Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This article is about the book. See Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) for other formats.

OotP Re-Directs here. OOTP is also an acronym for Out of the Park Baseball.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth novel in a series of seven books by J.K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. It is also the longest book of them all, and was released on June 21, 2003.

Plot

Harry Potter is spending an agitating summer in Privet Drive: not only is he bracing himself for the catastrophe that is certain to accompany Voldemort's return, but he has had little contact from the wizarding world. When Harry and his cousin Dudley are attacked by Dementors in Little Whinging, Harry repels them with a Patronus Charm. An owl letter soon arrives stating Harry has been expelled from Hogwarts for performing magic outside school. Several more letters arrive in quick succession: Arthur Weasley and Sirius Black instruct Harry to remain in the house, while another overturns his expulsion and orders him to appear at a hearing at the Ministry of Magic.

Order of the Phoenix members arrive to escort Harry to their secret headquarters at the Black family home, 12 Grimmauld Place in London. The Weasleys, Hermione, and Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, are there. Harry learns that Voldemort is building an army and is attempting to retrieve a "weapon". Arthur Weasley escorts Harry to his hearing. He is cleared of all charges after testimony from Dumbledore, and from Harry's neighbour, Mrs. Figg.

When the students return to Hogwarts, they are surprised to hear that Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, has been appointed by the Ministry as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She refuses to teach real defense methods and only lectures from Ministry-approved theory. It becomes clear she is there to spy on and take control of the school and is soon appointed High Inquisitor, arbitrarily imposing rules and regulations. She also harbours racist hatred for "half-breeds", such as centaurs, werewolves, and similar creatures. She considers Rubeus Hagrid (a half-giant) and Sybill Trelawney incompetent, and sacks Trelawney (Hagrid is dismissed later). Although Dumbledore is unable to prevent Trelawney's dismissal, he invokes his authority to allow her to remain in the castle and appoints a new Divination teacher - the centaur, Firenze.

Harry has been having disturbing dreams about running down a hallway and attempting to open a door in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. He also dreams he is a snake attacking Ron's father. Mr. Weasley is indeed found injured at the Ministry, suffering from severe venomous snake bites. Harry fears he is being possessed by Voldemort. In response, Dumbledore has Severus Snape teach Harry Occlumency to block his mind from intrusion, but their mutual animosity ends their lessons prematurely.

Hermione blackmails journalist Rita Skeeter into writing a favourable article about Harry witnessing Voldemort's return. Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood's father publishes the story in his paper, The Quibbler. Furious, Umbridge bans the tabloid from the school, but the story spreads rapidly, gathering support for Harry. Many in the wizarding community also now believe Harry.

Hermione convinces Harry to secretly teach students Defense Against the Dark Arts. They name their clandestine group "Dumbledore's Army", or D.A. for short, to mock the Ministry of Magic, which fears Dumbledore is creating a secret wizard army. When Umbridge uncovers the group's meetings, Dumbledore claims that he organised it. Confronted by two Aurors (Dawlish and Shacklebolt), Minister Fudge, Percy Weasley, and Umbridge, Dumbledore easily disables them and is spectacularly whisked away by his phoenix, Fawkes. Umbridge is appointed Headmistress and imposes even tighter control. Fed up, the Weasley twins instigate a revolt, causing mayhem throughout the school while the staff pointedly do nothing to help Umbridge regain control.

Harry receives a vision that Sirius is being tortured at the Department of Mysteries, although Hermione suspects it may be a trap. Harry desperately attempts to contact Sirius at Grimmauld Place via the Floo Network in Umbridge's office fireplace, but he is caught. Umbridge reveals it was she who sent the Dementors to attack Harry during the summer. As she is about to use the Cruciatus Curse on him, Hermione claims that Dumbledore has hidden a powerful weapon in the Forbidden Forest. She leads Harry and Umbridge into the forest where they encounter centaurs. Umbridge foolishly insults them and an angry centaur picks up Umbridge and carries her off screaming into the woods. When Hagrid's giant half-brother, Grawp crashes onto the scene, Hermione and Harry escape amid the chaos.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with Luna, Ginny, and Neville fly to the Ministry of Magic on the school's Thestrals, unaware they are being lured into a trap. When they arrive at the Department of Mysteries, they are ambushed by Death Eaters. Voldemort seeks a prophecy contained in a glass sphere there and needs Harry to retrieve it for him.

The students heroically fight the Death Eaters, but they are outmatched. As they are nearly defeated, Order members arrive. During the ensuing battle, the glass sphere is shattered and the prophecy lost. Sirius is blasted with a spell by his Death Eater cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange and, falling backwards, disappears through a mysterious veiled archway. Lupin restrains Harry, telling him that Sirius is dead. Dumbledore arrives and the Death Eaters, except for Lestrange, are captured. Lord Voldemort appears and duels with Dumbledore as Ministry of Magic employees arrive in time to see the Dark Lord before he Disapparates, taking Lestrange with him. Cornelius Fudge finally admits Voldemort has returned and Harry's interview with Rita Skeeter is reprinted in the Daily Prophet.

Later, Dumbledore apologizes to Harry for withholding information over the past year. He reveals the lost prophecy, for it was to him that it was first told: either Harry or Voldemort must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. Dumbledore also reveals that due to when the boy was predicted to be born, Neville Longbottom could also have been the child in the prophecy. Dumbledore believes Voldemort chose to attack Harry because he is a half-blood like himself; Neville is a pureblood. In so doing, the Dark Lord marked Harry as his equal.

Notes

• The Death Eaters captured at the Ministry were Lucius Malfoy, Nott, Jugson, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, Crabbe Sr, Walden Macnair, Avery, Augustus Rookwood, and Mulciber. Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange were also at the Ministry, but they escaped. This list includes most of the Death Eaters whose names were known to the reader at this time, though Peter Pettigrew and Goyle Sr. were both absent from this mission and likely others as well, given the number of Death Eaters that Harry saw at Voldemort's rebirth in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The only Death Eater that had never been mentioned before was Jugson.

• The access code for the visitor's entrance for the Ministry of Magic is 6-2-4-4-2 on the telephone, which spells M-A-G-I-C.
• This is the longest book in the series.

Editions

The book was published on 21 June 2003 in the United Kingdom and the majority of other countries. It sold almost seven million copies in the United Kingdom and United States combined on that day. It has 38 chapters, is about 255,000 words long, and is the longest book in the series.

In the US editions of the novel, in contrast to other books in the series, the font used is half a size smaller (11.5 vs. 12). This makes the book much longer than the others because more was fit into 870 pages than could have if 12 point font was used.

In Britain, the blind then-Home Secretary David Blunkett complained about the delay of the cassette version of the book, as well as its projected price.

The Canadian version of the book is made from recycled paper and saved 29,650 trees in the initial print run of 1 million books. J.K. Rowling comments on this in a message written specifically for the Canadian edition of the book.

Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada etc.)

• ISBN 0-7475-5100-6 Hardback
• ISBN 0-7475-6940-1 Hardback (adult edition)

Scholastic (United States etc.)

• ISBN 0-439-35806-X Hardback

Translations

The first official foreign translation of the book appeared in Vietnamese on 21 July, 2003, when the first of 22 installments was released. The first official European translation appeared in Serbia and Montenegro in Serbian, by the official publisher Narodna Knjiga, in early September 2003. Other translations appeared later, e.g. in November 2003 in Dutch and German. The English language version has topped the best seller list in France; while in Germany and The Netherlands an unofficial distributed translation process has been started on the net.

• In the Czech Republic a college student translated the book in July/September, long before its intended release date, and one 14-year old schoolboy made it available on his private website. This led to confusion, with many newspapers stating that this unofficial translation was done by group of teenagers and the official Czech publisher (Albatros) announcing that they would sue the schoolboy. Later they retracted this announcement.

References

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki