Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Chapter 17 Summary.
Cat, Rat and Dog
Chapter 17 of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, titled “Cat Rat and Dog”
Aftermath of the Execution
Harry goes blank with shock as he realizes what they had just heard: Buckbeak is no more. He instinctively rushes to go check on Hagrid, but Ron and Hermione hold him back. Still upset but powerless to do anything, the trio makes its way back to the castle.
As they reach the open grounds, however, Scabbers starts wriggling madly in Ron’s pocket. Ron tries to calm the rat down, but it bites him instead. He wonders what suddenly got into his rat, but then Harry sees it. Making its way towards them is Crookshanks, and Scabbers has sensed it. Hermione tries to shoo the cat away, but it’s too late. Scabbers escapes Ron’s hold and scampers away, with Crookshanks chasing after it.
Ron panics and abandons the safety of the Invisibility Cloak to run after Scabbers. Harry and Hermione, realizing the risk of being seen, have no choice but to follow him. They call out to Ron, urging him to stop, but he is determined to retrieve his pet.
While searching for Ron, Harry and Hermione nearly trip over him. Ron is sprawled on the ground, but has successfully managed to get Crookshanks off of Scabbers. Hermione tells him to get back inside the cloak before somebody sees them.
A Black Dog Attacks
Before they can cover themselves up again, however, something dark emerges out of the shadows. An enormous dog with a jet black coat and inch long teeth stands in their path. Harry instinctively steps forward to protect his friends, but the dog lunges without hesitation.
The enormous creature hits Harry’s chest with its paws, but the force of its leap makes the dog roll off of him. It skids around, and this time clamps its jaws around Ron’s arm. Ron screams in pain as the dog drags him across the ground. Harry and Hermione try to intervene, but the dog is able to drag Ron effortlessly.
Ron fights back valiantly, but his efforts, too, are futile against the dog’s sheer strength. Harry tries to grab the dog by its hair, but something hits him hard across the face. Once again, Harry gets knocked off his feet. Seconds later, a scream from Hermione confirms that she was hit too.
The Whomping Willow Strikes Again
Harry uses Lumos to see what hit them, and realizes that they were near the Whomping Willow.
The Whomping Willow lashes out with its branches, creating a deadly barrier that prevents Harry and Hermione from getting close. They watch helplessly as the dog drags Ron into a hole at the base of the tree. Ron hooks his leg around a root of the tree to avoid being completely pulled inside, but his leg breaks, and he disappears completely.
Harry and Hermione desperately think of a plan. The dog is big enough to eat Ron, and if they don’t act quick, a lot of things could go wrong.
Crookshanks suddenly leaps forward and performs an unexpected act of bravery. The cat presses a knot on the tree’s trunk, causing the branches to freeze mid-swing. This provides Harry and Hermione with a narrow window of opportunity. Without hesitation, they pull out their wands and crawl into a tunnel that lies beneath the tree, determined to rescue Ron.
Inside the Shrieking Shack
The tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow is dark, damp, and claustrophobic. Harry recalls it being marked on the Marauder’s map, but never used by anyone.
Eventually, they reach the end of the tunnel, and find themselves inside the Shrieking Shack. The air is thick with dust, and the floorboards creak ominously under their weight. Broken furniture and cobwebs litter the room, giving the impression that the place has been abandoned for decades. They hear something move above them, and thy instinctively follow the noise.
Harry and Hermione cautiously ascend a crumbling staircase, their wands raised in preparation for an attack. They follow the faint sound of movement nearby, which leads them to a bedroom upstairs. There, they find Ron lying on the floor, his leg bent at a strange angle. Harry asks Ron where the dog is, but all Ron can say is- there is no dog and they walked right into a trap.
Ron was staring over Harry’s shoulder. They turn around and come face-to-face with a gaunt, corpse like man with long hair and yellow teeth bared into a smile; Sirius Black.
Face to Face with Sirius Black
Black quickly disarms both Hermione and Harry with Ron’s wand. He claims he knew Harry would come to save his friend instead of running to a teacher, and remarks that James would have done the same for him.
Harry, overcome with fury, lunges at Black, ignoring the fact that he is unarmed. Hermione and Ron hold him back, and Ron tells Black that in order to kill Harry he would have to kill them all.
Black tells Ron to lie down before he damages his leg further, and declares there would be only one murder tonight. Harry loses his calm, and asks him why, since he did not care last time.
Blinded with rage, Harry breaks free from Hermione and Ron, and lunges at Black. He doesn’t care about being unarmed and skinny against a fully grown man who is armed. All he wants, is to hurt Black.
His fist connects with the side of Black’s head, and they both fall over. A chaotic grappling session ensues. Harry punches Black with all his might, and Black grips Harry by the throat. Hermione kicks Black, which forces him to let go of Harry. Meanwhile, Ron had thrown himself over Black’s wand hand, and Harry sees his wand rolling across the floor.
He rushes to get it, but is interrupted by Crookshanks, who sinks both its front claws deep into Harry’s arm, before darting towards the wand. Harry furiously kicks the cat away, grabs his wand and turns to face the murderer of his parents.
Remus Lupin, to the Rescue?
Wand in hand, Harry screams for Hermione and Ron to get away. Black asks Harry is he is going to kill him, to which Harry says simply that Black killed his parents. Black tells Harry that he needs to hear the whole story, and if he doesn’t, he would regret it later.
Suddenly, Crookshanks climbs on top of Black and settles right over his heart. It sinks its claws deep into Black’s robes and refuses to move, even when Black tells it to. Harry decides that Crookshanks is in league with Black, and that he should kill it too.
Harry aims his wand for the kill, but there is movement below. Hermione screams for whoever it is, that they are upstairs with Sirius Black. Footsteps thunder upstairs, and the door of the room busts open to reveal Professor Lupin.
Lupin quickly scans the room, and launches an Expelliarmus, disarming both Harry and Hermione. In a very tense voice, he asks Black where ‘he’ is’. Black is expressionless for a few seconds, before pointing at Ron. Lupin wonders out loud why ‘he’ hasn’t shown himself till now, rambles for a few seconds and hits a realization.
A Strange Turn of Events
Harry is extremely confused, and asks Lupin what is going on. Before he could complete his question, however, Lupin lowers his wand and embraces Black like a brother.
Hermione screams in disbelief. She declares that she had been keeping Lupin’s secret all this while, when he had been the one helping Black. Lupin tries to explain, but Hermione continues, telling Harry to not trust Lupin and that Lupin is actually a werewolf.
Ron gasps and tries to move away, but falls back down. Concerned, Lupin tries to help him, but Ron screams for him to get away. Hermione reveals that she had known this secret ever since Snape’s essay, and Lupin claims that the sole purpose of Snape assigning the essay was in hopes that someone would figure it out.
Still enraged, Harry screams at Lupin, but the latter asks for a chance to explain. In an attempt to get Harry to calm down, he throws their wands back at the trio and tucks his own within his belt. Now the trio is armed, and the adults are not.
Lupin explains that he knew about Sirius being in the Shack through the Marauder’s map. When Harry questions how Lupin knew about the map, he reveals that he was actually Mr. Moony, one of the map’s creators.
Lupin knew that the trio would head to Hagrid’s hut for Buckbeak’s execution, and as they were returning, he saw somebody else accompanying them. Then he saw Sirius Black’s dot dragging ‘two of them’ down the Whomping Willow.
Ron angrily defends, saying it was only him who was dragged, but Lupin does not share the opinion.
He asks to look at Ron’s rat. Confused, Ron asks what role does Scabbers play in all of this, to which Black makes a shocking revelation.
The chapter ends with the big reveal, that Scabbers is not actually a rat, but a wizard. An Animagus, who goes by the name of Peter Pettigrew.
