Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (#5 Harry Potter) Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

How are you all doing today? I hope you’re doing well!

I’ve just finished “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which I ABSOLUTELY LOVED!!! It took me a while to read it because it’s a very long book and I was making notes about most pages for this review. I won’t include all my thoughts here but when I start something I like to do it to the best of my ability, even if I don’t end up using most of the notes I make. 

I read “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” for a couple of readathons:

The Cardcaptor-a-thon - The Freeze - Sakura and friends go on a trip to the ice rink...Read a book that involves a trip - Harry has to go to the Ministry of Magic on multiple occasions in The Order of the Phoenix!

Reading Rivalry on Facebook - For this I didn’t finish it within the month of October so I included it for pages read! 

5 Stars!

Harry is going into his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in this fifth book in the series. He has lots of things to deal with throughout, like a stern headmistress, homework, friend/relationship issues issues, as well as the evil force, and add to that his O.W.L.s or Ordinary Wizarding Level exams too.

Spoilers Below

“He could not believe what had just happened.  Dementors here, in Little Whinging?”

This happens at the end of the first chapter, so we’re literally thrown back into the magic of Harry Potter. Harry is saving his cousin, Dudley from a Dementor here, in the town where he lives. Why are the Dementors there? You’ll need to read to find out!

Harry can’t get in contact with any of his friends from Hogwarts because of his Aunt and Uncle but when he gets taken to Grimmauld Place, the ancestral home of the Black family; Sirius Black is Harry’s Godfather, brought into previous books, Harry is protected by a group of magical people. He wonders why, but you’ll have to read the book to find the answer...

“The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.”

Grimmauld Place is also the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, as evidenced in the quote above. The Order of the Phoenix, as well as the title of the fifth book, is the group that are fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters, which includes Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father. The Weasleys and Sirius Black are part of the Order, as well as Moody, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the 4th book, Lupin, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the 3rd book, and Tonks, a girl that Harry befriends, and others too. Grimmauld Place has it’s own elf too, Kreacher, who isn’t all he claims to be...you’ll need to read for yourself to find out why. Kreacher is hated by the Weasleys. 

“The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher’s mistress saw him in such company, oh, what would she say —”

“Don’t call her a Mudblood!” said Ron and Ginny together, very angrily.

“It doesn’t matter,” Hermione whispered, “he’s not in his right mind, he doesn’t know what he’s —”

“Don’t kid yourself, Hermione, he knows exactly what he’s saying,” said Fred, eyeing Kreacher with great dislike.” This is Ron, Ginny and Fred’s reaction to Kreacher being mean to Hermione when she’s only trying to be nice to him. Of course, Hermione thinks Kreacher has a right to be rude to her as he’s a worker elf. 

“What is this place, anyway?” he shot at Ron and Hermione.

“Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix,” said Ron at once.

“Is anyone going to bother telling me what the order of the Phoenix —?”

“It’s a secret society,” said Hermione quickly. “Dumbledore’s in charge, he founded it. It’s the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time.”

“Who’s in it?” said Harry, coming to halt with his hands in his pockets.

“Quite a few people —”

“We’ve met about twenty of them,” said Ron, “but we think there are more.”

This is Harry wondering where he is when he’s sent to Grimmauld Place. Ron and Hermione both explain just what the Order of the Phoenix is. They’re not completely sure as they’re not allowed in any of the meetings. Just the adults are!

Fred and George are my two of my favourite characters. They’re just funny! I always laugh their parts. I really hope they’re in the other books in some capacity.

“Git,” said Fred idly.

“He’s on our side now,” said Hermione reprovingly.

Ron snorted. “Doesn’t stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us,” is what Fred and Ron Weasley think of Snape, the potions teacher at Hogwarts. He was a Death Eater, one of Voldemort’s followers. He thinks he’s a much higher person than he actually is, most of the Hogwarts students think.

I felt so sorry for Snape, personally. Yes, he made mistakes but doesn’t everyone? I also enjoy Snape in the films. I think he’s played really well by the late, great Alan Rickman too. (I haven’t read this book or more before now in series either but kind of a SPOILER: I know what happens to Snape in the end).

Harry has a trial at the Ministry of Magic for using magic to save Dudley at the beginning of the book from the Dementors. Wizards aren’t meant to use magic in front of non-magic people. He gets cleared but he also meets Dolores Umbridge, who becomes the main antagonist later in the book. 

At Hogwarts things are different in Harry’s fifth year. Dumbledore won’t look at him for some reason. Hagrid also isn’t there when the term starts. Why? You’ll have to read to find out!

Now, Umbridge. She’s the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers have been evil in the previous books, and it’s no different in this one. But she’s not working with Voldemort! She’s working with the Ministry of Magic who don’t think Hogwarts is being run correctly. She runs a lot of tests on the teachers at Hogwarts. When Hagrid comes back, after half way through the book. 

“Well ... anyway ...” said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered, “erm ... what was I sayin’?

“Appears ... to ... have ... poor ... short ... term ... memory,” muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Draco Malfoy looked as though Christmas had come a month early; Hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage.

This is what happens when Umbridge watches one of Harry’s classes with Hagrid. Hagrid is obviously nervous, and Umbridge certainly doesn’t help! Hermione is very annoyed with Umbridge’s attitude too. She’s angry, even. Draco is enjoying the show as Draco would!

Umbridge goes so far as to steal Harry, Fred and George’s brooms when they’re playing Quidditch before watching lessons, when she’s only just come to Hogwarts but when Fred and George no longer care, they demand them back.

“You two,” she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, “are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school.”

“You know what?” said Fred. “I don’t think we are,” is Umbridge’s reaction to their tricks.

I think the last thing I’m going to mention is Snape and his part in The Order of the Phoenix. He’s set the task of teaching Harry Occlumency, the act of closing one’s mind to invaders. While Harry struggles to grasp this at first he works hard to be able to achieve the level he needs. This is extra work on top of his OWLs subjects. Of course, Snape doesn’t care about the extra work load. I really enjoyed reading these parts because I love Snape! He is an antagonist but I feel he’s an antagonist with a heart if that makes sense, unlike Umbridge or Voldemort who just want to reign terror. We see smidgens into the past, which link to Snape, and why he’s like he is! These made me feel sorry for him. I really liked Snape anyway, but these made me actually feel for him.

Voldemort isn’t in this book at all. He’s vaguely mentioned but not actually in it. This was refreshing. As I said Umbridge is the main villain of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

Now, as I said above there is sooooooo much to this book that I don’t have time to delve into every bit of it, but I loved it, although it was so long! Harry is certainly growing up. I loved the emotional bits, the funny bits, the stressful bits, so that’s why I’m giving “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” 5 stars! 

Stand by for my next review coming soon...I’m going to reread a Halloween read next, that I was meant to read on Halloween night — Pumpkin Heads by Rainbow Rowell — I reviewed it last Halloween, and then read a manga next, so I don’t know if I’ll review it or not. I probably will but if I don’t it’ll be the book after that, so probably early December, if I don’t review the manga!