Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter Six:
Talons and Tea Leaves

Synopsis: William Sylvester
Notes and links: Steve Vander Ark and Michele L. Worley

US hardcover edition: pages 96 - 122
UK hardcover edition: pages 75 - 93
Timeframe: xx September, 1993 [Y13]

In which students begin the new year of classes, Hermione is taking a very full course load and in Divination, Professor Trelawney predicts Harry's death. Hagrid introduces hippogriffs at his first class, Buckbeak is insulted, Malfoy is injured, and HRH go to console Hagrid.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

quotation still to come

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• Buckbeak

• Sir Cadogan

• Trelawney, Professor

• (unnamed) eleven other hippogriffs

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Brown, Lavender

• Fang

• Finnegan, Seamus

• Hagrid, Rubeus

• Malfoy, Draco

• Parkinson, Pansy

• Patil, Parvati

• Potter, Harry

• Thomas, Dean

• Weasley, Ron

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• (surname not given) uncle Bilius (mentioned by Ron)

Settings and locations:

• corridors and stairways leading to North Tower

• Professor Trelawney's classroom at the top of North Tower

• Professor McGonagall's classroom

• the Great Hall

• outside of Hagrid's hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest (Hagrid's "classroom")

• Outside of a kind of paddock

• Gryffindor common room

• Hagrid's hut

Exceptional character moments:

• At breakfast Fred and George telling Harry, Ron, and Hermione how Malfoy had reacted to the dementor on the train.

• Harry and Ron discussing with Hermione her very full class schedule.

• Harry, Ron, and Hermione meeting Sir  Cadogan in his painting while trying to get to North Tower.

• third years in their first Divination class

• Harry and Ron trying to read each other's tea leaves.

• Professor finding the Grim in Harry's tea leaves and predicting Harry's death.

• Professor McGonagall explaining to her Transfiguration class about Professor Trelawney and Divination.

• Professor Hagrid's first Care of Magical Creatures class learning about hippogriffs.

• Harry meeting Buckbeak and getting to ride him.

• Malfoy insulting a hippogriff and being attacked by it.

• Harry, Ron, and Hermione's visit to see Hagrid in his hut.

• Hagrid's anger at Harry for coming to visit him after dark.

Spells:

• Animagus Transfiguration (McGonagall turning herself into a tabby cat and back again)

Links and Resources:

• hippogriffs

Memorable lines:

• "Hermione, they've messed up your schedule. Look -- they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time." Ron

• "I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall." Hermione

• To Harry in Divination class: "The Grim, my dear, the Grim! The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen -- the worst omen -- of death!" Professor Trelawney

• "Then you should know, Potter, that Sibyll Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class." Professor McGonagall

• "I think Divination seems very woolly. A lot of guesswork, if you ask me." Hermione

• "Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is , there're proud. Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do." Hagrid

• "That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid's first class, though, wasn't it? Trust Malfoy to mess things up for him. . ." Ron

• "He's faking it. Madam Pomfrey can mend anything. She regrew half my bones last year. Trust Malfoy to milk it for all it's worth." Harry

Strictly British:

• none yet

Timeline of the chapter

• Still to come. . .