History Literature / HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban

* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Slytherin's Quidditch team were set to win the cup on a massive points lead. But when the final match comes, rather than play fair and try to maintain that lead, the team engages in blatant cheating from the moment Gryffindor scores the first goal. All this achieves is to hand out penalties to Gryffindor, which gains them the points they needed to win the cup when Harry grabs the snitch.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Sirius breaks into Hogwarts on UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve, acting violently when the Fat Lady refuses to let him into Gryffindor Tower. This is the [[RuleOfThree third and final time]] something happens on Hallowe'en that poses an existential threat to Harry while he is at Hogwarts (after the troll and Mrs. Norris being petrified). Hermione, presuming that Sirius lost track of time, even [[LampshadeHanging points out]] how lucky it is that he coincidentally broke in while all the students and professors were occupied with the Halloween Feast. [[spoiler: In light of TheReveal, it's likelier that it was entirely intentional -- Sirius picked that day ''because'' no students would be in the tower, only certain traitorous wizards posing as pets. And because Lupin would be confined to his office under Wolfsbane.]]

''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' is the third ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book. Published July 8, 1999, this was the last book published separately in the US and UK and the last "quiet" release of a ''Harry Potter'' book. It is also often considered the point at which the series [[GrowingTheBeard Grew the Beard]].

* ArcVillain: Subverted. Sirius is built up as the main antagonist, but he's [[spoiler: a good guy]]. The real villains, ironically, are [[spoiler: the Dementors, the ones ''guarding'' the titular prisoner. And Pettigrew]].
* ArmourPiercingResponse: When it appears to Hagrid that Harry and Ron care more about broomsticks and rats than they do about Hermione, he brings it to their attention when they talk about Buckbeak and the fiasco at trying to get an appeal. Their response? They feel highly uncomfortable about the subject. Hagrid even tells Ron that Hermione was worried sick about him after Sirius Black attacked Ron, ''despite their feud over Crookshanks and Scabbers''.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: It's implied that this is the fate of victims of the Dementor's Kiss since their souls are devoured by the Dementors and forever lost.

* BittersweetEnding: In a departure from the unambiguously {{Happy Ending}}s of the first two books. [[spoiler: Sirius proves his innocence to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, and Dumbledore, but is forced to go on the run with Buckbeak when Pettigrew escapes. Additionally, Lupin is forced to resign when the school discovers he's a werewolf and Harry worries about Trelawney's prophecy and the consequences of sparing Wormtail and potentially bringing Voldemort back. Depressed about the prospect of continuing to live with the Dursleys instead of his godfather, Harry cheers up when he gets a letter from Sirius and is glad that he now has someone who he can consider real family.]]
* {{Bookends}}:

* BookSnap: Hermione does this and storms off to another class when Ron makes an InnocentlyInsensitive remark. This leaves Harry and Ron confused, since [[spoiler: they don't know that she's using a [[TimeTravel Time-Turner]] to attend multiple classes]].

* BreatherEpisode: Can be considered this compared to ''[[ActionizedSequel The Chamber of Secrets]]''. Apart from the Dementors and Sirius Black supposedly attacking the school, the stakes this time aren't quite as high as they used to be. It helps that this is the only book where EverybodyLives. The tradeoff, however, is that this book delves into the characters' darker sides (such as Snape's increasingly unhinged behaviour, corruption in the Ministry, and Harry's grief over his parents), which carries over to the other books.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', we learn that Hagrid got his [[CoolBike flying motorbike]], which he used to take Harry to the Dursleys' house, from [[spoiler:Sirius]]. In this book, [[spoiler: Sirius flies away on Buckbeak, Hagrid's pet Hippogriff]].

* BullyingADragon: When the Care of Magical Creatures class is introduced to Buckbeak, Hagrid establishes that hippogriffs are very proud creatures that get ''very'' hostile with anyone who insults them. After Harry earns Buckbeak's respect, Malfoy becomes jealous and calls the Hippogriff a "great, ugly brute", promptly getting himself injured in the process.

* CallBack: while Harry is waiting to go back to Hogwarts and getting all his new school supplies in Diagon Alley, narration remarks that his two new subjects are Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Near the end of ''Chamber of Secrets'', these are exactly the classes that Percy named as possibilities while giving him advice, citing Bill's love of animals and his choice of the former when telling Harry to choose classes for what interests him and outright suggesting the latter if he's concerned about his future.
* CallingTheYoungManOut: Professor Lupin, one of the kinder teachers and an old friend of Harry's father, calls out Harry for using the Marauder's Map to sneak out of Hogwarts while alleged murderer Sirius Black is at large, supposedly looking for Harry. Lupin brings up that not only could the Map have aided in capturing Sirius Black the last time he was in the castle had Harry handed it in sooner, but that Harry undervalues his parents' sacrifice by being so reckless. He confiscates the Map, and Harry walks away feeling ashamed. [[spoiler: While Sirius turns out not to be the criminal everyone believes he is, it is only after Lupin confiscates the Map that he discovers the truth about the real murderer, Peter Pettigrew.]]

** Ron buys Harry a Sneakoscope, which is basically a [[DetectEvil Dark wizard-detector]]. Harry thinks it's broken as it's constantly going off, none of them realising that it only sounds when [[spoiler: Scabbers]] is around because [[spoiler: Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew, who divulged James's and Lily's whereabouts to Voldemort, in Animagus form]].
* CatsAreMean: Ron firmly believes this because of Crookshanks' constantly targeting Scabbers, not realizing [[spoiler: Sirius has been talking to Crookshanks and that Crookshanks senses that Scabbers is not what he seems]].
* CerebusSyndrome: Notably, this is the first book to go into detail about Lily Evans Potter's and James Potter's deaths. Additionally, the Dementors are in-universe {{Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant}}s par excellence, and the scene of a knife-wielding Sirius Black breaking into the Gryffindor boys' dormitory is pretty scary as well [[spoiler: even though Black was after Pettigrew, not Harry or any of the others in his room.]]
* ChekhovsClassroom: [=McGonagall=] mentions in the middle of a scene focused on Professor Trelawney's dubious oracular record the fact that there are wizards known as Animagi who can transform themselves into animals (of whom she is one of only seven registered in Britain in the last century). Towards the end of the book, [[spoiler: it is revealed that Sirius Black is an unregistered Animagus, as were Peter Pettigrew and James Potter]].

* ChewingTheScenery: Ron's reaction (an OverlyLongScream and a BigNo) [[spoiler: when he wakes up to find Sirius Black holding a knife and standing over him, trying to attack Scabbers/Pettigrew]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the previous novel had some darker elements, the series takes on a more serious and mature tone in this instalment as it goes into detail about how Harry's parents died. It also explores Harry's darker emotions over his parents' deaths, as well as his darker side, when he attempts to murder Black. The Dementors are genuinely terrifying as they suck people's souls: a ''FateWorseThanDeath''. The Shrieking Shack encounter is rather intense with the aforementioned murder attempt, Harry and his friends disarming Snape at the same time, knocking him out, Snape's rather unhinged behaviour to the point where he was willing to have the Dementor's Kiss performed on Sirius due to their school rivalry (although it may have been down to him blaming Sirius for Lily's death, at that point still believing him to have been their secret keeper), and Sirius and Lupin nearly murdering Wormtail. And it concludes on a ''BittersweetEnding'', in which [[spoiler: despite Harry and Hermione rescuing Sirius and Buckbeak from the Ministry and the Dementors, Harry can't live with Sirius and leave the Dursleys because he is still on the run. Lupin is forced to resign when he is exposed as a werewolf, and Wormtail, who actually betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort and killed those twelve Muggles, gets away with it -- so Sirius can't clear his name and Voldemort returns in the next book, thus fulfilling Trelawney's prophecy]]. Compared to the all-out happy endings of the first two books, this prepared the tone for the much darker later books.

* TalkingInYourSleep: The Azkaban guards overheard Sirius Black saying in his sleep: "He's at Hogwarts..." and so are deployed there to protect it. [[spoiler:He's talking about Peter Pettigrew, not Harry.]]
* TeamMercyVsTeamMurder: Sirius and Remus initially want to kill Peter for the betrayal of Lily and James, but Harry stops them, believing James would not have wanted his best friends to become killers. Downplayed since Harry suggests giving Peter to the Dementors instead as a FateWorseThanDeath, in order to exonerate Sirius. [[spoiler: While Peter gets away before facing the Dementors, his life being indebted to Harry ends up paying off in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', when Peter spares Harry, at the cost of his own life.]]

* TemporalSuicide: While using the Time-Turner, Hermione has to keep Harry from meddling with their past events, explaining that some time-travelling wizards have even killed/been killed by their past or future selves.

** Malfoy insults Buckbeak after Hagrid specifically warned the class. Even if he was trying to get Hagrid in trouble, at which he succeeded brilliantly, he's lucky that his arm (much less his head) didn't get torn off when it happened, or Madam Pomfrey would have had to bring out the Skele-Gro.

* TVTelephoneEtiquette: When Ron calls to try to talk to Harry, Vernon tells him that there is no Harry Potter there, to never contact him again or come near his family, and "throws the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider." But given that it's Vernon and that Ron was shouting, not knowing how to use a "fellytone" properly, it's pretty much to be expected.

* YouDirtyRat: [[spoiler:Peter's Animagus form,]] full stop. One has to wonder how James, [[spoiler:Sirius]], and Lupin didn't get suspicious about this, especially since an Animagus form is automatic and cannot be chosen by the wizard. [[spoiler:Sirius]] himself says he'll never understand why he didn't realize [[spoiler:Peter]] was the spy from the beginning.

** Harry and company think Snape is so determined to bring Sirius to the Dementors just because he's been holding onto a grudge for what Sirius did to him back in their school days. By the seventh book, it becomes clear that [[spoiler:the real reason is that he believes that Sirius was the one who revealed Lily's location to Voldemort, which resulted in her death]].

* ArcVillain: Subverted. Sirius is built up as the main antagonist, but he's [[spoiler: a good guy]]. The real villains, ironically, are [[spoiler: the Dementors, the ones ''guarding'' the titular prisoner. And Pettigrew]].

* ContemptCrossfire: Harry puts himself between Sirius Black and [[spoiler: Peter Pettigrew when Sirius tries to murder Peter to avenge the murders of Harry's parents and Sirius's imprisonment]]. Harry does this not because he has any sympathy for [[spoiler: Pettigrew]] (he rejects his snivelling attempts at gratitude) but because he wants to think that his father wouldn't have approved of [[spoiler: his friends killing each other]] (besides which, leaving [[spoiler: Pettigrew]] alive to face trial is a CruelMercy).

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Hermione signs up for every single extra class offered in her third year but doesn't seem to have considered that she not only has to attend the classes, she'll need to do the homework, studying, and exams for each one as well. [[spoiler: Even when she's employing ''time-travel'' to meet all her deadlines, she gets incredibly stressed out and nearly has a breakdown.]]

* PlotHole: How did Fred and George know how to work the Marauder's Map? Rowling later {{Hand Wave}}d this on the ''Pottermore'' website, revealing that the map identified them as fellow troublemakers and gave them hints until they could figure out how to operate it.

* ScoobyDooHoax: Draco and his cronies disguise themselves as Dementors in an ill-advised attempt to make Harry fall off his broom. They themselves fall over and get tangled in their robes when Harry casts a Patronus at them. Professor Lupin is amused with Draco's struggle, while [=McGonagall=] is furious with him and the other Slytherins for their attempt to sabotage Harry.

** Lupin forgets to take his Wolfsbane Potion on the night of Buckbeak's execution. In particular, Snape specifically mentions that he had come looking for Lupin ''because he forgot to take his potion'', and ''Lupin is present when Snape says this'', but even this isn't enough to jog Lupin's memory and make him go running back to his office to take it. The consequences of this are pretty dire for all concerned: [[spoiler: they lead to Pettigrew's escape, Voldemort's return, and Lupin's, Sirius's, and Snape's deaths]].

* BookThatBites: ''The Monster Book of Monsters'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a monster which is a book about monsters.

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Vernon can be seen in the background reacting as Marge starts blowing up, and he's holding his head in his hands groaning as Marge calls for him to do something.
->'''Marge:''' Vernon!\\
'''Vernon:''' Oh, no...

* ThirteenthBirthdayMilestone: On his 13th birthday, Harry Potter receives birthday cards and presents from his friends for the first time (since Dobby the House Elf withheld his friends' letters the year before in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''). He also receives a letter from Professor McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, stating that as a third year he'll be allowed to go to Hogsmeade Village on weekends, if he can get the Dursleys to sign his permission slip.

* ExtremelyEasyExam: For the third years' Care of Magical Creatures final exam, Hagrid gives everyone a flobberworm and tells them to keep it alive for one hour in order to pass the test. A flobberworm is a boring and mostly useless magical creature that does best if left to its own devices.

* CallBack: while Harry is waiting to go back to Hogwarts and getting all his new school supplies in Diagon Alley, narration remarks that his two new subjects are Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Near the end of ''Chamber of Secrets'', these are exactly the classes that Percy named as possibilities while giving him advice, citing Bill's love of animals and his choice of the former when telling Harry to choose classes for what interests him and outright suggesting the former if he's concerned about his future.

* ArmourPiercingResponse: When it appears to Hagrid that Harry and Ron care more about broomsticks and rats than they do about Hermione, he brings it to their attention when they talk about Buckbeak and the fiasco at trying to get an appeal. Their response? They feel highly uncomfortable about the subject. Hagrid even tells Ron that Hermione was worried sick about him after Sirius Black attacked Ron, ''in spite of their feud over Crookshanks and Scabbers''.

* BullyingADragon: When the Care of Magical Creatures class is introduced to Buckbeak, Hagrid establishes that hippogriffs are very proud creatures that get ''very'' hostile with anyone who insults them. After Harry earns Buckbeak's respect, Malfoy becomes jealous and calls the hippogriff a "great, ugly brute", promptly getting himself injured in the process.

* ChekhovsClassroom: [=McGonagall=] mentions in the middle of a scene focused on Professor Trelawney's dubious oracular record the fact that there are wizards known as Animagi who can transform themselves into animals (of whom she is one of only seven registered in Britain in the last century). Towards the end of the book, [[spoiler: it is revealed that Sirius Black is an Animagus as were Peter Pettigrew and James Potter]].

** Lupin happens to forget [[spoiler:his dose of wolfsbane potion]] and there is a [[spoiler: full moon]] on the ONE night that shit goes down? [[spoiler: This despite him saying he must take the potion every day in the week ''preceding'' the full moon, so should one missed dose on the night ''of'' the full moon really result in such an egregious transformation?]]

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Malfoy, in a KickTheDog moment contemplates sending Buckbeak's head to the Gryffindor common room as a "donation".

* DeepBreathRevealsTension: Harry takes deep calming breaths during a pause when Snape is interrogating him about being in Hogsmeade and finds the Marauder's Map.

* DisappointedInYou: [[CoolTeacher Lupin]] to Harry after Harry is caught sneaking out to Hogsmede without permission and with Sirius Black still on the loose. It makes Harry feel a lot worse than he did when [[SadistTeacher Snape]] was the one getting him into trouble.

* DrowningMySorrows: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to see Hagrid after their first Care of Magical Creatures class, Hagrid is doing this out of gloominess due to [[TooDumbToLive Malfoy taunting Buckbeak]], which resulted in Malfoy's arm being injured. He is, however, still lucid enough to yell at Harry for being out while a murderer is said to be after him.

* EmptyShell: The result of the Dementor's Kiss. Lupin uses those exact words to describe it -- the victim loses all memory and sense of identity while their body continues to work on automatic.
* EntertaininglyWrong:

* EvilDetectingDog: Crookshanks. [[spoiler: It's no mere AnimalJingoism that has him going after Scabbers all year -- he knows the rat is a traitorous Animagus. Similarly, he trusts Sirius immediately, knowing he only has Harry's best interests at heart.]] At the end of the book, Ron {{invoke|dTrope}}s this with the owl Sirius buys him, by holding Pigwidgeon in front of Crookshanks's face and seeing if he reacts, and the cat's purring is taken as confirmation that the owl is perfectly normal. Creator/JKRowling later confirmed that [[spoiler: Crookshanks is half-Kneazle, a magical cat-like animal that can tell if someone is untrustworthy]].

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Snape has a moment of this when substituting for Lupin, claiming that the Kappa is more commonly found in UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}} when it's actually ''UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese''. This gets followed up on in ''Fantastic Beasts'': "Snape hasn't read this."

* LaughingMad: When Sirius was caught shortly after Voldemort's fall, he was found laughing next to a crater where he had killed Peter Pettigrew and many Muggles, apparently cracked after his master Voldemort was defeated. [[spoiler: Except we learn that Sirius was never a traitor. He had intended to kill Pettigrew, but that was because Pettigrew was the actual traitor who caused James and Lily's deaths. Then Peter faked his death, killing twelve Muggles in the process, and framed Sirius for it. His life having collapsed around him, all Sirius could do was sit there and laugh until the Ministry came to arrest him.]]

* MeaningfulName: The somewhat reckless driver of the Knight Bus, Ernie Prang. A prang is an informal British term for a vehicular crash.
** Also Sirius Black ([[spoiler: Sirius is known as the 'dog star', and Black's animagus form is a shaggy black dog]]) and Remus Lupin ([[spoiler: 'Lupin' from 'Lupus', Latin for wolf. Guess what Remus turns into come the full moon?]])

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: When Snape tries to command the Marauder's Map, it insults him using the personalities of its creators. This feature never comes up again, you'd think Harry would want to talk to his father.
* MomentOfWeakness: Harry blowing up Aunt Marge... no, not in the explosive sense.
* MoreHeroThanThou: [[spoiler: Crookshanks]] tries to protect [[spoiler: Sirius]] by leaping between him and [[spoiler: Harry]], so that any spell would take them both; [[spoiler: Sirius]] tries to protect [[spoiler: Crookshanks]] by pushing him out of the way, to avoid the spell.

** Harry and company think Snape is so determined to bring Sirius to the Dementors just because he's been holding onto a grudge for what Sirius did to him back in their school days. By the seventh book, it becomes clear that [[spoiler: the real reason is that he believes that Sirius was the one who revealed Lily's location to Voldemort, which resulted in her death]].
** Snape's increased dislike of Lupin is believed to be Snape just being increasingly fed up with not being offered the position himself. [[spoiler: It's actually because Lupin is a werewolf and former classmate of Snape's with whom he has an unpleasant history.]]

** Ron after Snape gives him detention where he had to scrub the bedpans in the hospital wing:
--->"D'you know what that —" ''(he called Snape something that made Hermione say "''Ron!''")''

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Harry's decision to spare [[spoiler:Wormtail]]'s life starts a chain reaction that leads to Voldemort's return and basically the plots of books four to seven. Though Dumbledore tells Harry that [[spoiler:prophecies are so inexact, and something similar might have happened without Harry's help]].

* SeeTheInvisible: Dementors are technically blind but can sense Harry's emotions from under his InvisibilityCloak as easily as a visible person. Meaning Harry has to use secret passages to sneak into Hogsmeade as Dementors guard the gates.

** Harry himself [[DefiedTrope defies this]] when Mr. Weasley asks him to promise not to "go looking for Black."

** Lupin happens to forget [[spoiler:his dose of wolfsbane potion] and there is a [[spoiler: full moon]] on the ONE night that shit goes down? [[spoiler: This despite him saying he must take the potion every day in the week ''preceding'' the full moon, so should one missed dose on the night ''of'' the full moon really result in such an egregious transformation?]]