FAQ for
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Harry Potter and the Prsioner of Azkaban can be found here.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) is the third book of the Harry Potter series, written by British author J.K. Rowling. The other books in the series include: (1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (aka Sorcerer's) Stone (1997), (2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), (4) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), (5) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), (6) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and (7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was adapted for the screen by American screenwriter Steve Kloves.

This is Harry's third term at Hogwarts. Towards the end of the movie, Professor Dumbledore refers to him as a 13-year old wizard.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) was performing the Lumos Maxima spell under his blankets in order to create enough light for him to read A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot. According to the rules, Harry should not have been doing any spells outside of Hogwarts. Viewers who have questioned Harry's disobedience have offered several possible explanations as to why Harry was not punished, e.g., -Harry was doing his homework practicing the Lumos Maxima spell or using the spell in order to do his homework, -the Ministry is only concerned about magic being performed in front of Muggles, -the Lumos Maxima is a charm and therefore does not fall under the no spells rule, -Harry's Lumos Maxima spell/charm fell under the Ministry's radar or the security monitor was not looking at the time, -there were other wizards in the area and so the Ministry could not tell specifically which wizard was casting the Lumos Maxima spell, -the film is not the book and may have different rules, or the director of the movie simply screwed up.

Aunt Marge (Pam Ferris) was trashing Harry's parents. She accused his father of being a drunk. She compared Harry and his mother to dogs, claiming "If there's something wrong with the b-ch, then there's something wrong with the pup." As Harry admits later to Ron and Hermoine, he simply lost control.

By the rules, Harry could have been expelled from Hogwarts for using magic away from school or, even worse, he could have been sent to Azkaban Prison for breaking the law. However, the Ministry of Magic decided not to punish Harry because they knew that Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) had escaped from Azkaban and was looking to kill Harry. The Ministry was more concerned with keeping Harry safe from Sirius than with punishing him for performing magic in front of Muggles. Consequently, they resolved the problem by having the Accidental Magic Reversal Department erase the memory from the mind of Aunt Marge.

Returning are Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith), deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, head of Gryffindor House, and teacher of Transfigurations, and Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman, head of Slytherin House and Potions Master. In addition, we are introduced to Professor Sybil Trelawney (Emma Thompson), teacher of the Art of Divination, and Professor Remus J. Lupin, temporarily-appointed as the new teacher of the class in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) is back, newly-appointed to a teaching position in Care of Magical Creatures. Argus Filch (David Bradley), Hogwarts caretaker, is also there.

Richard Harris passed away in 2002 from Hodgkin's Disease. Other actors who were considered for the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, were Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, Peter O'Toole, and Richard Attenborough before Michael Gambon was finally cast in the role.

Mr. Weasley (Mark Williams) explains to Harry that Sirius Black is a faithful servant of the evil Lord Voldemort. According to Mr. Weasley, when Harry thwarted Voldemort 13 years ago, Sirius lost everything. Now, Sirius believes that Harry is the one thing standing in the way of Voldemort's return to power, and the Ministry thinks Sirius has escaped from Azkaban in order to find and kill Harry. Later in the movie, Harry overhears Professor McGonagall describe how Sirius betrayed Lily and James Potter when they learned that they were marked for death and went into hiding, and he also destroyed their good friend, Peter Pettigrew. On top of all of this, Sirius Black is Harry's godfather. At the end of the movie, however, we find out that none of this is true, except for the last part.

In Divination class, Professor Trelawny looks at Harry's tea leaves and jumps back in horror, telling him that he has "the Grim". The Grim refers to a giant, spectral dog that is said to be an omen of death. During the Quidditch match, Harry does see a large, spectral dog in the clouds, so it appears that Professor Trelawny's divination is true. Later in the movie, it is made known that the Grim is Sirius Black. The Grim is no doubt patterned after the Black Dog, a prominent creature in British folklore, where the Black Dog is often said to be associated with Death and the Devil.

Hermione (Emma Watson) explains, while in Defence Against the Dark Arts class, that an Animagus is a witch or wizard who can choose to transform into an animal, as opposed to a werewolf who has no choice.

No. It is a complex skill that can take up to five years to learn. Because there is a huge risk of abuse of the ability, plus its complexity, the Ministry of Magic tries to regulate it. One has to register their ability, what animal they become, distinctive markings, etc. There are only a handful of people who have registered as animagi in the past century. The animal one becomes reflects one's qualities: James Potter becomes a stag, associated with honour and nobility; Sirius a dog, loyalty but also aggression and foolishness; Pettigrew a rat, dirt and disease; Prof. MacGonagall a cat, superiority and observance.

The explanation for this didn't make it from the book to the film. This is how it happened in the book: For 12 years, Sirius stayed in prison, probably out of some guilt due to being the one who suggested Pettigrew be the Potters' secret keeper, something that led to their death, or possibly because he thought Pettigrew was dead and knew that he couldn't prove his innocence without him. Sirius was able to retain his sanity against the Dementors, owing to the fact that he knew at all times that he was actually innocent.Then one day, the Minister for Magic visited and left Sirius a copy of the Daily Prophet (wizard newspaper). In it was a story about the Weasleys winning some money and using it to go to Egypt. In the picture was their pet rat Scabbers. Sirius recognised Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew in rat form. From the article, he noted Ron was friends with Harry Potter and that they went to Hogwarts, and so he realised that he had to escape to protect his godson Harry. As an animagus, Sirius could turn into a dog. Dementors don't have eyes; they sense people instead. Since most people become less human in Azkaban, sensing Sirius as a less-than-human dog was not unusual for them. As a dog, Sirius escaped through his bars and swam ashore.

Azkaban Prison is located somewhere in the North Sea, off the eastern coast of England [noted in The Half-Blood Prince]. A map of England showing the location of the North Sea can be seen here.

In the various books, the Dementors are described as floating, soaring, and swooping. This indicates to many readers that, yes, Dementors can fly. Granted, over short distance they tend to hover and float. And yes, in the books they stay on the pitch below Harry while he plays Quidditch and affect him from there, but that does not work so well visually. It was a creative decision to add to the impact of the visual medium.

In the books, Hogwarts students wear proper wizarding robes all the time, even out of lessons (except during holidays). In the first two films, director Chris Columbus made the decision that modernday kids wearing wizarding robes wouldn't work, so he gave them school uniforms with cloaks. They wore these during the school day; in the evenings, they wore their normal muggle clothes. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Prisoner of Azkaban, has kept with this idea. However, more action in this movie takes place outside of lessons, so it may seem to some like they aren't wearing their robes, but they are.

"...who explained the grim"? He was some random guy. Depending on varying stories, he either won a competition or Alfonso Cuaron randomly picked him to deliver the lines. He doesn't correspond to any character in the books, and he is not Dean Thomas.

"...with Draco"? Another random 'slytherin boy'. He was positioned as an extra henchman for Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) when Josh Herdman, who plays Goyle, suffered an injury. In the Magical Creatures class where we meet Buckbeak the hippogriff, the sling on Goyle's arm can be seen when they tease Harry.

A hippogriff is a legendary creature that is a cross between a horse and a griffin. Like a griffin, it has the head of an eagle, claws armed with talons, and wings covered with feathers, the rest of its body being that of a horse. A photo of Hagrid's hippogriff, Buckbeak, can be seen here.

The Marauders' Map was given to Harry by George (Oliver Phelps) and Fred (James Phelps) Weasley, who stole it their first year at Hogwarts. The map provides a detailed layout of Hogwarts, including hidden passageways, and shows where everyone is at all times. The Map was created by four ex-Hogwarts students--Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail--who called themselves the Marauders. Together, the four would roam around the school, discovering all the school's secrets, and thus created the Marauders' Map.

The four ex-Hogwarts students who called themselves The Marauders were actually Harry's father James Potter (Prongs), Harry's godfather Sirius Black (Padfoot), Remus Lupin (Moony), and Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail). Their nicknames are variations on their unregistered animagi forms -- Prongs is a stag, Padfoot is a dog, Moony is a werewolf, and Wormtail is a rat.

While they were all students at Hogwarts, Lupin used the excuse of his mother being ill when he disappeared each month (he was afraid they wouldn't want to be his friends if they knew). Eventually, they found out. Instead of abandoning Lupin, they all developed the ability to become animagi.This had several benefits. Werewolves are no threat to other animals, only humans, so in their animal forms they were safe. James could turn into a stag and Sirius into a big dog, so they could restrain the werewolf if he tried to get loose.

Lupin was bitten by a werewolf named Fenrir Greyback when he was a child.

Yes, Dumbledore knew. As a young student of magic, Lupin found it hard to find a school that would take him, since he was a safety risk. However, Dumbledore agreed to take him as a student and then as a professor, with certain conditions. Every full moon Lupin had to stay in a shack in Hogsmeade. There was a tunnel going from the school to the shack, and to prevent the werewolf from coming out and to prevent students from going in, the Whomping Willow tree was planted over the entrance. Since Lupin's transformations were painful, locals heard shrieking coming from the shack, and rumours of it being haunted were started. Dumbledore encouraged this to keep Lupin's werewolf condition a secret. When Lupin was hired to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, Dumbledore had Professor Snape mix up a potion made from wolfbane that allowed Lupin to keep his human mind when he transformed. He was to take the potion during the week of the full moon and would miss classes the day after with the other teachers pretending he was ill. He did not take the potion on the night Sirius escaped as he forgot after seeing Peter Pettigrew on the Marauder's Map.

A Patronus is a defence against creatures such as the boggart, a shape-shifter that takes on the form of its intended victim's worst fear. A Patronus also works against the Dementors, guards of Azkaban who feed on happiness, leaving a person with only misery and the worst memories of his or her life. The Patronus takes a form, usually that of an animal, that represents the source of one's happiness. To create a Patronus, a strong happy thought must be created, as it is happiness that chases Dementors away.

There are varying strengths of Patronus. Harry's first Patronus was weak and appeared as a misty shield. His second Patronus was fully corporeal and appeared as a white stag. A fully-formed Patronus usually takes the form of an animal and generally stays the same regardless of what the happy thought is, though it can change when one's source of general happiness changes, e.g. if you fall in love with someone.

There's a misconception among some fans that Harry's Patronus is a stag because James could turn into one. The connection is not that direct. It would have been a stag even if James could not turn into a stag. As mentioned above, the Patronus takes an animal form of your happiness. A stag is the animal that best represents James Potter. Harry's happiness is his family and his father. This is in the form of a stag, since this is the animal that represents James.

Hermione possesses a Timeturner, allowing her to turn back time. She is using it to take several classes all in the same time period.

JK Rowling has taken the route that there is no first time. What happened in the past cannot be changed; when you go back you just play your already determined role. Buckbeak never died, the executioner swung his axe in the pumpkin, the kids (and thus the audience) simply assumed he had executed Beaky. The idea is that any future time travel that may occur will already have affected events as they are now. I.e. in Bill and Ted their dad's keys are missing. They later decide that they will travel back in time, steal their dad's keys because they'll need them, thus the keys 'go missing'. Time travel is always confusing, but it does work with this theory. It does, however, pretty much take away Harry's free will. He has to go back to save himself because he already has.The answer to the question "What if he doesn't?" is simply that he can't not.

Not exactly. Yes, in the books, the Seeker for Hufflepuff is Cedric Diggory. However, the character is not credited as such and is not played by Robert Pattinson (who plays Cedric in Goblet of Fire, where he has a much more integral role), so we have to assume not.

The winner of the Quidditch cup this term is not shown in the movie. In the book, the interhouse Quidditch cup competition takes into account not just victories, but scores as well. Despite beating Slytherin in the first two books, Gryffindor failed to win the cup. In The Sorcerer's Stone, the final match takes place while Harry is unconscious in the hospital wing after protecting the stone and Ravenclaw win the cup. In The Chamber of Secrets, the competition is cancelled because there is a basilisk on the loose. The third year is Oliver Wood's final year (he's the one who explained the Quidditch rules to Harry) and he is desperate to win the cup because Slytherin House has won it for the previous seven years. This was cut from the movie, for two reasons: 1) in the first movie, we see only one match, a win, and then see Gryffindor win the House Cup, so it would need a lot of explaining for their success to have the impact it has in the novel, and 2) n the grand scheme of the movies, it adds very little to the story being told.

Harry's snowy owl: Hedwig

Ron's rat: Scabbers

Hermoine's cat: Crookshanks

Hagrid's hippogriff: Buckbeak

No. Pettigrew escapes during the werewolf attack and is not seen again in this film. In the seventh book, he dies in fulfilling his "life debt" to Harry.

*Two divination classes are shown: the first one of the year where Professor Trelawney reads Harry's tea leaves & the one where Professor Trelawney insults Hermione and she walks out of the class.

*Two defence against the dark arts classes are shown: the practical lesson with the Boggart & the one where Snape substitutes and teaches them about werewolves.

*The first Care of Magical Creatures class is shown although it is only Buckbeak there.

*One dementor practice session with Lupin is shown.

After the Grim drags Ron and Scabbers down under the base of the Whomping Willow tree, Harry and Hermoine follow. They are confronted by Sirius Black and Professor Lupin. Hermoine reveals that she knows Lupin is a werewolf, and Lupin and Sirus together reveal the true story of how Harry's parents were betrayed by the fourth Marauder, Peter Pettigrew. Harry remembers seeing Pettigrew's footsteps on the Marauders Map, meaning that Pettigrew is still alive. Sirius forces Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) to reveal himself. Pettigrew, who is an animagus, has been hiding for the past 13 years as Ron's pet rat Scabbers, who was handed down to Ron by his brother Percy. The moon rises as they are on the way to returning Pettigrew to Hogwarts, and Lupin turns into a werewolf. When the werewolf turns on the children, Professor Snape shields them while Sirius, who is also an animagus, turns into the Grim and fights off Lupin. Pettigrew turns himself back into Scabbers and scampers away. When Lupin hears a howl of another werewolf, he runs off, but Sirius is seriously injured. Harry finds him lying next to a pool of water. The Dementors show up and attempt to steal Sirius' soul. Harry attempts a Patronus spell, but it isn't strong enough. Suddenly, Harry sees a white stag across the pool, whom he believes to be his father. The stag's presence drives away the Dementors. Unfortunately, even after Harry, Hermoine, and Ron vouch for Sirius' innocence, the Dementors intend to destroy him. Consequently, Professor Dumbledore, who also believes that Sirius is innocent, suggests that Hermoine use her Timeturner. Hermoine gives the Timeturner three spins, setting them back three hours.

Hermoine's Timeturner takes them back three hours, just before the execution of Buckbeak, Hagrid's hippogriff. Keeping themselves out of sight, Harry and Hermoine are able to lure Buckbeak out of the pumpkin patch by tossing him dead ferrets. With no hippogriff to execute, the executioner is sent away. They then go to the Whomping Willow tree where they wait until Lupin turns into a werewolf. Hermoine fakes a werewolf cry, causing Lupin to abandon his fight with Sirius. Unfortunately, the werewolf takes after Hermoine and Harry. They try hiding behind a tree, but Lupin spots them. Just as the werewolf is about to attack them, Buckbeak intervenes and sends Lupin high-tailing away. Harry looks up to see the Dementors flying overhead, so they race to the pool and watch as the Dementors take Sirius' soul. Fully expecting his dad to show up as the stag, Harry is surprised when he doesn't. So, Harry the time-traveler casts another Patronus spell. This time it works, but it is obvious to Harry that the white stag was not his father but Harry himself. Buckbeak flies them both back to Hogwarts where Hermoine releases Sirius from jail. Sirius invites Harry to come live with him, but asks him to wait for a while because his life is going to be a bit hectic at first. Sirius then flies off on Buckbeak, and Harry and Hermoine get back to where they were three hours ago in the infirmary, just in time for Ron to see their old selves disappear and their new selves show up across the room.

When word of Lupin's condition gets out, Lupin is compelled to resign his position at Hogwarts. Before he leaves, he returns the Marauder's Map to Harry. At the end-of-the-term feast, Harry receives a gift...a new Firebolt broom, the fastest broom ever made. (His old broom was destroyed when he was attacked by the Dementors during the Quidditch game.)

The movie is 2 hours and 10 mins without credits. With credits it is 2 hours and 22 minutes, so the credits are about 12 minutes