height, said, “Waddiwasi!” and pointed it at Peeves.
(by Heather Campbell)
“Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear.”
(by LMRourke)
Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, then said, in barely more than a whisper, “Professor Snape.”
(by Tealin Raintree)
“R — r — riddikulus! “squeaked Neville. There was a noise like a whip crack….
(by Mudblood428)
For a second, everyone looked wildly around to see where it was. Then they saw a silvery-white orb hanging in the air in front of Lupin.
(by glockgal)
about the chapter
I wonder what it is about Lupin that makes Peeves so much more disrespectful toward him than the other teachers? Is it simply his shabby appearance? Or did Lupin and/or his friends do something to Peeves when they were in school? It’s hard to imagine what – Peeves seems to appreciate those like Fred and George who disobey rules and cause mayhem, and he certainly has respect for those like McGonagall who appreciate toeing the line. Lupin is also clearly an accomplished wizard, capable of putting Peeves in his place. It’s curious that Peeves treats him so differently, but I’m really not sure what to make of it.
Something You May Not Have Noticed
Sometimes students have classes combined with other houses (like how Harry’s year of Gryffindors always seems to have Potions with the Slytherins), but Lupin’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class seems to only be composed of third-year Gryffindors – fewer than a dozen students. It sounds like a great class, but leaving aside the question of how he manages to teach so many classes (each teacher would have between 11 and 21 different groups of students to plan for!), I wonder what his third-year Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins did. After all, surely he didn’t just happen to find four different boggarts lurking around the castle, right? Although Hogwarts is a pretty big place, so who knows.
Life at Hogwarts
There are plenty of arguments to be made about “good Slytherins,” whether they exist, what they’re like, and so forth. And there are some positive qualities inherent in Slytherins, to be sure. But the examples that Rowling puts forth for us most readily – Malfoy and Snape – sure make me hate the house. Say what you will about their motivations, whose side they’re on, and what have you, but after reading this chapter – watching Malfoy admit he’s faking his injury to get someone fired and watching Snape belittle Neville for no purpose other that to bully him (not to mention try to kill his toad) – it’s hard not to come away thinking they’re awfully loathsome people.
Something to Remember
Ron makes fun of Hermione a bit for thinking that her boggart would be a “piece of homework that only got nine out of ten.” But the conversation does make me wonder what she was thinking of. We’ll find out later what her boggart really is, and Ron’s actually not too far off.
I always figured the Marauders tried to pull some prank with Peeves but Lupin succeeded in stopping them which made Peeves a little upset. Second theory: It would also be like Peeves to remember him from twenty years prior as an easy target and try to provoke a similar response now that he’s returned to the castle. :)
Natalia said this on June 16, 2009 at 4:37 pm
—— SPOILER WARNING ——- SPOILER WARNING ——-
Okay, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this one for a while, maybe someone here might be able to help.
After Potions Hermione was behind Ron and Harry, then disappeared and reappeared at the bottom of the stairs, stuffing something down her robe. They went to have lunch.
Let’s assume Hermione had Runes (in this example) at the same time as Potions.
Lets further assume she went to Runes first. Then there wouldn’t have been the need for her to disappear after Potions, as she had already disappeared after Runes.
Let’s then assume she went to Potions first. Then she wouldn’t have had to stuff something down her robe as she reappeared, but would have simply walked to the stairs after Runes.
Her reappearance and stuffing something down her robe only makes sense if she doesn’t have Runes at the same time as Potions, but at the same time as lunch. Because then she would have attended Runes and come back for lunch.
But then her disappearance after Potions doesn’t make sense.
Unless of course she has Arithmancy at the same time as Potions (doing Potions first, then going back to Arithmancy) and Runes at the same time as lunch (going to Runes right after Arithmancy, then coming back from there for lunch). Wow, that would really be a tough schedule.
And… don’t all students have lunch at the same time? Do some have classes while the others have lunch and then the other way around?
Or… am I just thinking way too complicated and the answer is much simpler? Another or: Maybe JKR just wrote that in order to raise the readers suspicions that something is up with Hermione? For example the way they did it in the movie doesn’t make sense either.
Kim said this on June 17, 2009 at 9:04 am
I always imagined Peeves didn’t have respect for Lupin BECAUSE he was a troublemaker like Fred and George… I mean, would you respect (or could you even imagine) the twins if they went to school with you, dind’t keep themselves to any of the rules, and then came back as a teacher?
Great drawings in this chapter!
And other Kim, I’ve wondered that myself too… but the whole time-traveling tends to give me a head-ache, so I’ve stopped thinking about it and just assumed Jo didn’t think it trough, because she wanted to give us a hint about the mystery behind Hermione…good train of thought from your side, though!
kim said this on June 17, 2009 at 2:52 pm
oh! Maybe Hermione would’ve had 3 subjects at once! It happened with her finals at the end of the book too!
just an afterthought…
kim said this on June 17, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I was just going to point out the “3 finals at once” moment–way to beat me to it, kim! I think, if we want to make life simple, that’s the easiest way to go. :D
Natalia said this on June 18, 2009 at 10:07 am
Kim (er… Kims?), I hadn’t even noticed this bit of Hermione’s confusion. It does make sense if she has three classes at once (Ron points out that she does at one point in PA6, though Potions isn’t one of the three he mentions)…. but I think it’s probably more likely that Jo just wrote it this way to raise our suspicions.
I’ve tried to go through and use clues from the books to draw up schedules before (including Hermione’s from this book), and they just don’t work. When you look at the way the classes are written, it’s pretty clear JKR is just making the schedule up as she goes along, doing what fits her plot best without regard to a consistent reference. Even the periods don’t make sense: at points it’s very clear, for example, that there are two class periods in the morning and two in the afternoon; at others there are three or even four in a row, all before lunch.
Like the map of Hogwarts or the calendar of events, it’s fun to find ways to make the pieces fit, but they aren’t really designed to fit of their own accord.
John Kearns said this on June 18, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I haven’t really given it much thought, but I think Peeves doesn’t respect Lupin because of what he is. Peeves most likely knows that Lupin is a werewolf, so he thinks that he has some sort power over Lupin since Lupin is trying to keep that a secret.
Lostthyme said this on June 19, 2009 at 9:11 pm
my random thought is this: if Hermione had the time turner… and she had curtains on her bed… why didn’t she decide before she went to bed that she would use the time turner to get a bit more sleep… and just close the curtains so no one would notice. there endeth tired Hermione… stay up all night to study and then turn the time turner a few turns and be settled.
Amy Darlene said this on June 21, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Ah, I havn’t thought of Hermione having three subjects at once. I’ll mull over that one. Thanks for the responses.
I’m Kim with a capital K, then there is kim with lower case k.
Kim said this on June 24, 2009 at 10:58 am
@ Amy Darlene – I’ve always wondered that! But I think after a year of doing that, I would still get all confused and exhausted.
empirexstate said this on July 19, 2009 at 12:34 pm
It’s best not to think on Time Paradoxes too much. It’s a guaranteed brain addler!
As for Peeves’ treatment of Lupin, I’ve always thought that as Lupin was the ‘sensible’ marauder, and the prefect, that Peeves has always bothered him. Percy tells Neville that Peeves doesn’t listen to prefects after all, so perhaps he has a ‘once a prefect, always a prefect’ view of Lupin.
Lizzie said this on September 2, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I think Lizzie is right about Peeves. My line of thought was that Peeves was “testing” Lupin and see how he would react to a provocation.
About the Time turner, I never had the patiente to figure that out, I just accepted things, but there are a lot of things that does not add up with the “time paradox”.
Paula said this on October 27, 2009 at 10:32 am
JKR has said that the Time Turner created as many problems as it solved, so I assume that it was just too hard to really have a written schedule to refer to as she wrote. Remember, although these are fantastically written books, they are written for adolescents, so perhaps this was a time JKR thought-gosh, I hope they don’t think too hard about this! I am impressed with kim and Kim who spent much energy figuring out Hermione’s schedule as far as they did-great job!
I have also thought that if Hermione needed extra time to go to lessons, then why didn’t she giver herself more time to complete the homework? And maybe she does but we don’t see it in any way.
With the scheduling of classes, I thought that some of them might be a “lab” class-so some days it was a short class full of theory, taking notes, and discussion. Then other days it’s the lab period-practicum, putting the theory to practice. This is how some of my courses were in college so that’s what I thought of when reading this.
Jennifer C. said this on March 1, 2010 at 3:14 pm
One of my thoughts on Hermione using the time turner to get more sleep or do homework is this: the time turner is a pretty big deal. McGonagall had to write all kinds of letters to the Ministry to get one, and at the end of the book, Hermione says that she and Harry are breaking the wizarding law. My guess is that Hermione was told to use the time turner STRICTLY for getting to her classes, and that’s all. Wouldn’t she want to adhere to that rule very closely? Hermione would never break a rule, especially a Ministry law, to get more sleep.
Ragmar Dorkins said this on April 19, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Ah, yes, I’m with you, Ragmar. Hermione typically doesn’t break rules unless it’s a life or death matter. Sure, her grades might chalk up as life and death, but she might not feel as proud of them knowing that she got more sleep and study time than her peers.
On that bit about having trouble liking the Slytherins, I quite agree. I was glad to get to know Slughorn later on. He certainly has his character flaws, but I really like him.
Laura said this on July 12, 2010 at 10:48 am