Harry Potter fans had to wait 3 years for Order of the Phoenix to hit bookstores. Although it was a long wait, it’s reasonable, considering all the work that Rowling had to put into it. Such a long book, and it contains so much info, so many surprises.
It starts out with Harry outside the Dursley’s house. He’s trying to hear the Muggle news, to see if there’s any strange things going on. He hasn’t heard from anyone in the wizarding world all summer, and wants to know what’s going on with Voldemort. He’s disapointed, however, as everything appears to be normal. After a loud crack caused him to jump up and get caught by the Dursleys, he wanders off through the neighborhood. Eventually he catches up with Dudley, and they walk down an alley. To both of their great surprise, Dementors appear, and attack them. Harry is able to escape by sending a patronus at them.
When the dementors are gone, Mrs. Figg runs up. From the end of the fourth Harry Potter book, and what Rowling had stated in interviews, many fans, including me, had assumed her to be a witch who was there to watch over Harry. We find out that she’s not a witch, she’s a Squib. But since we don’t get to know her character all that well here, I’m expecting that there’s more to her than just that.
When Harry gets back to the Dursleys, he find a very angry Uncle Vernon, along with many letters. He recieves a warning for using magic away from school. That brings up an interesting topic, on how they determine of an underage wizard uses magic. They apparently can’t tell exactly who it was, since when Dobby used magic, Harry got a warning. But then why, when Harry was in an alley, not right in the Dursleys, do they assume it was him? We know from later on that there were actual wizards watching over him who probably used magic. How do they determine how old the person was, or can they? Fred and George must have used magic during the summer when there were all the bangs and explosions from their rooms, why didn’t they ever get in trouble?
Anyways, Harry has an argument with the Dursleys, that brings up the topic of Azkaban. Petunia knows that Azkaban is, says she heard James tell Lily what it was years ago. It’s interesting that Petunia remembered that bit of information after all those years, considering how much she seems to hate wizards.Vernon gets to angry he’s about to kick Harry out, but Petunia gets a letter, and says that Harry must stay.
After 3 days, a group of wizards, including Lupin and Moody, come to take Harry while the Dursleys are out. They take him to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, where Harry finds Ron and Hermione. They fill him in on some stuff that’s been happening since school was out, but they don’t know much since they’re not allowed in the meetings.
Harry also finds out about the Percy problem. Back in GoF, Ron had mentioned that he wasn’t sure if Percy mught turn in his own family if he thought they were doing something wrong, and it seems he may have been right. Percy has sided with the Ministry, who refuses to believe that Voldemort’s back. He left to live on his own, saying that Arthur has always had a bad reputation with the Ministry. There’s some evidence to possible believe that Fudge may be a Voldemort supporter, since he always tried to hard to refuse the facts that he returned, and he seems awfully close to Lucius, who’s a Death Eater. So if Fudge it really a Voldy supporter, has he converted Percy?
At Grimmauld Place, Harry mostly helps with cleaning the place. Eventually time comes for his hearing at the Ministry. It started out badly, and his chances seemed pretty dim. However, we soon find out that the court was not told that there were dementors, more evidence that Fudge is with Voldemort. If they had known that Harry was in danger, they would of course let him off. But Fudge has it in for Harry now. Fudge was also trying to discredit Dumbledore, because he was spreading word of Voldemorts return. Fudge’s job may be to keep the wizarding world from knowing Voldy’s back, so Voldy can continue to work in secret undisturbed. Luckily, Harry is able to get off through Dumbledore’s support and Mrs. Figg as a witness.
Back at Grimmauld Place, letters from Hogwarts come the day before school starts. They normally do come earlier, so why were they late? Did Dumbledore put off the decesion of prefects for Gryffindor until the end? Were there other distractions going on that we’re not aware of that kept the letters from being sent? Just something interesting to think about.
Anyways, Hermione and Ron are perfect, something that greatly surprised me. Not Hermione, it was obvious she’d be one, but Ron. He just never seemed to me like Prefect material (and I wasn’t happy with Dumbledore’s explanation on why at the end of the book). Also, something else interesting is in this chapter. Lupin says that he was made prefect to keep James and Sirius in line, meaning James wasn’t prefect. But, we know from Ss that James was Head Boy. Meaning, you don’t have to be prefect to be head boy, or girl. So, are new prefects chosen in their sixth year? Are new ones just added on? We still have a lot to learn on how this whole system works. But the good news is, Harry could still be head boy.
The next day, on the Hogwarts express, Harry meets Luna Lovegood. We know from GoF that she lives in the same area as the Weasleys, so that may be important later. Her father runs the Quibbler, which is believed to be a nonsense magazine. But we do know that sometimes they run true articles (like Harry’s interview later in the book), so some of their other stuff may be true too. Does Fudge really want to take over Gringotts? It’s a possability.
When they get to Hogwarts, Harry’s surprised that to see strange horses pulling the carriages. We learn later that these are Thestrals, horses that you see when you’ve seen someone die. So this brings up the topic, why didn’t Harry see them before? This has already been discussed many times on message boards, and Rowling addressed the topic in an interview. I pretty much accept her answer, but I was always wondering something else. Why didn’t anyone ever run into them? Getting into these carriages that appear to have no horses in front of them, didn’t anyone even walk in front of the carriages? It seems like someone at one point in time would accidentally walk into them.
When they actually get into Hogwarts and the Sorting Hat sings it’s song, it warns that the end of Hogwarts may be coming soon. This isn’t something I’ve seen discussed that often, but it is very important. The hat warns that they need to stay untied inside Hogwarts in order to stay strong against outside forces. We should then be very concerned, since Slytherins are currently not united with the other houses. Hogwarts may actually crumble within itself if they don’t fix this problem soon. With the rivalries between houses, Hogwarts is weaker, and therefor a weaker target for Voldemort.
The new DADA teacher is Umbridge, sent by the Ministry of Magic to make changes at Hogwarts, to interfere. This just shows that Fudge really hates Dumbledore, and greatly disapproves on how the school is being run. Interesting, back in CoS he actually seemed to support Dumbledore. When Lucius came to take Dumbledore away, Fudge protested. What has happened since then that makes him disapprove now so much of Dumbledore? Is it just because what Dumbledore’s saying about Voldy being back, or there something else?
After Umbridge’s speach, things continue pretty normally, besides Harry’s fight with Seamus. Classes go ok, until Unbridge’s. There Harry gets into a fight with her when he claims that Voldemort’s back, and she gives him detention. At the detention, she makes him write "I must not tell lies" using a special pen that etches it into the back of his hand. We know that they used to hang people from the ceiling in the dungeons, but currently at Hogwarts they didn’t do any punishment like that. Dumbledore certainly wouldn’t approve of this punishment, but Umbridge doesn’t care.
Later Harry sends a letter to Sirius, and meets Cho in the Owlery. There they talk a bit, and she says that she believe Harry, and she also defends him after Filch accuses him of sending an order for dungbombs. It’s obvious that Cho isn’t mad at Harry for any reason, like many thought she would be.
The next night Harry and Ron are desperately trying to finish up homework, when Hermione comes up and looks at their papers. After mentioning a few corrections, Ron gets a letter from Percy, that greatly upsets him. Hermione then look at Ron "with an odd expression on her face," then takes their essays and corrects them. This shows again how Hermione will go against what’s considered right and wrong to help her friends. I also find it interesting how she looks specifically at Ron, not Ron and Harry, more evidence that she possibly likes Ron.
Sirius soon after pops in for a visit, and ends the conversation by asking Harry if he’d like to get together in Hogsmead sometime. Harry says no, not wanting Sirius to get caught and get in trouble. Sirius takes offense at Harry’s reaction, though, and remarks that Harry is less than his father than he thought. He says that the risk would have made it fun for James, telling us more about James’s character. James was never afraid to take risks, so what risks did he take that we may find out about?
In one of Umbidge’s classes, she mentions that Quirrel seems to have been their only DADA teacher who was close to being up to standards. Interesting she says this, when Quirrel was a Voldemort supporter. Could this be more evidence that Umbridge and Fudge are Death Eaters?
Hermione brings up the topic to Harry that maybe he should teach her and Ron(and some other students) DADA since they’re obviously not going to learn much from Umbridge. Ron agrees, but Harry thinks they’re both crazy. He claims that all the great things he’s done, they were all luck, he had outside help. It’s true that he had help in many of those situations, but none in GoF. He was all by himself, and did awfully good. Hermione, trying to convince Harry that he should help them, actually says Voldemort’s name. This action would shock most people, but it actually calms Harry. From this point on, Hermione continues to say Voldemort, instead of You-Know-Who. This act shows that Hermione’s getting over some of her fear of Voldy, maybe knowing Harry has helped her get over that fear. If she can say his name and not be afraid, she has a great advantage over many other wizards and witches.
Harry finally agrees, and at the next Hogwarts trip a group of them meet in The Hogs Head. Harry’s surprised at the large group of people that show up, though supposes most of them are there to hear him talk about what happened when Cedric died. However, they all agree to take lessons from Harry.
Harry starts to realize that when his scar hurts, it doesn’t just mean that Voldemort is nearby. It also means that he could be feeling an extremely strong emotion, and Harry can tell what that emotion is.
Dobby is able to help Harry find a place to hold their meetings, the Room of Requirement. It is a room that appears when you need something, and it has what you need. This seems to have infinite possibilities, could the Weasley’s use that room to become rich? If Harry needed someone’s advice and he went to that room, would that person be there? If he needed to speak to his parents, could he talk to him there? Could the room provide a weapon that Harry can use to destroy Voldemort for good? This room could be a great weapon, as long as Voldy doesn’t know about it. Did Lupin, and Sirius, and all them know about it? Can it be found on Harry’s map? If so, Wormtail might tell Voldy about it.
Hermione comes up with a method of letting other members know when the next DA metting is, by using a Protean Charm. All the other members are impressed, saying it’s N.E.W.T standard. Hermione then says that the sorting hat almost put her in Ravenclaw, but decided on Gryffindor in the end. This seems to be a little reminder that Hermione does belong in Gryffindor, as there have been many discussions on why she’s not in Ravenclaw. Rowling is reminding us that Hermione is Gryffindor material, though Hermione doesn’t say the reasons why the hat decided Gryffindor was right for her. Of course she’s brave, but anything else? Could she maybe be a long descendent of Gryffindor? We know Harry probably is, but the hat still wanted to put him in Slytherin. Harry may be a descendent of Slytherin too, since he has green eyes that are important. Maybe Hermione’s the descendent of Ravenclaw as well, explaining why she’s so smart and all. That would make her a powerful ally to Harry. Yes, she’s supposedly Muggle born, but how can we be so sure that’s true?
At the first Quidditch game, Gryffindor vs Slytherin, Gryffindor wins, but Harry, Fred, and George get banned from playing Quidditch for fighting. Umbridge is using her power, and showing she doesn’t have it in for just Harry. She also punishes Fred and George just as badly. Maybe shehas a thing against the Weasleys too?
What can I say, you certainly have hit me with a lot of rhetorical questions, and you certainly have so many opinion... You also have added a great analysis to your essay which is important...
I will give you 55 point for this work... well done...
