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5[[caption-width-right:350:''EXPECTO PATRONUM!'']]
6->''"I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me."''
7-->-- '''Harry Potter'''
8
9''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' is the third ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book. Published on July 8, 1999, this was the last book published separately in the US and UK and the last "quiet" release of a ''Harry Potter'' book. It is also often considered the point at which the series [[GrowingTheBeard Grew the Beard]].
10
11Sirius Black has escaped from [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban, the wizarding prison]]. In response, the [[TheGovernment Ministry of Magic]] sends Dementors, a {{Black Cloak}}ed race of dreadful creatures who guard Azkaban, to guard Hogwarts and their {{Emotion Eat|er}}ing powers seem to affect Harry especially. Remus Lupin, meanwhile, makes his first appearance, taking on the [[HighTurnoverRate dreaded Defence Against the Dark Arts post]].
12
13The book's popularity may be partially due to the introductions of [[ByronicHero Sirius]] and [[BadassBookworm Lupin]], [[EnsembleDarkhorse whom some fans consider to be two of the coolest characters in the series]]. It also marks the point where the books started to become [[StoryArc more serialized]] with each ending [[SequelHook setting up the next one]] (the first two books were largely self-contained stories whose events did not significantly influence the progression of the series' overarching plot). It also has, quite possibly, the most complicated plot of the entire series, drawing in characters and events from all over the place; the Prisoner of Azkaban is obviously important, but the ''way'' he is important zig-zags several times over the course of the novel, and the same thing happens to a ''lot'' of other characters. The result is that, by the end of this book, the story's landscape has irrevocably changed ... and readers know that things are going to get ''really'' interesting from now on.
14
15Followed by Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''. The [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban film adaptation]] was released in 2004.
16
17----
18!!I solemnly swear that these tropes are up to no good:
19
20[[foldercontrol]]
21
22[[folder:0–C]]
23* ThirteenIsUnlucky:
24** Sirius Black's last crime before being imprisoned was the murder of thirteen people. [[spoiler:Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you think of the thirteenth "victim", Peter Pettigrew.]]
25** Trelawney brings this up during the Christmas feast, claiming that "the first to rise will be the first to die". Harry and Ron get up at the same time.
26--->"My dears! Which one of you left his seat first? Which?"\
27"Dunno," said Ron, looking uneasily at Harry.\
28"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."
29** It turns out that Trelawney [[spoiler:was RightForTheWrongReasons, as Pettigrew, as Scabbers, was in Ron's pocket, making him the thirteenth person. And then Dumbledore stands up before Harry and Ron do.]]
30* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
31** [=McGonagall=] {{invoke|dTrope}}s this a few times when she sees that Trelawney is scaring Harry with predictions about his death, to show that she thinks Divination is bunk. At her first Transfiguration class and Harry reveals that Trelawney predicted he had a death omen, the professor snarks that Harry seems to be in good health so he still has to do his homework. If he ''does'' die, then she won't require him to hand it in for grading. Despite himself, Harry laughs in relief. Later, she makes a similar joke when Trelawney says that ThirteenIsUnlucky at the Christmas feast table just after Harry and Ron stand up. Everyone except Trelawney chuckles.
32** Lupin says that you have to fight a Boggart this way when they summon your worst fear. Laughter is the opposite of fear, so if you find a way to make people laugh at a Boggart, they lose their power. Harry notes that there is one drawback: when there is no way to make the fear less scary. Lupin has a plan B for that: teach Harry how a Boggart can help him work on his Patronus spell.
33** The Gryffindors laugh at Malfoy's ill-advised attempt to prank Harry by having himself, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint dress up as Dementors during the match with Ravenclaw. Harry cast a Patronus strong enough to knock them all over, which made the crowd realize they were fakes. [=McGonagall=] is the only one to take the prank seriously, giving the lot detention and deducting fifty points from Slytherin. Harry finds it hilarious because according to Lupin, he "gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright" and Malfoy gets tangled up in the robes since he was standing on Marcus's shoulders. Lupin is also amused while praising Harry for his technique. It's implied that thanks to this prank, Harry figured out how to defeat a Boggart that takes a Dementor's form.
34* TheAlcatraz: Azkaban, which was first mentioned in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Book 2]], is a prison for witches and wizards considered inescapable thanks to being patrolled by Dementors, ghostly jailors that feed on positive emotions, thus literally preventing prisoners from hoping to escape. [[spoiler:The titular prisoner can counter their ill effects to a degree by transforming into an animal.]]
35* AmusingInjuries: Largely averted (as Ron and Draco are both seriously injured by the Whomping Willow and Buckbeak respectively) but briefly played straight when, on Christmas morning, after Crookshanks once again goes for Scabbers, Ron tries to kick Crookshanks, but misses and hits Harry's trunk instead.
36* AnalogyBackfire: Ron and Hermione defy the prospect of this. There are two NoodleIncident[=s=] they mention while reading for precedent to get Buckbeak acquitted. In both cases, the magical creature was found guilty at its trial.
37* AntagonistTitle: Sirius Black, the titular prisoner of Azkaban, is the book's ArcVillain. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Except]] that he's not a villain at all.]]
38* AnxietyDreams: Harry has these whenever Dementors are around.
39* AnArmAndALeg:
40** The reason the last Care of Magical Creatures teacher retired, freeing the job up for Hagrid.
41--->'''Dumbledore:''' I am sorry to say that Professor Kettleburn has retired from his post at the end of last term, in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs.
42** {{Discussed|Trope}}; Hagrid says that if he had cornered Sirius Black before Pettigrew did, he would have "ripped him limb from limb."
43* ArcNumber: 13; Harry turns thirteen years old at the start of the novel, Sirius Black [[spoiler:supposedly]] murdered thirteen people, and during the Christmas feast, thirteen people are seated together until Professor Trelawney arrives and lampshades that ThirteenIsUnlucky.
44* ArcVillain: Subverted. Sirius is built up as the main antagonist, but he's [[spoiler:a good guy]]. The real villains, ironically, are [[spoiler:the Dementors, the ones ''guarding'' the titular prisoner. And Pettigrew]].
45* ArmorPiercingResponse: When it appears to Hagrid that Harry and Ron care more about broomsticks and rats than they do about Hermione, he brings it to their attention when they talk about Buckbeak and the fiasco at trying to get an appeal. Their response? They feel highly uncomfortable about the subject. Hagrid even tells Ron that Hermione was worried sick about him after Sirius Black attacked Ron, ''despite their feud over Crookshanks and Scabbers''.
46-->'''Hagrid:''' But, I gotta tell yeh, I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats. Tha's all.
47* AssholeVictim:
48** [[spoiler:Sirius]] claims that Snape deserved the nasty prank [[spoiler:that nearly [[DeadlyPrank got Snape killed]], namely seeing werewolf Lupin]]. Snape begs to differ.
49** Played straight with Aunt Marge who, after a ''week'' of verbally abusing Harry and making the other Dursleys look like ''saints'', Harry finally snaps when she ''literally'' calls Lily Potter ''a [[DoubleEntendre bitch]]'', yells at her and, since his wand wasn't on his person at the time, his [[PowerIncontinence natural magic]] subconsciously causes her to inflate like a balloon, and Harry decides enough is enough and runs away.
50* AwfulTruth: Done twice, first with the story Harry overhears about how Sirius betrayed Harry's parents and isn't just an insane criminal, then [[spoiler:the real truth of Peter's even crueller betrayal]]. Whether the real truth is slightly better or slightly worse is debatable. On one hand, the traitor [[spoiler:wasn't James' best friend, and said best friend is still alive]]. On the other hand, not only did [[spoiler:Peter betray the Potters and murder a dozen innocent people, he framed Sirius for his crimes and got to live happily at the Weasleys' for twelve years]].
51* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals:
52** [[TheBully Draco Malfoy]] doesn’t physically harm Buckbeak, but insults the animal, leading to Buckbeak attacking ''him''. Later, this trope is played straight when Draco and his also unsympathetic father, Lucius, arrange for Buckbeak’s beheading.
53** The executioner, Walden Macnair, takes delight in his job and [[spoiler:is unsurprisingly revealed to be a Death Eater in the next book.]]
54* BarredFromTheAfterlife: It's implied that this is the fate of victims of the Dementor's Kiss since their souls are forever lost after the Dementors devour them.
55* BerserkButton:
56** Harry reacts furiously to taunts about his parents from first Aunt Marge and then Snape.
57** When Snape calls Hermione an [[InsufferableGenius insufferable know-it-all]], Ron lashes out at Snape, despite [[HypocriticalHeartwarming having himself insulted Hermione thusly]].
58** Don't call Hagrid pathetic in front of Hermione unless you're looking for a slap in the face.
59** Do not venture out of Hogwarts to see Hagrid, especially if you're Harry and have a known murderer out to get you.
60** This book shows us how [=McGonagall=] reacts to someone deliberately pulling off foul play in Quidditch. ''TWICE.''
61* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[spoiler:Remus Lupin.]] At the climax of the book when he and [[spoiler:Sirius]] confront [[spoiler:Peter]] with the evidence of his betrayal, [[spoiler:Sirius asks him casually, "Shall we kill him together?" and Remus simply answers "Yes, I think so." He then tells Peter that he should have known the two of them would kill him if he were to betray James.]]
62* BigBadEnsemble: The Dementors and [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]].
63* BigFriendlyDog: [[spoiler:Black's Animagus form. It's appropriate since he was GoodAllAlong and stayed loyal to his original cause.]]
64* BigNo: Ron [[spoiler:when Sirius breaks into the boys' dormitory to murder Pettigrew and Ron thinks Sirius is after him.]] His scream prior to invoking this trope takes up an entire line on the page.
65* BigShutUp: Harry yells this at Snape in the latter's office when he keeps insulting James. He does it again when Snape asks him to repeat what he just said ("''What did you say to me, Potter?''" "I told you to shut up about my dad!").
66* BigWhat: Harry gets two.
67** In Chapter 2, after Uncle Vernon tells him that Aunt Marge thinks he (Harry) attends Saint Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys.
68** [[spoiler:In Chapter 21, after Madame Pomfrey [[FalseReassurance tells him that Sirius has been captured]] and is about to get [[FateWorseThanDeath the Dementor's Kiss]].]]
69* BitchSlap: Hermione gets fed up with Malfoy mocking Hagrid (though lack of sleep has amplified her temper) so she smacks him right across the face. Malfoy is so stunned that he runs away. The film changes it to her threatening him with her wand, and then punching him on the nose.
70* BittersweetEnding: In a departure from the unambiguously HappyEnding[=s=] of the first two books. [[spoiler:Sirius proves his innocence to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, and Dumbledore, but is forced to go on the run with Buckbeak when Pettigrew escapes. Additionally, Lupin is forced to resign when the school discovers he's a werewolf and Harry worries about Trelawney's prophecy and the consequences of sparing Wormtail and potentially bringing Voldemort back. Dispirited about the prospect of continuing to live with the Dursleys instead of his godfather, Harry cheers up when he gets a letter from Sirius and is glad that he now has someone who he can consider real family.]]
71* BookEnds:
72** The first and last chapters are called "Owl Post" and "Owl Post Again", respectively.
73** Lupin's first lesson for the third-years is about the Boggart. For his final exam near the end of the school year, Lupin sets up an obstacle course of magical creatures, ending with a Boggart confrontation.
74* BookSnap: Hermione does this and storms off to another class when Ron makes an InnocentlyInsensitive remark. This leaves Harry and Ron confused, since [[spoiler:they don't know that she's using a [[TimeTravel Time-Turner]] to attend multiple classes]].
75* BooksThatBite: ''The Monster Book of Monsters'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a monster which is a book about monsters.
76* BrainComputerInterface: Magical equivalent with the Firebolt seeming to respond to Harry's thoughts instead of his grip.
77* BreatherEpisode: Can be considered this compared to ''[[ActionizedSequel The Chamber of Secrets]]''. Apart from the threatening presences of the Dementors and Sirius Black around the school, the stakes this time aren't quite as high as they used to be. It helps that this is the only book where EverybodyLives. It helps even more that unlike the previous two, Harry actually decides he's had enough of [[AbusiveParents the Dursley's bullshit]] for one summer and runs away and, thanks in part to a chance encounter with ''the Minister of Magic,'' of all people, he realizes he isn't in trouble for [[ItMakesSenseInContext blowing up his Aunt Marge,]] he is free to buy school supplies, hang out in the Leaky Cauldron, and freely do homework for ''two entire weeks,'' all relatively independently. The tradeoff, however, is that this book delves into the characters' darker sides (such as Snape's increasingly unhinged behaviour, corruption in the Ministry, and Harry's grief over his parents), which carries over to the other books.
78* BrickJoke:
79** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', we learn that Hagrid got his [[CoolBike flying motorbike]], which he used to take Harry to the Dursleys' house, from [[spoiler:Sirius]]. In this book, [[spoiler:Sirius flies away on Buckbeak, Hagrid's pet Hippogriff]].
80** After Lupin's lesson about Boggarts, Hermione talks about how she wishes she had been able to face it (being one of the few who didn't). Ron jokes that [[ThePerfectionist her Boggart probably would have been homework that didn't have a perfect score]]. During the end-of-year exam, it turns out that he wasn't too far off the mark (specifically, it was [=McGonagall=] saying that she had failed ''all'' her classes).
81* BrokenWinLossStreak: Harry loses a Quidditch match for the first time ever because the Dementors invaded the pitch.
82* BullyBulldog: Aunt Marge breeds them as pets. Her favourite one, Ripper, used to chase Harry around when he was little.
83* BullyingADragon: When introducing the Care of Magical Creatures class to Buckbeak, Hagrid establishes that Hippogriffs are very proud creatures that get ''very'' hostile with anyone who insults them. After Harry earns Buckbeak's respect, Malfoy becomes jealous and calls the Hippogriff a "great, ugly brute", promptly getting himself injured in the process.
84* BurnTheWitch: Harry's over-the-summer essay for History of Magic is about how pointless medieval witch-burnings were, since the few times the victim was a wizard and not a poor ordinary Muggle, they could simply cast a Flame-Freezing Charm and pretend to be suffering. They go on to mention that some witches and wizards allowed themselves to be caught and burned multiple times because [[TooKinkyToTorture they liked the fact that it felt like being tickled]].
85* CallBack: While Harry is waiting to go back to Hogwarts and getting all his new school supplies in Diagon Alley, narration remarks that his two new subjects are Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Near the end of ''Chamber of Secrets'', these are exactly the classes that Percy named as possibilities while giving him advice, citing Charlie's love of animals and his choice of the former when telling Harry to choose classes for what interests him and outright suggesting the latter if he's concerned about his future.
86* CallingTheYoungManOut: Professor Lupin, one of the kinder teachers and an old friend of Harry's father, calls out Harry for using the Marauder's Map to sneak out of Hogwarts while alleged murderer Sirius Black is at large, supposedly looking for Harry. Lupin brings up that not only could the Map have aided in capturing Sirius Black the last time he was in the castle had Harry handed it in sooner, but that Harry undervalues his parents' sacrifice by being so reckless. He confiscates the Map, and Harry walks away feeling ashamed.[[spoiler:While Sirius turns out not to be the criminal everyone believes he is, it is only after Lupin confiscates the Map that he discovers the truth about the real murderer, Peter Pettigrew.]]
87* CareBearStare: The ''Riddikulus'' spell has this effect on Boggarts, as does ''Expecto Patronum'' on Dementors.
88* CassandraTruth:
89** Due to the convoluted truth of what really happened the night of the climax, Harry has a hard time convincing anybody. Also done comically, as Trelawney doesn't believe a prophecy that she herself just spoke.
90** Ron buys Harry a Sneakoscope, which is basically a [[DetectEvil Dark wizard-detector]]. Harry thinks it's broken as it's constantly going off, none of them realising that it only sounds when [[spoiler:Scabbers]] is around because [[spoiler:Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew, who divulged James's and Lily's whereabouts to Voldemort, in Animagus form]].
91* CatsAreMean: Ron firmly believes this because of Crookshanks' constantly targeting Scabbers, not realizing [[spoiler:Sirius has been talking to Crookshanks and that Crookshanks senses that Scabbers is not what he seems]].
92* CerebusSyndrome: Notably, this is the first book to go into detail about Lily Evans Potter's and James Potter's deaths. Additionally, the Dementors are in-universe NightmareFuelStationAttendant[=s=] par excellence, and the scene of a knife-wielding Sirius Black breaking into the Gryffindor boys' dormitory is pretty scary as well, [[spoiler:even though Black was after Pettigrew, not Harry or any of the others in his room]].
93* ChekhovsClassroom: [=McGonagall=] mentions in the middle of a scene focused on Professor Trelawney's dubious oracular record the fact that there are wizards known as Animagi who can transform themselves into animals (of whom she is one of only seven registered in Britain in the last century). Towards the end of the book, we learn [[spoiler:that Sirius Black is an unregistered Animagus, as were Peter Pettigrew and James Potter]].
94* ChekhovsGun: The series [[ChekhovsGun/HarryPotter has its own page]].
95* ChekhovsGunman: This book marks the introduction of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Seekers, Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, both of whom go on to have important roles in the next two books.
96* ChekhovsTimeTravel: When it is revealed that Time-Turners exist (upon Hermione taking all the possible electives in her third year), it suddenly becomes necessary to use them to disguise the group's actions, and [[spoiler:to deliver Harry to the lake, to save himself from the Dementors, though he thought it was his father]].
97* ChewingTheScenery: Ron's reaction (an OverlyLongScream and a BigNo) [[spoiler:when he wakes up to find Sirius Black holding a knife and standing over him, trying to attack Scabbers/Pettigrew]].
98* ChoresWithoutPowers: When Snape calls Hermione a know-it-all in class and makes her cry, Ron stands up for her. Snape punishes him by sentencing him to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing by hand.
99* ClassifiedInformation: The locations of the Marauders. When Harry first sees the Marauder's Map in the possession of Fred and George, he isn't shown on the map, but once he is holding the map he is shown on it. He still does not seem to see the original Marauders on it, even when one is in his dorm. (This is different from the movie.)
100* ColdFlames: It's mentioned that ancient witches who were burned at the stake would use a flame-Freezing Charm so that the fire would just give a tickling sensation instead of burning them.
101* CompactInfiltrator: [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew, as a rat Animagus, was the only member of the Marauders who could weave between the Whomping Willow's attacking branches to open the passage to the Shrieking Shack when the Marauders were still at Hogwarts. It was also how Pettigrew could fake his death years later, since he cut off a finger and transformed, slipping down a sewer to let Sirius take the blame for the murders Pettigrew committed.]]
102* ContemptCrossfire: Harry puts himself between Sirius Black and [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew when Sirius tries to murder Peter to avenge the murders of Harry's parents and Sirius's imprisonment]]. Harry does this not because he has any sympathy for [[spoiler:Pettigrew]] (he rejects his sniveling attempts at gratitude) but because he wants to think that his father wouldn't have approved of [[spoiler:his friends killing each other]] (besides which, leaving [[spoiler:Pettigrew]] alive to face trial is a CruelMercy).
103* ContrivedCoincidence:
104** [[spoiler:Had Buckbeak's execution not been scheduled for sunset during a full moon, Pettigrew would have been arrested and Sirius cleared, completely changing the arc of the next four books. Lupin probably would have also remained a teacher since Snape wouldn't have found Sirius while trying to bring Lupin his Wolfsbane Potion and ultimately outed Lupin as a werewolf out of spite. This is especially funny when it's revealed, [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince three books later]], that Voldemort cursed the Defence Against the Dark Arts position. So, this curse ultimately enabled Voldemort to make a new body.]]
105** Lupin happens to forget [[spoiler:his dose of Wolfsbane potion]] and there is a [[spoiler:full moon]] on the ONE night that shit goes down? [[spoiler:This despite him saying he must take the potion every day in the week ''preceding'' the full moon, so should one missed dose on the night ''of'' the full moon really result in such an egregious transformation?]]
106** [[spoiler:The only reason that Sirius even breaks out of Azkaban in the first place is that: (A) the Weasleys win a Ministry lottery; (B) this is apparently front-page news to the editors of ''The Daily Prophet''; (C) Ron has Scabbers in the picture; and (D) Cornelius Fudge just happened to be carrying that exact issue of ''The Daily Prophet'' when he visits Black's cell.]]
107** Harry just happens to get his hands on the Marauder's Map the very same year that one of its creators is teaching at Hogwarts. [[spoiler:The other three were his own departed father, Ron's rat, and lastly, the eponymous prisoner of Azkaban.]]
108** If Harry hadn't [[spoiler:bumped into ''the Minister for Magic'']] of all people, he wouldn't have realized he wasn't in trouble with the law [[ItMakesSenseInContext for blowing up his Aunt Marge,]] and may have tried to live as a fugitive rather than return to Hogwarts. Later {{Subverted|Trope}} when Harry overhears the Weasleys discussing [[spoiler:the theory that Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban to murder him, and he reasons that Cornelius Fudge was looking for him at the Leaky Cauldron because of this fear and acted leniently because he was glad to see him alive.]]
109* CoolCar: The cars provided by the Ministry of Magic to escort Harry and the Weasleys to King's Cross. They're described as having similar capacity to the Ford Anglia (and look better), slipping through gaps where ordinary cars couldn't, and always finding themselves at the front of traffic.
110* CoolTeacher: Lupin effortlessly puts Peeves in his place, tries to help Neville face his fear of Snape, and tutors Harry on how to repel emotion-eating monsters.
111* CovertPervert: ''A History of Magic'' contains an amusing little anecdote: witches and wizards who were caught and burned at the stake cast a charm that would protect them from the fire while all they felt was a gentle tickling sensation. Wendelin the Weird enjoyed it so much that she allowed herself to be caught ''forty-seven'' times. Yep, [[TooKinkyToTorture she definitely enjoyed it]].
112* CruelMercy: Harry asks [[spoiler:Sirius and Lupin]] to spare [[spoiler:Pettigrew]]'s life but not because he feels sorry for him; he just doesn't want them to become murderers. "He can go to Azkaban. If anyone deserves that place, he does."
113* CurseOfThePharaoh: Ron goes to Egypt and visits a series of ancient Egyptian tombs, which are full of the mutated corpses of Muggle (non-magical) explorers who died of curses. Apparently, the (wizard) emperors back in the day put crazy curses on their tombs to keep out sacrilegious Muggles.
114[[/folder]]
115
116[[folder:D–F]]
117* DamnedByFaintPraise: [[spoiler:Peter]] inadvertently does this to himself, begging Ron for mercy on the grounds that [[spoiler:"I was your rat ... I was a good pet." Sirius [[ShutUpHannibal retorts]], "If you make a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter."]]
118* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the previous novel had some darker elements, the series takes on a more serious and mature tone in this volume as it goes into detail about how Harry's parents died. It also explores Harry's darker emotions over his parents' deaths, as well as his darker side, when he attempts to murder Black. The Dementors are genuinely terrifying as they suck people's souls: a FateWorseThanDeath. The Shrieking Shack encounter is rather intense with the murder attempt, Harry and his friends disarming Snape at the same time, knocking him out, Snape's rather unhinged behaviour to the point where he was willing to have the Dementor's Kiss performed on Sirius due to their school rivalry (although it may have been down to him blaming Sirius for Lily's death, at that point still believing him to have been their secret keeper), and Sirius and Lupin nearly murdering Wormtail. And it concludes on a BittersweetEnding, in which [[spoiler:despite Harry and Hermione rescuing Sirius and Buckbeak from the Ministry and the Dementors, Harry can't live with Sirius and leave the Dursleys because he is still on the run. Lupin is forced to resign when he is exposed as a werewolf, and Wormtail, who actually betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort and killed those twelve Muggles, gets away with it -- so Sirius can't clear his name and Voldemort returns in the next book, thus fulfilling Trelawney's prophecy]]. Compared to the all-out happy endings of the first two books, this prepared the tone for the much darker later books.
119* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler:Sirius Black, who turns out to be innocent of the murder of thirteen people, and is not after Harry. He's after Peter Pettigrew, who framed him for said murder and betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort.]]
120* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Malfoy, in a KickTheDog moment, contemplates sending Buckbeak's head to the Gryffindor common room as a "donation".
121* DeadpanSnarker: [=McGonagall=] kicks it up a notch from usual in this book, usually concerning Divination and Professor Trelawney.
122-->'''After noticing her Transfiguration class is acting strangely, asking them what the problem is, and being told they just came from their first Divination lesson:''' "Say no more. So tell me, which one of you will be dying this year?"\
123'''After Harry tells her that Trelawney predicted his death that year:''' "You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you do die, you need not hand it in."
124* DeepBreathRevealsTension: Harry takes deep, calming breaths during a pause when Snape is interrogating him about being in Hogsmeade and finds the Marauder's Map.
125* DevelopersForesight: InUniverse. The Marauders evidently anticipated Snape one day getting hold of their Map and charmed it to insult him if he ever identified himself when trying to open it. This failsafe kicks in about ''twenty years later''.
126* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:Everything seems to be headed for a happy ending. Harry learns that Sirius did ''not'' betray his parents to Voldemort, they have the actual traitor Peter in their custody, and Sirius offers to let Harry live with him and escape the Dursleys after he has been cleared of the crimes against him. Then the clouds in the sky part, revealing a full moon, and Lupin hasn't taken the potion that allows him to keep his mind as a werewolf that night...]]
127* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: In the final Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the Slytherins start off with a huge points advantage: they're five goals ahead of Gryffindor on the scoreboard, so Harry can't catch the Snitch until the Gryffindor Chasers score six goals, or else Gryffindor will win the game but lose the cup. But rather than use what is essentially free time for Malfoy to catch the Snitch and win the game, the Slytherin players repeatedly try (and fail) to injure the Gryffindor players, causing Madam Hooch to award Gryffindor multiple free penalty shots. This enables Gryffindor to close the points gap and, once Harry grabs the Snitch, win the cup.
128* DidntThinkThisThrough:
129** At the end of the previous book, Harry gave Ron and Hermione the Dursley's telephone number, telling them to call him over the summer. Neither Harry nor Hermione considered that Ron had never used a telephone before in his life; when Ron does try to call, he ends up yelling into the phone, and, in another case of this trope, says that he's a friend of Harry's from school, forgetting that the other three people in the house ''hate'' magic.
130** Hermione signs up for every single extra class offered in her third year but doesn't seem to have considered that she not only has to attend the classes, she'll need to do the homework, studying, and exams for each one as well. [[spoiler:Even when she's employing ''time travel'' to meet all her deadlines, she gets incredibly stressed out and nearly has a breakdown.]]
131* DirtyCoward: The Potters' SecretKeeper, [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]], betrayed them to Voldemort.
132* DisappointedInYou: [[CoolTeacher Lupin]] to Harry after Harry is caught sneaking out to Hogsmeade without permission and with Sirius Black still on the loose. It makes Harry feel a lot worse than he did when [[SadistTeacher Snape]] was the one getting him into trouble.
133-->'''Lupin:''' Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them -- gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks.
134* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:When they were all at school together, Snape was always sniffing around the Marauders, looking to get them expelled. Sirius tried to get back at him by sending him into the path of a ''werewolf''; while Sirius is unrepentant, Snape correctly notes that if James hadn't stopped him from getting too close, Snape could very easily have been killed.]]
135* DoctorsOrders: Madame Pomfrey asserts herself quite strongly, if not always successfully, when authority figures want to speak to students in her care.
136* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Some fans interpreted Lupin's werewolf condition and the wizarding community's reactions to it as a social commentary on living with HIV. Creator/JKRowling herself claimed later on in 2016 that this had been intentional.
137* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:Scabbers, Ron's pet rat, who has been around since the first book, who seems to be involved in a minor subplot regarding Hermione's new cat, is secretly a not-so-dead Peter Pettigrew, the real villain of the book.]]
138* DragonRider: Harry has a nightmare before a Quidditch match that the Slytherin team are playing on dragons instead of brooms.
139* DragonTheirFeet: The wizarding public's general opinion of Sirius Black; the day after Voldemort's downfall, he was outed as a Death Eater, killed thirteen people (twelve Muggles, plus the wizard trying to apprehend him), then was caught. [[spoiler:It turns out that TheDragon was in fact Pettigrew, who ultimately goes on to help resurrect Voldemort.]]
140* TheDreaded:
141** The guards of Azkaban, the Dementors. This book shows us exactly ''why'' they are rightfully feared by most of the wizarding world.
142** Sirius Black throughout the book. He's described as having been Voldemort's most dangerous follower who fooled and spied on the good side when Voldemort was powerful. We learn that he sold Harry's parents out to Voldemort, murdered thirteen people with one curse, wasn't affected by Dementors, became the first person to break out of Azkaban, and apparently knows how to sneak into Hogwarts undetected. [[spoiler:Until we learn that he was framed and had sympathetic motives for his actions throughout the book.]]
143* DrowningMySorrows: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to see Hagrid after their first Care of Magical Creatures class, Hagrid is doing this out of gloominess due to [[TooDumbToLive Malfoy taunting Buckbeak]], which resulted in Malfoy's arm being injured. He is, however, still lucid enough to yell at Harry for being out while a murderer is after him.
144* DungeonBasedEconomy: {{Implied|Trope}}. Ron offhandedly mentions in a letter to Harry that his eldest brother, Bill, makes his living breaking curses on Egyptian tombs for Gringotts Bank (implying that Gringotts then mines the grave goods).
145* DustbinSchool: The Dursleys want Harry to say to Aunt Marge that he attends Saint Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys.
146* DyingMomentOfAwesome: After Lord Voldemort killed James and Lily Potter, Peter Pettigrew exposed Sirius Black's treachery and attempted to duel him at the cost of his life. [[spoiler:Or so everybody thought until the events of this book. In fact, he [[FakingTheDead orchestrated what looked like his death]], lived as a rat for twelve years, and left Sirius to be ArrestedForHeroism.]]
147* DynamicEntry: ''Lupin busts the door open'' -- "EXPELLIARMUS!" The book specifically states that his spell creates a shower of red sparks.
148* EarlyBirdCameo:
149** Cedric Diggory is introduced as the Hufflepuff Quidditch team's Seeker. He becomes more important in the next book.
150** Cho Chang also makes her debut here as the Ravenclaw Quidditch team's Seeker, and it's hinted that Harry has feelings for her. Over the next two books, she becomes Harry's official crush, and he briefly dates her in fifth year.
151** Walden Macnair, the Ministry's executioner of "dangerous" magical creatures, reappears in the next two books and briefly in the final one. [[spoiler:He was a Death Eater and returns to the fold after Wormtail resurrects Voldemort.]]
152* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Rowling continues her trend of recounting basic lore from preceding books, likely for readers who didn't read the first two; Harry is a wizard, he hates the summer holidays, the Weasleys are very poor, and so on. She stops doing this once the series becomes successful.
153* EmotionEater: The Dementors.
154* EmptyShell: The result of the Dementor's Kiss. Lupin uses those exact words to describe it -- the victim loses all memory and sense of identity while their heart, brain, and other vital organs continue to work on automatic.
155* EntertaininglyWrong:
156** Before escaping, Sirius was heard muttering to himself in Azkaban "He's at Hogwarts" over and over again. When he escaped, everyone assumed he wanted to kill Harry, considering he was imprisoned for betraying Harry's parents to Voldemort. [[spoiler:He never planned to kill Harry -- if anything, he was planning to save Harry. The "he" that Sirius kept muttering about referred to Scabbers, Ron's rat, or rather Peter Pettigrew, an Animagus who could transform into a rat and was the one who ''really'' betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort.]]
157** When Lupin arrives in the [[spoiler:Shrieking Shack]] and embraces [[spoiler:Sirius]], Hermione immediately accuses him of being EvilAllAlong and that he has been helping Sirius break into the castle to kill Harry because he's a werewolf. Lupin tells her she only got one of three right. [[spoiler:While he is a werewolf, he has not been helping Sirius, and he certainly doesn't want Harry killed. He's actually realised that Sirius is after Peter Pettigrew.]]
158* EverybodyLives: Unlike ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', where only animals die, ''no'' character dies over the course of the book (though several characters die in the {{Backstory}}).
159* EverythingExceptMostThings: Percy tries to cheer Harry up about not being able to go to Hogsmeade by telling him it's not as impressive as everyone says, aside from Honeydukes and several other locations.
160* EvilFormerFriend: [[spoiler:Peter]], who was friends with [[spoiler:James, Sirius, and Lupin]] when they attended Hogwarts two decades before Harry.
161* EvilDetectingDog: Crookshanks. [[spoiler:It's no mere AnimalJingoism that has him going after Scabbers all year -- he knows the rat is a traitorous Animagus. Similarly, he trusts Sirius immediately, knowing he only has Harry's best interests at heart.]] At the end of the book, Ron {{invoke|dTrope}}s this with the owl Sirius buys him, by holding Pigwidgeon in front of Crookshanks's face and seeing if he reacts, and the cat's purring is taken as confirmation that the owl is perfectly normal. Creator/JKRowling later gave WordOfGod[[invoked]] that [[spoiler:Crookshanks is half-Kneazle, a magical catlike animal who can tell if someone is untrustworthy]].
162* EvilIsPetty:
163** When Aunt Marge berates Harry about his "useless" parents, she asks Vernon what job Harry's father had. Despite clearly being nervous that Harry might get mad and use magic, Vernon can't help himself and says James was unemployed, giving Marge more ammo that pushes Harry over the edge.[[note]]Technically, this is true -- James didn't have a proper job when he died -- but that's largely because he was committed full-time to ''the war against Voldemort'' and his family's inheritance was enough to keep his family going.[[/note]]
164** Walden Macnair was clearly angry upon [[spoiler:Buckbeak's escape]] to the point of swinging his axe into a fencepost. He had no personal gain (other than his apparent friendship with Lucius Malfoy) and likely got paid for his services regardless. [[spoiler:This hints at his true allegiance and that his sinister nature goes beyond JustFollowingOrders.]]
165* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin:
166** [[NightmareFetishist Hagrid]] sees nothing wrong with assigning ''[[BooksThatBite The Monster Book of Monsters]]'' as required reading for Care of Magical Creatures. You have to tame the book before you can open it, and it is absolutely feral until you do.
167** The manager of Flourish and Blotts really doesn't like these books, given they bite. But it's better than ''The Invisible Book of Invisibility'', which cost a fortune and they never found.
168* ExhaustedEyebags: Hermione develops shadows under her eyes due to her extreme workload.
169* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: When Harry first meets Sirius, Harry becomes so enraged that he forgets all about magic, forgets that Sirius is [[spoiler:supposedly]] a powerful Dark wizard trained by Voldemort himself, forgets that Sirius is holding three wands, ''and'' forgets that Sirius is older, larger, and stronger than he is. Harry charges Sirius down and nearly suffocates him.
170* ExtremelyEasyExam: For the third-years' Care of Magical Creatures final exam, Hagrid gives everyone a Flobberworm and tells them to keep it alive for one hour in order to pass the test. A Flobberworm is a boring and mostly useless magical creature that does best if left to its own devices. Unlike most examples of this trope, Hagrid isn't trying to reward the students; rather, he's so anxious and depressed about the thought of his beloved Hippogriff Buckbeak being executed that he can't prepare a proper exam.
171* FaceHeelDoubleTurn: Throughout most of the story, [[spoiler:Sirius Black is painted as an unrepentant mass murderer who betrayed Harry's parents and then killed his good friend Peter Pettigrew. Come the confrontation under the Whomping Willow, Black pulls a GoodAllAlong HeelFaceTurn by revealing that he only went to Hogwarts to protect Harry and played no part in his parents' murder. At the same time, Pettigrew pulls an EvilAllAlong FaceHeelTurn when it's shown that he's been hiding as Ron's pet rat Scabbers for years and that he sold Harry's parents out to Voldemort]].
172* FaintInShock:
173** When the Dementors board the train, Harry relives the death of his mother (he even hears her screaming) and faints when they search his compartment.
174** Later, when the Dementors attack him during the Quidditch match, he falls from his broom.
175** [[spoiler:He also faints when trying to defend his godfather, Sirius Black, from them, and casts his second proper Patronus to ward them off.]]
176* FakeKillScare: At one point, Harry, Ron, and Hermione hear what they think is Buckbeak being executed. [[spoiler:It turns out to be the executioner driving his axe into the fence after time-travelling Harry and Hermione help Buckbeak escape.]]
177* FakeOutTwist: When Lupin first appears in the Shrieking Shack and [[spoiler:helps Sirius Black in the climax, it appears as though Lupin was TheMole the whole time (paralleling the Quirrell revelation from [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone the first book]]). However, Lupin quickly explains that he hasn't been helping Sirius because he had believed, as the trio and the Wizarding World at large do, that Sirius betrayed Harry's parents and killed Peter Pettigrew... until he saw Pettigrew's name on the Marauder's Map. Lupin and Sirius go on to reveal that not only was Pettigrew alive and guilty of Sirius's alleged crimes, but he was in the room with them... as Ron's pet rat Scabbers.]]
178* FakingAnotherPersonsIllness: When he attended Hogwarts, Lupin would often claim his mother was ill as an excuse for his frequent absences since he didn't want anyone to find out that he was a werewolf and needed to be away from the school during his transformations. James and Sirius found out anyway.
179* FantasticAesop: Don't use [[spoiler:time travel]] to take multiple classes at once or you'll exhaust yourself.
180* FantasticTimeManagement: [[spoiler:Hermione uses multiple-times-daily time travel to take more classes than would be otherwise possible.]]
181* FateWorseThanDeath: The Dementor's Kiss sucks out victims' souls while leaving them otherwise alive. Harry feels that Sirius Black deserves it for betraying his parents to Voldemort.
182* FingerSnapLighter: When the train comes to a halt as the Dementors come to search it, Lupin lights the dark train car by snapping his fingers to summon a flame.
183* {{Fingore}}: The largest part of Peter Pettigrew the Ministry found after [[spoiler:his presumed death]] was his right index finger. [[spoiler:Pettigrew performed this on himself before transforming into a rat. As a side effect of this, Scabbers has one toe fewer than he should.]]
184* {{Foreshadowing}}: Has [[Foreshadowing/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban its own page]].
185* {{Forgiveness}}: At the climax of the story, [[spoiler:Remus and Sirius]] both ask for, and receive, forgiveness for suspecting each other of having been TheMole in the Order of the Phoenix.
186* ForgotAboutHisPowers: [[spoiler:Pettigrew transforms back into a rat to escape at a convenient moment. Sure, the PowerTrio doesn't know [[SummonToHand Summoning Charms]] yet, but Sirius likely does. He could perhaps have found a couple of seconds to Summon Pettigrew and hand him off to Harry or Hermione if he tried.]]
187* ForgottenPhlebotinum: ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' [[http://www.cracked.com/article_21025_5-reasons-harry-potter-wizards-are-huge-threat.html wondered why Sirius had to go to jail]] when Veritaserum, Pensieves, and Legilimency exist.[[note]]This would be explained in the next book where Sirius tells the trio that Barty Crouch Sr. had him imprisoned without a trial (and likely with no investigation into the incident). Furthermore, Rowling confirmed that a skilled enough wizard can defend against Legilimency and Veritaserum (Harry suggests to Dumbledore in Book 6 that they could try these on Horace Slughorn, for example, but Dumbledore says he "is an extremely able wizard who will be expecting both").[[/note]]
188* FoulMedicine: Professor Lupin must take a draught of medicine for his 'monthly condition' [[spoiler:(lycanthropy)]]. He drinks some in front of Harry and observes that it tastes disgusting, adding, "Pity sugar makes it useless."
189* FridgeHorror: In-universe, [[spoiler:Ron has this reaction to discovering Scabbers' true identity as the EvilAllAlong Peter Pettigrew]].
190-->'''[[spoiler:Ron]]:''' I let you sleep in my ''bed''!
191[[/folder]]
192
193[[folder:G–N]]
194* AGlassInTheHand: After one jibe too many about his family, Harry makes the glass ''Marge'' is holding shatter. She assumes that she was gripping it too hard, having done the same thing before.
195* GoldenMeanFallacy: Lupin explains that this is one of the advantages to tackling a Boggart in groups. It might try and combine two people's fears and end up with something a lot less scary than either of them.
196* GoneHorriblyRight:
197** The purpose behind telling no one that [[spoiler:the Potters' Secret-Keepers were switched to Peter Pettigrew]] was to make sure [[spoiler:everyone went after Sirius Black]]. It worked.
198** PlayedForLaughs earlier with regard to ''The Invisible Book of Invisibility''. They cost Flourish & Blotts a fortune and were never found.
199* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:One of the big twists during the last third of the book is that dreaded mass murderer Sirius Black, who supposedly betrayed his closest friend and his wife to their deaths and likely escaped from prison to murder his own godson, is actually totally innocent; he was framed by the ''real'' traitor and his supposed murder victim, Peter Pettigrew.]]
200* GoodShapeshiftingEvilShapeshifting: The Marauders were a StudentsSecretSociety consisting of a werewolf called Moony and three unlicensed Animagi called Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Prongs took the form of a stag, Padfoot a dog, and Wormtail a rat; not so surprisingly, [[YouDirtyRat Wormtail]] turns out to be a coward and traitor to the three heroic shapeshifters. [[spoiler:His real name is Peter Pettigrew, the man who sold out Harry's parents to Voldemort and left Sirius Black AKA Padfoot as the fall guy.]]
201* GrandFinale: For the original Gryffindor Quidditch team, as Oliver Wood leaves after this year. This time they manage to win the Cup. It's also the last time Quidditch is a major part of the plot, as this was around when Rowling tired of writing Quidditch scenes, with books four through seven coming up with ways of preventing Harry from getting on the pitch -- or broomstick, in this case.
202* GreaterScopeVillain: This is the only volume in the series where Voldemort doesn't make an appearance in any way and is only mentioned. The only other book in which Harry doesn't personally interact with him is ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', though he appears in certain people's memories. He still ultimately drives the plot, since [[spoiler:Pettigrew gave up the Potters to ''him'' in the war he started]].
203* HaveAGayOldTime: Aunt Marge, who is a dog breeder, says while insulting Harry and his parents: "You see it all the time with dogs. If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup—" before he interrupts her in mid-word.
204* HateSink: Snape is at his most detestable in this novel. With very little of the DeadpanSnarker on display, sadistically torturing Neville openly in class, insulting another teacher publicly in front of his students, and in the end [[spoiler:gleefully looking forward to feeding a man to Dementors even when he was willing to come quietly and requested a fair hearing. When it's clear that he won't listen to reason, the trio resort to knocking him unconscious. After the climax, he gets in one last act of spite by outing Lupin as a werewolf (which he had already tried, more subtly, at least once earlier in the year)]].
205* HavingABlast: [[spoiler:Not]] Black [[spoiler:but Pettigrew]] blew up a street full of Muggles with magic.
206* HellholePrison: Azkaban, not only a place of confinement [[TheAlcatraz considered impossible to escape]], but with [[EmotionEater Dementors]] that drain the inmates of any sort of happiness, hope, or ''will'' to escape.
207* {{Hellhound}}: The Grim, a giant dog Trelawney purports to read in Harry's tea leaves, is said to be an omen of death. Harry's first in-person sights of [[spoiler:Sirius Black]] also make him out to be this.
208* HeroicSelfDeprecation: In the climax, Lupin acknowledges that what Snape said about him not being trustworthy was MetaphoricallyTrue. He noted that he was grateful to Dumbledore for giving him the chance to study at Hogwarts and could never admit that [[spoiler:his friends became illegal Animagi and risked their lives for him and lied to Dumbledore for over seven years. He says he hoped that Sirius had tried to get in via Dark Arts rather than his skills as an Animagus]].
209* HijackedByGanon: Subverted. [[spoiler:Everyone said Sirius Black was a Death Eater, so an appearance of Voldemort was expected.]] It's the only book not to feature Voldemort in any way, shape, or form (although he only appears in memories in the sixth), replaced instead by Sirius Black, [[spoiler:or more accurately, Peter Pettigrew]].
210* HitlerAteSugar: Harry says that he'll never use a Nimbus 2001 just because Draco Malfoy has one.
211* HonourBeforeReason: Oliver Wood refuses Cedric Diggory's offer to replay the Gryffindor–Hufflepuff Quidditch game. Note that Cedric made the offer even though he won, and the outcome was affected by something outside the normal parameters of the game (Harry was incapacitated by a Dementor attack).
212* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:After convincing Harry of his innocence in the deaths of James and Lily, Sirius offers to adopt Harry formally once he is officially acquitted, and Harry enthusiastically agrees. This marks a brief moment of happiness for Harry since it means that he won't have to return to the Dursleys anymore. Unfortunately, circumstances keep them from clearing Sirius's name, and he has to go on the run again. Tellingly, this is the "memory" that Harry uses to conjure a Patronus to protect himself and Sirius from the Dementors, [[{{Foreshadowing}} and fails]].]]
213* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Sirius breaks into Hogwarts on UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve, acting violently when the Fat Lady refuses to let him into Gryffindor Tower. This is the [[RuleOfThree third and final time]] something happens on Halloween that poses an existential threat to Harry while he is at Hogwarts (after the troll and Mrs. Norris being petrified). Hermione, presuming that Sirius lost track of time, even [[LampshadeHanging points out]] how lucky it is that he coincidentally broke in while all the students and professors were occupied with the Halloween Feast. [[spoiler:In light of TheReveal, it's likelier that it was entirely intentional -- Sirius picked that day ''because'' no students would be in the tower, only certain traitorous wizards posing as pets. And because Lupin would be confined to his office under Wolfsbane.]]
214* HypnosisProofDogs: [[spoiler:Sirius is able to shift into his dog form to escape Azkaban because Dementors don't affect Animagi as much as they do humans. The Dementors themselves aren't able to notice this as they simply believe his dog mind is Sirius being driven mad]].
215* HypocrisyNod: While Hagrid calls out both Ron and Harry for ostracizing Hermione because of the Firebolt and Scabbers [[spoiler:supposedly being eaten]], he also says wisely that people can get protective of their pets, sometimes to HonorBeforeReason levels. Buckbeak is spending time with him because Hagrid is trying to save his life.
216* {{Hypocrite}}:
217** Draco Malfoy continually mocks Harry for passing out while in the presence of the Dementors even though, as Fred and George reveal, ''he'' reacted to their invasion of the Hogwarts Express by running and hiding in the twins' compartment while nearly wetting himself in terror.
218** Lupin is appalled that Harry never told a teacher about the Marauder's Map, given how useful it would be to catch Sirius or how useful it would be to Sirius if he found it. Yet Lupin never bothers telling Dumbledore (or indeed, anyone except Harry, Ron, and Hermione) that [[spoiler:Sirius is an Animagus and knows about the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack onto Hogwarts grounds]]. In Lupin's defence, he [[spoiler:was using the Map to find and track Sirius, and, later, Peter Pettigrew]].
219* HypocriticalHeartwarming: When Snape takes over Defence Against the Dark Arts for Professor Lupin when he's ill, Snape devotes the entire class solely to making Lupin look bad by asking them questions they aren't supposed to cover for several months in the hope that nobody will be able to answer them and ignores Hermione because she'd obviously know. When Hermione then speaks out of turn and starts trying to answer the question, Snape interrupts her and takes five points from Gryffindor "for being an insufferable know-it-all", an action that instantly enrages every single student in the class, even though ''all'' of them had called Hermione a know-it-all themselves at some point before. Compounding the effect, the angriest is Ron, who (the narration points out) calls Hermione a know-it-all at ''least'' twice a week. Of course, there is a world of difference between saying that to a peer and a teacher saying that to a student.
220* IdiotBall:
221** James, [[spoiler:Sirius]], and Lupin not realising that [[spoiler:Peter]] was TheMole for Voldemort and his followers despite being the perfect suspect. Lampshaded by [[spoiler:Sirius]], who says he'll never understand why he didn't realize it from the beginning.
222** Lupin forgets to take his Wolfsbane Potion on the night of Buckbeak's execution. In particular, Snape specifically mentions that he had come looking for Lupin ''because he forgot to take his potion'', and ''Lupin is present when Snape says this'', but even this isn't enough to jog Lupin's memory and make him go running back to his office to take it, or stay in the Shrieking Shack while the others return to Hogwarts. The consequences of this are pretty dire for all concerned: [[spoiler:they lead to Pettigrew's escape, Voldemort's return, and the deaths of Lupin, Sirius, and Snape]].
223* IllKillYou: Harry threatening to kill Sirius.
224* ImStandingRightHere: During her visit to Privet Drive, Aunt Marge makes several disparaging remarks about Harry and his parents while sitting at the same table as Harry. Harry spends most of the week trying his hardest to think about anything else.
225* IndignantSlap: Hermione slaps Draco after he mocks Hagrid risking being dismissed as teacher for an incident Draco himself caused.
226* InflatingBodyGag: In the beginning, Harry accidentally casts a spell that makes [[AssholeVictim Aunt Marge]] inflate and fly away. Fudge solves the matter by sending out the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad to deflate her and Obliviate her memory.
227* InstantExpert: Harry conjures the Patronus Charm, one of the most difficult spells known to wizardkind, after relatively little coaching.
228* IntellectualAnimal: The Wolfsbane Potion sort of invokes this. A werewolf who drinks it can keep their mind human when transformed, but without it in their system, the animal part takes over completely.
229* InUniverseFactoidFailure: Snape identifies the {{kappa}} as being from UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}}. Spinoff ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' correctly identifies the Kappa as from UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, with a note from Harry snarking that Snape hasn't read the book.
230* InvisibleToNormals: Lupin specifies that while Muggles can't see Dementors, they can feel their depression-inducing effects.
231* InvisibleWriting: Fred and George introduce the Marauder's Map, which shows not just a map of Hogwarts, but also the footsteps of all the people within it. It looks like just an empty sheet of old parchment unless you know the charm for activating it. It's also charmed to insult Snape if he specifically tries to use it.
232* ItsAllMyFault:
233** Sirius doesn't deny that he got Harry's parents killed, [[spoiler:since he convinced them to make Pettigrew the Secret Keeper, which no one else knew, and led to Voldemort finding the Potters. As he puts it in a choked voice, "I as good as killed them."]]
234** Harry is depressed when he realises that [[spoiler:due to his CruelMercy to Pettigrew, the latter escaped and is likely going to find Voldemort. Although Dumbledore tells him that prophecies are inexact, he's still confused about it.]]
235* ItWasAGift: [[spoiler:The Firebolt and Pigwidgeon, to Harry and Ron respectively, both from Sirius Black.]]
236* IWillTearYourArmsOff: Hagrid says that had he known of Sirius's [[spoiler:apparent]] role in the Potters' death, he would have ripped him limb from limb. Considering how huge and strong Hagrid is, a threat like this should be taken ''very'' seriously.
237* JerkassHasAPoint:
238** While Snape refuses to believe that Harry isn't an arrogant glory hound, he is right to call Harry out for sneaking out of Hogwarts to have fun at Hogsmeade even when everyone up to and including the Minister for Magic is trying to keep him safe from a killer who broke out of [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]]. Lupin later tells Harry the same thing.
239** Malfoy makes the valid point that assigning thirteen-year-old children a school book that ''bites'', and simply expecting them to figure out that you open the book by stroking the spine, is incredibly irresponsible and unprofessional.
240** Malfoy's parents aren't out of line for being upset that their son was put in the prime position to get hurt by Buckbeak. Even if it is Malfoy's own fault he got attacked.
241** Uncle Vernon voices some of his characteristic views when the Muggle news reports on the escaped prisoner Sirius Black, but he's not wrong to complain that the report never says from ''where'' this prisoner escaped. After all, Sirius could be approaching their neighborhood and everyone would be unaware of the threat [[spoiler:and indeed, he was just then in the neighbourhood in Animagus form]].
242* JobsOnlyVolunteer: After Sirius Black shreds the Fat Lady's portrait following her refusal to let him into Gryffindor Tower, Sir Cadogan is appointed to guard Gryffindor Tower until Black is caught. He proceeds to annoy the students by either challenging them to duels or frequently changing the password several times a day. When Seamus complains to Percy and asks if one of the other portraits can do it, Percy explains he was the only one brave enough to volunteer.
243* JustInTime: [[spoiler:Harry and Hermione send themselves three hours into the past at the end to save Buckbeak and Sirius, but they need to get back to the hospital wing at just the moment they sent themselves back in time, otherwise Dumbledore will lock them out and the plan will be exposed. Luckily, they manage to get back there just as Dumbledore is closing the door to lock it.]]
244* KarmaHoudini:
245** [[spoiler:Peter.]] At no point during the story is he in Azkaban, where by rights he should be for his crimes. In the climax, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Lupin, and [[spoiler:Sirius]] are about to deliver him to justice, but [[spoiler:he exploits the distraction caused by Lupin's werewolf transformation to escape and start his search for Voldemort, which he does in a matter of weeks as revealed at the beginning of ''Goblet of Fire'']].
246** [[spoiler:Draco also gets away with all the trouble he and his father caused to get Hagrid sacked and have Buckbeak executed. {{Justified|Trope}} since he's the son of a wealthy family and the Hogwarts staff can't punish him too harshly. Also {{downplayed|Trope}} in that Draco may not get punished for his plot to sack Hagrid, but still, Harry humiliates him in a mud ball fight in front of the Shrieking Shack and Hermione slaps him hard.]]
247** [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The next book]] reveals Walden Macnair, the Ministry's executioner, to be [[spoiler:a Death Eater.]] Despite [[spoiler:serving Lord Voldemort himself in the past, then responding to his post-summons resurrections, Macnair got himself a steady job at the ''Ministry of Magic'', as an ''executioner''. No doubt he chose/was given the job so he could sadistically enjoy putting down magnificent creatures guilty and innocent alike]]. While he doesn't get to [[spoiler:kill Buckbeak, he does presumably keep his job until Voldemort's public return [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix two years later]].]] Fortunately, by the time ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' rolls around, [[spoiler:Hagrid issues a KarmaHoudiniWarranty and throws him into a wall during the [[FinalBattle Battle of Hogwarts]].]] Even then, he presumably [[spoiler:survives to be put in Azkaban for the rest of his despicable life, unlike many other Death Eaters.]]
248* KickTheDog:
249** It's bad enough that Snape belittles and insults [[ButtMonkey Neville]] in his own classes, but to have a small rant decrying him as useless ''to another teacher'' is beyond cruel. It earns him a DeathGlare from Harry.
250** Before that, Snape responds to Neville screwing up a potion by telling him to fix it... because, at the end of the class, Snape will feed the potion to Neville's pet toad, Trevor. Bear in mind, if Neville got it wrong, which Snape clearly expected him to do, Trevor would have been poisoned, meaning Snape basically tried to kill a student's beloved pet for not being good at his subject. And, when Neville manages to get it right, Snape takes off points because Hermione helped him.
251** When filling in for an absent Professor Lupin, Snape instructs the class to write an essay on the best ways to identify and kill a werewolf. [[spoiler:Later it's revealed Lupin is a werewolf. In other words, Snape was not only ordering the students to find the best ways to kill their own teacher (a teacher the class has come to respect greatly), Snape was going to have Lupin be the one to read and evaluate the essay.]] No wonder Lupin tells them they don't need to finish the essay after he returns (Hermione notes that she'd already finished it, though she would not have followed it to the conclusion).
252** Dear ''Lord'', Draco does this. Insulting Buckbeak against Hagrid's explicit instructions, exaggerating the severity of his injury for sympathy points, getting Snape to give him potion ingredients which Gryffindor students had prepared well, trading them for his lacklustre ingredients, and delaying a Quidditch match to gain more favorable weather conditions was one thing. Asking his father to bribe/threaten the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Magical Creatures into ''murdering'' an innocent Hippogriff (in a legally sanctioned way, mind you) for a mistake ''he'' made is another thing entirely. Even worse, he may have been doing it out of jealousy of Harry, who simply followed Hagrid's very clear and simple instructions and got a free ride on Buckbeak.
253* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Snape has a moment of this when substituting for Lupin, claiming that the Kappa is more commonly found in Mongolia when it's from ''Japan''. This gets followed up on in ''Fantastic Beasts'': "Snape hasn't read this."
254* LargeHam: Sir Cadogan, whose portrait temporarily replaces the Fat Lady.
255* LaughingMad: When Sirius was caught shortly after Voldemort's fall, he was found laughing next to a crater where he had killed Peter Pettigrew and many Muggles, apparently cracked after his master Voldemort was defeated. [[spoiler:Except we learn that Sirius was never a traitor. He had intended to kill Pettigrew, but that was because Pettigrew was the actual traitor who caused James' and Lily's deaths. Then Peter faked his death, killing twelve Muggles in the process, and framed Sirius for it. His life having collapsed around him, all Sirius could do was sit there and laugh until the Ministry came to arrest him.]]
256* LawfulStupid: Sir Cadogan, while filling in for the traumatised Fat Lady as guardian to Gryffindor Tower, allows Sirius to break into a tower full of sleeping children simply because Sirius has Neville's list of Gryffindor common room passwords. He's immediately fired for this and [=McGonagall=] has to convince the Fat Lady to return to her old job, which she does on the condition that two security trolls guard her at all times.
257* LickedByTheDog: After the fiasco that arose from [[spoiler:Crookshanks chasing down Pettigrew in rat form]], Ron invokes this by testing the new owl that [[spoiler:Sirius]] sent him on the cat. Crookshanks approves.
258* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Retroactive example after ''Deathly Hallows''. [[spoiler:While Snape was a Death Eater, he was unaware Pettigrew was the spy in the Order of the Phoenix -- and thus the one who sold out Lily over to Voldemort. This can be justified between Voldemort's favoritism and compartmentalization of the Death Eaters.]]
259** Also, Snape [[spoiler:gets doubly Disarmed by Ron and Hermione, knocking him out.]] Because of this, he [[spoiler:sleeps through TheReveal about Sirius, Pettigrew, and the Marauders' Animagus transformations.]] Accordingly, he [[spoiler:tries to get Sirius [[FateWorseThanDeath kissed by a Dementor]] and theorizes to Fudge that Harry and Hermione were Confounded.]] That is, [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation if]] Snape [[spoiler:didn't already know the truth about Sirius and Pettigrew.]]
260* LoopholeAbuse: To Harry's dismay, once Vernon [[spoiler:refuses to sign his Hogsmeade permission slip, Cornelius Fudge and Professor [=McGonagall=] both refuse to sign it since they aren't Harry's parents or legal guardians.]] So after a year of [[spoiler:simply staying in Hogwarts Castle and using the Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map, Sirius Black mails Harry a piece of paper recording his desire for Harry to be able to visit Hogsmeade [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire in]] [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix subsequent]] [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince books.]]]] This works because. Sirius [[spoiler:is in fact Harry's godfather,]] and as such can [[spoiler:sign the permission slip,]] even though he's wanted for thirteen counts of murder. Justified by Dumbledore [[spoiler:being the only character outside the trio and Lupin confirmed to know the truth about Sirius at this point.]]
261* LooseFloorboardHidingSpot: During the summer term with the Dursleys, Harry uses a loose floorboard under his bed to hide his school supplies and birthday presents.
262* LongLived: Scabbers has lived with the Weasleys for twelve years as of this book, several times longer than the average lifespan of a rat. Justified as [[spoiler:he's the human wizard Peter Pettigrew in disguise]].
263* LoveAtFirstSight: During the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, Harry is instantly smitten with Cho Chang, Ravenclaw's new Seeker. Chang will date Cedric Diggory (also first introduced in this book) in ''Goblet of Fire'' and eventually become the first love interest for Harry in ''Order of the Phoenix''. In fact, the comments about Cho are the very first signs of Harry's growing sexuality.
264* MaamShock: [[spoiler:During the confrontation in the Sleeping Shack, once Scabbers is exposed as Peter Pettigrew, Hermione speaks up to ask Sirius a question, addressing him as "Mr. Black", then by his given name; Sirius is visibly taken aback at being addressed as such, having not been spoken to with such politeness for the better part of thirteen years.]]
265* MagicIsMental: Two spells introduced require the caster to think certain things ... in a situation which does ''not'' encourage the sort of thoughts that are required.
266** ''Riddikulus'' (used to fight Boggarts, creatures that turn into your worst fear) requires the caster to think of something funny happening to what they're afraid of.
267** ''Expecto Patronum'' requires them to focus on a happy memory to repel the [[EmotionEater happiness-eating]] Dementors.
268* TheMarvellousDeer: When Harry successfully produces a full Patronus, it takes the shape of a stag. [[spoiler:Specifically, that of his father, who became an Animagus and could turn into a stag.]]
269* MeaningfulName:
270** The Knight Bus' [[DrivesLikeCrazy somewhat reckless driver]] is named Ernie Prang. A prang is a British slang term for a vehicular crash.
271** Also Sirius Black ([[spoiler:Sirius is known as the "dog star", and Black's Animagus form is a shaggy black dog]]) and Remus Lupin ([[spoiler:'Lupin' from ''lupus'', Latin for wolf. Guess what Remus turns into come the full moon?]]).
272* MirthlessLaughter: When people are telling Harry about Sirius Black's crime of having killed a street full of Muggles, they make sure to point out the fact that he stood there laughing afterwards as further proof of just how off the rails he is. As we learn by the end of the book, [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew killed all those people, then used his Animagus power to transform into a rat and flee the scene, leaving Sirius to take the blame. J.K. Rowling has clarified in interviews that Black's laughter was this type of laughter, evoked by the sheer insanity of the situation]].
273* MisappliedPhlebotinum: When Snape tries to command the Marauder's Map, it insults him using the personalities of its creators. This feature never comes up again; you'd think Harry would want to talk to his father.
274* MomentOfWeakness: Harry blowing up Aunt Marge; not in the explosive sense.
275* MoreHeroThanThou: [[spoiler:Crookshanks]] tries to protect [[spoiler:Sirius]] by leaping between him and [[spoiler:Harry]], so that any spell would take them both; [[spoiler:Sirius]] tries to protect [[spoiler:Crookshanks]] by pushing him out of the way, to avoid the spell.
276* MotiveMisidentification:
277** Everyone believes that Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban prison and travelled to Hogwarts to kill Harry. [[spoiler:It turns out he actually broke out to ''protect'' Harry because he discovered that Peter Pettigrew, the true culprit in the selling of Harry's parents to Voldemort who framed Sirius for it, has executed a {{Masquerade}} as Ron's pet rat Scabbers and is waiting for the right moment to bring Harry to Voldemort.]]
278** Harry and company think Snape is so determined to bring Sirius to the Dementors just because he's been holding onto a grudge for what Sirius did to him back in their school days. By the seventh book, it becomes clear that [[spoiler:the real reason is that at this point in the ovearching narrative, Snape still believes that Sirius was the one who revealed Lily's location to Voldemort, which resulted in her death. Shape won't discover the truth until after ''Goblet of Fire''.]].
279** Snape's increased dislike of Lupin is believed to be Snape just being increasingly fed up with not being offered the position himself. [[spoiler:It's actually because Lupin is a werewolf and former classmate of Snape's with whom he has an unpleasant history.]]
280** Harry assumes that Snape's complete freak-out in the climax is because Sirius and James bullied him at school. However, it's really more because [[spoiler:Snape assumes like everyone else that Sirius betrayed Lily and James]], so he thinks he's coming face to face with the man who he thinks [[spoiler:directly caused Lily's death with their old animosity only coming second after this]]. This is the first hint of [[spoiler:Snape's feelings for her]] in the story, which are later further implied in ''Order of the Phoenix'' and then outright confirmed in ''Deathly Hallows''.
281** On a much smaller scale, Vernon initially misunderstands why Harry approaches him when he's about to go to the train station to pick up Marge. He has no desire to let Harry go with him, a sentiment reciprocated from the other direction. Harry simply says that he's willing to echo Vernon's story about where he goes if Vernon will sign the permission form to let Harry go to Hogsmeade.
282* MustMakeAmends: A minor sort; since [[spoiler:Sirius knew that because of him, Ron no longer has a rat]], he purchases Pigwidgeon and gives it to the latter.
283* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Oliver Wood [[SelfDeprecation does it to himself]], when he lists the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team: "We've got three superb Chasers [Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet]. We've got two unbeatable Beaters [Fred and George Weasley]. And we've got a Seeker who has ''never failed to win us a match'' [Harry]! '''(After a long pause in which he realises he's forgotten himself)'' And me." This leads to a rather heartwarming moment when Fred and George lead the team in saying that they consider him a great Keeper.
284* NarrativeProfanityFilter:
285** During a Quidditch match against Slytherin, Lee Jordan swears so badly that Professor [=McGonagall=] tries to tug his megaphone away from him.
286** Ron after Snape gives him detention and assigns him to scrub the bedpans in the hospital wing:
287--->"D'you know what that--" ''(he called Snape something that made Hermione say "''Ron!''")''...
288* NeverMyFault: Lucius Malfoy helps Draco lobby to get Buckbeak executed after the Hippogriff slashes Draco's arm. He only did that, however, because Draco ignored Hagrid's explicit instruction never to insult Buckbeak and called him a "great ugly brute".
289* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Subverted, sort of, when Harry realises [[spoiler:the person who had cast the Patronus to save him, Sirius, and Hermione from the Dementors was not his father, but himself]]. Otherwise played straight when Hermione tells Harry they can't talk to their past selves as they'll probably be mistaken for villains using Polyjuice Potions to mimic Harry and Hermione.
290* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Harry's decision to spare [[spoiler:Wormtail]]'s life starts a chain reaction that leads to Voldemort's return and basically the plots of books four to seven. Though Dumbledore tells Harry that [[spoiler:prophecies are so inexact, and something similar might have happened without Harry's involvement]].
291* NightmareRetardant: In-universe; the ''Riddikulus'' spell involves making your worst fear funny.
292* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: As you might have guessed, Azkaban takes major pointers from Alcatraz.
293* NonAppearingTitle: This is the only book of the original septology that doesn't have a TitleDrop -- the phrase "prisoner of Azkaban" is never used anywhere in the narration or the dialogue. It's also one of only two books not to have a [[TitleDropChapter titular chapter]], the other one being ''The Philosopher's Stone''.
294* NoseShove: When Lupin finds Peeves stuffing a keyhole full of chewing gum, he casts a spell to make it fly up his nose.
295* NoSympathyForGrudgeholders: Harry has none for Snape whatsoever, and for good reason. Snape goes out of his way to belittle and insult James (to Harry's face, for the first time in the series, no less), who saved Snape's life [[spoiler:from a fully transformed Lupin]], and Snape says that if there had been justice, [[UngratefulBastard James would have been expelled for his actions]]. (He does make a case that it wasn't an "act of glorious heroism.") Of course, Snape then [[spoiler:outs Lupin as a werewolf, which forces the latter to resign at the end of the school year]].
296* NotHelpingYourCase:
297** [[spoiler:Sirius]] invokes this so many times that Dumbledore {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it at the end, saying that he "has not acted like an innocent man" in his quest of RevengeBeforeReason. Among his ListOfTransgressions while [[spoiler:trying to find Pettigrew at Hogwarts]]: [[spoiler:Slashing the Fat Lady's portrait after she refused to let him in, breaking into Gryffindor Tower with a knife and shredding Ron's curtains after finding Pettigrew gone, later dragging an injured Ron by the leg through the Whomping Willow passageway, and disarming Hermione and Harry while saying "There will only be one murder here tonight."]]
298** Crookshanks was attacking Scabbers because [[spoiler:he realized that the rat was an Animagus, and an untrustworthy one at that. He made a bad first impression on Ron by attacking his pet while the latter was getting a medical exam, and clawing Ron up in his attempt to grab the rat. Sirius reveals that Crookshanks could talk to him, enough to convey the gist of the situation. Rather than try to tell Professor [=McGonagall=], who's also an Animagus and able to turn into a cat, Crookshanks spends most of the year trying to catch Scabbers, with Ron noting that Crookshanks definitely has a vendetta and it ''isn't'' normal cat behaviour]].
299[[/folder]]
300
301[[folder:O–S]]
302* ObviousJudas: InUniverse, [[spoiler:Sirius]] considers himself and the rest of those fighting against Voldemort to be fools for not realizing that [[spoiler:Pettigrew]] was the spy, since he was [[DirtyCoward a coward who always sought protection from those stronger than him]].
303* OhCrap:
304** The Dursleys of all people react like this when Aunt Marge begins [[SpeakIllOfTheDead badmouthing Harry's parents]]. Mostly in fear of how Harry will react in his increasingly-less-TranquilFury.
305** Harry after he's run away from the Dursleys and realizes that he's now a magical fugitive for blowing up his aunt. As he tells Ron and Hermione later, he thought he was going to be arrested.
306** Hermione when Ron shows her [[spoiler:faked]] evidence that [[spoiler:Crookshanks has eaten Scabbers, the blood on the sheets]].
307** [[spoiler:After Ron wakes up to find Sirius Black standing over him with a knife in hand, [=McGonagall=] finds out that Sirius was able to get into Gryffindor Tower because he had a piece of paper with that week's passwords on it. In a shaking voice of TranquilFury, [=McGonagall=] asks who wrote down the passwords for that week and mislaid them. There's a small squeak from a terrified Neville as he raises a shaking hand. (As it's later revealed that Sirius used Crookshanks to filch the list from Neville's bedside table, this is quite unjust, but as Neville ''does'' often misplace things, even ''he'' assumes that he really lost it.)]]
308** [[spoiler:Neville, again, when he receives a Howler from his grandmother as a result of this. Ron tells him to run for it, and Neville does, so the Howler goes off in the Entrance Hall instead.]]
309** [[spoiler:Sirius, when Snape rather smugly tells him that he'll get [[FateWorseThanDeath the Dementor's Kiss]].]]
310** [[spoiler:Pettigrew in rat form as Sirius lunges for him in the Shrieking Shack. When forced back into human shape, he's squeaking the whole time and trying to beg for his life.]]
311** [[spoiler:According to Lupin, Malfoy's reaction when during the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch match, Harry shot a Patronus at him while he was dressed as a Dementor.]]
312** [[spoiler:Harry has one when, while using the Time-Turner and seeing Lupin transform into a werewolf, he and Hermione have to move, and fast, because werewolf-Lupin is about to run into the Forest, straight at them. When he tells Hermione this, she has one too. Not only because of how they can't be seen, but, more obviously, a werewolf is about to come running straight at them.]]
313%%* The Only Volunteer: After the Fat Lady's portrait is attacked and shredded by Sirius Black when she refused to let him into Gryffindor Tower, Sir Cadogan is appointed to be the guardian of Gryffindor Tower until Black is caught. He proceeds to annoy the students by either challenging them to duels or frequently changing the password several times a day. When Seamus complains to Percy and asks if one of the other portraits can do it, Percy explains he was the only one brave enough to volunteer. - Unlaunched Trope
314* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
315** As if to emphasize the importance of doing well on the O.W.L.s, notorious class clowns and BrilliantButLazy students Fred and George Weasley are shown actually studying for the upcoming exam.
316** Usually whenever Snape gets angry, he speaks in a TranquilFury that instantly shuts people up. After Sirius escapes on Buckbeak the Hippogriff, he's LIVID, and it's quite possibly the first time we see him shouting. [[spoiler:As far as he knows at this point, the man who betrayed Lily to her death has escaped again.]]
317** Minor one but when Aunt Marge begins asking about the Potters, Harry notes that Dudley has stopped eating, having noticed the brewing tension in the room.
318*** On a related note, Harry, who has learned how to survive abuse from Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley, struggles to stick to Vernon's story when Aunt Marge is verbally abusing him, and when she starts [[SpeakIllOfTheDead badmouthing his parents,]] "he had never felt angrier in his life''. He ignores Vernon's advice to go to bed, tries to correct her, [[PowerIncontinence blows]] her [[ItMakesSenseInContext up]] like a balloon, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere packs his Hogwarts bags]], ''threatens Vernon'' and ''runs away from home'' in "a reckless rage''. After seeing [[AbusiveParents what he was able to tolerate in previous books]], and [[AllLovingHero how kind and understanding he is capable of being]], seeing him snap, ''threaten a family member'', and ''dip'' is a horror to behold.
319* OurGryphonsAreDifferent: Buckbeak is the Hippogriff variant with the front legs, wings, and head of a giant eagle and the body, hind legs and tail of a horse. Can be ridden as a steed if approached respectfully but will attack anyone who insults them as Malfoy finds out.
320* OurManticoresAreSpinier: When looking up ways to save Buckbeak, the gang find that a Manticore savaged someone in 1296. It managed to escape execution because it was too ferocious to be captured.
321* OurOgresAreHungrier: Hermione says that she and Ron thought they saw one in The Three Broomsticks. Their only mention in the series.
322* OverlyLongScream: Ron uses up two whole lines of text to scream "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" after he wakes up to find Sirius Black standing over him with a knife.
323* PacifismBackfire: Harry doesn't want James' two surviving best friends to murder (i.e., commit violence on) their EvilFormerFriend. So, he convinces them to stand down and help him take the traitor to the Dementors (which is their raison d'être). [[spoiler:Peter escapes.]]
324* PerspectiveFlip: InUniverse, this is why Hermione signed up for Muggle Studies even though she grew up living with them. She thought it would be fascinating to learn about the things she already knows about through the perspective of wizards.
325* PetTheDog:
326** Despite not bothering to hide his loathing for Lupin, Snape still regularly prepares a potion for his health while they're working together. [[spoiler:He even comes looking for Lupin during the climax to make sure he takes the Wolfsbane potion.]]
327** Push Away the Cat: When [[spoiler:Sirius]] tries to prevent Crookshanks' TakingTheBullet for him.
328** Snape explains away the trio knocking him out by saying that Sirius must have Confounded them. He had a prime opportunity to get them expelled or worse and instead just tries to get Harry in trouble for things he can legitimately prove. [[spoiler:Once Sirius escapes, however, all bets are off.]]
329* PlayingSick: It's strongly hinted that Draco's arm has healed by the time of the lead up to the first Quidditch game of the year, given how performatively he complains about its condition and that he finally dispenses with his bandages just after Hufflepuff beats Gryffindor, engaging in UnsportsmanlikeGloating about the outcome.
330* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: InUniverse. Sirius silenced Peter Pettigrew by blowing him up...and ''twelve random Muggles who happened to be on the street at the time''. [[spoiler:[[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]] by the reveal that Peter Pettigrew was a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eater]] and the true killer.]]
331* PoorCommunicationKills: At the end of the book, [[spoiler:things might have gone better if Sirius would have bothered to name whom he planned to kill. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sure he meant Harry, and his vague wording about being there to kill someone certainly didn't help. Though it's a bit justified considering he was certainly a bit unhinged from his time in Azkaban and his {{revenge}} was so close at hand. In the same vein, Lupin might have calmed the situation down had he not danced around why Sirius was there for so long, though he did at least convince Sirius that the kids needed to know why he was really there]].
332** [[spoiler:Sirius']] entire ordeal could have been averted from the start if only he'd told [[spoiler:Hagrid that it was Peter who had been the Potter's Secret Keeper and betrayed them when he gave Hagrid his bike before going after Peter himself]].
333* PowerIncontinence: What happens when thirteen-year-old witches and wizards lose their temper.
334* PrizedPossessionGiveaway: Fred and George Weasley give Harry the Marauder's Map so he can sneak into Hogsmeade without permission. It's an exhaustively detailed map of Hogwarts showing all the secret passages, as well as moving ink dots revealing where people are. In all, it's the single greatest aid to rule-breaking imaginable, and Fred and George have put it to great use over the years, so it means a lot to them.
335-->'''Fred:''' It's the secret to our success.\
336'''George:''' It's a wrench giving it to you... believe me...\
337'''Fred:''' But we've decided your needs are greater than ours. George, if you will.\
338'''George:''' "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."\
339'''Harry:''' ''(reads the appearing words)'' "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs... are proud to present the Marauder's Map."\
340'''George:''' We owe them so much.
341* ProfessionalVoiceDissonance: Knight Bus conductor Stan Shunpike speaks in a professional manner when welcoming Harry onboard, but quickly drops it in favor of a more casual, Cockney accent.
342* ProperlyParanoid: Snape has no idea how [[spoiler:Sirius escaped, but still swears up and down to Fudge that "THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH POTTER!" despite having no proof at all]]. While he may never prove it, he's not ''wrong''...
343* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: MythArc-relevant prophecies, anyway. After Harry takes his Divination exam, Trelawney predicts that that night, before midnight, [[spoiler:Lord Voldemort's most faithful servant, a man imprisoned for twelve years, will set off on a quest to find and revive him]]. [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]] reveals himself to Harry and the reader two chapters later and goes off in search of Voldemort two chapters after that.
344* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
345** Done by Ron in the first chapter when yelling down the fellytone at Uncle Vernon: "I -- WANT -- TO -- TALK -- TO -- HARRY -- POTTER!" and "I'M -- A -- FRIEND -- OF -- HARRY'S -- FROM -- SCHOOL--".
346** Ron does it on Christmas morning when Crookshanks tries to get Ron (or rather, Scabbers[[spoiler:/Pettigrew]]) again: "GET -- HIM -- OUT -- OF -- HERE!"
347** A furious Snape does it again in the final chapter: "THIS -- HAS -- SOMETHING -- TO -- DO -- WITH -- POTTER!"
348* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: Fred and George talk like two of these to make fun of Percy awkwardly forcing politeness when greeting Harry.
349* TheQuisling: In TheReveal, [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]] is found to be one.
350* RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler:Sirius]] is just barely holding back his anger towards [[spoiler:Pettigrew]] when they're in the Shrieking Shack. Then, when the latter starts begging Harry for mercy and talks about James, [[spoiler:Sirius]] absolutely loses it.
351-->'''[[spoiler:Sirius]]:''' HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?! HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM?! HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?!
352* RageQuit: Hermione in Divination. And it is ''awesome''.
353* ReadingTeaLeaves: In Professor Trelawney's first Divination class, she has the students read each other's fortunes through tea leaves. Trelawney reads Harry's cup and sees a falcon (a deadly enemy), a club (an attack), a skull (danger), and the Grim, a spectral dog considered an omen of death.
354* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Professor Lupin, who, among other things, lies to Snape in order to rescue Harry and then proceeds to berate him in private because his actions could indeed have endangered himself or other people.
355* RedHerring:
356** Everyone believes that Sirius escaped Azkaban to kill Harry. [[spoiler:His target was somebody else entirely.]]
357** Hermione gets a new pet cat in the same book where we learn about [[{{Animorphism}} a sub-class of wizards who can become animals at will]]; for most of the book, Ron is constantly suspicious of said cat after he tries to eat Scabbers, several characters note that he seems oddly intelligent for a common housecat, and Hermione's insistence on defending her new pet seems to be a natural set-up for a DevilInPlainSight plot. [[spoiler:The disguised Animagus is actually Scabbers, who has been Ron's pet since the first book. Crookshanks is just an unusually intelligent [[EvilDetectingDog Evil-Detecting Cat]] who was on to Scabbers from the outset but knew that Sirius was trustworthy, whether in dog or human form.]]
358* ReverseRelationshipReveal: Harry and the wizarding world at large believe that Sirius Black betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort and that Peter Pettigrew confronted him in anger and grief, and that the former killed the latter. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters, and when Sirius confronted him, he faked his own death.]]
359* RewatchBonus: [[spoiler:Snape behavior throughout the entire book -- especially his insane hatred of Sirius -- gets recontextualized after ''Deathly Hallows''. At this point in the overarching narrative, Snape still thinks Sirius was the one who betrayed Lily to Voldemort. He won't find out it was actually Wormtail until after Voldemort's return in the next book.]]
360* RightForTheWrongReasons:
361** When Dumbledore rises from the table to invite Professor Trelawney to join them, at first she refused since she would be the thirteenth, and [[ThirteenIsUnlucky as a result "the first to rise is the first to die"]]. Turns out there was a person she didn't see, since he was disguised as a rat, which means there were 13 people before she joined; Dumbledore, who rose to invite her, was indeed the first to die.
362** When Harry gets a Firebolt broomstick for Christmas with no card saying who it's from, Hermione assumes Sirius Black sent it and jinxed the broom so it would kill Harry when he rides it. [[spoiler:Sirius was the sender, but he didn't jinx it. He sent it to Harry to make up for the thirteen years' worth of Christmas and birthday gifts he didn't get from Sirius since he was locked up in prison.]]
363* RuleOfThree: Since Harry has Hedwig and Ron has Scabbers, it was really only a matter of time before Hermione got an LoyalAnimalCompanion of her own. [[spoiler:Subverted: Ron also loses Scabbers by the end of the book, and he turns out to have been a disguised Animagus all along. That said, he does receive a pet owl at the end of the book, reinforcing this for now.]]
364* RushedInvertedReading: When Hermione tells Professor [=McGonagall=] about Harry getting a Firebolt for Christmas and then the teacher goes to confiscate it temporarily so it can be checked for jinxes and hexes (on the chance that Sirius Black sent it), Hermione hides her face behind a book that she holds upside down.
365* SaveOurStudents: The previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers we saw, [[EvilTeacher Quirrell]] and [[FakeUltimateHero Lockhart]], were both lacklustre and were not known to have taught their students anything of use, making the subject a joke with the students. Enter Professor Lupin, who proves to be a highly competent expert who teaches the Hogwarts students everything they need to know about dealing with Dark creatures. With him teaching, DADA quickly becomes almost everyone's favourite subject, with only Draco and his cronies daring to disparage him.
366* ScoobyDooHoax:
367** Draco and his cronies disguise themselves as Dementors in an ill-advised attempt to make Harry fall off his broom. They themselves fall over and get tangled in their robes when Harry casts a Patronus at them. Professor Lupin is amused with Draco's struggle, while [=McGonagall=] is furious with him and the other Slytherins for their attempt to sabotage Harry.
368** The Shrieking Shack is revealed to be [[spoiler:not haunted, as legend has it, but was used as a safe place to hide Remus Lupin in werewolf form, when he was a student at Hogwarts. His wolf-like howls were believed to be the shrieks of ghosts, and the Whomping Willow was planted over the entrance to the passage leading to the Shack to deter anybody from entering.]]
369* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: This is how the Malfoys get the charges against Buckbeak to stick, despite Hermione and Ron's research. Fudge is convinced that Buckbeak is a "mad Hippogriff" and thus it is necessary to ShootTheDog.
370* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Harry to the Dursleys after he blows up Marge. [[StatusQuoIsGod Shame it didn't take.]]
371* SecretKeeper: {{Trope Namer|s}},[[invoked]] courtesy of the Fidelius Charm.
372* SecretSecretKeeper: Hermione figured out Lupin's "condition" before any other character and kept it from the others, including Lupin himself, until she came to the belief that he was an accomplice to Sirius Black. She even thought the teachers were unaware.
373* SecretUndergroundPassage: Harry uses one to sneak into Hogsmeade. We later find that [[spoiler:Lupin used one to hide out in the Shrieking Shack during his werewolf transformations.]]
374* SeeTheInvisible: Dementors are technically blind but can sense Harry's emotions from under his InvisibilityCloak as easily as a visible person. As a consequence, Harry has to use secret passages to sneak into Hogsmeade as Dementors guard the gates.
375* SequelHook: The prophecy.
376* ShamSupernatural: Draco Malfoy and his buddies pretend to be Dementors in order to scare Harry (who's extremely afraid of them) during a Quidditch match. They have no idea that Professor Lupin has been teaching Harry how to cast a Patronus (which repels Dementors), and he blasts them with a powerful one that leaves them in a crumpled mess on the ground.
377* ShoutOut:
378** "Cockroach Cluster" originally comes from a Creator/MontyPython sketch.
379** Dean's Boggart, described as a "severed hand, which flipped over and began to creep along the floor like a crab" is arguably one to ''Franchise/TheAddamsFamily''.
380* SickeningCrunch: Happens when Ron is dragged into the roots of the Whomping Willow [[spoiler:by Sirius in dog form]]. Ron hooks one leg around a root to stop himself being dragged in. Cue this trope when his leg breaks.
381* SignificantNameShift: Throughout most of the novel, the narration, which is presented from Harry Potter's point of view, refers to Sirius Black as "[[LastNameBasis Black]]." Harry believes Sirius Black to be a dangerous criminal who was working under Voldemort and who betrayed his parents. [[spoiler:After Harry learns the truth, the narration becomes somewhat inconsistent. By the final chapter, it refers to Sirius exclusively by his {{first name|Basis}} and this continues throughout all remaining novels.]]
382* SkewedPriorities: Wood is more concerned about Harry being able to use his new ''Firebolt'' broom in their next Quidditch match than the possibility that Harry might die using a cursed broom.
383* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Harry endures a week of Aunt Marge insulting him, but ''snaps'' when she starts on his parents. When Snape learns he's been in Hogsmeade, something similar happens -- Harry stays quiet when Snape insults him, but explodes when Snape starts badmouthing his dad.
384* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:In the climax, Harry and company are saved from the Dementors by Harry's ''own future self'', allowing the "present" Harry to go back in time and repeat what he's already seen.]]
385* StabTheSalad: [[spoiler:Buckbeak's "death".]]
386* StealthInsult:
387** Aunt Marge, who is a professional dog breeder, refers to bitches when talking about Harry's mother.
388--->"You see it all the time with dogs. If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup--"
389** She might be using "pup" as a double entendre as well. "Pup" can mean "a cheeky or arrogant boy or young man", which would fit Marge's view of Harry.
390* StealthPun:
391-->'''Hermione:''' I think Divination seems very woolly. A lot of guesswork, if you ask me.\
392'''Ron:''' There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!\
393'''Hermione:''' You didn't seem quite so confident when you were telling Harry it was a sheep.
394* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Many instances throughout the series, but this book introduces two particularly good examples: the werewolf Remus Lupin (Romulus and Remus were humans raised by wolves in Roman mythology; "lupine" means "wolf-like") and Sirius Black (Sirius is another name for the Dog Star; he transforms into a black dog).
395* SuperiorSuccessor: Ron hopes his new owl will be this as a pet relative to Scabbers. [[spoiler:While they have some growing pains together, he is.]]
396[[/folder]]
397
398[[folder:T–Z]]
399* TakingTheBullet: Crookshanks leaps on [[spoiler:Sirius]] in a manner that any spell directed at [[spoiler:Sirius]] will hit him.
400* TalkingInYourSleep: The Azkaban guards overheard Sirius Black saying "He's at Hogwarts..." in his sleep and so the Ministry deploys them there to protect it. [[spoiler:He's talking about Peter Pettigrew, not Harry.]]
401* TeamMercyVsTeamMurder: [[spoiler:Sirius and Remus initially want to kill Peter for the betrayal of Lily and James, but Harry stops them, believing James would not have wanted his best friends to become killers. Downplayed since Harry suggests giving Peter to the Dementors instead as a FateWorseThanDeath, in order to exonerate Sirius. While Peter gets away before facing the Dementors, his life being indebted to Harry ends up paying off in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', when Peter spares Harry, at the cost of his own life.]]
402* TemporalDuplication: Thanks to the Time-Turners, for some hours, there are two Harrys and Hermiones each, [[spoiler:and the slightly-older Harry ends up rescuing his younger self from the Dementors]].
403* TemporalSuicide: While using the Time-Turner, Hermione has to keep Harry from meddling with their past events, explaining that some time-travelling wizards have even killed or been killed by their past or future selves.
404* ThirteenthBirthdayMilestone: On his 13th birthday, Harry Potter receives birthday cards and presents from his friends for the first time (since Dobby the House-Elf withheld his friends' letters the year before in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''). He also receives a letter from Professor [=McGonagall=], the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, stating that as a third-year he'll be allowed to go to Hogsmeade Village on weekends, if he can get the Dursleys to sign his permission slip.
405* TimeAndRelativeDimensionsInSpace: The time turner takes the travellers to where their past selves were about to be. Given that this isn't MentalTimeTravel, Harry and Hermione have seconds to hide from their past selves.
406* TimeTravel: [[spoiler:The Time-Turners.]]
407* TimeTravellersAreSpies: Hermione uses this to justify NeverTheSelvesShallMeet saying she and Harry's past selves will probably think they're Death Eaters disguising themselves with Polyjuice Potions.
408* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: The final part of the book has this with Harry, Hermione, and Dumbledore.
409* TimeyWimeyBall: Hermione warns Harry against using [[spoiler:a Time-Turner]] to change the past because other instances of time travel have resulted in people being [[TemporalSuicide killed by their alternate selves]] among other [[ButterflyOfDoom disastrous consequences]], which the book appears to take seriously... Until [[spoiler:Harry realizes he [[YouHaveAlreadyChangedThePast Already Changed the Past]], resulting in a StableTimeLoop in which the people he wanted to save [[TrickedOutTime have already been saved]] and his past self just didn't know it yet]].
410* ToiletHumour: For Ron speaking out against Snape when he covers Lupin's class in Chapter 9, Snape gives him detention. Namely, he has to clean the hospital wing's bedpans, without magic. Naturally, [[TheChewToy Ron]] is furious.
411* TomSwifty: "'He's friends with that dog,' said Harry grimly." (He's believed said dog to be a dog-shaped death omen called the Grim for most of the book.)
412* TongueTrauma: Ron mentions that Fred and George gave him an Acid Pop when they were younger. It burned a hole through his tongue.
413* TooDumbToLive:
414** Draco Malfoy insults Buckbeak after Hagrid specifically warned the class. Even if he was trying to get Hagrid in trouble, at which he succeeded brilliantly, he's lucky that his arm (much less his head) didn't get torn off when it happened, or Madam Pomfrey would have had to bring out the Skele-Gro.
415** Harry himself [[DefiedTrope defies this]] when Arthur Weasley asks him to promise not to "go looking for Black."
416--->"Why would I go looking for someone I know wants to kill me?" said Harry blankly.
417*** Later on it is played hilariously straight, as he feels an urge to go looking for Sirius after he finds out [[spoiler:some of]] the AwfulTruth. He ends up hating Sirius so much that, when they meet at the end of the book, Harry charges at him and tries to choke him with his bare hands, forgetting that he was unarmed, much weaker than Black, and that Black had several wands on him at the time. [[spoiler:Luckily, Sirius is there to ''protect'' Harry, not kill him.]] (In all fairness, Harry has so many people after him that if he wants to go looking for someone who wanted to kill him, he doesn't have to go very far.)
418* TookALevelInBadass: Harry learns the Patronus Charm in this book, a difficult defensive spell, thus signalling the beginnings of him becoming an expert in magical combat against Dark creatures. To the point where, in Book 5, [[spoiler:he gets an Outstanding on his DADA OWL exam, the only subject in which he bests Hermione.]]
419* TooKinkyToTorture: The History of Magic textbook says that witches burned at the stake could enchant the flames to make them tickle rather than burn and that a witch called Wendelin the Weird enjoyed it so much, she deliberately got caught 47 times in different disguises.
420* TotemPoleTrench: Totem Pole Dementor Cloak, actually: a collaboration between Malfoy, Flint, Goyle, and Crabbe.
421* TranquilFury:
422** Harry when he finally comes face to face with Sirius and thinking that not only does Sirius want to kill him, but led Voldemort to his parents, resulting in their deaths. [[spoiler:He's wrong on both counts.]]
423** [[spoiler:Professor [=McGonagall=] when she finds out someone wrote down the passwords for Gryffindor Tower and left them lying around (although actually Neville didn't, and no one knew Sirius was able to ask Crookshanks to slip the list to him in his Animagus form), which resulted in Sirius being able to get into Gryffindor Tower. Justified because at this point, everyone still thinks Sirius was after Harry.]]
424* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: While the mass murder he committed is the most mentioned of his crimes, the narrative goes from treating Sirius Black as a threat to considering him truly evil when it's revealed that he was James Potter's best friend before betraying him and his family to Lord Voldemort. [[spoiler:When Sirius is revealed to be innocent and the real traitor, Peter Pettigrew, is exposed, Pettigrew is treated as just as contemptible, to the point that Sirius and Lupin are ready to murder him on the spot. Harry, in a moment of CruelMercy, stops them in the hope of Pettigrew facing real justice for his crimes.]]
425* TrickedOutTime: The climax comes with Dumbledore tasking Harry and Hermione (Ron broke his leg) with doing this to save Buckbeak (executed earlier that day) and Sirius (imprisoned) despite [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast their interference already having happened]] and needing to remain hidden to avoid scaring their past selves. [[spoiler:They lead Buckbeak into the Forbidden Forest before the executioner came out of Hagrid's hut; because their past selves had to run away before the officials saw them, they didn't ''see'' Buckbeak's death and only heard what they thought was the executioner cutting off Buckbeak's head, when it was just the executioner taking out his frustrations on an inanimate object.]]
426* TrickTwist: And how!
427* TurnCoat: [[spoiler:Peter]], textbook.
428* TVTelephoneEtiquette: When Ron calls to try to talk to Harry, Vernon tells him that there is no Harry Potter there, never to contact him again and never to come near his family, and "[throws] the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider." But given that it's Vernon and that Ron was shouting, not knowing how to use a "fellytone" properly, it's pretty much to be expected.
429* UltimateFinalExam: Professor Lupin has his pupils go through an obstacle course involving magical creatures for their final Defence against the Dark Arts examination -- the last creature being a Boggart. Unlike most examples of this trope, there's at least a teacher around to step in if things get out of hand.
430* UndisclosedFunds: The new bleeding-edge Firebolt racing broom is listed as "price on request", which Harry interprets as 'more than he can realistically afford' -- he speculates that he ''could'' pay for it, if he emptied his Gringotts vault completely, but then he'd have nothing left to pay for schooling.
431* UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler:Sirius]] and Lupin are furious that [[spoiler:Peter]] did not have this to James, because they would have, not only to James, but to [[spoiler:Peter]] as well. A sacrifice that [[spoiler:wouldn't even be necessary if he didn't choose to change his alignment for real.]]
432-->"You don't understand!" whined [[spoiler:Pettigrew]]. "He would have killed me, [[spoiler:Sirius]]!"\
433"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared [[spoiler:Black]]. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
434* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: In a rare case where someone who wasn't playing in the game concerned, Malfoy indulges in it after Hufflepuff beats Gryffindor at Quidditch because the Dementors knocked Harry out and nearly killed him.
435* TheVictimMustBeConfused: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione try to explain to Snape that [[spoiler:Sirius]] isn't a Death Eater and that he is not holding them hostage, Snape proclaims that they must have been put under the Imperius Curse and tries attacking [[spoiler:Sirius]].
436* TheVillainMustBePunished: {{Discussed|Trope}} in the conclusion. [[spoiler:Sirius becomes furious that Harry would let Pettigrew go instead of letting Sirius kill him, reminding Harry that the entire reason Harry is an orphan in the first place is Pettigrew selling out Harry's parents to Voldemort. Harry agrees, but says killing him isn't what his father would have wanted and letting him go is more of CruelMercy. Dumbledore also says Harry did the right thing even though it resulted in Pettigrew's escape, as this has created a magical bond between Harry and Pettigrew that backfires on Voldemort later.]]
437* VillainousBreakdown: Snape completely loses it [[spoiler:once Sirius escapes]].
438* VillainsWantMercy: [[spoiler:Peter]] begs Ron, Hermione and Harry to protect him from [[spoiler:Sirius]] and Remus (after he fails with his begging with them). [[spoiler:Harry gives it to him, but only because he does not want Sirius and Remus to [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim become murderers]] and because bringing Peter back alive will exonerate Sirius.]]
439* WardrobeFlawOfCharacterization: When Remus Lupin is first introduced it's mentioned that his clothes and luggage bear signs of frequent repair, establishing him as a somewhat shabby and hard-used character.
440* WasTooHardOnHim: [=McGonagall=] regrets having been so stern with Peter Pettigrew, given what happened to him. [[spoiler:If only she knew...]]
441* WeaksauceWeakness: Boggarts are defeated by ''laughter''.
442* WeirderThanUsual: Harry and Dumbledore regarding Trelawney. When the EccentricMentor has to ask "Stranger than usual, you mean?", you ''know'' it must be weird.
443* WhamLine:
444** When the Trio overhears Madame Rosmerta, Fudge, and a few Hogwarts staff discussing Sirius Black in his school days:
445--->'''[=McGonagall=]:''' You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta. Do you remember who his best friend was?\
446'''Rosmerta:''' Naturally. Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here -- oh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!
447** Later, near the climax, when [[spoiler:Sirius]] reveals something quite shocking about Scabbers.
448--->'''Lupin:''' [Scabbers is] [[spoiler:a wizard]].\
449'''[[spoiler:Sirius]]:''' [[spoiler:An Animagus. By the name of Peter Pettigrew.]]
450* WhatDoTheyFearEpisode: Lupin gives the class a practical lesson in dealing with the shape-shifting Boggart. He does not let Harry try it for fear of it turning into Voldemort and causing a panic. Hermione is also, albeit not as consciously, denied the same opportunity. She reveals her own fear after succumbing to the Boggart in her exam: failure.
451* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's never properly explained how Sirius gets into and out of the castle. It's implied that he got onto the grounds through [[spoiler:the Whomping Willow]], but that still leaves the castle security (ghosts, Filch, etc.). And Ron points out that Honeydukes probably wasn't broken into because they would have heard about it. The most likely scenario is that he went into the candy shop [[spoiler:as a dog]] when no one was watching, but even then, he didn't have a wand to tap the one-eyed witch's statue.
452* WhatTheHellHero:
453** Ron constantly warns Hermione to stop her cat from eating Scabbers, getting irritated when she doesn't take his concerns seriously, and it seems that Crookshanks can understand human speech when Ron mentions where Scabbers is. [[spoiler:Crookshanks turns out to be ProperlyParanoid about Scabbers being an Animagus named Peter Pettigrew, but Ron couldn't have known that.]]
454** Harry and Ron call out Hermione for telling Professor [=McGonagall=] about the Firebolt, thinking Sirius might have sent it, without even mentioning the possibility to Harry after he rolls it out. Oliver Wood even points out the improbability that Sirius, as a wanted fugitive, could just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy the most expensive broomstick on display. Weirdly, BothSidesHaveAPoint: [[spoiler:Sirius easily purchased and sent the Firebolt to Harry because Gringotts goblins have much laxer oversight standards than wizards. So he could have cursed the broom had he wanted to. The real issue, of course, is that Hermione didn't tell Harry and Ron about the dangers (though they should probably have tried to work it out for themselves) and merely went and warned their Head of House without telling them.]]
455** Nicely averted by Hagrid when he addresses Harry and Ron alienating Hermione for the latter half of the book. He tells them he isn't blaming them per se, just that he believes they should value friendship over "broomsticks and pets." Coming from someone who considers some of his pets his best friends, it's a bit ironic.
456** Both Snape and Lupin to Harry for sneaking into Hogsmeade, thereby disregarding all the effort everybody is making for his safety, as well as gambling the sacrifice his parents made. It's definitely more justifiable from Lupin, who was one of James' friends. It's less so from Snape, who uses this as another chance to [[SpeakIllOfTheDead make cheap shots about James]].
457** Later, [[spoiler:Hermione to Lupin when she suspected him of having helped Sirius into Hogwarts, even though she was wrong]].
458* WreckedWeapon: "Weapon" isn't the exact term, but this is roughly what happens to Harry's prized Nimbus 2000. After he falls off, it flies into the Whomping Willow. Ron and Hermione return it to Harry as a small pile of splinters.
459* WritersCannotDoMath: Originally in the first book, it was said that Marcus Flint was a sixth-year, which means he should have graduated in the second book. He’s still at school and on the Slytherin Quidditch team here. However, the math gaffe has been edited in newer editions, by making Flint a fifth-year in the first book instead.
460* WronskiFeint: A variant. Harry fakes seeing the Snitch to trick Cho into flying the wrong direction (this lacks the large solid object to truly be considered a feint).
461* YouCantFightFate: Trelawney makes her first ([[spoiler:on-page]]) accurate prediction, and it comes to pass exactly as she said it would, leading to idea that prophecies exist and are immutable. [[spoiler:We'll later learn that it's not quite so simple.]]
462* YouDirtyRat: [[spoiler:Peter's Animagus form,]] full stop. One has to wonder how James, [[spoiler:Sirius]], and Lupin didn't get suspicious about this, especially since an Animagus form is automatic and the wizard cannot choose it. [[spoiler:Sirius]] himself says he'll never understand why he didn't realize [[spoiler:Peter]] was the spy from the beginning.
463* YouKnowTheOne: The Dementors are referred to as "the Azkaban guards" at first, leaving their exact nature ambiguous to the reader until Harry first gets to see them. Afterwards, everyone just calls them what they are.
464[[/folder]]
465----
466->[[TheStinger Mischief managed.]]

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