Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter
series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by
Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and
Raincoast in Canada. Five million copies were sold in the first 24 hours
of publication.
The novel features Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious
return of Harry's nemesis Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has won several awards,
including being named an American Library Association Best Book for
Young Adults in 2003. The book has also been made into a film, which was
released in 2007, and into several video games by Electronic Arts.
Harry Potter is spending another horrible summer with his dreadful Aunt
Petunia and Uncle Vernon when a group of evil spirits called Dementors
stage an unexpected attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley. After using
magic to defend himself and Dudley, which gets him expelled from
Hogwarts, Harry is visited by a group of wizards and madeye and whisked
off to number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. Number twelve is the
home of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.
The Order is a group of witches and wizards, led by Hogwarts headmaster
Albus Dumbledore, dedicated to fighting the evil Lord Voldemort
and his followers. The Order is forced to operate in secrecy, outside
of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic, which is headed by the
dense and corrupt Cornelius Fudge. Fudge refuses to believe that Lord
Voldemort
has returned. Harry, who witnessed Voldemort's return the previous
June and was tortured and nearly murdered by him, is suffering from
nightmares about what has happened to him. He is also angry with those
he is close to, especially Ron and Hermione. Harry used magic to fight
off the dementors, and since underage wizards are not permitted to use
their wands outside of school, he must face a disciplinary hearing at
the Ministry. With Dumbledore's help, Harry is cleared by the
Wizengamot and permitted to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Reunited with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry returns to
Hogwarts and learns that Dolores Umbridge, an employee of Fudge, will be
his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The Sorting Hat, which
traditionally sorts all new students into one of four houses, cautions
the students against becoming too internally divided. Meanwhile, the
wizard newspaper, the Daily Prophet,
continues printing untrue and unfair stories about Harry. Many of his
classmates are whispering about him behind his back, but Harry ignores
them and tries to concentrate on his studies, since all fifth-year
students at Hogwarts are required to take rigorous standardised exams
that are O.W.L.s, or Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations.
However, Professor Umbridge and Harry soon clash, as she, like Fudge,
refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned and punishes Harry by
forcing him to write lines with a special quill that carves "I must not
tell lies" into the back of his hand.
Umbridge refuses to teach her students how to perform defensive spells,
and before long, Fudge appoints her High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, giving
her the authority to inspect all
faculty members and evaluate their skills. In desperation, Harry,
Hermione, and Ron form their own Defense Against the Dark Arts group,
also known as the D.A., or Dumbledore's Army. Twenty-five other
students sign up, and they meet as often as possible to learn and
practice Defense spells. Harry wishes desperately to contact his
godfather Sirius to discuss the situation, but Umbridge is inspecting
all owl posts and patrolling the fires that students can use to make
contact with wizards residing outside of Hogwarts. Umbridge openly
dislikes Harry, whom she considers a liar, and eventually bans him from
the Gryffindor Quidditch team for "Muggle dueling" with Draco Malfoy. Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George,
storm out of Hogwarts in protest, moving to London where they plan to
open a joke shop in the wizarding town of Diagon Alley using the money
Harry won last year in the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry continues to have upsetting dreams about walking down a corridor
at the Department of Mysteries, deep inside the Ministry of Magic. At
the end of the corridor, Harry goes through several doors and enters a
room full of dusty glass spheres. Harry always wakes up before he finds
out what the dream means or what the spheres signify. One night, Harry
has a vision where he inhabits the body of a large snake, and attacks
Ron's father. Harry wakes up horrified, and Professor McGonagall takes
him to Dumbledore immediately. Dumbledore uses the portraits on the
walls of his office to raise an alert, and Mr. Weasley is promptly
rescued by two members of the Order. The Weasley family, accompanied by
Harry and the Order, visit Arthur Weasley in St. Mungo's Hospital for
Magical Maladies and Injuries. Afterwards, Dumbledore demands that Harry
take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, which should help Harry
protect his mind against further invasions by Lord Voldemort.
Harry is unsuccessful at Occlumency because he has such difficulty
clearing his mind of all thoughts, making it difficult for him to focus
on closing his mind off to all outside influence. Meanwhile, his scar
(from the attack in which Voldemort killed Harry's parents) burns
horribly every time Voldemort experiences a powerful emotion. The D.A.
continues to meet regularly, and Harry's peers show great improvement
until they are caught by Umbridge. Dumbledore takes full responsibility
for the group and resigns as Headmaster. Umbridge takes over his
position. The students begin taking their O.W.L. exams, and Harry has
another vision, this time about Sirius being held captive and tortured
by Voldemort. Horrified, Harry becomes determined to save him. Hermione
warns Harry that Voldemort may be deliberately trying to lure Harry to
the Department of Mysteries, but Harry is too concerned about Sirius to
take any chances.
Harry sneaks into Umbridge's office, and, using her fireplace,
transports himself to Twelve Grimmauld Place to look for Sirius.
Kreacher, the House of Black's house elf, tells Harry that Sirius is at
the Ministry of Magic. Harry returns to Hogwarts when he is pulled
back through the fire by Umbridge to find that he and his friends have
been caught in Umbridge's office. Ron, Luna, Ginny, and Neville have
all been seized by Slytherins and gagged. Umbridge decides to use the
Cruciatus curse on Harry, but Hermione then tells her Harry was trying
to contact Dumbledore. Hermione and Harry convince Umbridge to follow
them into the forest, where they
claim to be hiding a weapon for Dumbledore which they had just
finished and wanted to tell him about. Once in the forest, centaurs
carry Umbridge away. Harry and his friends climb aboard flying horses
called thestrals and speed off to the Ministry. Once they arrive, Harry
cannot find Sirius and realises that Hermione was right. Harry also
sees that one of the glass spheres has his name on it, as well as
Voldemort's. Harry grabs the sphere, and Death Eaters led by Lucius
Malfoy surround to attack, demanding that Harry hand over the prophecy.
Employing all of their Defence skills, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny,
Luna, and Neville have moderate success fighting the Death Eaters, but
they are ultimately helped enormously by the arrival of several members
of the Order, including Dumbledore. In the midst of the fight, Harry
drops the glass sphere and it shatters. Sirius is killed by his own
cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, when she blasts him through the veil.
Harry tries to avenge his
godfather and follows Bellatrix, but is met by Voldermort at the
fountain. Dumbledore appears shortly after Voldemort and the two engage
in an intense duel. Voldemort fights Dumbledore to stalemate, then
possesses Harry in an attempt to get Dumbledore to sacrifice Harry in
the hope of killing him. Voldemort and Lestrange escape, just as Fudge
appears at the Ministry, finally faced with incontrovertible evidence
that the Dark Lord has returned. Dumbledore sends Harry back to school,
where, after Harry has a breakdown, screaming that "he's had enough"
of all the pain and anguish and death and destruction, he explains that
the sphere was a prophecy which stated that Harry has a power that
Voldemort will never know: the power of love, given to him by his
mother's sacrifice fifteen years earlier. The prophecy goes on to claim
that neither Harry nor Voldemort can live while the other survives.
Dumbledore takes this opportunity to tell Harry why he must spend his
summers with the Dursleys in Little Whinging: because Harry's mother
died to save him, he is blessed with her love, a blessing that can be
sealed only by blood. Harry's Aunt Petunia, his mother's sister, makes
that bond complete by taking Harry into her home. As long as he still
calls Little Whinging home, Harry is safe. The Order members strongly
advise the Dursleys to treat Harry with the respect he deserves, and he
returns home with them to face another miserable summer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment