Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter Eleven:
The Firebolt

Synopsis by William Silvester
Notes and links by Michele L. Worley

US hardcover edition: pages 211 - 232
UK paperback edition: pages 229 - 252
Timeframe: xx December - 25 December, 1993 [Y13]

In which Harry mulls over what he heard about Black, almost everyone has gone on holiday, HRH go to visit Hagrid, find him distraught about Buckbeak's hearing before the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, and HRH begin seeking precedents to help Buckbeak's case. Christmas comes and Harry gets a Firebolt broom from an unknown (Black) benefactor, Crookshanks goes after Scabbers again and revives bad feelings between Ron and Hermione, dinner is taken with the teachers, and McGonagall confiscates the Firebolt to check for jinxes.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

The arrival - and nearly immediate confiscation - of Harry's Firebolt drives a wedge between Hermione and the boys.

Hagrid talks for the first time about what Azkaban is like.

"Another jumper from Mum...maroon again..."

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• (surname not given) Derek, a first-year

• (unnamed) fifth-year Slytherin

• (unnamed) first-year

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Buckbeak

• Cadogan, Sir (portrait)

• Crookshanks

• Dumbledore, Albus

• Fang

• Filch, Argus

• Flitwick, Professor

• Granger, Hermione

• Hagrid, Rubeus

• McGonagall, Minerva

• Potter, Harry

• Scabbers (see also Pettigrew, Peter)

• Snape, Severus

• Sprout, Professor

• Trelawney, Professor

• Weasley, Fred

• Weasley, George

• Weasley, Percy

• Weasley, Ron

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• Black, Sirius

• Dursleys, the

• Fudge, Cornelius

• Hagrid, Mr. (Rubeus' father)

• Hooch, Madam

• Longbottom, Neville

• Lupin, Remus

• Malfoy, Draco

• Malfoy, Lucius

• Norbert

• Pettigrew, Mrs. (Peter's mother)

• Pettigrew, Peter

• Potter, James

• Potter, Lily

• Voldemort (as You-Know-Who)

• Weasley, Arthur

• Weasley, Molly

• (unnamed) school governors

Settings and locations introduced or returning in this chapter:

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Entrance Hall, the

  • Great Hall, the

  • Gryffindor Tower

    • common room

    • dormitory (boys')

  • Hagrid's hut

  • Library, the

• Honeydukes

• tunnel to Honeydukes

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

• Azkaban

• Diagon Alley

• Forbidden Forest, the

• Three Broomsticks, the

Exceptional character moments:

• Hagrid, remembering Azkaban and what the Dementors are like.

• Hermione offering to look up case histories for Hagrid; of the three members of the trio, only she persists with her promise to help with Buckbeak's defence before his first hearing past the Christmas holidays. (However, see PA15 for later stages of the case, when Ron took over the research).

Spells:

• conjuring

• Fidelius Charm (mentioned)

Links and Resources:

• awards (Order of Merlin)

• Bestiary, the

  • boggarts

  • dementors

  • flobberworms

  • hippogriffs

• Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, the

• detention

• essays

  • D'you Really Think They're Suited?

  • Harry's Things

  • The Number Twelve

• items and devices, magical

  • brooms

  • broomstick servicing kit

  • chess, wizard

  • cracker, wizarding

  • Dungbombs

  • Gobstones

  • invisibility cloak

  • pictures with moving subjects

  • Sneakoscope, pocket

• Peppermint Toads

Memorable lines:

• Dumbledore, Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, Cornelius Fudge... why hadn't anyone ever mentioned the fact that Harry's parents had died because their best friend had betrayed them?

• "Think that matters to them? They don' care. Long as they've got a couple o' hundred humans stuck there with 'em, so they can leech all the happiness out of 'em, they don' give a damn who's guilty an' who's not." [Hagrid on Dementors]

Strictly British:

• blimey

• chipolata

• cracker

• flagon

• git

• holidays

• jumper

• mead

• mince pie

• nut brittle

• oy

• parcel

• tail coat

• tripe

• waistcoat

Timelines/Calendar:

• 1296
  A manticore savaged someone and was let off, but only because everyone was afraid to go near it.

• 1722
  A hippogriff was convicted.