November Project - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Book Review
Dom McDermott | do370
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book of the Harry Potter series, and so covers Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After witnessing first hand the return of Lord Voldemort, Harry spends the summer at home with the Dursleys listening out for signs of Voldemort on the Muggle news. This year, Harry has had very little correspondence with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who are spending the summer together from what he can work out from their letters, although they are not permitted to talk much to him about their goings on, or where they are.
To make things even worse for Harry, he has learnt that the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet, is painting him black, making out that he is crazy and that he has made up the stories of Voldemort’s return. Several discreditory stories appear in the newspaper to back up the suggestion that Harry is an attention seeker, and that he is losing his mind.
The summer takes an unexpected turn, when Harry is out one night and bumps into his cousin, Dudley. On their way home, the pair are attacked by Dementors, which Harry manages to repel with a patronus charm. Dudley is badly affected and has to be helped home by Harry, but not before Mrs Figg turns up, and informs Harry that he has been being watched and that she is part of his team of guardians.
On his arrival home, Harry receives a letter from the Ministry of Magic, informing him that he has been expelled from Hogwarts fro a second offence of underage magic. Aunt Petunia reveals that she too knows more about the world of witches and wizards than she had previously let on, and Harry is surprised when a Howler arrives and is addressed to her.
Luring the Dursleys out of the house, a number of wizards, including Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin arrive to escort Harry to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, which is being used as the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix – an anti-Voldemort organisation set up by Albus Dumbledore. Included in the Order are members of the original order, as well as new members such as Bill and Charlie Weasley, and a Metamorph Auror, Nymphadora Tonks.
Ron and Hermione, along with Fred, George and Ginny Weasley, are all at Grimmauld Place, where they have been spending the summer, and Harry is delighted to learn that the house is also home to his godfather, Sirius Black. It is at Grimmauld Place, that Harry learns he isn’t the only one who is being treated badly by the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet. Albus Dumbledore is also being branded a liar, and crazy, and he has been demoted from various positions of prestige and authority.
After the Order meets, and the children are dismayed at not being allowed to join them, Sirius relents and discusses with Harry and the others (except Ginny who is still considered too young) that Voldemort is trying to build an army of dark creatures. He is also trying to get his hands on a weapon more powerful than the Unforgivable Curses, but no one in the Order will let on what this is. Harry begins to have dreams about corridors and locked doors, and realised that there must be some connection here with Voldemort, as they result in his scar prickling.
As a result of Harry’s illegal use of magic, he has to go to a Ministry of Magic hearing, and Arthur Weasley escorts him, on his way to work. As a last minute change, Harry’s hearing is changed in both location and time, and he is almost late. The change in times doesn’t stop Albus Dumbledore from showing up, with Mrs Figg, as witness to Harry, and he is acquitted and his expulsion from Hogwarts lifted. During the hearing, it seems apparent that Cornelius Fudge, leading the Wizengamot, is not bothered about the truth of what had happened, or about the fact that Harry was using magic to safe his own life and that of a Muggle. He tries to dismiss the claims that there were dementors, which is news to the rest of the Wizengamot, who had obviously not heard of this part of the story before. Also during the hearing, Fudge lets Dumbledore know that rules can be changed, to let the Ministry of Magic have more control over him and Hogwarts.
In the aftermath of the hearing, the children prepare to leave Grimmauld Place and return to Hogwarts, for Harry, Ron and Hermione’s fifth year – their OWL year. Ron and Hermione are announced as Prefects of Gryffindor, and Harry seems a little put out, wondering why it is Ron and not he who has the badge, and the position. Mrs Weasley buys Ron the new Cleansweep Broom as a congratulations gift. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry and company meet with Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw from Ginny’s year, and also Neville Longbottom. Just after Neville manages to get them all covered in Stinksap from a plant he is carrying, Cho Chang enters their compartment and leaves Harry wishing that he’d managed to seem a bit more cool. Harry’s nemesis, Draco Malfoy is announced as the new Slytherin Prefect, along with Pansy Parkinson.
Unusually, it is Professor Grubbly-Plank, and not Rubeus Hagrid, who meets the first years from the train, and at the staff table, she again takes Hagrid’s place. Another notable thing about Harry’s first few minutes back at Hogwarts, is the black, reptilian horses that pull the carriages that most of the students travel up to the castle in. Of all Harry’s companions, Luna is the only other person who can see these creatures. Half the school appears to have been reading the Daily Prophet over the summer, and as a result, many now distrust Harry, or simply distrust him more than previously. Disconcertingly for Harry, this includes Gryffindor house and his friend Seamus Finnigan in particular.
Another shock on Harry’s first day is the announcement of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Dolores Umbridge was one of the witches at Harry’s Ministry of Magic Hearing, and she was one of those who was obviously siding against him. Not only is Professor Umbridge new, but there is also a new syllabus for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, the result of which, the students are not being taught how to defend themselves anymore, but are just being taught the theory side of their spells and jinxes.
Harry and Umbridge immediately begin to get on badly, with Harry landing in detention for a week, much to the chagrin of the new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, Angelina Johnson. Not only does Harry have to write lines for his detention, he has to use a quill that etches the words he writes into the back of his hand. It becomes apparent that Professor Umbridge is quickly getting to know her way around Hogwarts, and getting certain people, such as caretaker Argus Filch, on her side, and never is this more pronounced than when the Minister for Magic gives her the title of Hogwarts High Inquisitor.
As one way of fighting against Professor Umbridge’s regime, Hermione suggests that Harry teach Defence Against the Dark Arts to those who wish to learn it, and a meeting is set up in the Hog’s Head Pub during a Hogsmeade outing. Twenty five people show up, and agree to hold weekly meetings in which Harry will teach everything from disarming spells to full patronus charms. Possibly because she got wind of this meeting, or other planned ones, Professor Umbridge announces Educational Decree Number Twenty Four, which states that all clubs and meetings of more than three students are to be disbanded. Permission from Professor Umbridge herself must be gained in order to reform such clubs. Ginny Weasley comes up with the name Dumbledore’s army, for the new Defence Against the Dark Arts club, and Neville immediately impresses by making good progress.
Professor Umbridge continues what seems to be a campaign against Harry, as he, along with Fred and George Weasley are given a lifetime ban from Quidditch, as a result of a fight after the match with Slytherin. Around this time, a good way into the term, Hagrid returns, and tells of his adventures over the summer when he set out to find the giants. The news there isn’t good – although Hagrid and Madame Maxime manage to get on good terms with the giant chief, he is overthrown, and the new leader has already taken sides with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. The good news, as far as Hagrid is concerned, is that he managed to locate his half-brother, Grawp, although his mother has by this point died. Hagrid brought Grawp back to Hogwarts with him, and has him hidden in the Forbidden Forest, although this appears not to have been a mutual decision, as Hagrid is continually covered in cuts and bruises from the giant.
Back as a teacher, Hagrid’s first lesson with the fifth years, takes them into the Forbidden Forest, and introduces them to the horse-like creatures that drawn the Hogwarts carriages – Thestrals. Hagrid is put on probation by Professor Umbridge, as Professor Trelawney had already been. Umbridge takes great pleasure in making out that Hagrid is stupid, and that the subjects of his lessons, in this case the Thestrals, are dangerous. She also shows a good rapport with the Slytherin students.
It becomes apparent that the reasons Harry has been having scar-prickling dreams, is that he is sensing Voldemort’s moods. When Voldemort is feeling intense joy or anger, Harry can tell, and more than that, he begins to get more disturbing dreams as well. One night, Harry dreams that he is a giant snake, and he attacks Arthur Weasley. With Harry’s warning, help arrives in time, and Mr Weasley is rescued before it is too late, meaning that he is taken to St Mungo’s Hospital. Harry and the Weasleys are allowed to leave Hogwarts to visit him in the hospital.
While visiting Mr Weasley, with Hermione this time as well, the children meet Gilderoy Lockhart, and also Neville Longbottom, who is visiting his parents. During this meeting, they all learn that Neville’s parents have been tortured to insanity, and are consequently residents at St. Mungo’s. Mr Weasley is eventually released to go home, or rather, back to the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, and as he arrives there, it is learnt that Harry is to be taught Occlumency.
Although these extra lessons, taught by Professor Snape begin when Harry arrives back at Hogwarts after the Christmas break, they don’t stop him from having visions, and one night he gets the horrible feeling that Voldemort is the happiest he’s been in fourteen years. The next day it is announced that ten Death-Eaters have escaped from Azkaban Wizard Prison – including Bellatrix Black, the torturer of Neville Longbottom’s parents.
Using blackmail as a motive, Rita Skeeter, former reporter for the Daily Prophet, interviews Harry for The Quibbler, a magazine with Luna Lovegood’s father as the editor. Harry’s interview is soon printed and many people who recently distrusted Harry change their minds. Another Educational Decree is listed, stating that any student found possessing a copy of the Quibbler will be expelled. Naturally, banning them from reading the interview is the one sure-fire way to get people to read it, and it’s not long before the entire school has done so.
Meetings of the DA take a somewhat unexpected turn when they are found out by Professor Umbridge, but Albus Dumbledore insists that it we he who set up the group. Fudge orders his arrest, but Dumbledore escapes, after saying that he wouldn’t come quietly. The next Educational Decree installs Umbridge as the new Head of Hogwarts, and she in turn installs an Inquisitorial Squad, made up of Slytherin students. These have the power to punish other students. Fred and George Weasley decide that they have had enough, and that they don’t care if they are to be kicked out of Hogwarts, they are going to cause some mayhem. In the end, they leave Hogwarts of their own accord, before Umbridge can punish them for turning a corridor into a swamp, amongst other things.
With Dumbledore gone, and Umbridge, with her Inquisitorial Squad, running Hogwarts, life becomes even more miserable for Harry and his friends. Not only is there this, but they have careers meetings and exams to take part in as well. Professor Umbridge sits in on Harry’s careers meeting, and the animosity between her and Professor McGonagall is apparent when they argue over whether or not Harry has the talent to become an Auror. McGonagall says that she will have Harry become and Auror if it is the last thing she does, after Umbridge suggests that she will do anything she can to prevent this from happening.
Dom McDermott
do370 | Hufflepuff
Wow, Man... Very detail, shows good knowledge and understanding of the book... Good Analysis
60 points...
