prisoner of azkaban

Harry & Hermione riding a hippogriff

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is book three in the series, and the prisoner...well, you'll have to the read the book; no spoilers here.

Harry is back for his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his friends Hermione and Ron. This year we meet the dementors, those creepy, ragged cloak wearing, angel-of-death looking, soul sucking monsters that act as prison guards at Azkaban Prison. The dementors start hanging out at Hogwarts, presumably to insure the safety of the students and to watch out for the escaped prisoner. You can see why these creepy bastards became such a popular Hallowe'en costume.

Harry is also learning more about his own history, and the history of his dead parents. Harry's third year also means more advanced learning for him and his classmates, and one gets the feeling that the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is keeping a special eye on Harry, given his history and the murmurs of dark wizards that are cropping up more and more.

In a lot of ways, Prisoner is a filler book; a transition book between what has come before and whats coming next. Rowling is laying groundwork in this book by introducing us to Harry's history, the dementors, defensive spells, predicting the future, and the followers of Voldemort, know as Death Eaters. In fact, Voldemort himself doesn't appear to be the main focus of evil in this story, but rather its Voldemorts followers that Harry finds himself pitted against. Foreshadowing-filler book may be a better description for this one. I would not, however, recommend skipping this one.