BOOK: The Prisoner of Azkaban
CHAPTER: 10
SYNOPSIS: Fred and George give Harry the Marauder's Map, and he later overhears an interesting conversation about Sirius.
FOR TOMORROW: 11
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION TOPICS
* Why do you think Sirius was laughing after the attack?
* Would you rather spend 10 years in a regular prison, or one month in Azkaban?
* Why do you think the secret passages were originally constructed?
* Why do you think Sirius was able to repel the Dementors?
sirius was the only person at teh scene of the attack who realized exactly what had occurred. he knew he was going to be caught and imprisoned for it, and he would rather laugh in desperation than throw a hissy fit. it was incredibly ironic that he had helped teach peter pettigrew the spell he had just used in the midst of that attack.
ReplyDeletethe secret passages out of the castle, other than the one under the whomping willow, were probably constructed during medieval times when most castles had secret passages for escape during sieges--they were likely made for safe evacuation of the students in case the muggles attacked. the passage under the whomping willow was made the year the willow was planted, for reasons revealed later in this book.
((spoiler)) sirius was able to lessen the impact of the dementors because as a dog, his emotions were less complex. he spent most of his time at azkaban as a dog, so the dementers had little effect on him
romana
Hard to answer these without huge spoilers, so for those unacquainted with later books, stop now!
ReplyDeleteSirius was laughing at the cruel, bitter irony. He was probably chastising himself for his own very poor judgement in the whole matter.
The question about the pasageways is an interesting one, because I had that same thought as Harry was treading down the tunnel to Honeydukes. I wonder if they were made at various different times for various different purposes, and each tunnel digger didn't know about others that already existed. A tunnel to Honeydukes could even have been made by students at some point.
I read an interview with JKR after DH came out. She has a back story for *everything*, so she probably does have some idea why each passageway was created. She mentioned perhaps someday putting together a kind of encyclopedia of the world of HP. Maybe one day we'll be able to find out.