For the next three days, similar scenes unfolded in every corner of Great Britain.
Those who bought the book locked themselves in their rooms, not even putting it down while eating. Some read it until late at night, and some until dawn.
Those who hadn't bought it yet were asking around to see where it was still in stock. Some small bookstores had even put up signs again saying "The complete edition of ' The Prisoner of Azkaban ' is sold out," making those who had made empty trips stamp their feet in frustration at the door.
Many people, after finishing their own copy, immediately started writing letters to their friends, all using the same question, "Have you read to the end?"
In a London café, two middle-aged men sat facing each other, each with a book open in front of them; their coffee had long since gone cold.
The guy on the left slammed his book down on the table, let out a long sigh, and rubbed his temples, as if he had just woken up from a long dream.
The one on the right was still flipping through the pages. When he got to a certain page, his finger stopped, and his mouth opened slightly, remaining open for a long time.
"Where are you looking?" the one on the left asked.
"Chapter Thirteen." The one on the right didn't even look up. "Don't talk to me."
"Haven't you seen what's going on with that dog yet?"
I told you not to talk to me.
The one on the left closed his mouth, picked up his cold coffee, took a sip, but couldn't help but smile.
In a corner at the other end of the café, a young woman pushed a book toward her companion across the table, pointed to a passage, and said something.
Her companion peeked over, then immediately snatched the book and started flipping through it herself, without even saying goodbye.
The young woman wasn't annoyed. She leaned back in her chair and waited, her expression full of anticipation, as if she had just thrown a pebble into a pond.
At a community library in South London, the librarian had to post a notice: The complete edition of " Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban " is not available for loan and is for in-library reading only.
However, on the afternoon the notice was posted, all the chairs in the reading room were occupied, and those who arrived late had to stand and lean against the bookshelves to read.
An elderly woman with gray hair sat by the window, holding a book. When she got to a certain part of the book, she took off her reading glasses to wipe her eyes, then put them back on and continued reading.
A teenage boy sitting opposite her suddenly stood up when he turned to the last chapter, almost tipping his chair over, and shouted, "I knew it!"
However, he quickly shrank back down after being glared at by the administrator, but he couldn't suppress the smile on his face.
This frenzy lasted for several whole days.
A few days later, the first group of readers had mostly recovered from the shock, and the lines outside the bookstore weren't as long as they had been the first two days, but people were still coming in every day to ask, "Do you still have any left?"
However, just as readers were still engrossed in discussing the plot, a newspaper article took the whole affair to a new level.
The weekly magazine * Fiction Review * was delivered to every household on Thursday morning. This issue's cover headline was printed in an almost provocative font, with a line of large white text on a dark red background:
"A plot twist! Sirius is not a traitor!"
Below was a line of smaller print. "A book reviewer's confession: I was wrong, terribly wrong."
The article is authored by George Hartley, a middle-aged book reviewer with a good reputation among readers. He usually maintains a neutral and objective stance in his writing and rarely makes definitive statements.
This time, however, he immediately launched into a tirade of self-criticism.
"I must first confess to all readers: after finishing the first half, I had mentally sentenced this book to death," he wrote.
"At the time, I felt the pacing was slow, the suspense was weak, and the character relationships were stagnant. I even wondered if Allen Wayne had run out of new ideas."
"Although I never said this publicly, I wrote it in my reading notes. It's written in black and white, and I can't deny it."
"I knew I had turned to the second half."
"I was holding my teacup halfway through reading, but by the time I got to the second half, the teacup had gone cold, and I didn't even think to drink it."
"It wasn't until I finished reading that I realized I was standing up, just standing in the middle of the study, clutching the book, looking like an idiot."
Hartley didn't spend much time recounting the plot in his article; he simply described his reaction while reading it in an almost self-deprecating tone, and then shifted his focus to analyzing why the twist was good.
" Sirius Black is not the traitor; Peter Pettigrew is."
"The brilliance of this twist lies in the fact that if you look back at all the clues in the first half, every single one is still there, every single one points in the right direction, but you just don't see them."
"That mouse with the missing toe, that family photo in the newspaper that the Weasley family took to Egypt..."
"The arguments Ron and Hermione had over Crookshanks and Scabbers, the secret passage Harry saw on the Marauder's Map, and that line of ' Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs '..."
Everything was laid out right in front of you, yet you were led down a completely different path.
"By the time you realize it, you'll be cursing yourself for being blind, but you'll also have to admit that the answer was hidden there from the very beginning."
In the latter half of the article, Hartley shifts the focus to the overall quality of the book.
"After the first half came out, many people said that Allen Wayne had lost his touch. Although I didn't say anything publicly at the time, I was inclined to believe that assessment."
"Now I want to say to Mr. Allen Wayne: I'm sorry, I was completely wrong."
"The third installment not only didn't decline in quality, but actually made a rather impressive extension of the first two."
"The first two films were about adventure, but this one is about many things beyond adventure."
It tells the story of how an innocent man, wrongly accused for twelve years, regained his innocence, and how a traitor, after living a life of ignominy for twelve years, was finally exposed.
Finally, it shows for the first time how a group of children choose sides when they first encounter the inexplicable and cryptic aspects of the adult world.
"These elements, when incorporated into a magical adventure story, don't feel forced at all; on the contrary, they add depth to the entire narrative."
"So I take back all my previous thoughts and say it out loud: the third one is a great film, better than the first two, because it shows us how far this series can go."
The article caused an uproar among readers.
Those who already had a lot to say after reading the second half have finally found a place to speak their minds.
In the café, an elderly man in a coat slammed a newspaper on the bar counter, the sound so loud it could be heard throughout half the café.
" Hartley is right! I also found the first half of it tedious."
"When the second half came out, I went back and flipped through the first half, only to find that all those 'dragging' parts were foreshadowing! I wasted my breath criticizing them!"
A young woman next to me, holding a cup of coffee, leaned over and said, "You think so too? I thought I was the only one who misjudged."
"I was so annoyed by the arguments between Ron and Hermione in the first half, but when the second half revealed the truth, those arguments were totally worth it."
"The most amazing thing is the Marauder's Map!"
"I didn't pay any attention to those four names in the first half, but when the second half revealed them, Moony was Lupin, Wormtail was Peter, Padfoot was Black, Prongs was his dad!"
"I was eating breakfast when I saw this part and I almost screamed."
"You've only scratched the surface! I saw everyone at the Patronus's place was dumbfounded!"
"Yes, yes, yes! And that Patronus, the part where Harry used his dad's stag Patronus to drive away the Dementor, my eyes welled up with tears."
"None of what you've mentioned compares to the Time-Turner part. Hermione using a necklace to take multiple classes simultaneously was brilliant!"
"That's true, but my favorite part is when Buckbeak was rescued. I really thought that Hippogriff was doomed."
"Me too! When Harry and Hermione used the Time-Turner to go back and put it away, I almost screamed in the study."