In Chapter 12, the boys are unhappy with Hermione, Harry has his first dementor lessons with Lupin, we find out more about dementors than we ever wanted to, and the Firebolt is back, baby! Let’s go!

Losing the Firebolt has had some implications. The boys are none to happy with Hermione, even though Hermione maintains that she was in the right and just trying to look out for Harry. Oliver Wood is stunned that Harry got such a wonderful broom for Christmas and completely dismayed that McGonagall won’t give it back yet.

Classes are back in session though, and that means the promised anti-dementor classes with Lupin. They can’t practice on a real dementor, obviously, but Lupin is able to find another boggart in the castle that will be a good substitute. The only way to drive one off is a very advanced spell called a Patronus Charm which produces (you guessed it) a Patronus. What is a Patronus, you might ask?

“. . . a kind of anti-dementor – a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor.”

“The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can’t hurt it.”

It’s a tough spell that even full grown wizards can’t all do. There is an incantation and a happy memory needed to power the Patronus, but it’s still super hard. But this is Harry Potter! He can do it! No. No, he can’t. The boggart-dementor takes him out. The happy memory Harry chose (flying for the first time) was not enough. Lupin gives Harry some chocolate to feel better. Harry is determined to get this – what if dementors show up at his next Quidditch match!

The second attempt (with the memory of winning the House Cup last year) also doesn’t work, and now, Harry not only hears his mother pleading for his life, he hears his father telling them to run. This is so hard for Harry! He wants to fight off the dementors . . . but he also is hearing his parents’ voices for the first time since he was a baby. We also find out that Lupin knew James Potter and was friends with him at Hogwarts. This makes sense too, as Lupin has shown a bit of extra concern for Harry – he’s looking after his friend’s kid.

Third try. Memory chosen: the day he found out he was leaving the Dursleys. So happy! And it sort of works. The dementor is there, but so is a silvery cloud thing that the dementor can’t get through. It takes everything he has to keep the silvery cloud up, but it’s enough to keep the dementor away and keep him on his feet. Lupin is very happy about the progress and gives Harry even more chocolate. As he’s eating it, something occurs to Harry.

“Professor Lupin?” he said. “If you knew my dad, you must’ve known Sirius Black as well.”

Lupin turned very quickly.

“What gives you that idea?” he said sharply.

“Nothing – I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too . . .”

Lupin’s face relaxed.

“Yes, I knew him,” he said shortly. “Or I thought I did.”

Makes sense. If James and Black were friends, and Lupin was also friends with James, then Lupin would have known Black too.  Harry still feels conflicted about hearing his parents and knows that he will never be able to produce a proper Patronus if he keeps wanting to hear their voices. This is so sad! Again, how is this kid not suffering from every PTSD symptom known to man!?!? He finally tells himself to get a grip, that listening to their voices won’t bring them back, and if he wants that Quidditch Cup, he needs to work on this. This kid is so strong, I tell you! I would be nothing but a complete and total mess at this point.

Leading up to the next Quidditch match, a few things happen. For one, Hermione is starting to break under the strain of taking every single class Hogwarts has to offer. Ron can’t figure out how she’s getting to all her classes – many of them are at the same time as the classes they share with her, so how is she attending them? Also, Wood decided to go and ask McGonagall if they could get the Firebolt back and was immediately rejected. Harry keeps asking over and over, and still no. Patronus lessons continue, but the Patronus isn’t getting any stronger. Lupin tells Harry not to worry, he’s doing amazing for such a young wizard, and at least with this cloudy Patronus, Harry will be able to land on the ground and not fall to his almost-death like he did before.

Lupin also gives us some more info on dementors, also known as nightmare fuel. When Harry asks what’s under a dementor’s hood (since he’s never actually seen a dementor’s face), Lupin can’t really explain because very few people know and they aren’t able to tell.

“They call it the Dementor’s Kiss,” said Lupin, with a slightly twisted smile. “It’s what dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and – and suck out his soul.”

AAAHHHHHHH!!!! Mind you, this does not kill the person. They are still alive, just an empty shell. This has always made me wonder what they do with these people. Like, if someone here is sentenced to the death penalty, they are killed and their body either cremated or buried, but what do you do with a criminal who has been deemed severe enough that he gets sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss after the soul has been sucked out? Is there a pen in Azkaban with a bunch of mindless shell people wandering around? Do they get fed? Can they even eat? Can they talk? Can they do anything? Or do they just wither away to nothing? If so, why don’t they just execute them? This is a creepy line of questioning, so let’s just move on.

Oh, and the Ministry has authorized the dementors to give Black the Dementor’s Kiss if they find him. Harry says he deserves it, but Lupin wonders if anyone really deserves such a fate. It’s a good question, much like the death penalty debates we have here. How far is too far when it comes to punishment of crimes?

Harry finally gets some good news – the Firebolt has been cleared! It’s safe! Harry and Ron agree that they should probably patch things up with Hermione, since she was really looking out for Harry’s safety, but that nice moment is destroyed by the revelation that Scabbers is gone, Ron finds blood on his bedsheets, and with it, several ginger cat hairs. It looks like Crookshanks has finally done it.

See you next time for Chapter 13!

In Chapter 10, Harry returns to class, Lupin returns to teaching, and Harry receives a very special present from the Weasley twins. Let’s go!

Harry spends a great deal of time in the hospital wing, doesn’t he. He should have his own reserved cot there. It also gives him a great deal of time to think about this Grim that seems to follow him. He’s seen it twice and both times, he’s had close brushes with death. It’s scary. Also scary – the dementors. Harry has figured out that he is hearing his mother’s voice screaming and trying to protect him from Voldemort whenever the dementors are near. That’s not depressing at all.

On a happier note, Lupin is back! Which is great, except he looks awful. The class protests Snape’s lessons, particularly assigning a big essay on werewolves, a subject they hadn’t even covered. Lupin assures them they don’t have to do it and continues their lessons. Harry stays behind after class to speak to him, asking him about the dementors. He worries that they seem to affect him worse than anyone else.

“It has nothing to do with weakness,” said Professor Lupin sharply, as though he had read Harry’s mind. “The dementors affect you worse than the others because there are horrors in your past that the others don’t have.”

It makes sense. Very few kids at the school have gone through all that Harry has, even the parts he was too young to remember clearly. That’s what dementors do and how they keep the prisoners at Azkaban captive: they feed off of happiness and hope and leave you with the worst of your memories. Even Muggles can feel their presence, even if they can’t see them. Harry asks Lupin if there is any way to fend them off, since Lupin was able to do so on the train. Lupin claims not to be an expert, but he agrees to try and teach Harry what to do.

Christmas at Hogwarts! I would so love to spend Christmas at Hogwarts. I wonder if the theme park down in Florida does something special for the holidays. They probably do. I actually got to go once several years ago. It’s really, really cool, and they’ve added a bunch of stuff since then.

Harry is really bummed that there is another Hogsmeade weekend and he still can’t go. The morning of the trip, Harry sees Fred and George Weasley hiding. They motion for him to come over and give him, what they call, “the secret of our success.” It looks like a spare bit of parchment, but it is soooooo much more than that!

And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web from the point that George’s wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

are proud to present

THE MARAUDER’S MAP

This thing is so cool. It’s a full map of Hogwarts Castle and the grounds surrounding it. Not only that, this thing shows where everyone is in the castle by little dots that move around with names hovering over them. This is partially how Fred and George have gotten away with so much – they know everything about the castle, including secret passages, one of which leads right into the candy shop at Hogsmeade. They both agree that, since Harry is having such a rough time of it, they should give the map to him.

And it works! He emerges in the basement of Honeydukes, sneaks up the stairs and startles Ron and Hermione, who were both shopping there. Hermione thinks Harry should turn it in, but Ron thinks it’s amazing and is irritated that his brothers never gave it to him. Hermione is also worried that Harry will get in trouble, either at school or because Black is still on the loose, but there are notices all over the town saying that Hogsmeade is being patrolled every night by the dementors and nothing has turned up yet.

They decide to go to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer. While there, they see not only some of their teachers (McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid), but the Minister himself. Ron and Hermione shove Harry under the table and Hermione moves a Christmas tree over slightly to hide them. While there, Harry overhears more information than he ever wanted about Sirius Black.

Turns out, Black was James Potter’s best friend. They were inseparable at school and, when James married Lilly, Black was their best man. He was even named Harry’s godfather when Harry was born. Even after that, somehow, for some reason, Black betrayed them. He turned to Voldemort. The Potters went into hiding, using a Fidelius Charm to keep their location secret, and Black gave up their location to Voldemort. What happened next is history. The Potters were killed, except for Harry, who somehow survived.

Hagrid, in particular, is furious to learn this.

“I met him!” growled Hagrid. “I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lilly an’ James’s house after they was killed! Jus’ got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, an’ his parents dead . . . an’ Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin’ motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin’ there. I didn’ know he’d bin Lily an’ James’s Secret-Keeper. Thought he’d jus’ heard the news o’ You-Know-Who’s attack an’ come ter see what he could do. White an’ shakin’, he was. An’ yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN’ TRAITOR!” Hagrid roared.

First, that is heartbreaking. We all know how tenderhearted Hagrid is and this must really be a blow to him. Second, it is really hard to type the way Hagrid speaks. Just throwing that out there.

So that’s where Hagrid’s flying motorcycle from Sorcerer’s Stone came from. It had belonged to Sirius Black. Black had originally tried to get Hagrid to give Harry to him, but when Hagrid told him Dumbledore’s plan, Black gave him the motorcycle so he could get there faster. But that’s not all. The Ministry tried to catch up with him, but it wasn’t the Ministry who finally confronted him. It was another one of the Potters’ friends – Peter Pettigrew. Known for being hopeless at magic while he was at Hogwarts and “hero-worshipped” James and Sirius, Pettigrew was completely destroyed in the incident. The larges piece of him they found was a finger. Eww.

So here’s the thing that’s weird. Black has been in Azkaban surrounded by dementors for many, many years, and yet, he hasn’t seemed to have lost his mind. Fudge had seen him during his last inspection and Black seemed very . . . normal. Spoke rationally. Asked if he could have the Minister’s newspaper so he could do the crossword puzzle. This is not typical behavior for someone in Azkaban. At all. The dementors, with all their hope-sucking power, haven’t had an effect on him. And they STILL don’t know how he broke out.

Soon after this, they leave. And Ron and Hermione now have to deal with their shell-shocked friend under the table.

See you next time for Chapter 11!