Azkaban

Azkaban is a prison that features in Harry Potter.

History

Azkaban was an island prison located on Earth that was used as a hidden prison for rogue wizards. The island in the North Sea on which the wizard prison was built had never appeared on any map, wizard or Muggle. Its first known resident, Ekrizdis, practised the worst kinds of Dark Magic and constructed a fortress on the island, luring Muggle sailors there to torture and murder them. After his death, the various Concealment Charms he had cast on the island faded away, and the Ministry of Magic became aware of the mysterious site's existence. Those who entered the deserted fortress to investigate discovered, among other horrors, an infestation of Dementors. The wizarding authorities of the time considered destroying the fortress, but, fearing reprisal by the Dark entities or the island itself, decided against such action, and the Ministry allowed the sizeable colony to remain; the island was thus left unmolested and unchecked for many years, perhaps decades, until the International Statute of Secrecy was established. Due to the impracticality of using small, local prisons, which could result in bangs, smells and light shows if inmates escaped, plans for a single, purpose-built wizarding prison on some remote Hebridean island were made at the passing of the International Statute of Secrecy. However, when Damocles Rowle was elected Minister for Magic in 1718, he insisted on using Azkaban instead, seeing the Dementors as a potential asset: putting them to work as guards would save expense, time, and lives. This plan was eventually put into motion and, despite protests, Azkaban remained the magical prison of Great Britain until the end of the Second Wizarding War, primarily due to its seemingly zero breakout rate. From that point on, the Dementors served the Ministry as the guards of Azkaban, as the arrangement allowed them to feed on the emotions of the prisoners within its walls. Opposition to the use of Azkaban did manifest, however.

Overview

In appearance, Azkaban was a prison facility located on an island said to be situated in the middle of the North Sea.

It had a reputation of evil and fear throughout the series where the large presence of Dementors rendered the inmates incapable of happiness and forces them to relive their worst memories. This resulted in the prisoners gradually becoming helpless and often ended up severely insane. In fact, many inmates simply stopped eating and eventually die of starvation. As Dementors are extremely difficult even to injure Azkaban had a long reputation of being considered impossible to escape.

Inhabitants

Prisoners

• Avery :
• Sirius Black :
• Crabbe Sr. :
• Bartemius Crouch Jr. :
• Mrs Crouch :

Notes

• Azkaban was created by J. K. Rowling where it featured in the Harry Potter universe.

In other media

Films

• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Azkaban appeared in the setting of the live-action film. In the film adaptations, the prisoners of Azkaban have their place card numbers tattooed on their neck and have pictures of them taken with their official number.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

External Links

• Harry Potter Wiki Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.