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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Analysis

By: Harleen

    Hi everyone. In this article I will be trying to cover all the info covered in Order of the Phoenix. Book 5 is the longest book so far in the series, and a lot of stuff happens. I'm going to try to go right through mentioning things in the book that you might not have noticed, and showing their significance.

    In the very first chapter, Harry mentions Mark Evans, a ten-year-old boy Dudley beat up two days ago. Evans, of course, is Lily Potter's maiden name. Could they be somehow related? Perhaps Mark will be admitted to Hogwarts next year. We'll have to see where that goes.

    In chapter two, we learn some very interesting things about Petunia Dursley. Petunia knows what dementors are. She claims to have heard James telling Lily about them before. Riiiggghhhttt...then she gets scared about Voldemort. Why? If it were up to Vernon, the police could just go arrest Voldemort. So why is Petunia so scared? Petunia then gets a Howler, and at the time we don't know who it is from or what it means. But it does show that she has some contact in the wizarding world. If any of you believe for one minute that there's not something else here that we don't know yet, you're wrong.

    Then in chapter three, we meet a number of new characters and see a number of old ones again. Among them, we meet Nymphadora Tonks, a Metamorphagus. The fact that she is a Metamorphagus is not brought to our attention so that we know she can change her hair color at will. Learning from the past, it seems there will be another metamorphagus, or an existing character is one, that plays an important part in the series. It should be interesting to see how that plays out.

    When we go to 12 Grimmauld Place (Grim old place ;o)) we see that many off Sirius's dead relatives have taken residence in paintings throughout the house. Perhaps Sirius will join them and Harry will see him again?

    It is revealed in book 5 that Snape's mission is spying on the Death Eaters. It does not say how he does it, only that it's his job. Perhaps his proficiency in Occlumency has something to do with why he is able to spy on the Death Eaters without being caught, but who knows. The only thing we do know is he couldn't just run back to Voldemort and pretend he has been faithful to him all these years, so I think we will learn a lot more about Severus duties in the next two books. Maybe he's taking the Polyjuice Potion and impersonating Crouch Jr? It never says Voldemort knows Crouch Jr was killed.

    Soon after, we met Luna Lovegood, whom I thought was a very intriguing character. While portrayed as 'loony' and eccentric, Luna seems to know an awful lot. I wonder why she was introduced here, since she doesn't seem to serve any real purpose in this book, but to tell Harry she could also see the Thestrals, and that the dead could be heard from behind the veiled curtain. She must have some part in upcoming books, perhaps we will find out how she knows so much or why she always seems to talk in a 'dreamlike' state, and not mind that other kids pick on her all the time.

    Now we jump to chapter 16, where Harry and the rest of the DA meet in the Hog's Head. Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother, might very well be the barkeep at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade. There are a number of clues which suggest this:

"The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats."
p299 We all know there's a connection between Aberforth and goats...

"The barman sidled towards them out of a backroom. He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long grey hair and a beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry."
p300 JKR doesn't throw away words like 'familiar', and his description is similar to Dumbledore's

"The barman's eyes traveled over Harry, resting for a fraction of a second on his scar."
p301 Why at this point in the series is this worth writing unless it is
truly of note?

" 'Oh no,' said Dumbledore, with a grim smile, 'I am not leaving to go into hiding. Fudge will soon wish he'd never dislodged me from Hogwarts, I promise you.' "
p548 Easily could hide in plain view in Hogs Head, with his brother or even standing in for him

"Well... no!' sobbed Hermione. 'We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and the Three Broomsticks and even the Hog's Head..."
"Idiot girl - Dumbledore won't be sitting in a pub when the whole Ministry's looking for him!' "
p659 So of course, knowing Dumbledore, he would be.

" 'I did,' said Dumbledore. 'On a cold, wet night sixteen years ago, in a
room above the bar at the Hog's Head inn."
p740 So he has spent time there.

"The Hog's Head inn, which Sybill chose for its cheapness, has long
attracted, shall we say, a more interesting clientele than the Three
Broomsticks. As you and your friends found out to your cost, and I to mine that night, it is a place where it is never safe to assume you are not being overheard. Of course... worth overhearing. My -our - one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building."
p743 Interesting clientele is also a good way for the Order to keep an eye on them. Aberforth's role in the Order is never understood. Who detected the eavesdropper, and threw him out? With such a clientele, why would the ownership be so upset over this one especially?

    In chapter 21, when Harry tells Dumbledore that Arthur has been attacked Dumbledore takes a fragile silver instrument, which emitted puffs of smoke. The smoke became a serpent, to which Dumbledore says 'Naturally, naturally - but in essence divided?' The smoke serpent then split into two serpents and Dumbledore looked satisfied. What was that? I'm very curious what that instrument was and what it showed.

    Neville and Ginny also play big parts in this book. They helped Harry in the Department of Mysteries and we learn things about both of them. Their characters are really developing and I think that they will continue to play just as big a roll in later books, if not bigger. We also learn that Harry and Neville have a lot in common; this might prove to mean something later on in the series.

    Now, I can't finish this article without talking about Sirius Black. Poor guy. Didn't have the best life. But he meant the world to Harry and things will be very different without him. But let's talk about the veil a bit. The veil and the arch are a gateway between the living world and the nonliving world. Anyone who goes through it will die. So, you ask, why is it in the middle of the Department of Mysteries? Well, as Nearly Headless Nick told us, because the Ministry of Magic and, more specifically, the Department of Mysteries' Unspeakables, are studying death. Why? Well, that I don't know, but I'm sure it will play some part later on.

    Finally, I want to talk about the prophecy. We now know that there had been a prophecy that a boy would be born who would rival Voldemort. One will have to die and Harry would have powers that Voldemort would not even know. I wonder if this is indeed the only reason why Voldemort wants Harry dead, because he doesn't seem to care too much at the end of OoTP. He's just 'I don't need you anymore'... seemingly refusing to believe that Harry could be any threat to him. His life is already stressful enough. Much like Aragorn
in LotR, I think you may see Harry not want to accept his fate. He may not want to have to be the one that fights Voldemort. But eventually he'll accept it... he has to.

    Before I finish, I'd like to talk briefly talk about Dumbledore. We really take a closer look at his emotions in this book. And his bravery. Even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat him, Dumbledore dueled with Voldemort to save Harry. We also got a look at Dumbledore's real power when he fought with the Death Eaters and then with Voldemort. And how mad he can get. However, what I thought was by far the biggest show of Dumbledore's emotion was when a single tear rolled down his cheek. That showed I think, that Dumbledore cared more about everything that happened even more than Harry did.