"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Book Report

 In J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, Harry goes through his fifth year at Hogwarts, but with an evil defense against the dark arts teacher, managing his own defense class, spending time with his godfather, dealing with teen romance, and fighting the once again formed, angrier than ever, Dark Lord. The main characters in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” are Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, and Tom Riddle (Lord Voledmort). Harry’s main setting (Hogwarts) is the only place where he feels safe and that he belongs. Harry learns many aspects of the wizarding world, while creating true relationships and friendships whom he will forever cherish. Even with all the flaws (Dolores Umbridge as a teacher, Snape as a teacher, Slytherin enemies, etc.), they are overtaken by every little strength that Hogwarts has brung Harry in his 5th year. Sirius’s main setting (Number 12 Grimmauld Place), has affected him both physically and mentally since his arrival after escaping Azkaban. Since most wizards still don’t know the truth about what happened the night “Sirius murdered 12 muggles”, they have been terrified of him, which leads him to being stuck inside his home growing up, a place he truly hates. Not being allowed to go outside for even a minute or two has really isolated Sirius from the outside world, even with family and friends surrounding him. Without Harry with him, he is lonely, as no one will ever understand him like Harry does. Dumbledore’s main setting (also Hogwarts), has been his home for countless years, but he still has an extremely important job besides being headmaster - protecting Harry from Voldemort. As Dumbledore is the only person Voldemort has ever feared, having Dumbledore on Harry’s side is both a threat and protection. Even though Dumbledore was forced to leave the school (For Harry’s safety, once again), he always made sure Harry was protected from any dark magic. Besides Voldemort’s appearance during the battle at the Ministry of Magic (at the end of the book), his setting is unknown. However, wherever he was, it made him more power-hungry and determined to get his revenge on Harry for killing him 15 years prior.

In “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, Harry becomes stronger, both mentally and physically. During his fifth year at Hogwarts, he faced a lot of physical challenges, such as crazy dangerous creatures, dealing with girls, and facing the Dark Lord once again. He has also been through many mental challenges throughout this book, such as losing family members and friends, dealing with connections with Voldemort, and dealing with Dumbledore, who was ignoring him for most of the school year. However, he has become a lot lonelier and stressed within the events during “Order of the Phoenix”. With the death of his godfather Sirius in this book, Harry lost the only person besides Dumbledore who truly understood him and his emotions. Because of this, he is left to spill his emotions out to his friends, Ron and Hermione, who listen and care, but not as much as Sirius did. He was also constantly worrying about schoolwork, as his OWLS were coming up and his professors really wanted to prepare him. In this book, Sirius finally feels happiness once again - though it was seconds before he died. When Sirius was dueling his cousin, Bellatrix, she killed him, right as he mistakenly said “nice one James” to Harry, his old and favorite memories still on top of his mind. His last laugh and sense of happiness was etched upon his face as he fell through a magic veil, where he died. Dumbledore, in this book, grew closer but also separated from Harry. Harry had many things to deal with during this time, and Dumbledore, being in charge of handling Voldemort’s return, paid little to no attention to him. For most of the school term, Dumbledore ignored Harry, especially in public. When they finally did have a one-on-one conversation, it was extremely awkward and Dumbledore spent most of the time vaguely answering Harry’s questions instead of being his helpful usual self. Towards the end of the book though, Dumbledore explains everything that happened that year, including the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort, why he made Ron a prefect instead of Harry, and why he had been ignoring him. The two make up for everything that happened that year, and decided to take it as a lesson into their next chapter of their lives. Finally, in this book, Voldemort became more determined to return to power, but was exposed back to the rest of the Wizarding World. Voldemort did everything he could to regain his lost power, including dueling Dumbledore (the most powerful wizard), killing muggles and squibs for fun, and threatening his Death Eaters. Because he did not achieve as much as he wished to during the battle at The Ministry of Magic, he was determined to finish off every person he failed to kill, which led to the deaths of many innocent witches and wizards along the way. However, he made a careless mistake when at The Ministry of Magic, revealing himself to the minister and multiple aurors. With the whole world of magic attempting to track him down, was he really safe even as one of the most powerful wizards of all time?

        After reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, the reader takes away the lesson that there is love in the face of evil. Near the end of the story (during the events of The Ministry of Magic battle), Harry finally understands the one thing that Voldemort never has or will have - love. While Voldemort is determined to kill Dumbledore and regain his power, Harry is reminded to keep loving and caring for the people he still has. Voldemort’s evil spirit and mindset led him to do evil things , while Harry’s heart and mind were set to create love and forgiveness - even if it is toward the person who killed his parents.