Shall we? - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Which prisoner are we talking about here? Certainly not Hagrid... though he was last seen on his way there we know he must have gotten out. (I must have missed him getting out in the last book... we find out somewhere here that he was in Azkaban for 2 months)
[As Don points out... I did miss Hagrid's return. During the celebration after Harry and Ron rescued Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. Oops. Probably not the last thing I'll get wrong as I continue this pre-Book 6 refresher/trek thru the series]
Once more dear friends... we venture to Hogwarts and another fun filled year.
Or we will soon... but first... it's Harry's thirteenth birthday, Ron is with his family in Egypt, and Hermione is in France... and the summer is already half over... and what's up with that book? The one from Hagrid...
Harry just can't catch a break can he... a week with not-really-his-Aunt Marge (and her dog "Ripper") before she insults his parents and he "blows" her up (like a balloon). And then his wild ride on the Knight Bus to Charing Cross Road/The Leaky Caldron and a strange visit with Minister Fudge.
And now we know what Ron's new wand (bought using some of the money his father won that summer) is - willow with a unicorn hair core. We only know what his hand-me-down one was made of (ash) because of comments by JKR. Still no in-story description of Hermione's wand.
Signs that Harry is a practical person -- he refrains from going on a spending spree the 2 weeks or so he spends at the Leaky Caldron after the "Aunt Marge Incident" - he works on his homework during the day, he manages to not buy that Firebolt broomstick. The angst hasn't quite hit him yet... he is still fairly "innocent"...
[that summer before their third year] Hermione got a tan while in France... Ron just got more freckles.
Dementors, on the train... we find out that they seem to be attracted to Harry (he faints) and Ginny hasn't recovered perfectly from her possession the year before (they get to her also, but she doesn't faint).
First Divinations lesson -- In hindsight - some of the things Ron sees in the tea leaves seem very prophetic. And you have to wonder about Dumbledore's sanity when he has Hagrid teaching the "Care of Magical Creatures" class. Ron, Hermione, and Harry certainly aren't too happy about it. And they are friends with Hagrid.
Okay... halfway thru... what do we have?
- Hermione is acting weird and Harry and Ron have no idea what is going on...
- Crookshanks seems to know something they don't. Is 'she' just a cat? If we were told that already I've missed it... hmmm. (Trying to read this fresh when you've read it several times before... and know how things turn out... I seem to be focusing on the trivia)
- A few firsts for Harry:
- First taste of butterbeer on his first trip to Hogsmeade (He sneaks out)
- He first notices "girls" (Cho Chang during the Quidditch match with Ravenclaw)
I really didn't remember that the Whomping Willow destroyed his first broom...
We don't know who the 'marauders' mentioned on the map are yet... But Harry is starting to learn more about his father and friends... especially Sirius Black (Who's described as James Potter's best friend. )
Has Hermione figured out that Lupin is a werewolf already? A good chance... she did write that essay on werewolves that Snape inflicted on them... and look how she starts to loose it (sanity/perspective/reality) as the year hurtles to a close...
Between her course overload (Sounds like a very Willow-ish thing to do...) and the problems with Buckbeak... I think it's understandable that she took it out on Malfoy.
So... Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors finally win the Quidditch Cup. In a no-holds-barred fight to the finish with the Slytherin team... Quidditch seems to be a very violent sport... especially when half the players are just kids...
And Harry is certainly still a kid. Proof? Just look at the incident outside the Shrieking Shack which results in him losing the magic map.
Lots of subtext of the Snape hates the "marauders" sort leaking out all over... (I haven't seen proof yet that they - James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettingrew - called their "gang" "The Marauders" - I believe it is just fanon. In fact, I think the map is the first place we see that mentioned in the series. But it IS useful shorthand to refer to all four of them... though I think it was really James Potter and Sirius Black with their groupies Remus and Peter and near the end of their time at Hogwarts - their "biker babe" - Lily Evans (I'm sure there's a better term for her part in the informal "gang" (which might just be more fanon - we'll see as I get further into the story and we learn more about James and Lily))
Okay... the last quarter of the book just flew by... a lot more action - or it at least feels that way - packed into a short period than the first two books.
Hmmm... Percy seems to already be headed towards his destiny as the "black sheep" of the Weasley family. Between exams and his goal to reform Magical Law enforcement following Sirius Black's escape...
Snape was extra obnoxious/evil-like in this story. Is his hatred of Remus Lupin JUST because of that practical joke when they both were going to school at Hogwarts or does the werewolf bit play into that?
Eddies in the Space-Time Continuum
Hermione and the Time Twister... and large quantities of that cure-all - chocolate.
So that's how Ron got that owl he has later on...
Justice and due process doesn't seem to have much of a part in the wizarding world. The government seems to work with a large dose of intimidation and cronyism.
At least Harry got the map and his invisibility cloak back at the end... and the note from his godfather so he can go to Hogsmeade next year... and an invitation to visit the Burrow and go to the Quidditch World Cup.
8:29:05 PM 
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