Audrey Middleton, Au409 HP Book Analysis I Mid Term Project
Order of the Phoenix
Once again Harry had barely escaped Lord Voldemort’s grasp, but this time he was whole, not a memory or a parasite. Once again Harry was sent to the Dursley’s while everyone else was busy dealing with Lord Voldemort, or at least that is what it seemed like to Harry! Harry was angry, confused and anxiously awaiting the next attack by Lord Voldemort but no one seemed to care or notice. Harry was scouring every bit of news, the papers or the television’s hoping for some indication of what was happening in the wizarding world because even his best friends letters were fraught with warnings but no news, not even in the Daily Prophet was there any indication that Lord Voldemort was back to wreak havoc upon the world. This is the state of our hero at the beginning of the fifth installment ‘The Order of the Phoenix’.
Then suddenly he finds that he and his cousin Dudley were under attack in the middle of the suburbs by dementors! Harry was prepared for almost anything and had taken to carrying his wand everywhere, but dementors in the middle of the muggle suburbs?! Narrowly escaping this attack he is further confused by many other revelations that came in rapid succession. The batty old cat-loving neighbor Mrs. Figg was actually a squib, a witch who couldn’t do magic, and that he had been under 24 hour watch by other wizards the entire time! But no one ever talked to him or even acknowledged his existence. Now he was facing expulsion from school, destruction of his wand and a hearing at the Ministry of Magic for protecting himself and still no one could tell him what was going on. He was being treated like a misbehaving child and he had proven himself, angrier and scared of what will happen to him he resigned himself to his bedroom for days.
When the Order finally came for him he was shocked to find an army of wizards had been sent to retrieve him. He thought he was finally going to get some answers and be able to do something about the impending threat but he was wrong. Harry found the busy work easier than being out of the loop and made it easier to get through till his hearing because he didn’t have time to think about it. The Orders headquarters turned out to be the family home of his godfather Sirius Black and apperantly his godfathers family had been a Voldemort supporter at some point. As it turned out though the hearing was more like a lynch mob trying to silence the nuisance boy who was making trouble for them by claiming that the Death Eaters were back to terrorize the wizarding world once again. Although Dumbledore came through for Harry again, he seemed distant and formal around Harry and this too angered and confused the emerging teenager.
Back to school again, and once again under a cloud of suspicion among the students because of the Ministries smear campaign his life was not any easier. Ron and Hermione were both made Prefects making them a little less available and adding to Harry’s torment as to why Dumbledore seemed to be distancing himself from Harry. Then we are introduced to a perfectly awful new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Delores Umbridge who seems determined to make Harry’s life even worse and undermine the entire school along the way. Harry quickly finds that his temper, far to close to the surface gets him into a lot of trouble eventually even getting him banned from his only outlet Quidditch! Delores Umbridge becomes more powerful and starts creating trouble for the teachers as well as the students.
But she is so awful that many students deliberately rebel by creating their own D.A.D.A. class with (reluctantly) Harry as the teacher. They also are bombarded with heavy loads of homework to prepare them for they’re up coming O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Level) tests that would determine what they might be able to do after they left school. In the mean time Ron has made the Quidditch team and in Harry’s and the Weasley twins suspensions Ginny Weasley has also made a now very diminished Gryffindor team. So school is bleak his scar hurts often and there are these dreams, dreams of corridors and doors with something that he wants to see but he doesn’t know what it is.
Harry begins to realize that these dreams are of corridors within the Ministry of Magic, although he had not gone down these halls before he feels as if he has been there and the feeling of needing to find something was becoming very appealing. Then one night he finds himself once again going down the hallway but this time as a snake and he attacks a man, not just anyone but Arthur Weasley! He awakened feeling sick and frightened but he had to get help for his best friends father immediately and he did not care how it looked to anyone. Dumbledore and McGonagal both seemed to understand the seriousness of this dream and took quick action and where able to find and save Mr. Weasley, but Dumbledore still did not make eye contact with Harry. Now Harry was concerned that he had been Lord Voldemort’s puppet he felt dirty and a danger to his friends and never felt more alone.
It was Ginny and Hermione who finally got through to Harry that he could not have been there nor was he being possessed but merely able to see and feel what Lord Voldemort was thinking. But this latest incursion into Voldemort’s mind seemed to alarm Dumbledore and Harry was told (by Professor Snape) that he now had additional weekly lessons of another difficult defensive magic called occlumency. And the news got even worse; Professor Snape would be teaching him under the guise that he was taking remedial potions lessons. Professor Snape, now his second least favorite teacher, and obviously still harbored his own ill feelings toward Harry was now being asked to infiltrate Harry’s mind on a weekly basis.
The lessons were not going well and because Harry had no idea what this was about only resented these lessons. The lessons went on though until by chance Harry was left alone with Professor Snape’s thoughts in the pensieve and Harry’s curiosity got the better of him. He found himself looking in on his father and his two best friends at nearly the same age as he was now taking their O.W.L.s and then being extraordinarily cruel to then student Serverus Snape for no apparent reason. This intrusion infuriated Professor Snape and bothered Harry because he had always believed that his father had been a wonderful person and this bullying did not jive with his version of who his father had been. Professor Snape canceled all further occlumency lessons and became colder towards Harry in his potions classes, but this seemed an improvement to Harry.
Springtime came and things seemed to be improving a little because of Hermiones idea that Harry give an interview that would be published about what had happened at the Tri Wizards Tournament the previous year. She reasoned that people were finally ready for another possible answer than the established version of things because of the escaped death eaters were not beong hunted as fervently as before. Also there was an alternative publication that wasn’t being dictated to by the Ministry. Their new friend Luna Lovegood a forth year Ravenclaw they had met on the train to school in the fall and was a part of their dada class was very helpful in this endeavor. Luna’s Father was a publisher of a wizarding magazine called the Quibbler and could get Harry’s story out. Indeed the interview was well received through the school and irritated Professor Umbridge beyond words. So she took an opportunity to exercise her ne inquisitor position to discharge Professor Trelawney. While Dumbledore could not prevent the firing he refused to have her removed from the castle.
Harry was still confused and having difficulty understanding what was going on between Cho Chang and himself. They had some sort of connection, shared a quick kiss and then had a date that went very badly. Harry wasn’t sure if she liked him or just wanted to know more about what had happened to Diggory the previous year. Harry believed there was some sort of spark there but their enjoyment of each other seemed to be fleeting and sporadic at best. Eventually this attraction finally fizzled out over the year because it just didn’t seem to work for either of them. No official break up because they never made it to being a couple but a newfound friendship was founded on their understanding of each other.
Professor Umbridge’s fervor over the interview seemed to make her more determined than ever to discredit and disgrace Harry more than ever. So she stepped up her efforts to catch Harry breaking the rules now that she had the authority to suspend him if she could catch him. She knew that Harry had been involved in trying to start a DADA class and had taken steps to ban such a gathering immediately but she was fairly certain that he was up to something still when one of the class members was coerced into giving her the details of the meetings. Umbridge reacted to the information swiftly but with a warning from Dobby the house elf most of the class managed to escape. Harry was caught though. Taken to Dumbledore certain she would be rid of Harry finally Dumbledore took the heat claiming that it had been his meeting not Harry’s and that had been the first meeting. This news caused his immediate dismissal and Harry felt even worse than ever. But Dumbledore saw this as a chance to work more freely away from the Ministries prying eyes.
Dumbledores dismissal and Umbridge’s becoming the new headmistress caused immediate and increased mischief making throughout the school. Any and all chances to disrupt and discredit Umbridge’s authority was undertaken by many but none were more spectacular than the Weasley twins efforts. The twins set off their very own brand of fireworks that they had been developing for the opening of their own joke shop was a great success. When Harry needed a distraction so that he could speak to his godfather Sirius Black the twins turned an entire Corridor into a swamp. Unfortunately Professor Umbridge caught them. The confrontation was a memorable point in the book as the twins said goodbye to the school magically retrieving their confiscated brooms from Umbridges office and inviting all to visit their new premises in Diagon Alley. Their final instructions were to Peeves the poltergeist to carry on giving Professor Umbridge hell.
The entire school was in an uproar as new students stepped up to fill the Weasley twins mischievous void and Peeves reveled in his new purpose to antagonize the new headmistress constantly. Despite all of this the classes still went on although the teachers were all becoming less and less capable of dispatching the magical interruptions, they’re only form of rebellion available to them. The O.W.L. tests also came around as scheduled. The good news was that it was outsiders who administered and graded the results of these tests giving Harry at least a reasonable chance of passing them. It was during his nighttime astronomy exam when they tried to remove Ruebeus Hagrid from his hut on the school grounds and McGonagal was injured fairly badly coming to his defense. The loss of these two teachers were seemingly the last Order of the Phoenix members that Harry had contact with and would be a problem for him during his final O.W.L. exam.
It happened again, the vivid dreams of the Ministries Mysteries corridor only this time it was Sirius Black who was being attacked by Lord Voldemort Himself! Blindly panicked by this latest attack and certain there was no one he could trust to save him Harry was determined to rescue his favorite godfather at any cost. Hermione tried valiantly to be the voice of reason but only got as far as getting Harry to check on Sirius’s whereabouts before setting off. The trouble was getting access to the only unattended floo network in the school that was in Umbridge’s office. A hasty plan was hatched between Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, and Ginny to distract Umbridge and keep the coast clear of the Inquisitors squad. They were all caught and even Neville was dragged into Umbridge’s office as he had tried to rescue Ginny from the squads grasp. It was while they were in the office that they were given a glimpse of their error in believing no Order of the Phoenix members remained at the school when Snape was summoned to the office as well. Harry tried a fleeting attempt to blurt out that their Snuffles was in danger but didn’t dare to elaborate. Things looked very bleak.
Once again though it was Hermione’s quick and shrewd mind that chose to lead Umbridge into the Dark Forest by playing upon her fears and power mongering. In the Dark Forest were very angry Centaurs who were quite unhappy with the human race just then and Hagrid’s half brother that was a full grown giant who hadn’t had much contact with people. The Centaurs had indeed disliked the xenophobic Umbridge and took her away, but they also took exception to Hermione using them in human affairs. They were saved in the nick of time by Grawp, Hagrid’s half brother who had come looking for the now missing Hagrid. The rest of their friends had managed to escape the Inquisitors squad and had caught up with them in the forest. Now how where they to get to the Ministry when attracted by the bloody mess left on Harry and Hermione came the Thestrals Hagrid had introduced them to. They were winged horse like creatures only people who had seen death up close could actually see and they had an innate ability to find anywhere you wanted to go so the six unlikely heroes set off to the ministry.
When the group finally reached the chamber where Sirius was to be in trouble it was discovered that it had been a set up. Voldemort had planted that vision in Harry’s mind using their eerie connection to his advantage to get Harry there to retrieve the prophecy that was about how Voldemort and Harry’s battle would be resolved.
Voldemort had learned by trial and error that only those who were involved in the prophecy could retrieve it and he wish to remain out of sight till he was ready to take over again. The Defense classes that Harry had been reaching was very useful in keeping the band of students alive against the Death Eaters and they fought valiantly until the Order of the Phoenix members arrive to aid in the fight. Snape had warned them that they had been lured to the Ministries Department of Mysteries and eventually even Dumbledore arrived to join the fray. During the fight Sirius was hit with a spell that caused him to fall through a curtain that was in one of the many rooms in the ministry. That curtain it turned out was the veil between life and death. Sirius Black had died trying to save Harry. It was not spectacular and it was sudden as real death often is, it had been so unremarkable that you wondered if there had been a mistake. Sirius Black was indeed dead.
Dumbledore had sent statues to alert the Minister of Magic and the aururs of the battle that was going on in their very own building and they arrived just in time to see Voldemort himself had appeared to try and retrieve the prophecy himself sensing his followers failure. But the Prophecy had been destroyed in the struggle; there was no way for Voldemort to get it back. But the Ministry was finally convinced that Harry had been telling the truth the whole year and they began disseminating this information out to the public immediately. Dumbledore sent Harry back to his office at Hogwarts to await him while he filled the Ministry in on what had happened. Harry felt trapped, angry, confused and sad about the events of that day and he could not contain this frustrating anger a second past Dumbledore’s return.
Dumbledore allowed Harry to rant and break anything he wanted and remained calm but not the usual comforting all knowing calm but a more solemn saddened quiet. He waited for Harry to settle down enough to try and explain that it was he Dumbledore who was at fault for the errors that lead to Sirius’s death and not Harry’s. His tearful and soulfully weary eyes gave Harry a glimpse into the prideful errors of age forgetting what it was like to be young. Harry while no longer a child was still his responsibility and he now felt that he had underestimated how much information Harry could have handled and when.
It was a long explanation of why he had avoided Harry’s eyes so that Voldemort would not use their connection to see into the Orders business and the reason he did not let Professor Trelawney leave was because it was she who had foreseen the prophecy that was now destroyed. But it was only a record of the prophecy that had been destroyed. Dumbledore drew the silvery thread of the memory from his head and placed it in the pensieve for Harry to see. It was by Voldemort’s own haste to strike down this prophecy without all of the facts that had locked Harry and Voldemort’s destiny to each other. There were two boys that fit the prophecies description it was Harry and Neville, but it was Voldemort’s own attack that actually chose, and marked Harry as his equal. The prophecy also stated that only one of them will survive and that they could only be killed by each other’s hand. So lies Harry’s fate to kill or be killed in the end and the battle will continue next year.
