Mark Reads ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’: Chapter 5

In the fifth chapter of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, it’s quite possible that Mark won’t be able to sleep for the rest of his life because he’ll constantly live in fear that the Dementors will show up and murder him in his sleep. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Harry Potter.

CHAPTER 5: THE DEMENTOR

There are no good days left. 🙁

There is no way Harry Potter is going to get out of this alive. There is no way he will be able to see his friends, to laugh and scheme with Hermione and Ron, to get hugs from Hagrid.

It’s all downhill from here.

I can’t explain what happened. Just reading these pages…something came over me. I just felt so…cold. As if I’d stepped into a giant refrigerator unit, like those ones on factory farms, cow carcasses strung from the ceiling, a reminder of the life they once lived.

And then everything just felt…dark.

As Harry and the Weasleys were preparing to board the Hogwarts Express, even as Mrs. Weasley was hugging Harry, I couldn’t feel joy. I knew something was wrong and I knew this wasn’t going to be a positive journey. I can’t explain it. It feels like there’s someone sitting on my chest and just breathing hurts. And I can’t make it go away.

Arthur Weasley knows how I feel. He warns Harry not to go seek out Sirius Black. It seems pretty pointless to me. Harry’s going to die either way. The only way I’ll be able to handle this is if I just accept it. I have to accept pain, accept death, accept sorrow. They’re all a part of my life now.

Once Harry, Ron, and Hermione board the Hogwarts Express, things only seem to get worse. Harry’s sneakoscope goes off in his trunk. I know it’s not because of Ron and Hermione. It’s because of the man they are sharing a cabin with, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, R.J. Lupin.

R.J. Lupin is bad. He’s taking a job that, historically, always leads to failure. I kind of feel like R.J. Lupin right now. It’s an unending sense of futility, that what I do and what I am doesn’t matter. We’re all part of the machinery and we’re replaceable parts. Lupin isn’t going to last. He’s just a part that will become a casualty and we’ll all move on.

Soon, you and I will be replaced, too.

Despite my newfound sense of desperation and pain, I wasn’t prepared for the appearance of the worst thing in any thing to have ever be a thing in anything.

The Dementors.

But it seems to me that there’s nothing to prepare you properly for the existence of the Dementors. They are an inevitable reality of life. They will visit you. And it will change everything about the way you feel.

Hogwarts Express stops. The lights go out. And as the passengers begin to freak out, you feel a chill over your skin. It penetrates the surface and settles into your bones. The dread you feel constricts your lungs and it’s difficult to breathe. And the sound creeps into your head and you feel like you’re falling into a pit without and end and the wind roars by you. You forget where you are and you forget what you’re doing, because when the Dementors come, there is no escaping them.

Even Harry, our heroic character, cannot escape their grasp. If Harry can’t escape, how should I?

The Dementors came to judge everyone on the Hogwarts Express. And when they come to judge you, and you’re left feeling nothing but shame and disappointment, you’ll understand me. There are no good days left. The Dementor has visited me and now I understand.

Weird. Why am I craving chocolate so much?