Summary
Book five begins, for Harry, with another boring summer in Little Whinging, staying with his extremely unpleasant Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin, Dudley. This is the first summer after Voldemort's return. Mere weeks ago, Harry witnessed Voldemort come back to life in a graveyard in Little Hangleton. He also witnessed the murder of his friend Cedric, killed in cold blood by Voldemort's lackey, Peter Pettigrew. Now, as he's had to do every summer since learning that he is a wizard, Harry is forced to lay low in the Muggle world of his only living relatives. Harry spends his days trying to covertly watch the news, anxiously awaiting the day when Voldemort's reign of terror makes its way onto the Muggle news networks. But Harry can't watch the news without being yelled at by the Dursleys, who always suspect that he's up to no good. In the first scene of the novel, Harry is laying in a dying hedge of his Aunt Petunia's begonias, listening to the news through the window. He also avoids their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Figg, who lately has taken to asking Harry over to tea every time they cross paths.
Harry's cover in the hedge is broken when a loud *crack* echoes all along Privet Drive. He shoots up to his feet and bangs his head on the Dursleys' window; they immediately assume that the noise came from a spell he cast. Harry assures his aunt and uncle that he hasn't used magic all summer (he's not allowed). Nevertheless, he storms out of the house after a nasty scolding from Vernon and Petunia.
Harry finds himself in an empty playground, brooding over his situation. He's frustrated with his friends Ron and Hermione. He feels left out of the loop. He knows that they are probably together right now at the Weasleys' house, and he doesn't understand why he can't be there too. Their letters are always intentionally vague, never divulging any details about the state of the Wizarding World. So, he's left in Little Whinging, wondering. In the distance, Harry sees his cousin Dudley and his group of friends. Dudley has found an outlet for his violent outbursts by joining his school's boxing team, and the extracurricular has made him an even more fearsome bully. When Dudley's friends disperse, Harry approaches him with the intention of provoking him. Harry knows that Dudley won't hurt him because he's afraid of magic. As they walk along, Harry provokes Dudley until eventually Dudley fires back at Harry. He makes fun of Harry for whimpering in his sleep, calling for his parents and a boy named Cedric. Harry knows that he must be recounting the scene from Little Hangleton in his sleep.
Harry draws his wand on Dudley and makes him swear never to mention "Cedric" again. Dudely freaks out when Harry pulls his wand and yells at him to point it somewhere else. As the two boys are fighting, a deep chill falls over the scene. Harry realizes with dread that they are surrounded by Dementors. Dudley, panicking, punches Harry in the face and runs. Harry produces a Patronus and follows Dudley. He finds him lying on his back with a Dementor hunched before his face and about to perform a fatal kiss. Harry's Patronus sends the Dementor flying away. After all the Dementors flee, the world is normal again. Mrs. Figg rushes up to the scene, cursing the name of one Mundungus Fletcher, and reveals that she is a part of the Wizarding World too.
Harry and Mrs. Figg heave a stunned Dudley onto his feet and begin dragging him back to Number 4, Privet Drive. While they walk, Mrs. Figg explains that she is a Squib (a non-magical person from a magical family) and that she has been watching over Harry on behalf of Dumbledore. Mundungus Fletcher is a wizard and a con man who was supposed to be watching over Harry, but decided instead to seize upon an opportunity to buy a load of stolen cauldrons. (The loud *crack* from chapter one was a result of Mundungus apparating.) As Harry, Dudley, and Mrs. Figg approach Privet Drive, Mundungus appears. Figg screams at him and tells him what happened in his absence; Mundungus promptly apparates away to inform Dumbledore that Dementors attacked Harry in Little Whinging.
When Harry arrives back at the Dursleys, Dudley immediately vomits on the floor. His parents panic and launch into twenty questions about what happened to him. Dudley can barely speak, but manages to blame Harry for his state. He tells them that Harry performed magic. In the midst of trying to explain the situation to the Dursleys, a storm of owls fly into the house delivering letters to Harry. The first letter is from the Ministry, informing Harry that he's been charged with underage use of magic, he's been expelled from Hogwarts, and Ministry wizards will be visiting him soon to destroy his wand. Then a letter from Arthur Weasley arrives telling Harry not to leave the Dursley's and that Dumbledore is at the Ministry attempting to sort things out. A third letter arrives from Sirius telling Harry to stay put, no matter what. A fourth letter arrives, again from the Ministry, informing Harry that he can keep his wand until his hearing on August 12, and that his enrollment at Hogwarts will also depend on the outcome of the hearing.
Harry manages to convince the Dursleys that he and Dudley were, in fact, attacked by Dementors. It helps that Aunt Petunia knows what Dementors are. She remembers James Potter telling Lily about them. Harry tells the Dursleys that Voldemort has returned, and Aunt Petunia seems to understand the gravity of that statement. For the first time in his life, Harry sees Petunia not just as some uptight, evil Muggle, but as his mother's sister and as someone who actually understands the importance of the Wizarding World in relation to the rest of the world. Vernon realizes that the only reason dementors would be in Little Whinging is to find Harry, so he kicks Harry out of the house. As he's screaming at Harry to leave, a fifth owl flies into the room. It drops a Howler in Petunia's lap. The Howler opens up and shouts one phrase: "REMEMBER MY LAST, PETUNIA" (19). Hearing this, Petunia tells Vernon that Harry must stay. Harry, confused, asks if she's been in contact with wizards, but he's sent up to bed with no explanation.
The night of the Dementor attack, Harry sends off three identical letters to Sirius, Ron, and Hermione demanding more information about what's going on. The entire next day he paces around his bedroom awaiting a response, taking his meals through a cat flap on the bottom of his bedroom door. Despite his expectations due to the seriousness of the circumstances, no response comes. At the end of the day, Uncle Vernon knocks on Harry's door and smugly informs him that he, Petunia, and Dudley are going out for the evening. He tells Harry not to leave his room, and Harry doesn't object.
Minutes after the Dursleys leave, Harry hears a commotion coming from downstairs. His first assumption is that it's burglars. He takes out his wand and slowly moves down the staircase when he's confronted with a familiar voice: Mad-Eye Moody. A handful of Ministry wizards and Aurors join Moody in the Dursleys' kitchen. Harry can hardly believe his eyes. Remus Lupin is there, along with witches and wizards Harry's never met before. They've all come to escort him away from the Dursleys' house in a broom convoy. A shapeshifter named Nymphadora Tonks helps Harry pack up his trunk, and before long, all of them are flying on their brooms from Little Whinging all the way to London. It's a cold, wet night, and Harry can only remember one time he's felt this cold on a broom, during his third year at Hogwarts in a Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. They finally land on a street of ramshackle old houses. Moody unlights all the streetlamps and the group makes their way to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Moody thrusts a piece of paper into Harry's hand and tells him to memorize it. It says, "The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London" (28).
They enter a dark, dingy old house. Molly Weasley greets Harry. He notices she looks thinner and paler than usual, and she doesn't allow her voice to rise above a whisper, but she is nonetheless thrilled to see him. The wizards Harry arrived with all trail deeper into the house to attend a secret meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. Molly rushes Harry to his room because she too must attend the meeting. Of course, Harry wants to attend the meeting too, but it's strictly members only.
Up in the bedroom, Ron and Hermione greet him enthusiastically. Harry, on the other hand, finds himself simmering with anger at his friends after weeks of wishing to be with them. Ron and Hermione insist that Dumbledore swore them to secrecy and silence, but Harry does not accept their excuse and starts yelling at them. He releases all of his pent-up resentful thoughts about how he's the one who faces the real danger, and that he should be kept in the loop. He flies even further off the handle when he learns that Ron and Hermione both knew he was being followed by Aurors. Harry feels isolated, despite the fact that all of these precautionary measures are being taken to protect him specifically.
After Harry's outburst, Fred, George, and Ginny Weasley enter the room. The twins tell Harry that he's making so much noise that it's interfering with their ability to spy on the Order of the Phoenix meeting with their newest invention, Extendable Ears. They inform Harry that Severus Snape is joining the Order tonight to fill them in on the latest spoils of his espionage. Harry's demeanor softens with the appearance of Ron's siblings. They tell them the latest bit of family drama, a fight between Percy and Arthur about loyalty. Percy has been promoted to Cornelius Fudge's personal assistant, and Fudge is personally responsible for the the schism occurring in the magical community. Fudge refuses to accept that Voldemort has returned and pushes the narrative that Harry and Dumbledore are insane in order to avoid mass hysteria. Percy argues that Arthur and Molly's loyalty to Dumbledore and faith that Voldemort has returned holds the entire family back. Percy tells Arthur that it's his own fault he never moved up in the Ministry ranks and that his obsession with Muggles has kept their family in poverty. Percy has since moved out of the Burrow and is living alone in a London flat.
After the Order meeting concludes, everyone files through the hallway to the dining room. Tonks, notoriously clumsy, crashes into an umbrella stand, which causes all of the portraits in the hallway to start screaming. One portrait in particular, hidden by moth-eaten curtains, starts screeching about how there are wizards of impure blood in her ancestral home. Sirius strolls into the hallways and shouts at the portrait until it falls silent. He then informs Harry that the unpleasant woman in the portrait is none other than his own mother. Number 12, Grimmauld Place is Sirius Black's childhood home.
Sirius explains that since all of his relatives are dead, the house now belongs to him. It's been uninhabited for many years, which has led to an infestation of various magical creatures like Boggarts. However, given its highly secure location, Sirius offered it to Dumbledore as a headquarters for the Order. Dinner is a mostly cheerful affair; Molly Weasley prepares a hearty stew for everyone staying at the house. After dinner, as everyone is winding down, Sirius tells Harry that he would like to answer any questions he has about the return of Voldemort. At the mention of Voldemort's name, all the cheer is sucked out of the room. Molly and Sirius get into a huge fight about whether Harry is old enough to know what the Order of the Phoenix discusses. Harry is touched by Molly's desire to protect him as if he were her own child, but in the end, she realizes that she cannot stop Sirius from answering Harry's questions. Harry also openly admits that whatever he learns from Sirius, he will pass along to Ron and Hermione, so they are allowed to stay too. Sirius tells Harry that while Voldemort is spending a lot of energy recruiting new Death Eaters, he remains cautious about committing murder and causing chaos, which is why Harry hasn't seen any news about mass murders. Voldemort benefits from Fudge and the mainstream Wizarding media denying his return, so he continues operating from the shadows (with the plan to eventually build his army to a size that will be very difficult for global Ministries to combat). After Sirius fills Harry (and by extension, Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George) in on the Order's business, Molly orders them all to bed, still fuming that her authority was usurped by Sirius.
Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley kids pass their days by exterminating the many magical pests that have taken residence at Grimmauld Place. While cleaning the living room, they come across a tapestry of the Black family tree on the wall. While she was still alive, Sirius' mother charmed the tapestry so that it is permanently affixed to the wall. Sirius takes Harry through his enormous family tree, explaining that the Black family is one of the only pure-blood wizarding families left on earth. Harry learns that Sirius is related, by marriage, to the Malfoys and the Lestranges. He also learns about Sirius' brother Regulus' brief tenure as a Death Eater. Sirius tells Harry that he ran away from home when he was sixteen years old, and ever since then, his parents considered him disowned.
Kreacher, the house-elf who lives at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, resents Sirius for inviting the Order of the Phoenix to his ancestral home. Kreacher appears to suffer from dementia and believes that he still serves Sirius' parents (even though they are long deceased). As Sirius and Harry clean the house, Kreacher swipes mementos and family heirlooms that Sirius intends to discard and stores them in his room. Harry welcomes all of the distractions; they alleviate his anxiety about his upcoming hearing at the Ministry. The hearing will determine whether he can continue as a student at Hogwarts and whether he will retain his wand privileges. The night before the hearing, as Harry lays in bed, Dumbledore visits Grimmauld Place to advise Sirius not to join Harry at the hearing. The risk, he feels, is too high. It further upsets Harry that Dumbledore would visit the house without speaking to him.
The following morning, Harry and Arthur take a train into the heart of London dressed as Muggles. They walk past towering buildings and through bustling city streets, until they reach a shabby, sparsely inhabited corner of the city. Behind a pub, Arthur and Harry enter what appears to be a broken old telephone booth, but when Arthur punches in a numeric code, a witch's voice comes through the receiver. Arthur states their business, a name tag prints out for Harry, and the booth descends into the earth, taking them both down to the Ministry of Magic.
Arthur takes Harry to his office, which is a small, cluttered room in the Magical Law Enforcement cluster of specialties. He's right around the corner from the Aurors, and they run into Kingsley Shacklebolt, who is a member of the Order of the Phoenix. At first, Harry is surprised that Arthur and Kinglsey act as if they don't know each other, but he quickly catches on that they have to keep their relationship under wraps in order to maintain the secrecy of the Order. Just as Harry and Arthur are getting settled into Arthur's office, one of his colleagues bursts into the office to tell Arthur that Harry's hearing has been moved to 8 am and is now being held in a grand courtroom. Arthur and Harry rush to the hearing, now technically late because of the last-minute change.
When Harry arrives, he finds the entire Wizengamot (Wizarding high court) assembled in rows. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, presides over the scene. Fudge scolds Harry for his lateness. Just as the proceedings begin and Fudge introduces the other members of the judicial counsel, Dumbledore strolls in and announces himself as a witness for the defense. Fudge is clearly baffled, and in this moment it becomes obvious that the last-minute change of time and venue was an attempt to prevent Dumbledore from exerting his influence on the Wizengamot. Though Fudge and his Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge, heavily push the narrative that Harry produced a Patronus in the absence of Dementors, Dumbledore manages to convince most of the Wizengamot that there are Dementors outside of the Ministry's control. Fudge maintains that this is an impossibility; if there were, in fact, Dementors in Little Whinging, it would be further proof of Dumbledore and Harry's claims of Voldemort's return. Dumbledore then calls Mrs. Figg as a witness. Fudge questions the validity of her testimony due to the fact that she is a Squib, or non-magical offspring of wizards. However, Amelia Bones, the presiding judge, believes Figg, and in the end, Harry is cleared of all charges. The immense sense of relief he fills mixes with confusion when, after the decision is handed down, Dumbledore leaves the courtroom without so much as looking at Harry.
Analysis
The Order of the Phoenix marks an important shift in the relationship between the Muggle world and the Wizarding World, as demonstrated by Harry's special attention to the Muggle news during his stay at Privet Drive. The end of book four ushers in the dawn of a new era with the rise of Voldemort, and here in book five, Rowling begins to actually portray this new era. Never before has Harry bothered to follow Muggle news in order to glean anything about the Wizarding World, but the rise of Voldemort represents such a radical paradigm shift that he knows the resulting chaos and destruction will inevitably spill into the Muggle world. This change in the relationship of the Muggle world and Wizarding World is further represented by Aunt Petunia's reaction to the news that Voldemort is back. Rowling writes,
...for the very first time in his life, Harry fully appreciated that Aunt Petunia was his mother’s sister. He could not have said why this hit him so very powerfully at this moment. All he knew was that he was not the only person in the room who had an inkling of what Lord Voldemort being back might mean. Aunt Petunia had never in her life looked at him like that before. Her large, pale eyes (so unlike her sister’s) were not narrowed in dislike or anger: They were wide and fearful. The furious pretense that Aunt Petunia had maintained all Harry’s life — that there was no magic and no world other than the world she inhabited with Uncle Vernon — seemed to have fallen away. (18)
Up to this point in the series, the Dursleys' have all but denied the existence of magic. Their anti-magic stance stems from a need to conform to their environment and appear "normal" and well-adjusted. Rowling describes their suburb as "full of large, square houses with perfectly manicured lawns, all owned by large, square owners who drove very clean cars similar to Uncle Vernon’s" (6). But Rowling demonstrates how conformity and denial is not restricted to Muggles; many witches and wizards also wish to maintain a status quo. The notion of conformity in the Muggle world runs parallel to conformity in the Wizarding World in that in both instances, Rowling characterizes it as dangerous, delusional, and above all, cowardly. With the rise of Voldemort, the Wizarding World, and most notably the Ministry of Magic, is divided between those who believe that Voldemort has returned and those who think his return is a myth perpetuated by an attention seeking teenage celebrity, i.e., Harry Potter. Fudge begins to represent, along with Percy, a distinctly bureaucratic obsession with procedure and order that stands in stark contrast to the adaptive, creative thinking adopted by members of the Order of the Phoenix.
In previous books, Rowling portrays Cornelius Fudge as a good-natured, reasonable Minister. Harry has in fact used underage magic before, and it barely registered with the Ministry. Cornelius Fudge himself assures Harry that matters of underage magic are nothing to worry about. However, the moment his position is threatened, Fudge changes his tune. He summons the entire Wizarding high court, the Wizengamot, to weigh in on Harry's guilt or innocence. The scale of the institutional response of the Ministry demonstrates the degree to which politicians like Fudge feel threatened by Harry and Dumbledore's claims that Voldemort has returned, because the return of Voldemort, above all, ensures instability.
Another important theme that emerges in the early chapters of Order of the Phoenix is that of blood purity in the Wizarding World. Voldemort's entire platform runs on the objective of "purifying" the Wizarding race of all Muggle blood; however not all wizards of pure-blood lineage buy into the importance of blood purity. Sirius Black serves as a prime example of a pure-blooded wizard embracing inclusivity. Sirius' family is one of the last pure-blood lines in the Wizarding World, and his childhood home, Number 12, Grimmauld Place, embodies the ultra-exclusive ideology of Voldemort's movement. It is ironic that Sirius offers Grimmauld Place as a headquarters for the Order because their objective is to end the effort to preserve and uphold pure wizarding bloodlines.
The politics of the Ministry become entangled with this idea of blood purity and racial supremacy; while Cornelius Fudge is staunchly against Voldemort, he is also accused of placing too much stock in blood purity. And the reason that the Order is worried about giants and goblins joining Voldemort's side is because the establishment government of the Wizarding World has denied them equality and freedom. The structural subjugation of other magical races is evident from the statue at the entrance of the Ministry, which Rowling describes in Chapter 7: "a group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in the middle of a circular pool. Tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. The last three were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard" (59-60). The adoration of the wizard by the goblin and centaur perpetuate a false narrative that these other races gladly accept their subjugation.
