How Did Sirius Black Escape Azkaban?

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In the world of Harry Potter, Azkaban was supposed to be the most secure prison in existence. It could hold any wizard, no matter how powerful. However, the prison’s reputation might not be as great as many wizards believed. While Azkaban held mighty wizards, the few years that Harry Potter remained enrolled at Hogwarts famously saw the escape of a high-security prisoner, Sirius Black, who was believed guilty of the murder of Peter Pettigrew and 12 muggles. He was also accused of exposing James and Lily Potter’s hiding place to Voldemort.


Sirius Black wasn’t the first to escape from Azkaban. There was also a second wizard who slipped out long before him. On top of that, in 1996, all of Voldemort’s Death Eaters broke out from Azkaban. Harry Potter‘s “inescapable” prison was very much escapable, and it seems the Dementors tasked with guarding prisoners didn’t do their jobs well at all.


Updated on September 11th, 2024, by Arthur Goyaz: There are many inconsistencies in Harry Potter and the inefficacy of Azkaban is one of them. It was way too easy for Sirius Black to escape and a bunch of teenagers did a better job at finding him than the intimidating Dementors. This article was updated to discuss Sirius’ escape further and to reflect CBR’s current formatting standards.


How Sirius Black Used His Animagus Form to Escape


As explained throughout the Harry Potter series, Azkaban had a lot of protection, keeping the most dangerous wizard criminals in Britain locked up. It sits on an island in the middle of the North Sea, was built in the 15th century, and has been in operation since 1718. The prison used charms to remain hidden from all Muggles and was Unplottable, meaning it didn’t exist on any maps. Instead of prison guards, Azkaban used Dementors, which seemed inhumane to many people. The Dementors had one specific power, which was draining people of all happiness and leaving them with only their worst memories. Most prisoners of Azkaban died from despair and ended up buried on the island after their deaths. In 1998, the Ministry of Magic outlawed the use of Dementors in Azkaban, but before that, there were still at least two people who escaped the watchful eye of these creatures.


Sirius Black ended up being the only wizard ever to escape Azkaban without help. Sirius was sent to Azkaban when Bartemius Crouch Senior sentenced several suspects after the First Wizarding War without trials. This locked away many Death Eaters before they could use their powers to escape justice, but innocents went to prison as well, with Sirius being one of the unlucky ones. The accusations against Sirius said he killed Peter Pettigrew and 12 Muggles while betraying James and Lily Potter and serving Lord Voldemort. None of this was true, as Pettigrew was still alive, and he was the one who killed the Muggles and helped Voldemort. That made Sirius’ escape from Azkaban justifiable.


There Are Four Known Unregistered Animagi In The Harry Potter Series

  • Sirius Black became an Animagus during his time at Hogwarts, together with his best friends, James and Peter. The Marauders decide to become Animagi to help their friend Remus Lupin when he turns into a werewolf. Because they were underage, the Marauders never registered with the Ministry of Magic, which was considered illegal.
  • Another illegal Animagi in the Harry Potter series is Rita Skeeter, who could turn into a beetle. This helped her witness private events without being observed and publish terrible pieces in the Daily Prophet.

As fans learned in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black and James Potter were the best of friends, and Sirius was Harry Potter’s godfather. This made it important for him to escape Azkaban to help the boy. What aided Sirius in his escape plan was his unregistered Animagus status. These are wizards who can transform into animals, such as Professor Minerva McGonagall, who was a registered Animagus and could turn into a cat. As for Sirius, he could change into a dog, but no one in Azkaban knew about this talent. After spending 12 years locked away in Azkaban, he saw a newspaper that showed Pettigrew in his Animagus form as a rat and realized he had to get out to help Harry. He turned into his dog form and easily slipped out of prison without any Dementors realizing it. However, he wasn’t the first person to escape Azkaban.


Sirius Black Wasn’t the First Wizard to Escape Azkaban

Barty Crouch Sr., The Ministry Of Magic’s Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Helped His Son Escape

While Sirius’ escape from Azkaban was seemingly extremely easy and quite a shock to Harry Potter‘s public, he wasn’t the first to escape. What made the first escape so embarrassing for the Wizarding World was that no one knew that Barty Crouch Jr. had escaped until long after it happened. This is because his parents set up the escape and helped him cover it up. Barty worked with the Death Eaters and pledged his loyalty to Lord Voldemort after the First Wizarding War, so when the time came, his own father, who led the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, sentenced him to Azkaban. It was the torture of Aurors Alice and Frank Longbottom that doomed his son to his fate.


Barty Crouch Jr.’s Loyalty To Voldemort Was Well Rewarded

  • Barty Crouch Jr. escaped Azkaban in 1982.
  • He spent the next 13 years under his father’s Imperius Curse, hidden beneath an Invisibility Cloak and cared for by his house-elf, Winky.
  • Bertha Jorkins realized Barty was at his home during a visit to Crouch’s home.
  • Barty Crouch Senior obliviated Bertha Jorkins, causing severe brain damage to the witch.
  • Peter Pettigrew stumbled upon Bertha, and Lord Voldemort extracted the information from the witch.
  • Realizing his most loyal Death Eater was alive and free, Lord Voldemort helped Barty escape from his father.
  • Barty took Polyjuice Potion to pass as Hogwarts’ new professor, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, sealing the real Moody away.


However, Crouch Sr. had other plans and did the unthinkable to save his son. He sentenced his 19-year-old son to life imprisonment in Azkaban and allowed him to enter the prison, where the Dementors began draining him of any joy he ever felt in life. One year later, his wife’s health deteriorated because of what happened to their son, and she was dying. Because of his government position, Bartemius took his wife to see their son before she died.

However, this was all a plan where she agreed to take Barty’s place, and they used Polyjuice Potion to switch their appearances. Crouch Sr. took his son home, and his wife died in Azkaban, disguised as Barty, and ended up buried on prison grounds. It wasn’t until Voldemort came for Barty and used him to infiltrate Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that the Wizarding World discovered the truth, and Azkaban received another black eye in history.


The Mass Death Eater Breakouts from 1996 and 1997 Prove That Azkaban Simply Doesn’t Work

Once It Became Clear They Could More Or Less Just Walk Away, Everyone Started Doing It

After Lord Voldemort came back to life at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, his next move was to free all of his Death Eaters from Azkaban. This was easy for Voldemort as he allied with the Dementors, who simply let these high-security prisoners escape. The known Death Eaters that escaped from Azkaban in 1996 were locked on the highest floors of this prison, which proved ineffective once Lord Voldemort blackmailed the Dementors. Dementors had a lot more to earn from Voldemort’s reign of terror, since they fed from the people’s fears. This makes them, clearly, a bad choice for guarding a prison.


After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, several of the Death Eaters that had escaped were recaptured. However, the Ministry of Magic neglectfully sent these dark wizards to Azkaban once again, which was still under the protection of Dementors. Of course, it didn’t take long for them to escape the prison to participate in the Battle of the Seven Potters and the Battle of Hogwarts.


Azkaban is a magical fort in the middle of the North Sea, protected not only by Dementors but also by various charms. However, whatever the Department of Magical Security uses to keep prisoners locked seems to be highly inefficient, as more than 10 prisoners have successfully escaped from Azkaban — some of them more than once. The fact that the Ministry didn’t learn from its mistakes with Sirius Black and Barty Crouch Jr. makes sense up to a point, as they were exceptional cases. But when they have 10 Death Eaters escaping Azkaban, and they just put them back in prison after recapturing them, it becomes clear that the system is flawed.


Sirius Black was an outstandingly powerful wizard. However, the fact that the Ministry of Magic didn’t even make sure he wasn’t an Animagus before keeping him behind bars makes very little sense. If Dementors weren’t able to detect animals, it would stand to reason that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would be very careful about Animagi. Sirius wasn’t registered as Animagus in the Ministry of Magic, but this must have been a pretty common occurrence for criminals. So, Sirius managed to escape the prison due to his great determination and magical prowess, but also thanks to the fact that Azkaban is simply easy to escape.

After 1998, Azkaban replaced Dementors with Aurors, so maybe it’s a little bit safer now. With Harry Potter leading the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Hermione Granger positioned as the Minister for Magic, surely the two wizards have taken actions to make Azkaban as safe as possible.

Why Didn’t Sirius Black Escape Azkaban Sooner?

Sirius Decided to Escape Azkaban After He Spotted Peter Pettigrew’s Animagus Form in a Newspaper Article


Sirius Black spent 12 years in Azkaban with nothing to do but to bitterly reminisce about his time with the Marauders and how trusting Peter Pettigrew cost not only James and Lily’s lives but also his innocence. He was locked up in the Wizarding World’s worst place and surrounded by maddening despair and sorrow. Among the many inconsistencies that Azkaban’s flawed system brings about, many Harry Potter fans also question why Sirius Black didn’t escape sooner from the prison. It’s not like anything changed during these 12 years in terms of how Azkaban was guarded.

The simplest reason is that Sirius had no will to live anymore. With his best friends dead and the entire world believing he was to blame, there was very little hope for him outside the grounds of Azkaban. He felt responsible for James’ and Lily’s deaths even though he wasn’t the one who betrayed them. Moreover, had he decided to escape Azkaban sooner, Sirius would have been forced to live as a prisoner indefinitely, moving from place to place in his Animagus form and hoping the Dementors would never find him. It’s safe to say that in Azkaban he at least had his life and dreams to hold on to. The possibility of people learning the truth about Pettigrew was slim, but there was still a possibility.


The Marauders and Their Animagus Forms:

  • Sirius Black: Padfoot or Snuffles, a black dog.
  • James Potter: Prongs, a stag.
  • Peter Pettigrew: Wormtail, a rat.
  • Remus Lupin: A werewolf, not an Animagus.

Although Azkaban’s system already lacked efficiency, no one really knew that until the situation spiraled out of control in 1996. Sirius’ escape was easy but the risk of being caught was there. It’s safe to say that it isn’t common for black dogs to roam freely in the dungeons of a high-security prison in the middle of the North Sea. The reason Sirius Black didn’t escape Azkaban sooner is easier to believe than the reason he finally decided to leave. In the books, it’s revealed that Sirius learned of Pettigrew’s location because he spotted his Animagus form on a newspaper brought to his cell.


The whole Pettigrew-living-with-the-Weasleys situation already seems like a major stretch, but Sirius risking his life to get to Hogwarts because of a simple assumption also feels a bit absurd. It makes sense that he felt the need to protect Harry from Pettigrew, but it’s unlikely that a coward like Pettigrew would risk exposing himself now after he had the chance of harming Harry in the first two Hogwarts years. Sirius knew him better than anyone else. Still, the newspaper article suggesting Pettigrew’s Animagus form represented that slim possibility that Sirius never had up until that point. It awakened something in Sirius that he thought he’d lost forever: hope. Before he knew it, he’d already escaped.

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