Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series. It follows Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of the antagonist Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic. The novel was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. It sold five million copies in the first 24 hours of publication. It is the longest book of the series.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix won several awards, including the American Library Association Best Book Award for Young Adults in 2003. The book was also made into a 2007 film and a video game by Electronic Arts.
Plot
During the summer holidays with the Dursleys, 15-year-old Harry Potter and his cousin Dudley are attacked by Dementors. After openly using magic to save Dudley and himself, Harry is expelled from Hogwarts, but his expulsion is postponed pending a hearing at the Ministry of Magic. Harry is whisked off by a group of wizards including Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, and several new faces, including Nymphadora Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, the childhood home of Sirius Black. The building serves as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger explain that the Order is a secret organisation led by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore dedicated to fighting Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. From the members of the Order, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny Weasley and Fred and George Weasley learn that Voldemort is seeking something he did not have prior to his first defeat. The Ministry of Magic, led by Cornelius Fudge, refuses to acknowledge Voldemort's return, as doing so would cause panic and chaos, and have been running a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore with the Daily Prophet. At the hearing, Dumbledore speaks on Harry's behalf, affirming his right to use magic in self-defence, and questioning how Dementors were let loose in suburban Britain, leading to Harry being cleared of all charges.
At Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge, a senior employee in the Ministry of Magic, becomes the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Like Fudge, she refuses to believe Voldemort has returned. She and Harry often clash, with her punishing Harry by having him carve the words "I must not tell lies" into the back of his hand with a cursed quill. She also refuses to teach her students how to perform defensive spells, prompting Harry, Ron, and Hermione to form their own Defence Against the Dark Arts group with other Hogwarts students. However, Umbridge bans clubs not approved by her. Dobby the house elf informs them about Room of Requirement, in which the group, now called Dumbledore's Army, meets in secret to learn and practice defensive spells under Harry's instruction.
Meanwhile, Rubeus Hagrid is absent for the first part of the school year. Upon his return, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that he was unsuccessfully trying to prevent the last giants from joining Voldemort. Umbridge, steadily amasses more and more power and influence at the school, beginning to inspect the work of other teachers, such as Hagrid's, clearly intending to sack him, as she is prejudiced against half-breeds.
One night, Harry dreams through the eyes of Voldemort's snake Nagini, who is possessed by Voldemort. Nagini attacks and seriously injures Arthur Weasley. Harry tells Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore, and Arthur is rescued. Dumbledore arranges for Harry to take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, another member of the Order, to protect his mind against invasions by Voldemort.
Umbridge begins making overt changes at the school, sacking Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher, although Dumbledore assigns the centaur Firenze to take her place. Soon after, Umbridge is given a tip-off about Dumbledore's Army by Marietta Edgecombe, a friend of Harry's crush Cho Chang. To prevent Harry's expulsion, Dumbledore takes responsibility for the group, and is forced into hiding. Umbridge becomes headmistress, and Fred and George cause pandemonium around the school in revenge.
Meanwhile, Harry's Occlumency lessons with Snape go poorly. During one lesson, Snape is called away, leaving behind Dumbledore's Pensieve, on which he had been storing memories he did not intend Harry to see. Harry uses the Pensieve, and sees a memory of Snape being bullied by his father, James Potter, and Sirius. Snape catches Harry and ends his lessons in a fit of rage. Distraught at his father's character, Harry sneaks into Umbridge's office and uses Floo powder to speak with Lupin and Sirius in her fireplace, learning more about his parents. Fred and George, who had helped Harry enter Umbridge's office with a massive prank, leave Hogwarts to start a joke shop in Diagon Alley.
Wary of Umbridge, Hagrid confesses to Harry, Ron, and Hermione that he has brought his giant half-brother, Grawp, to Hogwarts and hidden him in the Forbidden Forest, intending to civilise him. Hagrid asks them to look after Grawp if he is forced to leave the school. During the student O.W.L exams, Umbridge attacks Hagrid one night with a pack of Aurors. Hagrid overpowers them and flees the school. McGonagall, trying to assist Hagrid, is badly injured and put in St. Mungo's Hospital.
On the last day of O.W.L. exams, Harry has a vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. Harry again uses Umbridge's fireplace to contact Grimmauld Place and check if the vision was genuine, which Kreacher, Sirius' house elf seemingly confirms. Umbridge catches Harry and summons Snape, intending to use Veritaserum to question Harry, although Snape denies having any potion left. Harry cryptically warns Snape of Sirius, which Snape claims to not understand.
A now enraged Umbridge reveals she had ordered the Dementor attack on Harry, to silence or discredit him. She also decides to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse on Harry to interrogate him, but Hermione intervenes, convincing Umbridge that they are hiding a weapon of Dumbledore's in the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Hermione lead her into an area of the forest inhabited by centaurs. Umbridge provokes them, and they take her captive. With Grawp's help, Harry and Hermione escape the centaurs.
Luna, Ron, Ginny, and Neville join them in the forest, and they fly to the Ministry on Thestrals, to find and rescue Sirius. However, once in the Department of Mysteries, they fail to find him, instead finding a glass sphere bearing Harry's and Voldemort's names. Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy attack in order to secure the sphere, which is the object Voldemort has been trying to obtain - a recording of a prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort. As only the subjects of prophecies can remove them from the shelves, Harry was lured here with his vision, falsely planted by Voldemort. Harry and his friends, soon joined by members of the Order, battle with the Death Eaters. During the fight, Neville accidentally destroys the prophecy, and Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius.
Harry chases after her, but is no match. Voldemort himself arrives to kill Harry, but Dumbledore arrives as well, dueling Voldemort to a stalemate. Unable to kill Dumbledore, Voldemort possesses Harry, in an attempt to get Dumbledore to kill Harry. Harry fights off the possession, and Voldemort escapes just as Fudge appears. Having directly seen Voldemort, Fudge has no choice but to accept the truth.
In his office, Dumbledore explains that Snape had understood Harry's cryptic warning, and after Harry did not return from the Forest, had alerted the Order, enabling them to save Harry and his friends. Dumbledore also reveals that Kreacher had informed Narcissa Malfoy, Lucius' wife, of Harry and Sirius's close relationship, which Voldemort had then exploited with the false memory.
Dumbledore also reveals that Harry must stay with the Dursleys for one last summer because, by taking Harry into her home, Aunt Petunia, Lily's older sister, seals the protection Harry's mother afforded him when she died. As long as he is at Number Four, Privet Drive, he is safe from Voldemort and his followers. Furthermore, Dumbledore reveals the full contents of the prophecy, which was made by Trelawney. The prophecy had foretold the birth of someone with the power to defeat Voldemort. One of Voldemort's followers had overheard part of the prophecy as it was made, and informed Voldemort. Although the prophecy pointed to either Harry or Neville, Voldemort believed it to refer to Harry, which is why he had tried to kill him as a baby. The rest of the prophecy hinted that Voldemort would unknowingly mark his opponent as an equal, and that eventually, one of them would kill the other.
Overwhelmed with the weight of the prophecy and deeply mourning the loss of Sirius, Harry grows sullen, although the wizarding community, now knowing of Voldemort's return, affords him greater respect. Motivated by his friends and loved ones, Harry returns to the Dursleys once more.
Publication and release
Potter fans waited three years between the releases of the fourth and fifth books. 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. As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queuing outside book stores on 20 June 2003 to secure copies at midnight. Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from an Earlestown, Merseyside warehouse on 15 June 2003.Critical response
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was met with mostly positive reviews and received several awards. In 2004, the book was cited as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and as an American Library Association Notable Book. It also received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio 2004 Gold Medal, along with several other awards.The novel was also well received by critics. Rowling was praised for her imagination by USA Today writer Deirdre Donahue. Most negative reviewers were concerned with the violence contained in the novel and with morality issues occurring throughout the book.
The New York Times writer John Leonard praised the novel, saying "The Order of the Phoenix starts slow, gathers speed and then skateboards, with somersaults, to its furious conclusion....As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better." However, he also criticised "the one-note Draco Malfoy" and the predictable Lord Voldemort.
Predecessors and sequels
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, 300 of which were distributed to libraries. By the end of 1997, the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9-to-11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. The second novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in the UK on 2 July 1998. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published 8 July 2000, simultaneously by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series, yet it is the second shortest film at 2 hours and 18 minutes.After the publishing of Order of the Phoenix, the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published on 16 July 2005 and sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release. The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007. The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.
Adaptations
Film
In 2007, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in a film version directed by David Yates and written by Michael Goldenberg. The film was produced by David Heyman's company, Heyday Films, alongside David Barron. The budget was reportedly between £75 and 100 million, and it became the unadjusted eleventh-highest-grossing film of all time and a critical and commercial success. The film opened to a worldwide 5-day opening of $333 million, the third best of all time, and grossed $940 million total, second to for the greatest total of 2007.Video games
A video game adaptation of the book and film versions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was made for Microsoft Windows, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, Game Boy Advance, and Mac OS X. It was released on 25 June 2007 in the U.S., 28 June 2007 in Australia, and 29 June 2007 in the UK and Europe for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2, Windows, and 3 July 2007 for most other platforms. The games were published by Electronic Arts.The book is also depicted in the 2011 video game .