Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Chapter 8 Summary

Flight of the Fat Lady

Chapter 8 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, titled “Flight of the Fat Lady,” deals with an incident with Sirius Black at the Gryffindor Tower.

Classroom Developments

Defense Against the Dark Arts had become the favorite class for most students, thanks to Professor Lupin’s engaging lessons. He introduced the students to creatures like Red Caps and Kappas, and everyone but Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins thoroughly enjoyed these lessons. Malfoy makes nasty comments about Lupin’s shabby robes, but the rest of the students don’t care about his clothes.

In other classes, however, things aren’t going as well. Snape, who already hated both Neville and Harry, was in a particularly vindictive mood after the Boggart incident. He had obviously heard about it and had started to bully Neville worse than ever.

Divination was another class Harry had come to dread. Professor Trelawney’s eyes filled with tears every time she looked at Harry, making the lessons uncomfortable for him. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who borderline worshiped Trelawney, had started treating Harry as if he was marked for disaster.

Meanwhile, Care of Magical Creatures had become a class nobody cared about. Hagrid’s confidence had taken a huge hit after the Buckbeak incident, and it clearly showed. The students now spent their lessons taking care of flobberworms, and even Ron had started to question the point of these lessons.

Quidditch, however, provided Harry with a much-needed escape. Since it was Oliver Wood’s final year at Hogwarts, he was particularly determined to win the Quidditch cup. He motivates and praises the team, especially Harry, calling him a seeker who has never failed his team. The team trains hard three days a week, and even the cold and rainy weather doesn’t dampen their spirits.

Crookshanks and Scabbers

One day after practice, Harry returns to find the common room buzzing with excitement. Upon inquiry, he discovers that the date for the first Hogsmeade weekend has been decided; at Halloween. Unfortunately, Harry can’t join his friends because his aunt and uncle didn’t sign his Hogsmeade permission slip. Disappointed, he slumps on a chair beside Ron.

Ron encourages him to ask Professor McGonagall for special permission, and Harry agrees to the idea. Hermione starts to argue, but Crookshanks leaps onto her lap at that very moment with a dead spider dangling from its mouth. Disgusted, Ron makes a comment which Hermione ignores. He asks her to keep the cat away since Scabbers is asleep in his bag. Almost immidieately, Crookshanks leaps at the bag and sinks all four claws into it.

Permission from McGonagall

On the way to transfiguration the next day, the trio meets Lavender. She is upset because her pet rabbit Blinky got killed by a fox. This event is in line with Trelawney’s prediction, since she predicted that the thing Lavender is dreading will happen on the Sixteenth of October.

Hearing this, Hermione asks Lavender why she was dreading Blinky’s death, to which Ron makes an offhanded comment saying Hermione doesn’t care about people’s pets. This further escalates tensions between them, and they don’t talk to each other for the rest of the lesson.

As the class ends, she announces that anyone who doesn’t have the consent form signed cannot visit Hogsmeade. Harry goes up to her for permission to visit Hogsmeade without the form, but she declines his request. Dejected, he returns back to Ron and Hermione, who try to cheer him up.

Harry wakes up on Halloween morning feeling depressed, but tries his best to not let it show. In the face of his difficulties, Ron and Hermione forget about their fight and promise to bring him back a lot of sweets. Sad and alone, he goes back to the common room, ignoring Malfoy’s taunts, who was also going to Hogsmeade. In the common room, Colin sees Harry and invites him to sit with his friends, which Harry declines, saying he has work at the library.

The grindylow is a ‘water demon’; a sickly green creature with sharp little horns. Lupin observes the creature, then offers Harry a cup of tea

Over tea, Harry asks Lupin why he didn’t let him face the Boggart. Lupin replies that he assumed the Boggart would turn into Voldemort, and having him materialise in the classroom would make people panic. Harry is surprised to hear the answer, and says that his biggest fear is actually Dementors.

There is a knock on the door, and Snape walks inside. He gives Lupin a goblet full of a smoking, potion, and instructs him to ‘drink it directly’. Lupin thanks him, and Snape leaves. He explains that he has been feeling rather off-color lately, and this potion is the only thing that helps. He drinks it all in one go, and tells Harry that he must get to work now.

The Fat Lady’s Attack

Ron and Hermione return from Hogsmeade and give Harry a bunch of sweets. They told him all about the wizarding village, and how fun the visit was. Harry tells them about Lupin and the goblet, which scares Ron and Hermione, who suspect that Snape might have been trying to poison Lupin. With this, they head to the feast; which as usual is delicious.

As the feast wraps up, Harry and the other Gryffindor students return to their common room. When they arrive, they find the entrance to the tower jammed with students. Percy makes his way through, using his Head-boy status to investigate the cause.

The Fat Lady, the portrait that guards Gryffindor Tower, has vanished, and her portrait has been violently slashed. Dumbledore arrives to investigate the matter, and asks Professor McGonagall to have Filch search for the Fat Lady. Peeves, the poltergeist, arrives, bobbing over the crowd gleefully and informs them that he saw her running near the fourth floor in shame. He also informs them that it was Sirius Black who did it.

The chapter ends with a growing sense of fear among the staff and the students, since Sirius Black has now invaded Hogwarts and made his first move.