Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and is the third in the Harry Potter series. The book follows Harry Potter, a young wizard, in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Along with friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry investigates Sirius Black, an escaped prisoner from Azkaban, the wizard prison, believed to be one of Lord Voldemort's old allies.

The book was published in the United Kingdom on 8 July 1999 by Bloomsbury and in the United States on 8 September 1999 by Scholastic, Inc. Rowling found the book easy to write, finishing it just a year after she began writing it. The book sold 68,000 copies in just three days after its release in the United Kingdom and since has sold over three million in the country.The book won the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo.

The film adaptation of the novel was released in 2004, grossing more than $796 million and earning critical acclaim. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.

Plot

Harry is back at the Dursleys' for the summer holidays, where he sees on television that a convict named Sirius Black has escaped from prison. After the Dursley's Aunt Marge insults Harry and his parents, Harry accidentally inflates her, then runs away from home, fearing expulsion from school. After encountering a large black dog that seems to be watching him, he is picked up by the Knight Bus and travels to the Leaky Cauldron, where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, asks Harry to stay in Diagon Alley for his protection. While there, he reunites with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Before leaving for Hogwarts, Harry learns from Arthur Weasley that Sirius Black is a convicted murderer from the wizarding world, and has escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban to kill Harry. On the way to Hogwarts, a Dementor boards the train, causing Harry to relive his parents' deaths before fainting. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, protects him from the Dementor. They learn Dementors will be patrolling the school in an attempt to catch Black.

During a Quidditch match, Harry faints and falls off his broomstick after Dementors invade the field, and the Whomping Willow destroys the broom. Afterwards, Professor Lupin teaches Harry how to defend himself from Dementors using the Patronus charm. During an illegal trip to Hogsmeade, Harry overhears a conversation between Fudge, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid. He learns that Black is his godfather, betrayed his family to Voldemort, and killed Peter Pettigrew, a family friend, when confronted by him.

Ron and Hermione's friendship suffers when Ron believes Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, to have eaten his rat, Scabbers. When Harry receives a top-of-the-range Firebolt broomstick as an anonymous Christmas present, Hermione gets it confiscated, fearing Black sent it. Hermione becomes stressed by her many classes, some of which seem to occur at the same time. Meanwhile, Hagrid's hippogriff Buckbeak is in danger of being executed by the Ministry of Magic after injuring Draco Malfoy, who provoked Buckbeak. Despite Hermione's and Ron's efforts to defend the hippogriff, they and Harry seemingly hear Buckbeak executed as they leave Hagrid's hut. While visiting Hagrid's, however, Hermione discovers Scabbers hiding there. Scabbers escapes from Ron, who gives chase.

The large black dog attacks Ron, then drags him into a tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Crookshanks, appearing to be in league with the dog, Harry, and Hermione follows them through the tunnel and to the Shrieking Shack, a haunted house in Hogsmeade. They discover that the dog is Black in animal form. Lupin enters and explains that, although he believed Black to have betrayed the Potters, he realises now that it was Peter Pettigrew. Lupin admits he is a werewolf and that, while at school, the Marauders (Lupin, Black, Pettigrew, and Harry's father, James Potter) learned to transform into animals to tame Lupin during his transformations. Lupin explains that Scabbers is Pettigrew in his animal form. Pettigrew faked his death, framing Black for the murders, and hiding from Black since his escape.

Snape, who holds a childhood grudge against the Marauders, arrives to apprehend Black but is knocked unconscious by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Lupin and Black transform Pettigrew into human form and prepare to kill him, but Harry stops them, and convinces them to send Pettigrew to Azkaban instead. While returning to Hogwarts, Lupin, who had forgotten the full moon, transforms into a werewolf and attacks them. Pettigrew escapes, and Harry, Hermione, and Black are set upon by Dementors. A Patronus cast by a mysterious figure rescues them.

Awakening in the hospital wing, Harry and Hermione are told that Black has been sentenced to have his soul sucked out by Dementors. Professor Dumbledore tells Harry and Hermione to use Hermione's time-turner, a device she has been using to attend simultaneous classes, to go back in time and save Buckbeak and Sirius. They rescue Buckbeak and watch themselves attacked by Dementors. Harry then casts the Patronus that drives away the Dementors. Harry and Hermione ride Buckbeak to the tower where Black is held and break him out. Black escapes on Buckbeak.

Harry and Hermione return to the hospital wing. Enraged by Black's escape, Snape lets slip that Lupin is a werewolf, forcing him to resign. Harry returns to Kings Cross with his friends and receives a letter from Black, informing him that he sent the Firebolt and permitting him to visit Hogsmeade next year.