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Bloomsbury edition (children) Bloomsbury edition (adult) Scholastic edition
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Plot Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The story begins with Harry at the Dursleys' home experiencing some teenage angst. Harry is frustrated because he doesn't know what the newly reborn Lord Voldemort is planning and his friends won't share any information through correspondence. After a fight with his aunt and uncle, Harry wanders around Little Whinging and meets his obnoxious cousin, Dudley. As the two boys are heading home, Dementors appear and attack them, but Harry successfully drives them off with the Patronus Charm. This saves Dudley from having his soul sucked, but still leaves him chilled and almost unconscious. Fortunately their neighbour Mrs. Figg arrives to help. She later reveals that she is a Squib and that she has been watching over Harry on Professor Dumbledore's behalf.
Once the boys arrive home Vernon and Petunia turn on their nephew, blaming him for Dudley's illness. Vernon demands that Harry leave, even though Harry explains that Voldemort is after him. As this is going on, Harry receives a letter stating that he has been expelled from Hogwarts -- students are forbidden to do any magic outside of school -- but then several other letters arrive in quick succession. Letters from Arthur Weasley and Sirius Black warn Harry not to leave the house, while another overturns his expulsion and orders him to appear at a hearing at the Ministry of Magic. The last letter is a Howler which screams "Remember my last, Petunia". Upon hearing this, Petunia insists that Harry will have to stay.
After being locked in his room for several days, a large menagerie of wizards and witches come to rescue Harry. They take him to the home of the Black Family, who used various techniques to hide the building, making it ideal for the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix of which the title speaks. The Weasleys, Hermione, and Sirius are all staying there. Sirius has been ordered not to leave the house because of the Ministry's continued search for him (see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for details). Harry is angry about being kept in the dark, examining his darker personality, and also perturbed by the fact that Ron and Hermione were made Prefects while he was not. Everyone explains that the secrecy was under Dumbledore's orders; Harry also manages to learn quite a bit about what has transpired since the summer began.
Although both Harry and Dumbledore have told the world that Lord Voldemort is back, no one believes them. Indeed, the Ministry of Magic has made it their job to discredit them both, using the wizarding newspaper The Daily Prophet to slander the duo. Those in the know, however, have resurrected the Order of the Phoenix, which existed the last time that Lord Voldemort threatened the world. A number of new members are in the Order as well, and it is dedicated to saving everyone from the resurgence of Death Eaters and Voldemort.
Harry's hearing for his possible expulsion from Hogwarts and loss of his wizarding status finally arrives. It fills much of the household with trepidation, but they are fairly confident that he will come out okay - he used the magic strictly in self-defence, which is an allowed exception to the rules. However, upon arrival at the Ministry of Magic, Harry and Mr. Weasley find out that the time of the hearing has been changed to take place earlier, and its location moved to deep down in the basement, near the Department of Mysteries - when Harry arrives, he realises that a full trial has been called, with the entire Wizengamot assembled.
Although this appears to be an attempt to both intimidate Harry and keep Dumbledore from showing up as Harry's defence, the ancient wizard and headmaster of Hogwarts appears nonetheless; with Mrs. Figg as a witness, testifying that the Dementors were real, not mere figments of Harry's imagination or lies, Harry manages to be exonerated. However, something seems strange - Dumbledore scarcely pays any attention to Harry, and as the young boy leaves, he sees Lucius Malfoy conferring with Cornelius Fudge. This shocks Harry, as Malfoy is a known Death Eater, though Mr. Weasley alludes to bribery.
Eventually, Harry and his companions return to school. On the Hogwarts Express they meet a girl named Luna Lovegood, who takes on a prominent role later in the book. At Hogwarts they discover two shocking bits of news: Hagrid has still not returned from whatever task Dumbledore sent him on at the end of last term, and their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge, not only does not want them to use actual spells, but in fact works for the Ministry of Magic and seems to be pushing its agenda on the school.
Once school starts, things happen at a rapid pace. The fifth year is the year in which the O.W.L.s are taken, and the teachers push hard for the students to do well on them. Professor Umbridge gains more and more influence on the school, through a succession of new laws passed by the Ministry of Magic, until she actually becomes the Hogwarts High Inquisitor, and begins to poll both students and teachers about their abilities. Ron is made the new keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher turns out to be a very unlikeable character. When Dolores Umbridge refuses to teach anything useful in her Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, Hermione convinces Harry to give secret lessons to a number of students who want to learn how Defence Against the Dark Arts really works; reluctantly, he agrees, and they all sign a paper stating their intent to never reveal the group to Umbridge.
Hagrid later returns as well, looking much the worse for wear. Although he eventually divulges his mission to recruit the giants on the Order's side, he is much more reluctant to come clean about the cause of his injuries. Both he and Professor Trelawney are under heavy observation by Umbridge, as she seems to suspect both of being incompetent; Umbridge also dislikes "half-breeds," and Hagrid is half-human, half-giant.
As Umbridge convinces Fudge to pass more and more edicts, activities in the school become more intensely curtailed. All student groups are banned; the Slytherin Quidditch team is almost immediately reactivated--to no one's great surprise--but the Gryffindor team is held up until Minerva McGonagall goes over Umbridge's head and has Dumbledore reinstate it. The Slytherins compose a taunting ditty entitled "Weasley is Our King" in an attempt to intimidate Ron into playing poorly. It succeeds, but Harry captures the Golden Snitch in the first game to clinch victory. However, a fight afterwards provoked by Draco Malfoy results in Harry and the Weasley twins, Fred and George, being permanently banned from playing the game by Umbridge.
Secretly, however, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes led by Harry go on. They now call themselves the "D.A.", initially for Defence Association but settling on Dumbledore's Army, as many believe Fudge's recent actions against Hogwarts are to keep Dumbledore from creating an army of his own to use against the Ministry of Magic.
All along, Harry has had a number of strange dreams, mostly about running down a hallway and attempting to open a door in the Department of Mysteries. Eventually, however, he has a dream from the point of view of a snake, where he attacks Ron's father, Arthur Weasley. Waking up, he immediately tells everyone, and Arthur is indeed discovered with poisonous snake bites and hospitalised, eventually escaping danger. Harry begins to wonder if he is being possessed and transported by Voldemort to do his bidding; others reassure him that this is not so. Soon, however, Dumbledore orders Harry to be placed under Severus Snape's tutelage in the art of Occlumency, the ability to block one's mind from being manipulated.
Hermione arranges for Harry to be interviewed by Rita Skeeter concerning the truth about Voldemort (though Rita only agrees because otherwise Hermione would reveal Rita, an unregistered animagus, to the authorities). Luna Lovegood's father happens to be the editor of The Quibbler, and her father agrees to take Rita's article. When the article appears, Umbridge is furious: she forbids Harry from Hogsmeade weekends and bans students from having copies of The Quibbler. Fortunately for Harry, this merely gives the magazine the lure of the forbidden and soon the publication spreads like wildfire throughout the school despite Umbridge's frantic efforts to stop it.
Umbridge attempts to fire and throw Trelawney out, but Dumbledore allows her to stay at the castle, saying he found a replacement that prefers to sleep on the ground; in her place, a centaur named Firenze, whom Harry met in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, becomes the new teacher. This irritates Umbridge greatly; Dumbledore did not consult her, and she dislikes "half-breeds" like centaurs and Hagrid.
Harry's continuing attraction to the Ravenclaw Quidditch player Cho Chang further complicates the situation; he is awkward and confused in close situations with her. A particularly painful experience in the wizarding town of Hogsmeade appears to destroy what little foundation the two had built for their relationship; Harry's continuing close friendship with Hermione and Cho's sorrow over the death of her ex appear to be the key issues. Also, Harry has trouble understanding or communicating with her.
Things begin to come to a head when in the middle of a DA meeting, the members are informed that someone has told on them and Umbridge is coming to punish them. Harry is the only one caught and is taken to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore is able to convince Fudge, who has always been afraid of Dumbledore as a threat to his job, that it was all his idea, and that it is indeed a plan to depose Fudge as the Minister of Magic, in order to protect the students from taking the blame. Dumbledore makes a miraculous escape, and Umbridge installs herself as the new Headmistress and begins the Inquisitorial Squad. The Weasley twins use their considerable talents in pranks to give her as much trouble as they possibly can while all of the teachers, who dislike Umbridge intensely, rebel by doing nothing to help her cope.
The Weasley twins set off one last conflagration so that Harry can talk to Sirius via the fireplace in Umbridge's office - the rest are under watch after Sirius used them once too many times to talk to Harry - and are caught; they decide to leave school in a spectacularly memorable manner, leaving a magical swamp inside the school, and to use the winnings from the Triwizard Tournament that Harry had given them to finally start their Joke Shop.
During the OWLs, Harry and others witness a group of people attempting to capture Hagrid to expel him. Professor McGonagall tries to stop them, and is hit with a large number of Stun Charms, which requires her to be hospitalised. Soon after, Harry has a dream which seems to complete the journey down the hallway: as Voldemort, he has Sirius captured in the Department of Mysteries, and is torturing him slowly.
Harry and his crew make a desperate attempt to contact Sirius via the fireplace in Umbridge's office, but the Black family's house-elf tells Harry that Voldemort has indeed taken his godfather. Umbridge and her minions--Slytherin students--capture Harry's gang. She attempts to get Snape to give her some Veritaserum, but he says he has none left; little does she know that he is also a member of the Order of the Phoenix. She also tells Harry that it was she who ordered the Dementors on him during the summer. Thinking fast, Hermione makes up a story about who they were trying to contact, and says that they were protecting a weapon, and that she and Harry would take her to the weapon.
They entice Umbridge into the woods, knowing that the centaurs, very angry that one of their brethren now works for humans, are disposed to hate adult wizards. The centaurs take Umbridge away, and are about to do the same to Harry and Hermione, when Hagrid's half-brother--a "small" giant named Grawp, whom Hagrid had brought back with him from his quest over the summer--appears and distracts the centaurs. Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville appear, and they all decide to go to the Ministry of Magic to rescue Sirius, riding on thestrals, horse-like creatures which only people who have seen death can see.
Upon arriving at the Department of Mysteries, and after a number of false turns, they arrive at the location in Harry's dream, to find not Voldemort and Sirius but a bunch of Death Eaters. The Death Eaters include, among others: Draco's father Lucius Malfoy, MacNair the executioner in the employ of the Ministry, Azkaban escapee and former Department of Mysteries employee Rookwood and Azkaban escapee couple the Lestranges (including Bellatrix Lestrange - cousin of Sirius Black and torturer of the Longbottoms). The vision of Sirius's torture at the Department of Mysteries was a trap. When Voldemort realised that Harry could see his actions, he planted fake ones in his mind. The Death Eaters are there to force Harry to retrieve a glass sphere; the record of a prophecy. Only the people the prophecy is about are able to retrieve it. As Voldemort does not want to risk being found out, he lures Harry into retrieving it for him. The prophecy, made before Harry's birth, is apparently about Voldemort and Harry Potter. As an initial partial understanding of that prophecy was directly linked to Voldemort's initial downfall (when he tried to kill Harry as a baby), Voldemort is determined to hear the full prophecy.
A great skirmish begins, with the students versus the Death Eaters. Most of the students are injured, and as they near defeat, many of the adult wizards from the Order of the Phoenix appear to help them including Sirius. During the ensuing battle, the glass sphere which holds the prophecy is shattered. A ghostly image pronounces the prophecy but no one can hear it. Also, tragically, Sirius is struck by a curse from the wand of his cousin and Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange. He falls through a veil held inside an arch in the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries, which literally and figuratively marks his end. Dumbledore shows up and ropes off most of the Death Eaters, but Bellatrix escapes.
Harry blindly chases after Bellatrix, intent to avenge Sirius' death, and as he is catching up with her in the main atrium of the Ministry of Magic, they have a small battle. Then Lord Voldemort himself appears inside the atrium. He and Dumbledore duel, and after a dramatic fight and a brief episode where Voldemort actually manages to possess Harry, tempting Dumbledore to kill him in the body of Harry, Voldemort eventually retreats via disapparating and takes Bellatrix with him. Alerted Ministry of Magic employees arrive in time to see "He Who Must Not Be Named" for themselves. Among them is Cornelius Fudge, who finally accepts Voldemort's return and believes what Dumbledore and Harry have been saying. In turn, the Daily Prophet reverses its hostile stand on the pair, restoring and gilding their reputations with the additional accolade as the forewarners of Voldemort's return in the face of all odds and opposition.
As the story draws to a close, Dumbledore explains much to Harry. He did not wish to be close to him during the year, as he could sense Voldemort's growing power over the boy--indeed, on more than one occasion, Harry was filled with a desire to strike down Dumbledore. He regretted not helping Harry with learning Occlumency, and also tells him the prophecy: the copy in the Department of Mysteries was just that, a copy. It turns out that at her initial Hogwarts interview sixteen years ago (held in a room at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade) Trelawney predicted that:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...
This was interpreted to mean that Voldemort would kill either Harry or Neville Longbottom, or vice-versa. After Voldemort, hearing of the prophecy, attacked Harry as a child, the latter part of the prophecy was realised; Harry would be his foe and kill or be killed by him, not Neville.
The existence of this prophecy brings clarity to Dumbledore remarking that Trelawney's prediction in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has been her second real one. The first prediction was the Harry/Voldemort prophecy.
Dumbledore also elaborates on the reason why Harry has to stay at the Dursleys' each summer: as Harry's mother died for him, imparting him with magical protection through her sacrifice, he is safe in the Dursleys' home because Aunt Petunia shares Lily Potter's blood, therefore the protection extends to the Dursley home and Voldemort cannot hurt him there, provided he returns once per year. Dumbledore was the one who sent Petunia the Howler, reminding her of her agreement to take Harry in.
In the end, Harry goes back to the Dursleys', but not without Vernon and Petunia getting a stern talking-to by a number of wizards in the Order (including a menacing Mad-Eye). Changes are brewing in the wizarding world. Indeed, the last chapter of the book is entitled "The Second War Begins."
The movie will be directed by David Yates. According to David Heyman, the producer, filming should begin in January 2006; a release date is expected in the Spring or Autumn of 2007. Michael Goldenberg (Contact, Peter Pan) has been chosen to write the screenplay. For American audiences, the violence will likely require a PG-13 rating.
The book can be viewed as a commentary on the repression of free speech. Umbridge's punishment of Harry for talking about Voldemort and the banning of the edition The Quibbler containing an interview with him can be seen as attacking free speech.
There are also strong parallels between the wizarding world in Book Five and pre-World War II Europe. In both instances, a great war has already been fought. However, the loser of the first war has been regaining power and building an army. The evil ruler embraces an ideology that can be seen as racist (many of the supporters of Voldemort are obsessed with maintaining the "purity" of wizard blood). Many respectable and powerful citizens fall under his sway and accept his ideology (The Malfoys, Blacks, etc). However, the civilians are unaware of the evil that is gathering, constantly fed placating rhetoric by the press (The Daily Prophet), and the government (The Ministry). Also, even though Voldemort and his followers are obsessed with purity of blood, Voldemort is a half-blood himself (In the same way Adolf Hitler was allegedly part-Jewish).
Book Chapters
Chapter 01: Dudley Demented Chapter 02: A Peck of Owls Chapter 03: The Advance Guard Chapter 04: Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place Chapter 05: The Order of the Phoenix Chapter 06: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black Chapter 07: The Ministry of Magic Chapter 08: The Hearing Chapter 09: The Woes of Mrs. Weasley Chapter 10: Luna Lovegood Chapter 11: The Sorting Hat's New Song Chapter 12: Professor Umbridge Chapter 13: Detention with Dolores Chapter 14: Percy and Padfoot Chapter 15: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor Chapter 16: In the Hog's Head Chapter 17: Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four Chapter 18: Dumbledore's Army Chapter 19: The Lion and the Serpent Chapter 20: Hadrid's Tale Chapter 21: The Eye of the Snake Chapter 22: St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries Chapter 23: Christmas on the Closed Ward Chapter 24: Occlumency Chapter 25: The Beetle at Bay Chapter 26: Seen and Unforeseen Chapter 27: The Centaur and the Sneak Chapter 28: Snape's Worst Memory Chapter 29: Career Advice Chapter 30: Grawp Chapter 31: O.W.L.s Chapter 32: Out of the Fire Chapter 33: Fight and Flight Chapter 34: The Department of Mysteries Chapter 35: Beyond the Veil Chapter 36: The Only One He Ever Feared Chapter 37: The Lost Prophecy Chapter 38: The Second War Begins
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