Harry Potter: 5 Things Only Book Readers Will Know About Sirius Black

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is full of colourful, complex and wonderfully terrifying characters – but Sirius Black is undoubtedly one of the best that the series has to offer! Despite the fact that Sirius Black plays a major role in the Harry Potter movies, especially The Prisoner Of Azkaban and The Order Of The Phoenix, there’s a great deal of information that fans who have only seen the movies won’t know about the character!

When it comes to the movies, Sirius Black is one of the most iconic and beloved characters that the Harry Potter series has to offer, with Gary Oldman delivering a wildly memorable performance. When you compare Sirius’ role in the movies to his role in the books, however, there’s no denying that there is a great deal of information that was left on the cutting room floor. For our latest post on The Blog That Must Not Be Named, we’re ranking five details that only fans of the books will know about Sirius Black.

5 – He Escaped Azkaban By Starving Himself

In both versions of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, it is revealed that Sirius is the only wizard to escape from Azkaban prison. In the book, however, Sirius reveals how he managed to escape his cell and get past the Dementors. Sirius tells Harry that the thought of his innocence gave him strength against the Dementors. Sirius starved himself so that he was much smaller in dog form, and squeezed between the bars when the Dementors opened his cell. As for how he got back onto dry land, Sirius reveals that he swam back to the mainland in dog form.

4 – He Was Friends With Crookshanks

Crookshanks, Hermione’s cat, only makes a small appearance in the film adaptation of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. In the book, however, Crookshanks has a much larger role. It is revealed that Sirius, disguised as a giant black dog, befriended Crookshanks and asked the cat to find Scabbers the rat aka. Peter Pettigrew. Crookshanks also helped Sirus by pressing the knot on the Whomping Willow – giving him safe access to the Shrieking Shack.

3 – He Put Himself At Risk To See Harry In The Goblet Of Fire

Sirius Black appears in the film adaptation of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, but his role was significantly reduced. While Sirius doesn’t have a massive role in the fourth book since he’s still on the run from the Ministry of Magic – he risks his freedom to return to Hogsmeade (where he lived in a cave) to protect Harry. At one point in the book, Harry, Ron and Hermione visit Sirius in Hogsmeade with food from the Hogwarts kitchen.

2 – He Was Thrown Into Azkaban At 22-Years-Old

In the Harry Potter movies, The Marauders are shown to be much older and wiser wizards than their book counterparts. In the books, Sirius Black was just 22-years-old when he was arrested and thrown into Azkaban prison – meaning he missed out on some of the most important years of his entire life. This also means that Sirius was only 36-years-old when he was killed in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.

1 – He Wasn’t Killed By the Avada Kadavra Curse

In the film adaptation of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, Sirius Black is killed when Bellatrix Lestrange hits him with the Avada Kadavra curse. In the book, however, Sirius’ death plays out quite differently. Instead of being hit by the killing curse, Bellatrix strikes Sirius with a random spell – knocking him backwards into the veil. While the moment is relatively the same in the movie, in the book it isn’t Bellatrix’s curse that kills Sirius, but the veil.

Did you know any/all of these facts about Remus Lupin? Let us know in the comments section below this post! You can also find The Blog That Must Not Be Named on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@potterblogger)! If you enjoy this post stay tuned for more, as we will be examining all of our favourite Wizarding World characters in the weeks to come!

The Blog That Must Not Be Named is a Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts fan blog, covering all corners of the Wizarding World! Launched in 2019, The Blog That Must Not Be Named offers the latest Wizarding World news, magical features and more!