Question: Can somebody please tell me why there was a dog in the sky? I know it had something to do with the 'Grim'.
Chosen answer: That's it exactly. It's a bit of in-world foreshadowing. Divination isn't complete malarkey, as McGonagall makes it out to be; Trelawney just doesn't have a knack for it aside from Prophecy which she herself is ignorant of actually possessing. Whatever magic controls such things as tea leaves and the like caused the clouds to form into the shape of a Grim. Harry just misunderstood the warning.
Question: I don't understand something about the last part of the movie. Before they going back in time, they are leaving Hagrid's hut and watch somebody pretending to eliminate the hippogriff. Shouldn't they've seen Harry and Hermione rescuing the hippogiff before? Because they were observing until the bad people came outside Hagrid's hut. Or do we must assume that they were rescuing the hippogriff in the meantime they were running behind the rocks?
Chosen answer: Harry and friends leave Hagrid's hut, then watch as Fudge and company arrive, go into the hut for a short time, then exit and supposedly execute Buckbeak. However, as they can't actually see the area where Buckbeak is, they don't realise that what they think is an execution is actually the executioner slamming his axe onto the floor in frustration at Buckbeak being missing. Buckbeak was rescued by the future Harry and Hermione while Fudge was in the hut; as Buckbeak was out of sight, their younger selves didn't see it happen.
Question: When Harry and Hermione are rescuing Sirius, Hermione blasts open the door using a different spell than the one she used in The Philosopher's Stone to open the door to where Fluffy was. I can understand that the reason the spell would be stronger on Sirius's cell is so he can't escape and it's more secure. But the Philosopher's Stone had to be secured well, so why was the lock so easy to unlock?
Answer: It's never stated that one spell is stronger than the other. There may be different spells that achieve similar results, and Hermione simply chose one over the other. Therefore, it should not be assumed that one lock was easier to open than the other. Also, the "bombarda" spell was never mentioned in the books. It was invented by the filmmakers for the movie, probably because it sounded stronger and was more descriptive (as in to bombard).
Question: There's a scene in the Leaky Cauldron where an anonymous customer is reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and stirring a spoon in his coffee cup without touching it. Is this just a random display of magic, or is it some kind of inside physics joke? I seem to remember some example (maybe about entropy?) in Hawking's book that included reference to a coffee cup, but it's been a really long time since I read it. Does anyone know what, if anything, this scene is supposed to signify?
Answer: It is a bit of an inside joke, but not as significant as you make it out to be. The plot in "Azkaban" involves time travel, and the book, written by the famous British scientist, fits in with that premise. The magic being used to stir the coffee is probably just that - a demonstration of magic. It also draws attention to Ian Brown of the band Stone Roses, who makes a cameo appearance as the coffee drinker.
Question: How did Lupin become a werewolf? Did he get bitten or is he a shape shifter?
Answer: This is answered in the sixth book. He was bitten as a small boy (about 5) by a dangerous Werewolf called Fenrir Greyback. He is not an Animagus like Sirius Black.
Question: When Aunt Marge starts to inflate, Uncle Vernon starts kind of whining. He's supposed to be really tough, why doesn't he growl or yell instead? Or at least try to save his sister?
Answer: He is a big bully. He isn't tough at all, he just acts that way to Harry. When confronted by something scary, he wusses out!
Question: What is the age different between the teenage actors and their characters?
Answer: In the up coming movie Goblet Of fire the trio will be 14. Dan Radcliffe (Harry) is 16 Rupert Grint (Ron) is 17 and Emma Watson (Hermione) is 15.
Question: I read in Teen Beat that one of the actors calls Emma Watson by her real name but they did not mention who did or which scene it was done in. Do you know? Thanks.
Answer: There may have been some crossed wires. It was believed in the Whomping Willow scene that Emma Watson called Rupert Grint by his real name, but has since been proven to be untrue.
Question: Its not really to do with the film but I didn't know where else to put it. Does anyone know who Hermione Granger shares her dorm with at Hogwarts? I don't know whether it's in the books or not. Thanks.
Question: Was the candy in Honeydukes real and, if so, what happened to it at the end of shooting?
Answer: Some of the candy was real and was eaten by the actors, and later film crew. The rest was props. I assume excess candy was just trashed after a while.
Question: When Lupin is on the bridge with Harry, he talks about Lily as though he liked her. Is there any evidence in the book that supports this?
Answer: Lupin does like Lily (in purely friendly terms). They don't say this in the movie, but in the book when Lupin turned into a werewolf she was his only true friend. She was the only one in the school who didn't think he was evil. She believed in him, and that is why he didn't give up. He does say in the book that he is thankful for Lily.
Question: Does anyone know what the two main instruments are at the beginning the track called 'Hagrid the Professor' on the soundtrack?
Answer: An oboe and then a flute.
Question: I read in the trivia section that Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) had his pockets sewn shut to prevent him from taking food on the set. Why couldn't he take food on the set?
Answer: There's the danger of getting food on your wardrobe, spilling or getting crumbs on the set and props, and of course getting food in your teeth, all of which take time to remedy before filming can begin. Film sets always have food set up nearby, but it's for breaks between setups. No one wants to deal with food between takes, when the camera is about to roll.
Question: Time travel question: Harry has been saved after the transformation of the werewolf because of a howl. However, this only happened because of their time travel, so the "first run" is maybe supposed to end somehow differently - e.g. Harry having been killed by the werewolf, making the scenario at the hospital ward unable to happen at all.
Answer: No that howl the whole time was Hermione, it was never another wolf. Look at it this way: at Hagrid's hut the trio did not know to leave until the Future Hermione threw 2 stones through the window. This scene (and any times Hermione travels back in time) is basically on a loop. One (Hermione throwing the stone to alert her self) has to happen for the other (real time) to continue as planned. Any other sequence of events is impossible. Weird, but just how it works.
Question: When Hermione is using her Time Turner to attend multiple classes scheduled at the same time, she appears out of nowhere in the middle of the lessons. For this to happen, she must be travelling to the classroom after the lesson and then using the Time Turner in the empty classroom to send herself back. Is there any reason why she does it this way (rather than just travelling back to before the lesson and then entering the classroom with the others)?
Chosen answer: This is probably because she can't control exactly when she gets to class (she can only go back a number of hours), so she ends up slightly late for the lesson.
Question: This has already been asked, but who is the black kid that reads about the Grim? Someone said it was Dean Thomas, which is what I thought, but you can see the original actor for Dean Thomas in a few scenes IN ADDITION to the new kid.
Answer: This is NOT Dean Thomas, who is played again by the same actor from the first two HPs. This is just a random Hogwarts student. No special reason he was put in this film (no conspiracy theories!), just as an extra. Remember, there are students at the school whose names are never mentioned in the books. Check out IMDB, there are 2 kids, listed as Boy 1 and Boy 2. He's got to be one of them.
Question: We know Professor Lupin is a werewolf, but is he also an animagus? If so, does he change into a wolf or something else?
Answer: No - he's a werewolf, nothing more. His friends, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter all became animagi so that they could help him, but he himself is not one.
Chosen answer: They didn't know. Hermione's call distracted the werewolf when they first saw him, true enough, but that was before they had time jumped, so the Harry and Hermione that were scared of the werewolf were unaware that their future selves were around to save them.
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