This is probably my favorite Harry Potter book. I love Sirius Black and I love Professor Lupin. He really is the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher EVER! I think I really appreciate Black, not just because he's awesome, but because I love that Harry finally has something like a real family. He has a godfather who knew Harry's dad, grew up with him, loved him dearly, and so loves Harry just as dearly. It's probably at least part of the reason I don't like the last two books as much. I have to admit that I wanted Harry to move in with Black and live happily ever after but then, of course, we wouldn't have the Dursleys and it just wouldn't be a Harry Potter book without the Dursleys.
Magical things I love in this book: the Marauder's Map and, of course, chocolate. Something I had forgotten because I don't think it's in the movies is, when you've been around dementors, the best cure is chocolate. So the dementors suck out all of your happiness and make you feel despair and the cure for that is chocolate? I think Rowling has just proven one of my life-long theories!
I also appreciate that, even in a world where magic exists, Rowling still can't get behind Divination as legitimate. Her description of Professor Trelawney is exactly the kind of person you would expect to find trying to charge you money in order for her to "look into your future". But I also appreciated that she had Lavender and Parvati as her little groupees. They honestly thought she could see into the future and, every time she did, they found ways to justify it. I love it because people do that because they want to believe and they just won't listen to the voice of reason (in this case, Hermione). And again I have to take a moment to applaud the casting here. I can't stand Professor Trelawney but I always, always, always love Emma Thompson! She took this role and ran with it!
I also like the Snape character development in this book. I'll admit that, upon first reading these books, I had my doubts about whether Snape was really a good guy until the very end. This book shows some of the basis for that doubt when he has his own version of what happened at the Shrieking Shack and he tries to send Black back to Azkaban. On the one hand, he's held a grudge against Black since they were sixteen and that's just too long to hold a grudge. On the other hand, Black's little prank would have been fatal for Snape had Potter Sr. not intervened, and an attempt on one's life is not something one can let go so I can forgive Snape for that. I cannot forgive him for trying to sentence an innocent man to a fate worse than death. So, while I have been convinced that Snape is not a bad guy, I have decided that he's not really a good guy either. He has his faults.
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