The Wolf Among Us: Regarding the Prisoner of Azkaban

By the third book, the Harry Potter series had one last major bit of foundation setting before it fully turn its focus to its underlying central conflict: What exactly were the circumstances behind the deaths of Lily and James Potter? The Prisoner of Azkaban is about Harry exploring this question and, like all major expeditions of self-discovery and soul-searching, he will have to do it alone.

True to its title, there's a prison break at the notorious Azkaban and the man that allegedly betrayed Harry's parents, Sirius Black, has escaped. Learning about this, Harry is intent to track him down and kill him for his betrayal but he's sidelined because of the security risk while all his friends are able to visit the nearby Hogsmeade. Grief is one of those things that will always set people apart from their peers, from their friends. Harry has to deal with a physical separation too and it couldn't come at a worse possible time. Fortunately, he's just been introduced to a friend of his father's that never let him down.

Remus Lupin takes on a professor position at Hogwarts and becomes a surrogate father figure of sorts for Harry. In a lot of ways, Prisoner of Azkaban deals with the bond between father and son more than any other installment too. In the absence of James Potter, Harry has a history of establishing de facto paternal placeholders: Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, his own Patronus, and Sirius Black himself.

Sirius being an ally of Voldemort and allowing him entrance to kill the Potters is all a long con and sort of obvious in retrospect. Nothing is quite as it ever seems in Harry Potter stories; there's always that sense of mystery and mysteries often come with red herrings. Given Lupin's dark, uncontrollable secret as a werewolf, he would be the other prime candidate as the traitor; a literal wolf in sheep's clothing, or rather, professorial robes. But the thing is, this particular wolf isn't a wolf at all. No, sometimes a rat is a rat.

One of my favorite twists in the entire series is a complete fucking doozy that works on multiple levels. Sirius was not only never the traitor but it was rather his presumed victim Peter Pettigrew. And not only that, Pettigrew himself was never dead but secretly hiding among Harry and his friends all along. The Potters died because they trusted Peter and let him into the security of their home. Ron and Harry made the same understandable oversight and nearly pay the same price. That's a series of revelations that escalates incredibly quickly.

Just as the book marked a big turning point narratively, so did the film adaptation. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, it feels a lot more consequential, a lot more emotional, and just a lot better than its predecessors. There's a strong argument that Prisoner of Azkaban is the best of the Harry Potter films. I wouldn't go quite that far myself but I would say it's the point where the films are actually starting to get good.

And they finally get to wear street clothes which is nice.

The time travel component is one of the most ingeniously thrilling aspects of the story right there in the climax. I've always felt that once you introduce time travel, it kind of changes the sense of urgency and stakes considerably. There is a passing line in Order of the Phoenix that all the remaining time-turners had been destroyed but it does open the possibility of why some big tragedies in the immediate future couldn't be averted. But separate from my own overthinking, it works gangbusters here and it finalizes the foundation of an inevitable return. Prisoner of Azkaban exorcises the ghosts of the past in many ways. Now Harry has to face the future and the evil that comes with it.