Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry runs to the hospital wing to ask Professor McGonagall’s advice as she is a member of the Order of the Phoenix. He feels helpless and alone when he discovers that she has been relocated to St. Mungo’s. A panicked Harry finds Ron and Hermione after they finish their exam and tells them they must travel to the Ministry of Magic immediately to save Sirius. Hermione attempts to reason with Harry, cautioning that Voldemort may have intentionally planted a false vision. Harry is resolute; Hermione insists they try to verify whether Sirius is at the Ministry. Ron creates a diversion by telling Umbridge that Peeves is smashing items in the Transfiguration Department, while Ginny and Luna direct students away from Umbridge’s office by warning them that there is a Garotting Gas leak. Hermione and Harry enter the office. Harry uses flu powder to reach the fire at 12 Grimmauld Place. He is terrified when Kreacher tells him that Sirius is not home and cackles that “Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries” (683).

Harry is pulled back into Umbridge’s office by Umbridge, who had placed a Stealth Sensoring Spell on her office and was alerted to the intrusion. Members of the Inquisitorial Squad, including Draco, hold Luna, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron. Ron and Hermione’s wands are taken. Snape is summoned; Umbridge wants more Veritaserum. Snape informs her that she used the last of his batch to interrogate Harry and that it will take another month to brew. Harry tells Snape, knowing that he is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, “[H]e’s got Padfoot in the place where it’s hidden!” (686). Harry hopes that he understands this to mean that Sirius is in the Department of Mysteries. Umbridge decides to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry; Hermione interrupts and tells Harry that they must tell Umbridge the “truth.” Faking tears, Hermione tells Umbridge that Harry was trying to communicate with Dumbledore about a secret weapon. Umbridge instructs Hermione and Harry to lead her to the weapon.

Hermione leads the way out of the castle and into the Forbidden Forest. Harry has no idea what she is planning but follows, acting as if he understands. Harry notes that Hermione is making a huge amount of noise; she whispers that this is intentional. They are surrounded by a group of centaurs, who angrily ask who they are and why they are in the Forest. Umbridge haughtily replies that she is from the Ministry and that any attack from a “half-breed” of “near-human intelligence” would have serious consequences (694). The centaurs are furious. They shoot a threatening arrow near Umbridge, and she unleashes a spell that wraps thick ropes around the centaur Banes’s body. The centaurs grab Umbridge and run with her into the Forest.

Those left with Harry and Hermione consider what to do with them. Hermione accidentally offends them when she explains that they hate Umbridge and hoped that they would drive her off for them. The centaurs decide that the two should be punished like Umbridge and not be allowed to return from the Forest. Suddenly, Grawp appears. The centaurs fire arrows at him, and he grasps at them while trying to remove the arrows from his face. Harry and Hermione slip away in the confusion and run back toward the castle. They are intercepted by Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny; they managed to get Harry and Hermione’s wands back and escape the Inquisitorial Squad with a series of charms and jinxes.

Harry tries to dissuade the group from accompanying him, but they insist. They are wondering how to reach London to save Sirius when several Thestrals appear, attracted by the smell of Grawp’s blood on Harry and Hermione. Luna suggests that they could ride them to London; Harry reluctantly agrees.

Luna helps Ron, Hermione, and Ginny onto Thestrals; having never witnessed death, they cannot see the creatures. Harry instructs the Thestral he is on to take them to the Ministry of Magic; the Thestrals fly over the Forest and the castle toward London with surprising speed.

They enter the Ministry of Magic through the visitors’ entrance and run through the main atrium, which is, unusually, unguarded. They take the lift down to the Department of Mysteries. They enter an atrium with dozens of doors. Adding to the confusion, the circular room spins once they have entered, disorientating them. Harry instructs the doors to be opened in turn, looking for the one from his dream. Hermione marks a door to a room containing a tank of brains with an X. Another room contains a stone atrium and a mysterious archway containing a veil, which sways mysteriously and seems to exude a hypnotizing presence beyond the veil. They leave the room; Hermione marks it with an X.

The next door they try is locked and cannot be breached with magic or Sirius’s magic knife. The next door opens, and Harry immediately recognizes it as the one he is looking for. They proceed cautiously. They pass a large bell jar that contains a bird trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth. They arrive in a shadowy section of tall, numbered shelves. They head towards shelf 97, which is the one Harry dreamed of. Harry is shocked and scared when Sirius is not in the place he imagined him. Ron points out a labeled glass ball with Harry’s name on it: “S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter” (717). Harry picks it up. A voice behind them—Lucius’s—instructs Harry to give the glass ball to him.

More hooded Death Eaters emerge from among the shelves. Harry demands to know where Sirius is. Bellatrix mocks Harry: “The little baby woke up frightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo” (720). Lucius continues to ask for the prophecy. Harry says Voldemort’s name with a casualness that offends Bellatrix; she attempts to stun Harry, but Lucius, angry, deflects the charm, reminding her that they cannot risk breaking the glass orb, which is a prophecy. Lucius tells Harry that the only ones capable of retrieving a prophecy are those about which it is made; Voldemort planted a false vision of Sirius being tortured to bring Harry to retrieve the prophecy for him.

On Harry’s command, the students send destructive curses in all directions and use the distracting explosion of glass spheres around them to run. They stun Death Eaters, who run after them. Harry, Neville, and Hermione run through the door back into the atrium and lock it behind them, but they realize that Ginny, Luna, and Ron are still in the room with the Death Eaters.

Death Eaters burst through the door; Harry, Neville, and Hermione hide under desks. Harry stuns one who bends down to look for them. A Death Eater tries to use the Avada Kedavra (killing) curse on Hermione, but Harry knocks them down. Neville attempts to disarm the Death Eater but accidentally disarms Harry. Hermione helps Harry retrieve his wand and stuns the Death Eater. His head falls into the bell jar. It begins to grow and then shrink to a baby’s size repeatedly.

Another Death Eater appears. Hermione manages to stop his ability to speak—preventing him from revealing their location to the others—but he strikes her with a purple flame across her torso, and she collapses. The Death Eater, Dolohov, breaks Neville’s wand and nose as Neville tries to crawl toward Hermione. Harry manages to petrify Dolohov. Neville and Hermione are relieved that Hermione still seems to be alive, although she is unresponsive.

Ron, Ginny, and Luna enter the atrium from one of the doors. Ron is disoriented and giggly, and Ginny has a broken ankle. They try to escape when three Death Eaters, including Bellatrix, arrive in the atrium. The students run into the brain room but do not manage to fortify it in time against the pursuing Death Eaters. While still behaving foolishly, Ron magically commands a brain to him, and it ensnares him in tentacles. Meanwhile, Harry runs to lure the Death Eaters away from his friends. They pursue him. One grabs Neville. Bellatrix performs the Crucio curse on Neville, threatening to continue unless Harry hands over the prophecy.

Harry goes to hand Lucius the Prophecy when suddenly Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley arrive. Neville and Harry are surrounded by clashing curses and jinxes as the witches and wizards battle. Sirius tells Harry to take the prophecy and run. Harry tries to help Neville up with him, but a Death Eater has charmed his legs to dance, and he has trouble moving. Lucius grabs Harry and demands the prophecy; Harry throws it to Neville, who catches it and manages to blast Lucius away with a spell. Neville’s robes tear as Harry tries to help him, and the prophecy falls from his pocket and smashes. Harry sees a figure float from the broken orb, speaking, but cannot hear what it says among the noise.

Dumbledore appears in the doorway. Many Death Eaters start to run when they see him. Nearby, Sirius and Bellatrix are dueling. Sirius, laughing, mocks and goads her. Bellatrix strikes Sirius with a curse. He falls through the shimmering veil. Harry screams and attempts to follow him. Lupin holds him back, telling him that Sirius is dead and nothing can be done.

Harry angrily denies that Sirius is dead but also registers that it is unlike Sirius to ignore his desperate cries for him. Dumbledore groups the remaining Death Eaters in the middle of the room. Moody tries to resuscitate Tonks. Lupin asks where the other students are, wanting to remove them. Harry angrily chases Bellatrix, who has run away. He follows her into the atrium of the Ministry of Magic. She mocks Harry about having killed Sirius and about his attempt to use the Crucio curse, which was motivated by anger rather than a genuine desire to cause pain. They continue to fire spells at each other, which bounce off the statues they hide behind. Bellatrix demands the prophecy; Harry happily tells her it was broken during the fight. He feels pain in his scar and knows Voldemort knows the prophecy is broken.

Voldemort appears. He angrily confirms that the prophecy is broken and tells Harry he has thwarted him for too long. Voldemort sends an Avada Kedavra curse at Harry; a golden statue leaps in front of Harry, deflecting the spell. Dumbledore, who bewitched the statue to defend Harry, appears. Dumbledore bewitches more of the statues, one of which runs at Bellatrix and another that defends Harry. Other statues—an elf and a goblin—run to the fireplaces lining the atrium and leave. Voldemort sends killing curses at Dumbledore, who deflects them with ease. Voldemort questions Dumbledore not producing killing spells; Dumbledore disagrees with Voldemort’s assertion that there is nothing worse than death, explaining that this has always been Voldemort’s greatest weakness.

The bewitched centaur statue leaps before Dumbledore to take the impact of a jet of green light from Voldemort’s wand; Dumbledore summons a jet of fiery rope to ensnare Voldemort, but Voldemort turns it into a serpent that rears on Dumbledore. Dumbledore defeats it with a flick of his wand. Fawkes defends Dumbledore from another jet of green light. Dumbledore causes the water from the central pool in the atrium to cover Voldemort.

Dumbledore looks scared when Voldemort vanishes. Suddenly, Voldemort occupies Harry. Harry feels excruciating pain as Voldemort speaks through him: “Kill me now, Dumbledore… […] If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy” (751). Finally, the pain subsides; Voldemort disapparates.

Many people arrive in the hall, including Fudge, who is shocked to have just seen Voldemort. Dumbledore instructs Fudge that there are several magically imprisoned Death Eaters below. He orders him to remove Umbridge from Hogwarts and lift the arrest order on Hagrid. Dumbledore provides a portkey—the head of one of the statues—for Harry to reach Hogwarts; Harry takes hold of it and is pulled away from the scene.