By Tinuviel Undomiel, Ravenclaw, ti319.



Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Joanne Kathleen Rowling



Published in 2003 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
Number of pages: 766 (UK edition).
Genre: Children/Fantasy



This review will briefly explain what happens in this book, and will also contain an analysis, as well as my personal opinions.



This book is by far the darkest book in the Harry Potter series. It has alot of emotions, both good and bad. Even Harry’s dark side appears, as he falls into a black mood in the early parts of the book. This, I believe, is done to set the mood for the book: Lord Voldemort is back, and the world may fall back into shadow, fear and horror.

The story is told from an outside view, you never see things from one specific person’s point of view. The main character is, as always, Harry Potter, with other important characters being Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and Dolors Umbridge, to mention some. As it is, all characters in the story are there for a reason, all play an important part in driving the story forward.



The fifth book in the Harry Potter series begins as all the others more or less have begun; by Harry being at his aunt and uncle’s house. These are his only living relatives, and they do not treat him well, much because he is a wizard, and they hate the wizarding world like they’d hate the plague. Harry has to hide outside the living room window to listen in on the news to find out if something has happened in the wizarding world, as Lord Voldemort (evil overlord) has returned. He starts feeling more and more left out, and more and more angry at everyone keeping him left out, including his two best friends.



Harry and his cousin Dudley are one night attacked by Dementors, foul creatures who guard the wizard prison. After this, it is revealed that Harry’s neighbour, old Mrs Figg, is part of the magic community. Harry uses magic to repel the Dementors, and is called into the Ministry for a hearing, from which he is cleared of all charges. At the hearing, we are foreshadowed that something may be happening at Hogwarts, as the Minister says something about Hogwarts maybe not being outside Ministry control anymore. Shortly after the attack, Harry is picked up by members of the Order of the Phoenix, and he is taken to their headquarters in London: The family home of his godfather, Sirius Black. Here he is told what the Order really is; a group of people devoted to fighting Lord Voldemort, and keeping him from doing more evil in the world. The Order consists of some old members, from the first time Lord Voldemort was fought, and some new ones. I think the Phoenix is used for severeal reasons: It has healing powers – You could say the Order is trying to heal the wizarding world by getting rid of evil. Its song will strike fear into the heart of the impure, and will increase the courage of the pure, something that is sure to come in handy. Also, it makes a very loyal pet, and loyalty is alfa and omega in an operation like this one. We are also introduced to a new character (when they are getting Harry): Nymphadora Tonks. She is a metamorphmagus, meaning she can change her apperance at will. Tonks may be derived from Tonka (bean), a bean that holds many different seeds inside. This symbolizes Tonks’ many apperances.



When Harry and his friends return to Hogwarts, the mystery of what draws the “horseless” carriages is solved. Thestrals, mythical beasts that can only be seen by those who have seen death. Harry is the only one of his friends that can see it, and starts thinking he’s losing his mind. This is when a new character, Luna Lovegood, is introduced. She is a strange person in every way, both apperance and the way she acts. Luna is Latin for “moon”, and this could be intentionally. It has been believed in some cultures that the moon causes madness, and Luna is a bit mad. Another thing about her name is the fact that it opens up for the nickname “Loony”, which is another word that can be used to describe her.



At Hogwarts they find many changes. Hagrid is gone, and their new defense against the dark arts professor is a woman from the Ministry, who was present at Harry’s hearing. This is the introduction of yet another character (as she wasn’t properly introduced during the hearing): Dolores Umbridge. Umbridge turns out to be as disgustingly nasty as she appears disgustingly “sweet” (pink cardigan, bow in her hair, plates with painted kittens on her walls), she uses a most gruesome form of punishment – writing lines with a quill that etches the words into the back of your hand. Harry gets in numerable disputes with Umbridge, causing her to take into effect many new rules at Hogwarts, and also punish Harry severely, by taking away his Quidditch priviliges and his broomstick.



As Umbridge is not teaching them any practical defense against the dark arts, Harry and his friends take matters into their own hands, and form a group they name Dumbledore’s Army, where Harry teaches all those willing practical defense. Dumbledore forming an army is what the Minister of Magic fears the most, hence why the name is chosen. In this group, all the Hogwarts houses, with the exception of Slytherin, work together to learn and grow. This was mentioned earlier by the Sorting Hat: If they are to overcome the great danger that lurks, all houses must cooperate peacefully. Still, the Slytherins choose the “dark side”, and many of them join Umbridge in patroling Hogwarts, looking for anyone breaking her new rules.

Hagrid comes back, and it is revealed that he and Madame Maxime has been in the mountains, looking for the giants and trying to get them over on their side. Sadly, they seemed to fail, the giants were more willing to listen to the Death Eaters.

After the DA meeting this day, Harry and his longtime crush, Cho Chang, kiss. He has mixed up feelings about this, and doesn’t know what to do. This signifies some of the changes Harry are going through. He’s no longer a child, but a teenager – not at all unlike muggle teenagers, with their emotions raging.



The following night, Harry has a dream where he is a snake, and bites Arthur Weasley. He believes it’s not a dream, and alerts the right people, and it turns out to really have happened. To prevent Umbridge from stopping them, Harry & the Weasleys flee from Hogwarts by using a portkey, and it is decided that they will stay with Sirius and his houseelf Kreacher for Christmas. Kreacher is quite a foul being, hence his name that is pronounced like “creature” – meaning that he is nothing but a creature. He is also treated like one by Sirius.



When visiting Mr Weasley at the hospital, it is revealed that Harry’s mind is somehow linked to Voldemort’s, and that’s why he has this reoccuring dream of trying to reach a closed door. Because of this, he starts taking Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, to close his mind from outside interfering.

At Hogwarts, Umbridge has power to suspend and fire teachers, and the first one to go is Professor Trelawney. Dumbledore replaces her with Firenze the Centaur, something that does not go down well with Umbridge, as she hates all part-humans. Umbridge also finds out about the DA because of a sneak, and Dumbledore takes all blame for it, and so he leaves Hogwarts.



Later on, they are introduced to Hagrid’s giant half-brother, Grawp. They promise him to take care of Grawp if he has to go away. This could be some sort of foreshadowing of what is to come, combined with the information we get about Umbridge hating part-humans. Hagrid will be the next teacher to have to go.

During their exams, Harry has a dream that Sirius is being tortured by Voldemort. He and his friends (Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and Neville) go to the Ministry of Magic, to the room behind the closed door in Harry’s dreams, to rescue him. Before they go, however, they are cornered by Umbridge and her squad of Slytherins. Hermione tricks her into bringing her and Harry into the forest, where Umbridge is being taken away by Centaurs. This is a funny turn, as she is taken away (we do not know what they do to her) by the very creatures she despises. It turns out that Sirius is not there, the whole thing was a mindtrick played by Voldemort, who had discovered that Harry’s mind is open to him. They do however find a room with glass spheres that is revealed to contain prophecys, one of them about Harry and Voldemort. Death Eaters arrive, and they battle, helped by members of the Order that arrive just in time. Sirius battles Bellatrix Lestrange, his cousin, and stumbles through a mysterious veil. He is lost to the living world. The death of Sirius symbolizes how unfair the world can be. Harry has just gained a new relative, and has hope that he can move in with him and be happy, but within seconds, he has lost him again.



Harry chases after Bellatrix, and in anger he tries to use one of the Unforgivable curses on her, but fails. This shows what a good guy Harry really is. He is unbelievably angry, because he’s lost one of his loved ones, but he still can not bring himself to use one of the worst curses there are. As Bellatrix said, you must really WANT to do it to be able to do it right, and even though Harry hated her as much as he could hate her, he did not really want to hurt her that badly, and so he couldn’t.
Voldemort himself shows up to get rid of Harry, but Dumbledore appears and saves the day. The Minister of Magic witnessed the apperance of Lord Voldemort, and admits that he has indeed returned. Dumbledore takes up his position at Hogwarts again. This kinda represents a temporary period of peace and order – with Dumbledore once again in charge at Hogwarts, things start getting back to normal.

It is now revealed to Harry why things are as they are – why he has to stay with the Dursleys, that Voldemort has marked him as an equal, and that Voldemort’s mortal enemy could’ve been Neville. This is also an interesting turn of events, as Neville is more or less Harry’s opposite in many ways, but still not. He was first thought to be slow and kinda stupid, and not at all brave, but as the plot develops, he shows many other qualities, and is indeed like Harry in some ways. The prophecy also told that either Harry or Voldemort must die in the end. Dumbledore admits that the reason he hasn’t told this before, is because he was clouded by his emotions for Harry. This shows us that after all, Dumbledore is only human. Up to now, he has more or less appearead as some sort of übermensch, who always do and say the right things. This proves otherwise.

After this, summer holidays begin, and Harry goes back to the Dursley’s.



In my opinion, the story and all its characters have grown immensely with this book. They all develop in some way, and you discover new sides of them all. Harry’s dark side is one example, another one is Hermione’s suggestion of forming the DA.

Harry is definitely the character that grows the most. He learns new things about himself and his family almost constantly. He has always had high thoughts about his father, but after occlumency lessons with Snape it is revealed to him that his father was quite a git sometimes, something I believe shook Harry’s world pretty badly. He couldn’t even trust his father to be a thoroughly good person.
Another example of a person who you get to see other sides of is Harry’s aunt Petunia. She has always appeared to deny the wizarding world, but when Dudley and Harry are attacked by Dementors, she actually talks about things that belong in the magical world, and it is revealed to the reader that she actually knows things about it.

The story has many turning points, some being when aunt Petunia knows things about the magical world, when Umbridge shows up, and when Sirius dies. It also has several climaxes, but I feel that the ultimate climax of the story is the battle in the Department of Mysteries, followed by the apperance of Voldemort.

I think Rowling’s purpose with this book was to show the many sides of persons, and that sometimes there isn’t a clear divide between good and bad. Someone you thought was only good, can turn out to be a bit bad too, and the other way around. Extreme situations may cause the best person to go bad, if only for seconds (refer to the part where Harry tries to use an Unforgivable curse on Bellatrix).The moral of the book could very well be that not all things are what they seem to be. She greatly succeeds with getting this point through, in my opinion.

Another thing the book teaches us, is to take nothing for granted, and that what you have can be taken away from you just like that. It shows us that life is fragile and precious, and that every moment with your loved ones should be enjoyed for what it is. Parallells can be drawn to everyday “muggle” life, where people get killed at random, leaving behind families and loved ones.



The book in general is very dark, not to mention well written. Rowling uses a very powerful language, and her research is incredible. She takes us on a plunge into man’s emotions, both good and bad, and you can really feel the character’s happiness, despair and fear as the plot unfolds.

All in all, this is an excellent book, truly deserving of all praise it has received. I found I couldn’t put it down once I had started reading it, and it is by far my favorite book in the series so far (and that’s saying something!). She has really done it again, she brings you into a world unlike any other, and lets you share triumphs, sorrow and adventures with the characters. It is more closely related to real life than the previous books, and this makes the reader more able to relate to it, causing it to be even more powerful. From page one, the story grabs you, and it doesn’t let go, not even after you’ve finished the book, put it down and gone to bed. This is one of the books EVERYONE would benefit from reading.

I must say this is excellent, you have explored every aspect of the books like the characters, the themes (darkness) and some other aspect...
I believe you deserve 60 points...
well done...