"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J.K. Rowling

            The following is a review of the NOVEL “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K. Rowling and NOT a review of the MOVIE of the same title.

            Harry Potter is just your average, normal, everyday fifteen-year-old boy… well, except that he’s a wizard. He attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is getting ready to enter his fifth year after the end of holiday. His two best friends at Hogwarts are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. His greatest rival at Hogwarts is Draco Malfoy, who is always flanked by his cronies Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. He is in Gryffindor house, as well as with Ron and Hermione.

            As a baby, he was targeted by the most notorious dark wizard of all time, the evil Lord Voldemort, who attempted to murder Harry to prevent a prophecy for coming true. Harry was able to somehow mysteriously survive Voldemort’s attack, and the spell meant to kill Harry rebounded and hit Voldemort, and he was reduced to next to nothing. Harry was a legend in the magical community as “the boy who lived,” and Voldemort’s name was feared to be spoken. The failed curse left a lightning bolt scar on Harry’s forehead.

Harry was sent to live with his awful Aunt Petunia Dursley, her husband Uncle Vernon, and their son, Harry’s cousin Dudley. For years they tried to stamp out the magic from him and neglected to inform Harry that he is a wizard. When he was eleven years old, he was accepted into Hogwarts and has been a student there since.

At the end of his fourth year at Hogwarts, he witnessed Voldemort’s return to power. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic does not wish to accept this, and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge has used the newspaper The Daily Prophet to smear Harry’s once well regarded name. Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore has believed Harry’s story and is now treated as unbalanced, insane, crazy, what-have-you and his once reputable reputation has been dragged through the mud along with Harry’s.

As Harry’s fifth year of Hogwarts approaches, he is at a park with his cousin Dudley when they are suddenly besieged by two dementors, the awful creatures who serve as the guards at the wizard prison Azkaban, who eliminate all happiness and can suck out souls by performing their “kiss.” Harry uses the Patronus charm to drive away the dementors. But underage wizards are not supposed to use magic outside of schools, especially in front of muggles (non-magical folks). Harry had already been reprimanded for magic being performed at number four Privet Drive (which had been performed by the house-elf Dobby and not Harry himself) and is told he is expelled from Hogwarts and must attend a disciplinary hearing in front of the Ministry of Magic. He manages to squeeze out of the expulsion, but still must attend the hearing.

Harry is punished by Uncle Vernon and is locked in his bedroom. Harry is sprung by wizards Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt and witch Nymphadora Tonks and brought to number twelve Grimmauld Place, the headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix, a group of adult wizards and witches who are an anti-Voldemort army. This also includes Ron’s parents Arthur and Molly Weasley and Harry’s outlaw godfather Sirius Black (accused of a crime he didn’t commit, falsely named one of Voldemort’s followers the Death Eaters, and an escapee from Azkaban). Hermione and Ron have been living there over holiday with Ron’s parents and Sirius, who is hidden away there, as well as the house-elf Kreacher, the servant of the Black family. Grimmauld Place is the Black family home, which rightfully belongs to Sirius.

Harry attends the hearing and is acquitted of all charges, but Dumbledore, who testifies in Harry’s favor, has been unusually distant towards Harry, a fact that quite upsets him. Harry is also upset when Ron and Hermione are appointed Gryffindor’s new Prefects, a power of authority at Hogwarts. Harry had been hoping to be Prefect and is miffed that Ron was picked instead of Harry.

Harry returns to Hogwarts and discovers that the Ministry of Magic is now interfering at Hogwarts and has appointed Ministry worker Delores Umbridge as new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and teaches the subject as theory rather than action. Harry, Ron and Hermione also must prepare for their Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.s) tests, something magical students must take to determine qualifications for their careers after graduating from school.

Umbridge takes every chance she can to put Harry in detention, which clashes with his completing his homework and his Quidditch practices (a wizarding sport played on broomsticks).

Hogwarts groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor has been mysteriously absent.

Umbridge has been gaining power at Hogwarts and is named Hogwarts High Inquisitor and passes rules that inhibit the activities of students, as well as able to pass judgement on other Hogwarts professors, placing Divinations professor Sybil Trelawney on probation.

Ron is appointed as keeper on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team, despite his nerves getting the better of him, and is picked on by the Slytherins (another house in Hogwarts) for his lack of proficiency and consistency.

Hagrid returns, having gone on a mission for the Order in a failed attempt to form an alliance with the giants before the Death Eaters, appears to continuously and mysteriously sustain injuries he refuses to inform anyone of how he got them.

Hermione suggests that Harry, who has proven himself proficient in magical abilities, be the secret teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts where students can actually perform magic. Many students accept that idea, and the group names themselves Dumbledore’s Army.

Harry has long had a crush on fellow Hogwarts student Cho Chang, who had been dating Cedric Diggory the previous year, is now willing to be Harry’s girlfriend since Cedric was killed by Voldemort’s followers.

Harry has been having dreams of wandering a dark corridor in a place he is unfamiliar with, and his scar (which has a mysterious connection with Voldemort) has been hurting worse than ever since Voldemort’s return to power. Harry has a dream of an assault on Arthur Weasley that turns out to be a vision as Arthur Weasley was indeed attacked by a snake, and brought to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries right as Christmas holiday begins.

Dumbledore realizes Harry’s connection with Voldemort may be feeding Voldemort information about the Order and is forced to study Occlumecy with Professor Severus Snape, (who has had a grudge with Harry since Harry’s first day at Hogwarts due to Snape’s history with Harry’s parents) to block Voldemort from entering Harry’s thoughts.

After Harry, Fred, and George (Ron’s older twin brothers now in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts) fight with Malfoy, Umbridge invokes a lifetime ban from playing Quidditch and confiscates and locks up their brooms.

Upon finishing taking his O.W.L.s, Harry has a vision of Voldemort holding Sirius in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny Weasley (Ron’s younger sister, who had a crush on Harry at one point and now jumps from boyfriend after boyfriend quite frequently), and fellow students Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood travel to the Ministry of Magic to rescue Sirius, defeat the Death Eaters, and stop Voldemort from obtaining a prophecy that could spell the end of Harry Potter.

Personally, this was my favorite “Harry Potter” novel. It was also the longest of all the “Harry Potter” books, and a lot of important things happen in this book, which is why it is my favorite. I would love to tell you my reasons for loving this book, but honestly, I probably already given a lot of spoilers, and sharing my reasons why would just give too many more.

I know there are naysayers who will claim the “Harry Potter” is just for kids, and I respectfully disagree. If you open the book and look at the praise page with blurbs left by reviewers, Stephen King wrote a praise. Yes, Stephen King, the famous horror writer. He loved the “Harry Potter” books. And there is the inclusion of profanity and some of the descriptions are actually quite gruesome and even scary. I’d go into it, but this blog doesn’t allow me to post them, I’m sorry if you were hoping to read that from me, well, then read the books yourselves. And on a side-note, my Grandma started reading the “Harry Potter” books before she passed away (this book itself wasn’t published until after she passed) and she was in her eighties. When I was in college, I knew a staff member at a snack shop in her seventies who read the books. And the film adaptation of this book was rated PG-13. I’d honestly say that if a person likes fantasy novels, the “Harry Potter” books are good reads. And I also have to say that this book was actually a moderately difficult read (being eight-hundred-seventy pages and some chapters taking close to forty-five minutes to read) and takes quite a lot of commitment to get through. Also, people who only go for “Harry Potter” by watching the movies, they are missing a lot (and while this was the longest book, it was the shortest movie and so many good parts got cut out). I’ve also read these books at least ten times each, and I’m thirty-four years old, I never get tired of them, and each time I pick up more details, and if I really like a book series, I will read them several times, and that doesn’t happen very often because I’m hard to please, especially how many time I’ve read these books in particular. So obviously, you’d see I recommend the series. And the movies don’t do justice to the books, I’d rather read the books than watch the movies, but of course there are time constraints so that isn’t practical.

Well, I think I’ve said enough of all of that, so I’ll just jump into the most important part of any of my reviews: the numeric score. I score on a scale of one to ten. One being the worst, ten being the best. If you’ve read some of my previous reviews (you may notice the seriousness my reviews have become now and don’t try to joke around anymore), you may notice I say how I’m hard to please (I literally just said it in my past paragraph if you’ve failed to notice). So if I give a book a good score, then maybe you should think about reading it yourself, but I leave that up to you. I will say if you want to read this book, you must read the first four books first or you will totally not understand it (and don’t try to cheat out of it by only watching the first four movies and not reading the books, then decide to read this book without reading the first four books because there are threads that just do not connect). And I do feel these book are worth reading to any fantasy novel fan. But I digress, you just want my score. So I’ll simply just give it to you: TEN! This is one of my all-time favorite books and I never get tired of reading it.

Okay, well, I think I’ve kept you reading long enough. If you’re up to this point still, you are THE BEST! I hope you’ll continue checking out my work, I love doing this. I’ve written literally dozens of reviews (mostly Marvel, I’m sorry to say) and I occasionally post short stories, poems, essays, editorials, and a few other things, so I’m a little diverse in my material. You can expect two more reviews coming up this week (this is Monday, May 2, 2022) one tomorrow, one Friday, and maybe I’ll throw in a few things more for you in the next few weeks, so if you liked this review, keep looking for more. So I only have a few more words: until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!