The Harry Potter Encyclopedia

Owl Post

Setting: Privet Drive

Date: Summer 1993

Key Events:

• Harry is doing homework in secret at night in his bedroom
• Receives birthday presents from Ron (Sneakoscope), Hermione (Broomstick Servicing Kit), and Hagrid (The Monster Book of Monsters)
• Gets permission slip from Uncle Vernon to visit Hogsmeade on weekends
• Watches television news about escaped convict Sirius Black
• Vernon's sister Marge is coming to visit for a week

Characters Introduced: Aunt Marge (briefly mentioned)

Significant Details: Harry is thirteen and entering his third year. The Sneakoscope whistles when someone untrustworthy is around. Ron's family won money and went to Egypt.

Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

Setting: Privet Drive

Key Events:

• Aunt Marge arrives with her bulldog Ripper and stays for a week
• She constantly insults Harry and his deceased parents
• Harry loses control and accidentally inflates Aunt Marge like a balloon
• Harry packs his trunk and runs away from Privet Drive
• The Knight Bus (purple triple-decker bus) picks him up
• Stan Shunpike (conductor) and Ernie Prang (driver) take Harry to the Leaky Cauldron

Characters Introduced: Aunt Marge, Stan Shunpike, Ernie Prang

Significant Details: Knight Bus transports stranded witches and wizards. Harry uses the name "Neville Longbottom" on the bus. First major act of underage magic Harry commits in anger.

The Knight Bus

Setting: Knight Bus, then Leaky Cauldron

Key Events:

• Harry rides the Knight Bus through London to Diagon Alley
• Reads about Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban in the Daily Prophet
• Cornelius Fudge (Minister of Magic) meets Harry at the Leaky Cauldron
• Fudge is surprisingly understanding about Harry inflating Aunt Marge
• Harry is given a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of summer
• Explores Diagon Alley during the day

Characters Introduced: Cornelius Fudge (Minister of Magic)

Significant Details: Sirius Black was imprisoned in Azkaban for twelve years for murdering thirteen people. Fudge doesn't punish Harry for the magic, which is unusual. Harry notices increased security at the Leaky Cauldron.

The Leaky Cauldron

Setting: Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley

Key Events:

• Harry spends two weeks at the Leaky Cauldron
• Completes homework and explores Diagon Alley shops
• The Weasleys return from Egypt; Harry reunites with Ron and Hermione
• Ron got a new wand and Hermione bought a cat named Crookshanks
• Crookshanks immediately attacks Ron's rat Scabbers
• Harry overhears Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arguing: Sirius Black is after Harry
• Arthur Weasley warns Harry not to go looking for Black

Characters Introduced: Crookshanks (Hermione's cat)

Significant Details: Hermione has signed up for an overwhelming number of classes. The argument reveals Black was in Harry's parents' inner circle and betrayed them to Voldemort. Scabbers looks ill.

The Dementor

Setting: Hogwarts Express

Date: September 1, 1993

Key Events:

• Harry, Ron, and Hermione board the Hogwarts Express
• Share compartment with Professor R.J. Lupin, the new DADA teacher (sleeping)
• Train stops unexpectedly; lights go out and temperature drops
• A Dementor (Azkaban guard) enters their compartment searching for Black
• Harry feels intense cold and hears screaming; he faints
• Lupin wakes, drives the Dementor away with silvery light
• Gives Harry chocolate to recover

Characters Introduced: Professor Remus Lupin, Dementors

Significant Details: Dementors drain happiness and force people to relive worst memories. Harry hears his mother's last moments before Voldemort killed her. Lupin knows defensive magic against Dementors.

Talons and Tea Leaves

Setting: Hogwarts

Key Events:

• Start-of-term feast; Dumbledore announces Dementors will guard the school
• Hagrid appointed as Care of Magical Creatures teacher
• First Divination class with Professor Trelawney; she predicts Harry's death
• Sees the Grim (death omen) in Harry's tea leaves
• First Care of Magical Creatures lesson with Hippogriffs
• Harry successfully approaches Buckbeak the Hippogriff
• Draco insults Buckbeak and is attacked, sustaining injuries

Characters Introduced: Professor Trelawney (Divination), Buckbeak (Hippogriff)

Significant Details: Hermione mysteriously appears in two classes at once. Malfoy exaggerates his injuries. Hagrid is worried he'll lose his teaching job on the first day.

The Boggart in the Wardrobe

Setting: Hogwarts, DADA classroom

Key Events:

• First Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Lupin
• Class practices the Riddikulus spell on a Boggart (shape-shifter that becomes your worst fear)
• Neville's Boggart becomes Snape; he makes it wear his grandmother's clothes
• Lupin prevents Harry from facing the Boggart
• Malfoy pretends to be a Dementor to scare Harry at Quidditch practice
• Lupin offers to teach Harry the Patronus Charm to defend against Dementors

Significant Details: Lupin deliberately stops Harry from facing the Boggart, suggesting he fears what Harry's worst fear might become (likely Voldemort or a Dementor). Snape clearly dislikes Lupin.

Flight of the Fat Lady

Setting: Hogwarts

Key Events:

• Harry is not given permission to visit Hogsmeade; stays behind while others go
• Fred and George give Harry the Marauder's Map, showing secret passages
• Harry sneaks into Hogsmeade through one-eyed witch statue passage
• Overhears conversation: Sirius Black was his parents' best friend and betrayed them
• Returns to find chaos: Sirius Black attacked the Fat Lady portrait
• Security increased; students sleep in Great Hall

Significant Details: The Marauder's Map was created by Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Harry learns Black was his father's best friend and his own godfather, making the betrayal more personal.

Grim Defeat

Setting: Hogwarts, Quidditch pitch

Key Events:

• First Quidditch match: Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff
• Weather is terrible - thunderstorm conditions
• Dementors appear on the pitch during the match
• Harry hears his mother screaming and falls from his broom
• Dumbledore saves Harry from hitting the ground
• Harry's Nimbus 2000 is destroyed by the Whomping Willow
• Gryffindor loses the match; Harry is devastated

Significant Details: Dumbledore is furious at the Dementors' presence. Harry's reaction to Dementors is stronger than others because of his traumatic past. This is the first Quidditch match Harry has ever lost.

The Marauder's Map

Setting: Hogwarts

Key Events:

• Harry depressed about his destroyed Nimbus and Quidditch loss
• Begins anti-Dementor lessons with Lupin
• Learns about Patronus Charm - requires powerful happy memory
• Practices with Boggart-Dementor but struggles to maintain Patronus
• Lupin explains Dementors affect Harry more because of his traumatic past
• Harry determined to master the spell

Significant Details: The Patronus Charm (Expecto Patronum) requires focusing on happiest memory. Harry hears his mother's death every time a Dementor approaches. Lupin reveals the Dementors' Kiss (soul-sucking) is their ultimate weapon.

The Firebolt

Setting: Hogwarts, Christmas

Key Events:

• Christmas arrives; Harry receives anonymous gift of a Firebolt (best racing broom)
• Hermione suspects Sirius Black sent it and reports to McGonagall
• McGonagall confiscates the Firebolt to check for curses
• Ron and Harry furious with Hermione
• Crookshanks keeps attacking Scabbers
• Ron finds blood and cat hairs, believes Crookshanks ate Scabbers
• Hermione and Ron stop speaking

Significant Details: The Firebolt is worth more than all other brooms in Hogwarts combined. Hermione is stressed from taking too many classes. The trio's friendship is strained.

The Patronus

Setting: Hogwarts

Key Events:

• Harry continues Patronus lessons with Lupin
• Uses memory of first time on a broomstick as happy memory
• Successfully produces a silver vapor Patronus against Boggart-Dementor
• Attempts a corporeal Patronus but needs stronger memory
• Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw Quidditch match approaching
• Wood desperate to win the Cup in his final year

Significant Details: A full Patronus takes the form of a silvery animal. Harry's progress is impressive for a third-year. Lupin mentions the Marauder's Map but doesn't explain his knowledge of it.

Gryffindor Versus Ravenclaw

Setting: Hogwarts, Quidditch pitch

Key Events:

• Harry gets the Firebolt back after security checks
• Reconciliation begins between Harry, Ron, and Hermione
• Quidditch match: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw
• Dementors appear again (actually Malfoy and friends in disguise)
• Harry produces a fully corporeal Patronus for the first time
• Catches the Snitch; Gryffindor wins spectacularly
• Firebolt proves to be extraordinary

Significant Details: Harry's Patronus is powerful enough to repel what he thinks are Dementors. Malfoy and friends are punished severely by McGonagall. Gryffindor back in running for Quidditch Cup.

Snape's Grudge

Setting: Hogwarts

Key Events:

• Harry forgets Invisibility Cloak in passage after Hogsmeade trip
• Snape finds the Marauder's Map and Harry
• Summons Lupin to his office; Lupin confiscates the Map
• Snape suspects Lupin helped Harry
• Essay on werewolves assigned by Snape (substitute teaching)
• Hermione figures out Lupin is a werewolf
• Ron's rat Scabbers is still missing

Significant Details: Snape recognizes the Map's insulting messages and clearly knows its creators. His hatred of Lupin goes beyond normal dislike. Hermione's essay hints she knows Lupin's secret.

The Quidditch Final

Setting: Hogwarts, Quidditch pitch

Key Events:

• Final exams approach; Hermione overwhelmed with classes
• Buckbeak's appeal scheduled - Committee for Disposal of Dangerous Creatures
• Quidditch Cup Final: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin
• Malfoy and friends try to sabotage Harry by dressing as Dementors
• Harry produces a powerful Patronus, thinking they're real
• Catches the Snitch; Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup!
• Oliver Wood ecstatic in his final year

Significant Details: First Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor in seven years. Harry's Patronus is now powerful and reliable. Hagrid drinking heavily, worried about Buckbeak's fate.

Professor Trelawney's Prediction

Setting: Hogwarts, exams

Key Events:

• Final exams week begins
• During Divination practical, Trelawney goes into a trance
• Makes a genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord's servant will return to help him rise again"
• Says the servant has been chained for twelve years
• Has no memory of the prediction afterward
• Harry rushes to tell Dumbledore
• Buckbeak's appeal fails; execution scheduled for sunset

Significant Details: This is Trelawney's second genuine prophecy (first was about Harry). Twelve years matches Sirius Black's imprisonment. Dumbledore seems concerned but not surprised.

Cat, Rat, and Dog

Setting: Hagrid's hut, Hogwarts grounds

Key Events:

• Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit Hagrid for Buckbeak's execution
• Find Scabbers hiding in Hagrid's hut - he's alive!
• Executioner Macnair and Committee arrive
• Trio leaves invisibly; hear the axe fall (Buckbeak apparently executed)
• Scabbers bites Ron and escapes toward Whomping Willow
• A massive black dog (Sirius Black in Animagus form) drags Ron into tunnel under tree
• Harry and Hermione follow through the passage

Significant Details: Scabbers has been acting strangely all year. Crookshanks appears to be helping the black dog. The tunnel leads to the Shrieking Shack.

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Setting: Shrieking Shack

Key Events:

• Harry and Hermione find Ron with broken leg in the Shrieking Shack
• Sirius Black reveals himself - gaunt, filthy, desperate
• Harry attacks Black; Lupin arrives and disarms Harry
• Lupin and Black embrace - they're old friends!
• Hermione reveals Lupin is a werewolf
• Snape appears under Invisibility Cloak, wants to hand Black to Dementors
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione disarm Snape
• Black and Lupin explain: Peter Pettigrew is alive and hiding as Scabbers

Significant Details: The Marauders were James Potter (Prongs), Sirius Black (Padfoot), Remus Lupin (Moony), and Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail). All became Animagi to accompany Lupin during full moon transformations.

The Servant of Lord Voldemort

Setting: Shrieking Shack

Key Events:

• Black and Lupin force Scabbers to transform back into Peter Pettigrew
• Pettigrew was the Potters' Secret Keeper, not Black
• Pettigrew betrayed the Potters to Voldemort
• Faked his own death, framed Black, lived as a rat for twelve years
• Black escaped Azkaban to kill Pettigrew, not Harry
• Harry stops Black and Lupin from killing Pettigrew
• They decide to take Pettigrew to the castle to clear Black's name

Significant Details: Black is innocent and is actually Harry's godfather. Pettigrew hid with the Weasleys to stay informed about Voldemort's potential return. Harry's parents died because of Pettigrew's betrayal.

The Dementor's Kiss

Setting: Hogwarts grounds

Key Events:

• Group exits Shrieking Shack with Pettigrew prisoner
• Full moon rises; Lupin transforms into a werewolf
• Black transforms into dog to fight Lupin and protect others
• Pettigrew escapes in the chaos, taking Ron's wand
• Dementors attack Harry and Sirius by the lake
• Harry attempts Patronus but there are too many Dementors
• Someone across the lake produces a powerful Patronus that saves them
• Harry thinks he sees his father before fainting

Significant Details: Lupin forgot to take his Wolfsbane Potion. The mysterious Patronus is extraordinarily powerful. Dementors were about to perform the Kiss on both Harry and Sirius.

Hermione's Secret

Setting: Hogwarts hospital wing

Key Events:

• Harry wakes in hospital wing; Sirius has been captured
• Snape told his version of events; Fudge doesn't believe Black's innocence
• Black will receive the Dementor's Kiss at any moment
• Dumbledore hints they can save Sirius
• Hermione reveals her secret: she has a Time-Turner
• Dumbledore suggests they go back three hours
• Harry and Hermione use Time-Turner to travel back in time

Significant Details: The Time-Turner explains how Hermione attended multiple classes at once all year. Dumbledore believes Black is innocent but needs proof. They have until the spell wears off (three hours) to rescue Sirius.

Owl Post Again

Setting: Hogwarts grounds and hospital wing

Key Events:

• Harry and Hermione relive the past three hours
• Rescue Buckbeak before execution (the axe hit a pumpkin)
• Hide in the forest while past versions play out
• At the lake, Harry realizes it was himself, not his father, who produced the Patronus
• Harry's Patronus (a stag like his father's Animagus form) saves both versions
• They fly Buckbeak to Sirius's window and help him escape
• Return exactly as time runs out
• Sirius and Buckbeak escape; Pettigrew still free

Significant Details: Harry's Patronus takes the form of a stag (Prongs) like his father. Sirius sends Harry a letter with the Firebolt permission and a letter from "Padfoot." Offers Harry a home when his name is cleared. Crookshanks was part-Kneazle and had been helping Sirius all along.