History Fridge / HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban

* One of the books Harry reads mentions the witch burnings and about how they were ineffective because any ''real'' witch or wizard would just cast a protective charm on themselves. Which is very nice... for the wizards whose captors helpfully left them their wands and the freedom to use their hands. For those who were searched and tied properly, on the other hand...
** Then there's the fact that ''dozens'' of Muggles must have been mistaken for witches and wizards, and subjected to burning...and the real wizards did nothing to help them...

* Hermione's meeting with [=McGonnagal=] [[spoiler:about the Time Turner]] only takes a few minutes, but surely giving Hermione such important information would take more than--oh! [[spoiler:They used the Time Turner to go back after the conversation was over so Hermione could learn how to use it!]]

* Several different people mention that Dumbledore dislikes Dementors. While he let's them guard the school, he doesn't let them enter the grounds and is furious when they do. This seems perfectly reasonable - Dementors are, after all, nasty creatures - but there is a simpler explanation: [[spoiler:Every time the Dementors come near him, Dumbledore has to relive Ariana's death.]]

* When Snape forces the Marauder's Map to "reveal its secrets", it starts printing insulting text towards him. This is funny at the time, but when we learn what Snape's relationship with the Marauders actually was, it's like they're bullying him all over again, and in front of Harry as well.
** Not exactly- or rather, it's unlikely to be the intent of that scene. Snape, by demanding the Marauder's Map reveal it's secrets, is acting like a particularly officious idiot ( demanding that secrets be told to him, rather than trying to find out some subtler way. How do schoolkids tend to treat teachers like that? they mock them.
* Toward the end of the Prisoner of Azkaban video game, the trio fight [[RecurringBoss Peeves]] and cause him to fly away crying about the 'nasty kiddies', with Hermione commenting (paraphrased) "I hope we didn't hurt him TOO badly". This is the last time Peeves is seen in the video game series.
** Actually, he does reappear after the game is beaten, though he doesn't do anything but talk, saying he's saving his energy for next year.

** Actually, he does reappear after the game is beaten, though he doesn't do anything to talk, saying he's saving his energy for next year.

* Fudge and Dumbledore's exchange after Snape's tirade at the end turns out to be mildly foreshadowy. Fudge says Snape seems unbalanced and that "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore," but Dumbledore is unfazed. Three years later, Snape will prove to indeed be somebody Dumbledore apparently should have been watching out for, but in the end we learn Dumbledore was right to trust him.

* When Snape forces the Marauder's Map to "reveal its secrets", it starts printing insulting text towards him. This is funny at the time, but when we learn what Snape's relationship with the Marauder's actually was, it's like they're bullying him all over again, and in front of Harry as well.

* On the way to Hogwarts, at least one dementor searches the train. A creature that ''feeds on happiness'' and ''souls'' was in confined quarters with a few hundred emotional children and teenagers. Even worse, it's implied that there wasn't an auror or official around keeping an eye on it! What if Lupin didn't drive it off with a patronus?
** This might be a bit of FridgeBrilliance itself. What if the reason Lupin came on the train was because Dumbledore asked him to so he could keep an eye on the students in case a Dementor (or even Sirius Black) showed up?

* Why Voldemort has so much control over Dementors, and why Dementors don't seem to affect him like everyone else: Voldemort's soul is so tiny, the Dementors see a creature similar to them, and thus, are more likely to follow him! Also, the fact that his soul is so small means that the Dementors wouldn't get much out of it. On the flipside, the reason Harry is so affected by Dementors, and why they always seem to go for him: Harry is established as having a ''particularly'' powerful soul, full of all the things that Voldemort has ignored in his pursuit of immortality. To the Dementors, they see something so unlike them, that they need to put it out, to consume Harry's soul would be like a rare feast, since his heart is full of the things that Dementors feed on.
** Add to this the fact that [[spoiler:Harry technically has two souls in his body due to the Horcrux]] and it's like they're getting a free dessert with their meal.

** At least in later books, it's mentioned that magic can be cast without a wand.
*** Never mind THAT - what about all the Muggles who were mistaken for wizards? They had no way of escaping their death sentences, and the ''real'' wizards did nothing to help them!
** Little nitpick: the chosen method of execution for witchcraft in Britain was hanging. Burning was reserved for heretics and women guilty of treason (so they wouldn't be displayed naked in public as with the male punishment). If a real witch or wizard was caught, they'd be stripped of their wand, and ''hanged'', and a Freeze Flame charm is completely pointless against that. Wendelin the Weird (the witch that was supposedly burned at the stake multiple times) was either a widely-believed legend in-universe or was convicted for heresy or treason.
** The thing above opens another point. If British wizards can't even get their own story right about how Muggles would kill them if they managed to catch them, how bad is the state of historical education at Hogwarts?

* The scene where Sirius and Lupin interrogate Pettigrew and give him a ReasonYouSuckSpeech starts out as well-deserved but gets scary after the two openly admit to planning to KILL Pettigrew, especially when we have every reason to believe that they would have done it, had Harry not intervened (admittedly, just to have Pettigrew submitted to a FateWorseThanDeath in Azkaban and probably to clear Sirius' name by showing everyone the very person Sirius was supposed to have killed. This is hammered home by the Ministry of Magic song "Marauder's Map".)
** The casual way they discuss killing Pettigrew is very disturbing as well as the fact that they had no problem trying to do it in front of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Sure, the bastard may had deserved it but that doesnt change the fact that three kids would've had to see two adults (one of whom they'd considered a mass murderer a while ago and the other, a respected and trusted teacher) murder someone in cold blood. Plus there's no guarantee that producing Pettigrew's body would've cleared Sirius's name since as Pettigrew mentioned, the officials could claim that Pettigrew had chosen to hide himself from Voldemort spy and mass murderer Sirius

** Little nitpick: the chosen method of execution for witchcraft in Britain was hanging, not burning. Whoops.

* You know the 'thing you are dreading will happen on the 16 of October' prophecy, to Lavender? Hermione uses it to prove that Trelawney is a fraud, as Lavender couldn't have been dreading what happened (her rabbit dying), as it came as a shock to her. But, the prophecy makes perfect sense if you assume one thing: it was a SelfFullfillingProphecy! Lavender wasn't dreading her rabbit dying, which probably didn't happen on the 16th (she only got the news then), and came as a shock, but ''something bad happening on October 16'', as per Trelawney's prophecy. And something did: she got the news of her rabbit dying.

* Hermione's boggart is Professor [=McGonagall=] telling her she's failed everything--not because she's afraid of academic underachievement (although yes, she certainly is) but because she's afraid of failure and being inadequate.

* In Harry's Divination lesson Trelawney predicts that Harry was born around Midwinter. Now, he was born on July 31st, so that doesn't make any sense. But, Midwinter might not mean the middle of winter, Trelawney could have been (subconsciously or otherwise) referring to the more traditional use of the word, with the meaning of "at or around the winter solstice". This is still stupid, because Winter Solstice is like the 22nd of December, so still not close to Harry's B-Day. But a birthday near the Winter Solstice is December 31st. The birthday of Tom Riddle. Trelawney wasn't reading Harry's "mind," but rather reading off of the but of Voldemort's soul within him.