Harry 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.
Ron and Hermione are named prefects, leaving Harry somewhat upset. When Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts, they are surprised to hear that Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, is the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry remembers her sitting beside Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge at his hearing, and when Harry asks Hermione what Dolores' presence at the school means, she replies that the ministry is interfering with Hogwarts. During their first lesson they discover that Umbridge refuses to teach real defence methods and that they will not be performing any spells, only learning Ministry-approved by reading a textbook. It becomes clear she is really there to spy on and take control of the school and is soon appointed High Inquisitor, arbitrarily imposing strict and unpopular rules and unfair regulations. She also harbours racial 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.
Ron tries out for the quidditch team and wins the keeper spot, but his first game is disastrous and his playing continues to be so for the remainder of the year. Harry gets kicked off the team by Umbridge after he punches Draco in the stomach for making fun of Ron, and Fred and George are kicked off the team along with him. Ron's sister, Ginny, joins the team to replace Harry as Seeker. Ron's playing continues to be so poor that a derogative song about him, "Weasley is our King" becomes a popular chant among Slytherins.
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, under the reasoning that the Daily Prophet's stories have many holes in them, 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, only to see it backfire as it musters up curiosity among the students. The story spreads rapidly, gathering support for Harry and many in the wizarding community start to believe Harry.
Hermione convinces Harry to secretly teach students Defence 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. They find the secret Room of Requirement to hold meetings, which only appears in times of great need. The group, consisting of about 29 Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs, learn how to defend and arm themselves against the Dark Arts; some even successfully learn how to conjure the high-level Patronus charm. When Umbridge uncovers the group's meetings by a tip-off, Dumbledore claims that he organised it, to cover for Harry and his friends. 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 then appointed Headmistress and imposes even tighter control. Fed up, the Weasley twins instigate and lead a revolt/rebellion, such as setting off a massive display of fireworks in and around the school, much to the dismay of Umbridge. The staff, mostly loyal to Dumbledore, do not help her either; in fact they take pleasure in the mayhem. This marks the end of Fred and George's magical education, who now opt to move into their magical tricks and joke shop in Diagon Alley, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. After Fred and George leave, with many disastrous games under his belt, Ron finally pulls himself together and has a good game during the Finals, helping Gryffindor win the quidditch cup, and changing "Weasley is our King" from a negative to a positive for Gryffindor.
Harry receives a vision while falling asleep in his History of Magic OWL exam, 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 illegal 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 fellow D.A. members Ginny, Neville, and Ravenclaw Luna 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, and even surprise them with their well trained Defense Against the Dark Arts spells, but nevertheless they are outmatched. They are nearly defeated, but Order members suddenly arrive to help them. 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, who wants to follow and rescue Sirius, 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 5 years. He reveals the lost prophecy given to him by Sybill Trelawney, for it was to him that it was first told: either Harry or Voldemort must die at the hands 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. Dumbledore also discloses why he continues to send Harry back to the Dursleys' home for the summer. He tells Harry that when his mother died to protect him, this initiated an ancient magic. As long as Harry stays at the house of his blood-relative long enough to call it a home, it would provide for him a shield protection not even Voldemort is able to overcome. Futhermore, Dumbledore explains to Harry why he had not made him a prefect: he thought that Harry had enough to worry about and did not want to burden him with more responsibilities.
Just before the end of the school year, Harry confronts Nearly Headless Nick, and asks if Sirius can come back as a ghost. Nick explains that Sirius "will have...gone on", as very few wizards and witches choose to remain on Earth as ghosts. Still overcome with grief, Harry finds Luna Lovegood sticking posters asking for the whereabouts of her lost possessions. She tells Harry that while some students harass her by taking her items and hiding them, she calmly replies that "They'll come back in the end, they always do." Taking this in context with his recent loss of Sirius, Harry feels slightly better.
At King's Cross station, several Order members escort Harry to meet the Dursleys. Alastor Moody warns Vernon Dursley that if they give Harry any trouble over the summer, they will intervene. Harry leaves with the Dursleys to head back to 4 Privet Drive.
[edit] 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.
On July 24, 2007 Rowling revealed in an interview that she had originally planned to kill off Arthur Weasley in this book, but ultimately couldn't bear to do it, allowing him to survive the entire series. [1]
[edit] Pre-release history
Potter fans waited three years between the releases of the fourth and fifth books.[2] Before the release of the fifth book, 200 million copies of the first four books had already been sold and translated into 55 languages in 200 countries.[3] As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queueing outside book stores on June 20th, 2003 to secure their copy at midnight.[3] Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from a Merseyside warehouse on June 15, 2003.[4]
In a Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman, Rowling reported that she was "reduced to tears" when she killed off a significant character in the book, despite rewriting the death scene several times.[5] She added that although her husband suggested she undo the character's death to stop her sadness, she needed to be "a ruthless killer."[5] Three days before the book's release, betting firm Ladbrokes stopped taking bets as to the identity of the character to die, saying that people already knew and that it would be a "licence to lose money."[5] Scottish bookmaker Blue Square also took bets on the identity of the killed character, with Hagrid the favourite at 7/2 odds, followed by Sirius Black at 4/1 and Professors Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore at 5/1.[6]
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