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The Controversy Of Sirius Black

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Throughout the first half of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black poses a threat as a dangerous prisoner who has escaped Azkaban. According to rumors from the Ministry of Magic, Sirius Black has escaped in order to target Harry Potter, a third-year student at Hogwarts School of Wizardry. From the beginning of the book, Harry must take cautious measures to avoid being detected by Sirius Black, often with the help of the caring adults around him. The focus on Sirius Black is intriguing from the beginning, yet Rowling purposely does not reveal the truth behind Black’s conviction until the end of the book. Rather, the information we as readers gather about Sirius Black is only through gossip and the media. The controversy surrounding Black’s imprisonment and escape reveals the issues within the criminal justice system of the Wizarding World that is mirrored in reality as well. As Harry Potter and his peers continue through their third year at Hogwarts, several …show more content…

According to Rowling, Azkaban is guarded by dementors and is supposedly inescapable. When the truth about Peter Pettigrew’s betrayal and Sirius Black’s loyalty to James Potter is revealed, it is confirmed that the criminal justice system of the Wizarding World did not conduct a fair trial for Sirius Black, and they falsely kept him in imprisonment. This means that even without a fair trial, Black spent a large portion of his life in Azkaban guarded by dementors. According to Hagrid, who was once in Azkaban for a short period of time before being found innocent, the dementors don’t care. “Long as they’ve got a couple o’ hundred humans stuck there with ‘em, so they can leech all the happiness out of ‘em, they don’t give a damn who’s guilty an’ who’s not.” (p. 221). Hagrid’s insight reveals the inhumane psychological torture of the Azkaban prison system, which is especially wrong for innocent

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