Book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Page: 411
Which is: Lupin transforms into a werewolf
Lead: 54
Time Spent: 25.5 hours
Pages Remaining: 2577 (36% complete)
Estimated Completion: Friday 20th July
Favourite Character: Lupin
Random Quote #1: ‘I can’t Harry, I’ve still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!’ said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical.
Random Quote #2: ‘You fool,’ said Lupin softly. ‘Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?’
So, I’ve burned up some of that lead. Didn’t have a particularly early night in the end though. Quote #1 is because I recognise the slightly obsessive focus on pages read!
I’m now into the final run of book 3, just past the big expository scene where we find out that Scabbers is Pedigrew and that it’s he, not Black, that betrayed Harry’s parents. I don’t particularly like that chapter. I’ve been thinking about this and that this is perhaps why I prefer the ending to book 2 (see also yesterday’s comment on that). I like Rowling’s writing generally and she’s good at setting up a mystery, laying clues upfront, planting misleads. However she often writes herself into the kind of corner where she’s left with a lot of exposition to do.
So here for instance we have a whole lot of Black-Potter-Lupin-Pedigrew-and-Snape backstory explained. Also there’s a tendency for extra characters to turn up just in time to have their part explained. This happens with Lupin, Snape and Pedigrew (who’s there but as a rat). So although there’s talk of murder I almost get the feeling of a stage farce.
Having said that once we’ve gotten through the exposition we’ve got a clear run at the ending – Lupin turning wolf, Harry facing the Dementors, the time-turner stuff – all good fun and all in my immediate (next 30 mins) future. (I mention them now because I suspect tomorrow’s entry will have a lot more to do with Goblet of Fire.
A word about quote #2 – I like this because it demonstrates one of the reasons I like Lupin. Overall he’s in the wrong – he was party to bullying Snape – but he’s also right about the issue in hand. That he has the confidence to rebuke Snape’s grudge-bearing without either losing sight of his own wrongs or over-reacting (he says it softly) speaks volumes.