Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry is stuck once again in Privet Drive.

He spends his days trying to listen t o the news and waiting for some sign that Muggle or Wizarding world has realized that Voldemort is back, ex tremely frustrated that Dumbledore and the others have left him with the Dursleys while they re all workin g together somewhere to deal with Voldemort s return. One night, while he s arguing with Dudley near the Dursleys house, Dementors show u p and try to attack him and Dudley. Harry manages to chase them off with his Patronus (with the help of th eir neighbor Mrs. Figg, who reveals that she is a squib and has been watching Harry [with others] on Dum bledore s orders). When Harry tries to explain what happened to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, a fl ock of owls descend on the Dursleys house. One informs Harry he has been expelled for using magic while unde rage, another tells him he is not expelled but will face a hearing at the Ministry in August, and just a s Uncle Vernon declares he has had enough and decides to throw Harry out of his house for good, a Howler th at cries REMEMBER MY LAST, PETUNIA arrives and a stunned Aunt Petunia firmly states that Harry must st ay. After a few more days of being furious at everyone who will not give him any ans wers, Harry is finally rescued from the Dursleys by a group of wizards including Lupin, the real Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Tonks. Together, they all fly to Number 12, Grimmauld Place a house in London that Harry soon learns belongs to Sirius and is being used as headquarters by the Order of the Phoenix. Once there, Harry goes off on Ron and Hermione for not writing to him about what they ve been up to, and they apologize profusely. They, Fred, George and Ginny then all fill Harry in on what they know so far: that the Daily Prophet has been making Harry out to be insane so no one will believe him that Voldemort is back, that Fudge and the Ministry have smeared Dumbledore and all who support him as d angerous and unstable, and that Percy has decided the rest of his family are traitors to the Ministry a nd disowned them. After dinner, Sirius and Mrs. Weasley get into an argument about how much Harry should be told about what s going on with Voldemort. Mrs. Weasley accuses Sirius of being irresponsible , forgetting Dumbledore s counsel, and mistaking Harry for his father James, but the others agree that Har ry has a right to know at least some of what the Order has been doing. After Mrs. Weasley chases a fuming Ginny out of the room, therefore, the others explain that Dumbledore believes Voldemort has been quiet since his r eturn because he is trying to rebuild his army and obtain a weapon he did not have before. In the meantime, th e Order has been trying to visit and recruit various creatures, such as the giants, to their side before Vo ldemort can, but the going has been difficult thanks to Fudge s attempts to discredit Dumbledore as a nut who wants to overthrow the Ministry. Harry and the others spend the next few days helping Mrs. Weasley clean Number 1 2 Grimmauld Place and rid it of dark magic objects that formerly belonged to Sirius family including a heavy

locket that they can t open. Sirius, who is quite depressed to be stuck back in the house in which he hated g rowing up, explains to Harry that his family was full of Dark wizards; his brother Regulus was a Death Eater until he got cold feet, tried to back out and was killed on Voldemort s orders. Harry also meets Kreacher, the Blac k family s house elf who loves the hateful, screaming portrait of Sirius mother, hates Sirius, and is cons tantly trying to hide various dark objects so the others cannot get rid of them. Sirius hates him too, but the y can t set him free because he knows too much about the Order. On the morning of Harry s hearing, Mr. Weasley takes him to the Ministry, only to find out that the time of his hearing has been moved up and the room changed to a courtroom in which Dark wiza rds were formerly tried. Harry is barely given a chance to speak, let alone explain what happened that ni ght with the dementors, but luckily Dumbledore arrives (much to Fudge s surprise and unease), ensures that Mrs . Figg is heard as a witness, and calmly reminds the court that the Ministry does not have the power to expel students from Hogwarts. Despite protestations from Fudge and his toadlike Senior Undersecretar y Dolores Umbridge, Harry is cleared of all charges and Dumbledore leaves the room without once look ing at Harry. Back at Order headquarters, everyone has dinner to celebrate Harry s acquittal and the fact that Ron and Hermione have been made prefects. Harry is jealous of the other two until Sirius points out that neither he nor James were prefects either. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry sits with Ginny, Neville and the somewhat dotty L una Lovegood whose father edits the tabloid-esque Quibbler. Upon arriving at the school, the Sortin g Hat s song warns that Hogwarts is in danger and that all houses should be careful not to let outside f orces split them apart. Everyone also learns that Hagrid is not at Hogwarts for some reason and that Umb ridge is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. (Umbridge gives a long speech to which most peopl e don t listen, but Hermione listens long enough to realize that the Ministry is going to be interfe ring at Hogwarts this year.) Harry gets irritated that so many students think he s crazy, and Hermione and a ve ry reluctant Ron have their prefect hands full trying to keep Fred and George from enlisting first years to test joke products for their skiving snackboxes. In the first DADA class of the year, Umbridge makes it clear that her class will be one of books, not wands. Hermione asks how they re supposed to learn any defensive spells without practicin g them, but Umbridge says they don t need to know defensive spells and gives Harry detention when he in sists that they will because Voldemort has returned. In detention, Umbridge tells Harry that he must write I must not tell lies with a quill that cuts the message into his hand every time he writes it on the paper. Hermione insists Harry should tel l Dumbledore, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Ron tries out for and becomes Gryffindor s new Keeper and Cho keeps try

ing to talk to Harry (always at what seems to Harry like the worst possible moments). Also, Percy wri tes to Ron to congratulate him on becoming a prefect and to try to convince him to distance himself from Ha rry. Sirius uses floo powder to reach Harry and tell him to be careful of Umbridge be cause she s working for Fudge. He explains that Fudge doesn t want students learning defensive spells beca use he s afraid Dumbledore is training students to form his own private army. Soon, Fudge appoints Umbridge as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, which gives her th e power to observe other teachers and inspect what goes on in their classrooms (a task that makes her ver y unpopular in the eyes of other teachers.) She also continues to forbid spell-use in her class, which prom pts Hermione to suggest that they should start their own DADA class and have Harry teach defensive spells to any student who wants to learn them. At first, Harry is put off by the idea, but after thinking about it he agrees and Hermione arranges a meeting in the Hog s Head Inn. Lots of students come (including Cho, which thril ls Harry) and Hermione has them all sign a contract agreeing that they won t tell Umbridge what they re up to. The next day, Umbridge decrees that all student organizations are officially dis banded and no organization may re-form or exist without permission from the High Inquisitor, but they decide to do it anyway and start holding classes in the Room of Requirement. At Ginny s suggestion, they name themselves Du mbledore s Army. During the first Quidditch match of the year, Gryffindor beats Slytherin, but no t before Ron (who has very little self-confidence about his playing skills) lets in several goals and the S lytherin crowd has a chance to repeatedly chant a horrible song (Weasley Is Our King) insulting Ron and his fam ily. After the match, Malfoy taunts Harry and the Weasleys some more and when George and Harry respond and go after him, Umbridge bans both of them and Fred from ever playing Quidditch again. Hagrid returns and explains to Harry, Ron and Hermione that Dumbledore sent him and Madame Maxime to find the giants in the mountains and try to befriend them before the Death Eater s could a task at which they unfortunately were unable to succeed. Harry and the others try to warn Hagrid ab out Umbridge and her decrees, but he remains unconcerned. Hagrid introduces his class to thestrals winged horses (with extremely good senses of direction) that you can only see if you have seen someone die. Umbridge visits the class and is extremel y critical. As Christmas draws near, DA meetings continue and everyone improves immeasurably e ven Neville! Cho also tells Harry what a wonderful teacher he is and kisses him (while crying) un der the mistletoe. That night, Harry dreams that he is a snake (in the same corridor he s been dreami ng of all year) and bites Mr. Weasley. He wakes up sweating and shaking and when he tries to explain what he s aw/did, Neville gets Prof. McGonagall who takes him and Ron to see Dumbledore (who still will not look at H arry). Once he hears

what happened, Dumbledore immediately sends some of the portrait wizards to look for Mr. Weasley and sends Harry and all the Weasleys to Grimmauld Place. Mrs. Weasley thanks Harry for saving Mr. Weasley s life, but Harry still feels mis erable because he thinks it s his fault Mr. Weasley almost died in the first place especially after he and the o thers overhear the adults discussing the possibility that Voldemort has been possessing Harry. When he tri es to avoid everyone, however, Ginny reminds him that she knows what it feels like to be possessed and convinces him that he is not the weapon Voldemort has been trying to get his hands on. On Christmas, everyone goes to visit Mr. Weasley in St. Mungo s. While there, they see Prof. Lockhart (who tries to give them autographs) and Neville (who is there with his grandmother vi siting his parents). Back at school, Harry starts Occlumency lessons with Snape because Dumbledore wa nts Harry to learn to stop Voldemort from invading his mind. The lessons do not go well, however, (bot h because the two do not get along and because Harry does not take the time to practice), and so Harry co ntinues dreaming about Voldemort and the mysterious corridor. Harry can sense that Voldemort is very happy about something, and the next morni ng they read in the Daily Prophet that a bunch of Death Eaters have broken out of Azkaban. (Fudge blames t he breakout on Sirius.) Educational Decree #26 bans teachers from talking to students about anything but the subject they teach. Harry and Cho go to Hogsmeade together on Valentine s Day, but Cho gets mad and st orms off in tears when Harry tells her he has to meet Hermione halfway through the afternoon. In order to fight the lies that the Daily Prophet keeps printing about Harry, He rmione arranges for Harry to tell Rita Skeeter (who is still under Hermione s thumb) everything that happened the ni ght of Voldemort s return AND asks Luna to have her father print the story in the Quibbler. When the artic le is printed, Umbridge decrees that any student caught with the Quibbler will be expelled (which of course make s even more people read it). Umbridge fires Prof. Trelawney and tries to throw her out of the castle, but Dum bledore insists that she stay. When Umbridge protests that the new Divination teacher will need her room, Dumbl edore announces that he has already found a new Divination teacher who does not want Trelawney s tower: Fi renze the centaur. In his first lesson, Firenze explains that the position of Mars suggests that Wi zard-kind is living through a brief calm between two wars and that the fight must break out again soon. At the end of one DA meeting, a terrified Dobby appears to warn everyone that Um bridge has found out about the DA. Everyone runs, but Harry gets caught by Draco and turned in to Umbridge, who takes him to see Dumbledore. When they arrive in Dumbledore s office, Fudge and Umbridge try to que stion him, but Harry sees Dumbledore shake his head (barely) and so pretends to know absolutely nothing. C ho s friend Marietta (whose face is now full of ugly purple pimples spelling out the word SNEAK) had told Um bridge about the meeting, but Shacklebolt discreetly modifies Marietta s memory before she can confess again, an

d Harry thinks they re all going to get away with it until Umbridge produces Hermione s list of everyone in Dum bledore s Army. When Dumbledore sees the list, he tells Fudge that he organized the group. Fudge is ecstatic and all ready to arrest him, but Dumbledore chuckles, says he is not going to come quietly, he xes everyone (except Harry and McGonagall), and disappears before anyone can touch him. (Before going, he r eminds Harry how important it is that he learn Occlumency, but when he touches Harry s arm, Harry f eels an urge to hurt him.) Upon Dumbledore s departure, Umbridge becomes headmistress of Hogwarts and creates an Inquisitorial Squad of students (such as Malfoy) to report to her on all students behavior. In response, Fred and George start causing even more trouble than usual. Snape catches Harry peeking in the Pensieve at his worst memory (a scene in whic h Snape is back at school and being taunted and flipped upside-down by Harry s father and Harry s mother tells James that he s so full of himself he makes her sick) and tells him not to come back ever again, thus en ding the disastrous Occlumency lessons. During Harry s career counseling session, McGonagall and Umbridge get into a loud and heated argument over whether Harry has any chance whatsoever of becoming an Auror. Harry badly wants to talk to Sirius about what he saw in the Pensieve, so Fred a nd George agree to create a distraction so he can use Umbridge s fireplace to do so. When he does, Sirius and Lupin assure Harry that while James was arrogant for a time in school, he grew out of it. They re also fur ious when they hear Snape has quit giving Harry lessons and repeat that there is nothing more important th an that Harry learn Occlumency. Meanwhile, as their promised distraction, Fred and George turn an entire school corridor into a swamp. The Inquisitorial Squad manages to corner them, but before Umbridge and Filch can pu nish them, they summon their brooms and fly into the sunset, leaving Hogwarts in triumph and to thunder ous applause. In their absence, Peeves and the rest of the students do their best to spread utter chaos throughout the school. During the final Quidditch match, Hagrid asks Harry and Hermione to follow him i nto the forest, where he explains that since he s likely to be fired any day, he s going to need their help. He then introduces them to his brother, Grawp, whom he rescued from the other giants when he and Maxime originall y went to recruit them. Hagrid has been hiding him in the forest and trying to teach him English wit h little success thus far. In Harry and Hermione s absence, Ron and Ginny help Gryffindor defeat Ravenclaw to win the Quidditch Cup. The Gryffindors change the words to the Slytherins song Weasley Is Our King and Ron is the hero of the hour. All the 5th years study like mad for their O.W.L. exams and are fairly stressed by the time they arrive. During their Astronomy exam, Umbridge tries to arrest Hagrid and McGonagall inte rvenes. Hagrid grabs Fang and escapes but McGonagall gets hit by four stunning spells at once and tak en to St. Mungo s.

During his History of Magic exam, Harry falls asleep and dreams of the same corr idor once again, but this time he sees Voldemort torturing Sirius there and wakes up screaming. He gets se nt to the hospital wing, but after the exam, he tells Ron and Hermione they have to go to the Dept. of Myster ies to rescue Sirius immediately. Hermione is skeptical (reminding Harry that Dumbledore and Sirius have to ld him to close his mind against such visions) and convinces Harry to use Umbridge s fire to check if Siriu s is at Grimmauld Place before they all go rushing off to the Ministry. When he does, Kreacher tells him that Sirius is not there. Umbridge catches Harry using her fire and& demands that he tell her who he was t rying to talk to. When he won t, she calls Snape and asks him to bring her some Veritaserum. He tells her he has none, and Harry frantically tries to let Snape read his thoughts so he ll know Sirius is in troubl e. When Snape leaves, Umbridge confesses that she is the one who sent dementors after Harry last summe r in an attempt to get him expelled and is about to use the Cruciatus Curse on him to force him to talk. Before Umbridge can say Crucio, Hermione interrupts her, pretending to be in tears and says she ll help her. She tells Umbridge that Dumbledore has a weapon to use against the Ministry and agrees to take Umbridge to it. She and Harry then lead Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest, where she is set upon and carried off by centaurs (after she insults them by calling them half-breeds). Some of the centa urs try to attack Harry and Hermione as well, but Grawp arrives looking for Hagrid and gives them a chance t o escape. With Umbridge gone, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna use thestrals to fly to the Ministry in London and rush down to the Dept. of Mysteries, where they pass through several rooms with strange objects (including a brain, a bird that keeps hatching and aging, and a black veil behin d which Harry can hear voices whispering). Eventually, they find the room full of glass spheres that Harry saw in his dream and rush through it looking for Sirius. When Ron notices that one of the balls has Harry s name on it, Harry decid es to pick it up and suddenly they are all surrounded by Death Eaters who demand he hand over the pro phecy in his hand. To buy time, Harry asks why Voldemort wants the prophecy. The Death Eaters laugh at the idea that Dumbledore hasn t told Harry about it and hint that it has to do with why Voldemor t tried to kill Harry when he was a baby. On Harry s signal, all the DAers start smashing prophecies and running through the aisles, ducking Death Eater jinxes and curses and firing back with their own. Eventually, Ron, Hermion e, Ginny and Luna get hit by one curse or another and only Harry and Neville are left fighting when they are cornered by Bellatrix Black. She taunts Neville that she knew his parents and starts to use the Cruciatus Curse on him to make Harry give up the prophecy. Neville orders Harry not to give it to her, but just then Siriu s, Lupin, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley arrive to continue the fight and the Death Eaters turn their attention

on them. In the fighting, the prophecy gets broken and no one hears what it says with all the commotion. Just after that, Dumbledore arrives to find all the Death Eaters defeated except Bellatrix who is still dueling with Sirius. Before Dumbledore can intervene, Bellatrix hits Sirius with a curse and he falls through the fluttering black veil. Harry tries to go after him, but Lupin stops him and tries to tell him that Siri us is dead and they need to round up the others. When Bellatrix tries to escape, however, Harry chases after her a nd they end up in the Atrium with the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Bellatrix taunts him for loving Sirius an d demands he give her the prophecy, and when Harry laughs and tells her it s gone, his scar burns like mad and Voldemort suddenly appears. Voldemort tries to kill Harry, but the wizard part of the fountain jumps between Harry and the curse just as Dumbledore appears in the Atrium. Dumbledore and Voldemort duel until the latter disappears and Dumbledore calls for Harry to stay where he is. Harry is sure Dumbledore has won , but just then his scar bursts into unimaginable pain. Voldemort possesses him and taunts Dumbledore (wh o has always said that Voldemort s greatest weakness is his failure to understand that there are things m uch worse than death), if death is nothing, kill the boy. When Harry considers that if he dies he will get to see Sirius again, his heart fills and Voldemort releases him, grabs Bellatrix and disapparates. Fudge arrives in time to see Voldemort there in the very Ministry of Magic, very confused and completely s hocked. He insists that Dumbledore explain what s going on, and Dumbledore agrees to give him a brief synopsis after he sends Harry back to Hogwarts via a portkey. Harry lands back in Dumbledore s office and tries to leave, but the door will not open. When Dumbledore arrives and tries to tell him that the pain he feels is part of what makes him h uman, Harry is so angry that he screams at him and starts smashing his possessions. Dumbledore does not try to s top him but will also not let him out. Eventually, Harry sits down and Dumbledore starts to tell him everything: that he should have taught Harry Occlumency himself, but he was worried that Vol demort had realized he could manipulate Harry s thoughts and dreams, and he (Dumbledore) didn t want to giv e Voldemort a reason to use Harry to spy on him. that Kreacher lied when Harry asked him if Sirius was in the house, and that Kre acher had told Bellatrix how much Harry cared about Sirius and that Harry would do anything to rescue Sir ius. that Voldemort can t hurt Harry at the Dursleys as long as they let him call that house home (and that it was Dumbledore who sent the howler to Petunia, reminding her of her promise to l et Harry do that). that he should have told Harry why Voldemort wanted to kill him years ago, but h e fell into the trap of caring for Harry too much and couldn t bring himself to add to his unhappiness. that the prophecy that got smashed was made 16 years ago by Prof. Trelawney (to Dumbledore) and described the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. She actually could hav

e been describing Harry or Neville, but when Voldemort gave Harry his scar, he marked Harry as the one who must either kill Voldemort or be killed ( for neither can live while the other survives ). that Harry has a power the Dark Lord knows not love and it is this power that saved hi m when Voldemort tried to possess him in the Department of Mysteries. The one thing he will not explain when Harry asks is why he trusts Snape; he jus t simply says he does. Fudge, the Ministry and the Daily Prophet all admit that Voldemort is back and o nce again return to praising Harry as The Boy Who Lived. (Umbridge leaves Hogwarts for good after Dumbledore rescues her from the centaurs.) Dumbledore resumes his position as headmaster, McGonagall and Hagrid return, the other DAers are all healed, and Harry generally avoids everyone because he doesn t want to talk about Sirius or everything Dumbledore told him. He tries to use a two-way mirror that Sirius gave him to co ntact Sirius, but it doesn t work, and when he asks Nearly Headless Nick if Sirius can come back as a ghost, Nick says that he won t because he will have been brave enough to go on. While avoiding the end of the year feast, Harry runs into Luna who is collecting all her stuff that has been taken from her throughout the year. She asks him about Sirius, tells him her mom died when she was nine, and reminds Harry that it s not as if he ll never see Sirius again. When he asks her how she knows that, she says because she and Harry could hear their voices in the room with the black ve il hiding just out of sight. Back on the Hogwarts Express, Ron asks Harry about Cho and he says they re over. R on also suggests, while glancing at Harry, that since Ginny s broken up with Michael Corner, she should ch oose someone better next time. (She tells him she s picked Dean Thomas.) Moody, Tonks, Lupin and the Weasleys meet Harry at King s Cross and warn the Dursl eys that if Harry is mistreated at all, they ll send a member of the Order to Privet Drive to check on him. Ron and Hermione promise Harry that they ll see him soon and he goes home with the Dursleys once ag ain. Prepared by Meghan Goldenstein, July 2007