I have the other cub home sick today. Fortunately it looks like he's not as unwell as his brother was but he'll likely have a couple of days off anyway.

<sigh> The cubs' father's car is back on the road after being dead for a couple of weeks. It was just a dodgy battery, apparently. <sigh> I suggested it might have been that right at the start but no, no, it was the starter motor or something else dire. Tch. I'm not mechanically minded but I'm not completely blonde either.

Finally got to see Prisoner of Azkaban. Not enough Snape - though that goes without saying - and the abrupt change in scenery between this and the first two movies I found a little disorienting. However, there's a certain wildness to the wizarding world and the change in landscape made that very clear. Different director this time too, who gave the movie a noticeably darker, almost claustrophobically Victorian feel. The 'silent movie' tunnel-vision fade-outs contributed strongly to this impression.
I liked the way Hogwarts was expanded, we saw more of the grounds, more detail, and I always love architectural details! The movie felt like it was skimming the story a lot of time, hardly a surprise given the length of the book but what was there mostly made sense. My only quibble was that with the necessarily reduced screentime there was very little chance to get reacquainted with the minor characters. New characters fared better: Lupin came up well, so did Black though Pettigrew wasn't overly convincing. A shame really, Timothy Spall is normally a t'riffic actor. And yes I know there's nothing to be done about it but I preferred the old Dumbledore. <g>
All in all it was a fun movie but I think I was expecting more. I'll have to watch it again anyway, I completely missed the split-second Snape/Hermione interaction...

Chapter 19's finished and 20's started though I'm heading into another ill-defined section so I won't be surprised if I faff about a bit while I try and work out what's going on. : )