The arrival of Harry's
birthday presents. In fact, the clipping from the
Daily Prophet
was never sent to Harry in the
film; see below under Serpensortia.
Molly's pride in Percy's becoming Head Boy is never mentioned.
Ginny and Neville don't enter HRH's compartment on the train;
neither does Malfoy.
McGonagall isn't shown taking
Harry or
Hermione
aside before the Feast.
Although
Warwick Davis
is in the film, he is not credited with playing
Flitwick, and the appearance of
the character he is shown playing looks quite different (much too young, for
one thing). He and Hagrid have
both been eliminated from the teachers' conversation with
Rosmerta
and Fudge at the
Three Broomsticks about
Sirius Black and
Peter Pettigrew.
Sir Cadogan.
(Was filmed and is included in the extras on the DVD, but was cut
from the theatrical release.)
Care of Magical Creatures
is shown directly following Divination
on the first day of classes, without Transfiguration in between, and
consequently without McGonagall's lecture on Animagi.
(See also Serpensortia - this information
was moved to Snape's afternoon of substituting for
Lupin in
Defence Against the Dark Arts.)
The other eleven hippogriffs in the first
Care of Magical Creatures
lesson.
All the Potions lessons of the year are omitted.
Dean's and Seamus' boggarts.
The Quidditch season is omitted, apart from the first match.
Peeves - still no film appearance.
The elderly member of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous
Creatures has been eliminated. The executioner is still present,
but he isn't identified as Macnair.
Lupin's explanation of how he
became friends with Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail, the purpose of the
Shrieking Shack, and how the four friends came to write the Map.
Ron's and Harry's feud with
Hermione over the
Firebolt has been eliminated. Ron's long quarrel with her over Scabbers
has been cut back to one quarrel in Diagon Alley and an almost
casual reference to Scabbers' disappearance in the spring
(much later than in the book).
Harry is shown practicing
actual spellwork over the summer holidays
(the Lumos Maxima scene).
In the books, this would merit an official warning from the
Improper Use of Magic Office.
Curiously, although the TV is shown running at the
Dursleys' meal with
Marge, the Muggle news about
Sirius Black isn't included.
Harry's first sight of
Sirius is on the cover of the
Prophet on the Knight Bus.
Aunt Marge's week-long visit to
Privet Drive. The two scenes where
Marge's wineglass
explodes and where Harry finally
loses control and blows her up are combined and compressed into
a single scene in the film.
In the book, Marge is trapped against the ceiling of the room
when she is blown up; in the film, she drifts
out an open bay window and out into the open air.
Harry's first sight of
Padfoot has been moved from an alleyway in Magnolia Crescent to just
outside the playpark near Privet Drive.
Stan is shown reading his speech off a card
instead of reeling it off from memory as in the book.
Tom refers to Hedwig as "he" in the film, although in the book
the innkeeper doesn't make that error.
In the film as in the book, Harry
is startled at not being punished for using underage magic, and indicates
that he knows it is illegal, but he was shown deliberately casting
a spell in the first scene of the film (whereas in the book
he used an ordinary flashlight).
Harry appears to be restricted to
the Leaky Cauldron itself during his stay there, rather than having the
freedom of Diagon Alley. Instead of purchasing his schoolbooks over the
following week, Harry is shown
receiving his schoolbooks directly from Fudge during their conversation.
Harry's first encounter with the
Monster Book
is shown taking place at the Leaky Cauldron, not
on Privet Drive, and it appears to have come with
restraints instead of Harry having
to use one of his own belts after finding out about it.
Hermione and
Ron have already visited the Magical Menagerie
before meeting Harry;
Hermione already has
Crookshanks before
Harry sees the two of them.
In fact, there is no mention of Crookshanks' status as
Hermione's brand-new pet.
Harry's first sight of the
clipping is during his first meeting with Ron in Diagon Alley.
Instead of the twins picking on Percy to deflate his ego over
his Head Boy status, they pick on Ron about showing the
Daily Prophet clipping around.
Harry doesn't overhear
Arthur and Molly; Arthur tells him about
Sirius straightaway.
Malfoy's remark about fainting doesn't take place before the Feast
as in the book, but during the feast. With the removal of Neville and
Ginny from the train scene, how he found out about the fainting spell
is unexplained.
Dumbledore pronounces Hagrid's given name as "RU-bee-us" not "Ru-BAY-us"
in the film.
Snape the poisons expert is sitting next to
Lupin at the Welcoming Feast
instead of down the table (that would tend to kill the appetite...)
Trelawney's classroom is shown connecting directly with North Tower's
staircase, rather than having a trapdoor and a rope as in the books.
Harry gets volunteered to ride
first by his classmates, instead of doing so out of friendship for Hagrid.
Malfoy in the film deliberately walks up to Buckbeak instead of just saying
the wrong thing while patting him.
The boggart lesson takes place in the
DADA classroom
instead of the
staffroom
as in the book. Consequently, the real
Snape doesn't belittle
Neville just before
Neville's experience with the
boggart, as in the book.
Lupin whispers part of his
instructions to Neville instead of delivering them for the entire class;
he stops Neville from describing his grandmother's clothes verbally before
tackling the boggart (for maximum comic effect, presumably).
Ron puts roller skates on the boggart-acromantula rather than making its
legs fall off.
Parvati's boggart is shown to be a cobra rather than a mummy,
and thus has a completely different Riddikulus effect.
Harry gets a chance at the
boggart and it actually changes into a
Dementor in class before
Lupin drives it off. This makes
nonsense of Lupin's remarks in
his later conversation with Harry
about why he didn't let Harry
'tackle the Dementor'. (Also,
the why-didn't-I-get-a-chance conversation takes place in
Lupin's office
in the book, but elsewhere in the film.)
Lupin's boggart is clearly the
full moon, and cannot be mistaken for a crystal ball as in the book.
His Riddikulus charm turns it into a balloon in the film rather than
cracking it as in the book.
The boggart lesson in the film is ended prematurely, before the
boggart is destroyed (unlike that in the book).
When substitute-teaching
Defence Against the Dark Arts,
Snape discusses the difference between an Animagus and a werewolf,
not between a werewolf and a true wolf as in the book.
Malfoy passes
Harry an animated note in
Defence Against the Dark Arts
rather than speaking to him directly in Potions before the first
Defence Against the Dark Arts
lesson of term or in the Great Hall, as in the book.
After Sirius' break-in on
Hallowe'en, the Fat Lady is only frightened; she has not been injured
as in the book. She herself rather than Peeves tells Dumbledore what happened.
Various details of the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were altered
in translation to the screen. Harry
is shown wearing goggles over his glasses, rather than
Hermione casting an
Impervius spell for him as in the book. Some of the players are apparently
struck by lightning in the film during play. Rather than gathering on the
ground inside the Quidditch pitch as in the book, the
Dementors in the film
actually fly at Harry, and
apparently go so far as to attempt to administer the Kiss during the match.
Finally, in the film Harry falls
much further than the 50 feet he fell in the book.
Harry's conversation with
Lupin about his destroyed
broomstick takes place on the grounds in the film, rather than in the
DADA classroom
as in the book.
Dumbledore didn't warn the students during the Welcoming Feast about
Dementors' indifference to
invisibility cloaks, as in the book. Consequently,
Harry tries to sneak out wearing
his cloak on the Christmas visit, only to be caught by the
twins.
When Harry is first given the
Marauder's Map by the twins, the
name "Moony" is misspelled deliberately as "Mooney".
This was a deliberate error made as a joke, and refers to Karl Mooney,
the film's visual effects supervisor.
In the film, Harry takes his
invisibility cloak along on his first trip to
Hogsmeade, rather than only on the second trip, leading to a combination
of scenes that in the book take place during separate visits to Hogsmeade:
Harry's invisible harassment of
Malfoy (from
"Snape's Grudge" in the book) and his
eavesdropping on the teachers' conversation at Christmastime (from
"The Marauder's Map" in the book).
Furthermore, in the film Malfoy never
sees Harry in
Hogsmeade, eliminating
the original reason that Snape cornered
Harry and ordered him to turn out his pockets later on.
The elimination of Ron and
Hermione from the
eavesdropping scene at the Three Broomsticks (and the shrunken heads'
comment that underage wizards aren't allowed inside today).
The description of a Patronus in terms of a Dementor feeding on its
energy in place of that of the wizard.
Harry's choice of a happy thought for his second attempt at a Patronus
has been changed from the day he first learned he was a wizard to
a kind of dream of his parents talking to him (not a memory of the Mirror
of Erised, either).
Scabbers disappears in spring in the film rather than at Christmastime.
Harry spots Pettigrew on the Marauder's Map; the "Snape's Grudge" scene
then takes place, instead of happening after Harry's invisible
harassment of Malfoy outside the Shrieking Shack, as in the book.
Rather than dropping Divination weeks before Buckbeak's scheduled execution,
Hermione walks out
only that day.
Harry actually sees something in
the crystal ball during the final Divination lesson, rather than making it
up as in the book. The content of the vision is also different.
The wording of Trelawney's second prediction has been changed
for the film.
Rather than punching Malfoy in the tense run-up to the Quidditch
final (which is omitted from the film), Hermione does so on the
day of Buckbeak's scheduled execution.
Macnair is much less subtle in the film than in the book, actually
being shown wearing a hood and sharpening his axe.
Hagrid found Scabbers before the kids dropped by, instead of
Hermione
finding him accidentally in the hut while fetching tea things.
Crookshanks has been eliminated from the scene at the Whomping
Willow. Instead, the tree accidentally tosses
Harry and
Hermione
into the tunnel.
Hermione gets
Ron's line about
Sirius having to kill both
of them to get to Harry.
Pettigrew's attempts to talk his way out of trouble are cut way back,
and Sirius' responses are
in the film distributed between
Sirius and Remus.
Lupin makes little effort to stop
Sirius from killing Pettigrew
straightaway.
Hermione and
Ron don't cast Disarming Spells at Snape when
Harry does so, which rather
changes the effect of
Hermione's next remark
about attacking a teacher.
Rather than breaking Ron's leg,
Sirius in the film bites
Ron while trying to get at Scabbers.
Instead of Ron and Lupin being
shackled to Pettigrew to get him out of the willow's tunnel,
Sirius and
Harry support Ron out of the
tunnel while Lupin holds Pettigrew
at wandpoint.
Pettigrew's terror at being turned over to the
Dementors. In the
book, he was thankful at being allowed to live rather than being
particularly frightened.
Pettigrew's pleading with Ron and Hermione in the film occurs
after he is taken out of the willow, rather than before he
pleads with Harry as in the book.
Pettigrew's clothes were left behind after his Transfiguration back
into rat shape, although his forced Transfiguration into a human
showed him fully dressed.
Snape is conscious after Lupin's
werewolf transformation, not just after the
Dementors' attack upon
Sirius.
The Firebolt is received at the end of the year, after
Sirius'
departure with Buckbeak, instead of as a Christmas present in
the book.