Things are getting exciting as the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban approaches! In last week's chapters ("Professor Trelawney's Prediction," "Cat, Rat, and Dog," "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," and "The Servant of Lord Voldemort"), we finally sort out all the details of how Lupin and Black are connected, and how Pettigrew betrayed the Potters and then allowed Black to take the fall for him.
This part of the book was pretty clear in my memory, so there weren't a lot of surprises on this re-reading. It was fun to see the scene in the Shrieking Shack play out, knowing the outcome, but as has been the case with several Snape scenes in this book, I felt he was too cartoonishly cruel. Given his role in the final two books of the series, it's almost not believable for him to be so gratuitously mean to his students. I know we're seeing him through Harry's eyes, but even so, it feels over the top.
What does feel very real, though, is Sirius's indignation toward Pettigrew on behalf of James and Lily. I wanted to stand up and cheer at this moment:
"You don't understand," whined Pettigrew. "He would have killed me, Sirius!"
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
These words really drive home the fact that Pettigrew was their friend, something that is a bit hard to believe given how deplorable he appears in this book. This line also highlights one of the reasons I don't object to Catholic kids reading these books. Rowling reinforces what Jesus says: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
I'll be finishing the book this week, and then I'll be spending two months with book four!
No comments:
Post a Comment