**spoilers for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to follow-- do not read past first paragraph if you haven't read the book and don't want to know what happens-- if you only don't want the big secrets revealed to you, then you can probably read to the end of the second paragraph-- but that's it! big important surprises after that if you haven't read :) enjoy**
In book 3 of
J.K. Rowling's
Harry Potter series,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a new character is introduced: the convicted criminal
Sirius Black. At first, all
Harry knew about him was what he overheard
Ron's parents say about him, i.e. that he was dangerous and had been heard in his prison cell in
Azkaban to be muttering, "He's at
Hogwarts..." over and over. Even though
Harry doesn't know why
Sirius was in prison in the first place, he realizes of course that the
Weasley parents are especially worried for him because
Sirius has
escaped from
Azkaban, something no other prisoner has ever been able to do before, and may be coming after
Harry.
As
Harry finds out later, from another overheard conversation since no one wants to forthrightly tell him about all this,
Sirius was convicted on charges of murder and accomplice to murder: 13 counts of
Muggle murder (with one curse), 1 count of wizard murder (although all they could ever find was a finger, not the body), and accomplice to 2 murders-- those of
Harry's parents. Apparently,
Sirius had been
James and
Lily Potter's best friend, even
best man at their wedding, and he became
Harry's godfather when he was born. So when they were on the run from
Lord Voldemort, the Potters naturally made
Sirius their
Secret Keeper so that only he would know their location. But their
Secret Keeper betrayed them, and
Lord Voldemort found the Potters and killed them, while
Harry escaped the deadly encounter with a small souvenir, a thin lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead that throbs and hurts and tortures him sometimes.
After
Harry hears all this, he doesn't know that there's still quite a bit of story left to tell, but he finally finds out at the very end of the book in an encounter between
Harry,
Hermione,
Ron,
Professor Remus Lupin,
Professor Snape,
Sirius, and believe it or not
Peter Pettigrew.
As it turns out,
Sirius had convinced the Potters to use another friend as their
Secret Keeper, unwittingly leading them straight into the hands of a follower of
Voldemort,
Peter Pettigrew.
Pettigrew had been not really a friend of
Sirius and the Potters, but more of a hanger-on, a weak follower-type, which is why he was so easily converted to the dark side. When he saw the chance to deliver the Potters to his master, he took the opportunity, little knowing that the incident with the infant
Harry would lead to the near-extinction of
Voldemort.
Sirius was the only one who knew that it was
Pettigrew who had betrayed the Potters, and he confronted him about this in public as the authorities were trying to capture
Sirius. However, he hadn't counted on such desperate cunning as
Pettigrew showed when he, in one deft movement, killed 13 bystanders with one curse and at the same time cut off his finger and turned himself into a rat. The point of this was to make it appear as though
Sirius was indeed the dangerous criminal who had betrayed the Potters, and he was crazy enough to take out 14 more people when cornered. What's all this about
Pettigrew the rat, and 14, not 13, people? If you're confused, be patient and read on.
Sirius spent years in the dread prison of
Azkaban for his alleged crimes, and when he finally got out, he wanted to have his revenge upon
Pettigrew, who he knew was at
Hogwarts ("He's at
Hogwarts..."). How did
Pettigrew manage to get there, you ask? Follow this semi-side note and you will learn:
Professor Lupin, the students'
Defense against the Dark Arts teacher that year, had been a friend of the Potters and
Sirius when they were all in school together. Unbeknownst to the rest of the wizarding world,
Lupin,
James Potter,
Sirius, and
Pettigrew were all unregistered
Animagi, i.e. they could turn themselves into animals.
Lupin was a werewolf (nickname
Moony),
James Potter could turn into a stag (
Prongs),
Sirius into a large black dog (
Padfoot), and
Pettigrew into a rat (
Wormtail). **
fun fact: Remember these names?
Padfoot,
Prongs,
Moony, and
Wormtail are the creators of the
Marauder's Map!** Now remember our good friend
Ron Weasley? He has a pet,
Scabbers, a scrawny little... rat. Yes, rat. That's right,
Peter Pettigrew aka
Wormtail had been living in disguise as
Ron's pet rat ever since he disappeared in that confrontation, leaving part of his body (a finger) to make it look like
Sirius had killed him with that explosive spell.
This all came out in the aforementioned encounter that happened at the very end of the book. Now what happened after everyone there learned the truth about
Sirius Black? Long story short,
Wormtail escaped,
Sirius couldn't prove his innocence without him, and
Harry's joy at finding his godfather to be a good person and a great replacement for
the Dursleys was cut short as
Sirius remains on the run from the
Ministry of Magic. Confused? Intrigued? Want to know more (and there is so much more)? Read
the book. It's fabulous.