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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Dudley Demented”
Harry, miserable and lonely, spends his summer at his uncle, aunt, and cousin’s home: Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley. The correspondence he has received from his best friends, Ron and Hermione, and his Godfather, Sirius, has been superficial. Harry is frustrated to have no real news from the wizarding world, especially after the events of the Triwizard Tournament, where Harry confronted Voldemort.
Harry lies beneath the window outside, eavesdropping on the Muggle news program (Vernon and Petunia have made it clear that he is not welcome in the sitting room). Harry hears a sound like the noise of a witch or wizard disapparating; he sits up suddenly, drawing his wand, and smacks his head on the window frame. Vernon, hearing Harry, viciously grabs him around the neck, telling him to put his wand away.
Harry walks down Privet Drive, hoping to find the witch or wizard who apparated. Sitting on a park swing, he sees Dudley and his gang of friends. Harry follows Dudley home at a distance, knowing he will be in trouble if he arrives home later.
The two walk together once Dudley leaves his friends; Harry taunts Dudley for his bullying behavior. Suddenly, the night becomes abruptly cold and dark. Harry realizes that dementors, the deadly guards of Azkaban Prison, are in the area. A dementor looms before Harry; he struggles to summon the Patronus charm, but does just in time. Harry’s Patronus—a silver-colored stag—repels the dementor attacking and the one about to kill Dudley. As Harry helps Dudley home, Mrs. Figg, the Dursley’s neighbor, appears in the alleyway and tells Harry not to put his wand away.
Chapter 2 Summary: “A Peck of Owls”
Harry is shocked that Mrs. Figg, who he previously thought was a Muggle, is affiliated with the magical world. She explains that she is a squib and that Mundungus Fletcher should have been on watch protecting Harry. Mundungus apparates onto Wisteria Drive; Mrs. Figg angrily tells him what happened. She accompanies the boys home. As Harry helps Dudley into the house, Dudley vomits on the doormat and is weak and shaken. Vernon and Petunia are concerned for Dudley and are enraged when Dudley implies that Harry caused the events. An owl delivers a letter from the Ministry of Magic at Harry’s feet explaining that his use of magic in front of a Muggle, especially as an underage wizard, means that he has been expelled from Hogwarts and that his wand will be destroyed. Harry is summoned to a disciplinary hearing. Just as Harry has resolved to run away, a second owl arrives with a note from Mr. Weasley warning Harry to remain calm and to stay at the Dursleys; Mr. Weasley explains that Dumbledore is at the Ministry sorting out the situation.
Harry tries to explain to his aunt and uncle that he did not summon the dementors but was saving Dudley from them. Unexpectedly, Petunia asserts that dementors guard the wizard jail of Azkaban. A third owl arrives with another letter from the Ministry of Magic, explaining that Harry should consider himself suspended and that the issue of his expulsion will be decided at his disciplinary hearing. Harry tries to explain to a furious Vernon what happened; meanwhile, another owl arrives with a directive from Sirius to stay with the Dursleys. Harry feels angry that no one acknowledges that he was attacked by and successfully repelled two dementors. Vernon tells Harry that he wants him to leave. A howler arrives, warning Petunia in an ominous voice to “remember my last, Petunia” (37). Petunia, shaken, insists that they cannot send Harry away.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Advance Guard”
Harry sends notes to Sirius, Ron, and Hermione, stating that he has been attacked by dementors and might be expelled; angry, he asks to know when he will leave the Dursley’s house. For three days, Harry remains in his room, hoping for news from his friends. Vernon comes into his room and tells Harry that he, Petunia, and Dudley are going out. Vernon locks Harry in his room.
Suddenly, Harry hears a crash in the kitchen below. The lock on his bedroom door opens. He cautiously goes downstairs, where a group of witches and wizards are gathered, including Remus Lupin, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle, Emmeline Vance, Sturgis Podmore, and Hestia Jones. Harry learns they are his guard and will monitor his safety as he moves to a new location.
Tonks helps Harry to pack his trunk. Moody places a disillusionment charm on Harry, making him virtually invisible. Harry learns that they will be reaching their undisclosed location by broomstick. They wait for a signal of wand sparks and then take off. Finally, they descend to a dilapidated London street filled with houses. Moody hands Harry a slip of paper, asking him to memorize it: “The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London” (54).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place”
Harry, confused, notices number 11 and number 13 Grimmauld Place. Lupin instructs him to think about what he just memorized; 12 Grimmauld Place appears, seemingly pushing the other houses aside. Harry proceeds inside cautiously. Lupin tells him not to touch anything or proceed too far, and everyone speaks quietly. Moody lifts the disillusionment charm. Harry is greeted by Mrs. Weasley, who ushers him to the bedroom where he will be staying; she leaves him, explaining that she must return to the meeting.
Ron and Hermione greet Harry, who is angry, feeling that he has been left in the dark by his friends. Ron and Hermione, sympathetic and upset, apologize to him; they explain that Dumbledore strictly insisted that Harry should not be told too much. Fred and George join them, apparating loudly into the room; they are now of age and passed their Apparition tests. Harry hears what the group has learned by using Fred and George’s extendable ears; the Order of the Phoenix members are preoccupied with guarding something (himself, Harry guesses), monitoring suspected or known Death Eaters, and recruiting members to the Order.
Ginny joins the group in the bedroom. Harry learns what the other Weasley siblings are doing: Bill and Charlie are in the Order, but the family has ostracized Percy after he condemned Dumbledore and the Order and criticized Mr. Weasley. Harry learns that he and Dumbledore have been criticized and derided in the Daily Prophet; the newspaper supports the Ministry’s denial that Voldemort is back and tries to discredit those claiming otherwise.
Mrs. Weasley arrives; the meeting ends, and the young people are invited to dinner. Tonks makes a loud noise and accidentally wakes the portrait of Sirius’s mother, who screams obscenities. Sirius arrives and manages to silence her by pulling curtains across the framed portrait. He greets Harry.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Order of the Phoenix”
Harry notices how bitter his godfather seems; Sirius explains that he is trapped in his old and depressing familial home, unable to offer any real assistance to the Order since both Voldemort and the Ministry—Sirius illegally escaped Azkaban—are likely looking for him. The Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, and Mundungus sit down to eat. Fred and George create chaos when they try to use magic to transport dinner to the table.
Mrs. Weasley disapproves of Mundungus, Sirius explains; he is a criminal, and she resents his leaving Harry unguarded. The group has a disagreement over whether Harry should be told of the latest developments with Voldemort and the Order; Mrs. Weasley, angry, points out that Harry is still young; she believes that he should not be burdened with distressing knowledge that Dumbledore has ruled should be kept from him. Sirius argues that he has a right to know, and Lupin agrees, although more mildly. Eventually, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George are allowed to remain at the table as Harry asks about Voldemort’s movements.
Voldemort, they learn, has been avoiding further murders so as not to draw attention to himself. The Order attempts to raise awareness of Voldemort’s return, which Fudge continues to deny publicly. He is threatened by Dumbledore and believes that Dumbledore is simply trying to destabilize his position as Minister of Magic. The conversation moves to a weapon that Voldemort is trying to acquire, but Mrs. Weasley stops the conversation. Harry says he wants to join the Order; Lupin tells him he cannot because he is underage. He, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George are sent to bed.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black”
George and Fred apparate into Harry and Ron’s room, and they discuss what the weapon might be. They hear Mrs. Weasley on the landing, and the twins apparate back to their room. Harry falls asleep.
The next morning, Harry helps the group clean Sirius’s ancestral home of magical pests, such as an infestation of doxies—small, flying creatures with poisonous, sharp teeth.
Fred and George update Harry on their plans for their joke shop since Harry gave them his Triwizard Tournament winnings.
Mundungus arrives, wanting to store stolen cauldrons at the house; Mrs. Weasley angrily refuses. Harry encounters Kreacher, the Black family house elf, who is outwardly obsequious but mutters extremely insulting and audible comments about the group. Kreacher tries to secret away items that Sirius is disposing of, and he mourns what he perceives as the contamination of the house with wizards and witches who are not of pure blood and the disposal of family heirlooms.
Sirius and Harry look at a tapestry that details the Black family tree. Sirius and some other family members have been removed, and burned spots signify where they once were. They discuss other distant relations of Sirius’s, such as Bellatrix Lestrange, nee Black, whom Harry encountered in Dumbledore’s Pensieve.
Mr. Weasley tells Harry he will take him to his hearing at the Ministry of Magic the following day. Harry is hurt to learn that Dumbledore was at the house when Harry was in bed but did not ask to see him.
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
Harry’s trauma and frustration are made evident in these opening chapters. Dudley taunts Harry about nightmares, which he has overheard Harry having: “Don’t kill Cedric! […] Dad! Help me, Dad! He’s going to kill me!” (14). These nightmarish flashbacks allude to the traumatic events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where Voldemort—a powerful dark wizard in hiding for 14 years—killed Cedric Digory in front of Harry and very nearly killed Harry too. Harry’s sense of loss and isolation is clear: He has to deal with the distressing aftermath of these traumatic events of the previous school year in a space where he feels unsafe and unloved. His anger at Ron and Hermione’s apparent isolation is elucidated: “Had they all forgotten what he had done? Hadn’t it been he who had entered that graveyard and watched Cedric being murdered and been tied to that tombstone and nearly killed…?” (8).
The Dursleys are established as adversarial and cruel antagonists in Harry’s life. In Chapter 1, Harry lies in the garden beneath the window to hear the news, knowing that the Dursleys would, if Harry joined them in the living room, spend the time “shooting nasty questions at him,” “glaring at him,” and “grinding their teeth so loudly that he could not hear the news” (2). Their efforts to make Harry uncomfortable in the home are intentional and blatant. Vernon, in particular, seems to relish opportunities to treat Harry with cruelty; when they discover Harry outside of the window, Vernon strangles him aggressively: “Two large purple hands reached through the open window and closed tightly around his throat” (4). When he hears about the hearing at the Ministry of Magic, Vernon asks, “as a hopeful afterthought,” “Do your lot have the death penalty?” (31). The reader is positioned to dislike Vernon and disapprove of his violence and cruelty toward his nephew, who has been left in his care.
Vernon and Petunia’s cruelty to Harry is made more jarring by their favoritism and adoration of Dudley. When the boys return from the dementor attack, Harry is treated with suspicion and clear dislike: “BOY! COME HERE!” (24). On the other hand, the over-indulged Dudley is fussed over: “‘What did he do to you, Diddy?’ Aunt Petunia said in a quavering voice” (24).
The Durselys treat Harry’s magical powers and the whole wizarding community as disturbing and embarrassing aberrations. Vernon and Petunia “flinched, winced and squawked if they heard words like ‘wizard,’ ‘magic’ or ‘wand’” (34). Wizards are considered by the Durselys to be abnormal and ‘other;’ the Durselys pride themselves on being normal. When Petunia accidentally reveals her knowledge of dementors—“They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban”—she is mortified by this slip: “Aunt Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth as though she had let slip a disgusting swear word” (29).
In the absence of parental figures in the traditional sense, and given his uncle and aunt’s dislike of him, several figures in Harry’s life take on quasi-parental roles for Harry. Mrs. Weasley announces over dinner that Harry is “as good as” her son (83). She clearly loves Harry and prioritizes protecting him from the terrifying world of Voldemort’s dark magic: “He’s only fifteen […]“ (81). Sirius is a loving Godfather to Harry; he and Mrs. Weasley clash over what Harry’s level of involvement in the Order of the Phoenix should be. Mrs. Weasley suggests that Sirius blurs the line between friend and responsible guardian with Harry: “He’s not James, Sirius! […] Sometimes the way you talk about him, it’s as though you think you’ve got your best friend back” (82). Dumbledore is presented as an ambiguous figure in these opening chapters regarding his relationship with Harry. Although he cares for Harry, Harry does not hear from him directly and is clearly offended by his distance.
Political Corruption emerges as an important theme in Fudge’s denial of Voldemort’s return and the collaboration of the Daily Prophet in this denial. Fudge, who has a responsibility to protect the wizarding community as the Minister of Magic, instead jealously guards his position: “He loves being Minister for Magic and he’s managed to convince himself that he’s the clever one and Dumbledore’s simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it” (86). Similarly, the Daily Prophet colludes with Fudge’s efforts to suppress evidence of Voldemort’s return. Instead of investigating Dumbledore’s claims with impartiality, Fudge and the Daily Prophet actively “[try] to discredit him” (87). Similarly, Harry is represented as a “deluded, attention-seeking person”; “they [Fudge and the Daily Prophet] want wizards on the street to think you’re just some stupid boy who’s a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories” (69). The corruption in the Ministry is fueled by Fudge’s reluctance to accept the truth of Voldemort’s return, fueled ultimately by fear and Fudge’s feelings of inadequacy: “[…] Accepting that Voldemort’s back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn’t had to cope with for nearly fourteen years […]. Fudge just can’t bring himself to face it” (86).
Bloodline and Species Discrimination is also established as a prevalent and important theme. Kreacher, who mutters that Hermione is a “Mudblood” and calls Sirius and the Weasleys “blood traitors,” represents the discriminatory views held by pure-blood supremacists and discriminatory factions in the wizarding world (99). These pure-blood supremacists believe that wizards and witches from “pure blood” lines are superior, and they disdain wizards from Muggle-born parents and those who accept, marry, or befriend them. Although Kreacher’s rants are dismissed as the ramblings of a crazed old house elf, his views were likely inherited from his masters, the Blacks, and are undoubtedly shared by more influential members of the wizarding community; Sirius’s mother—in a reflection of her beliefs in life—yells from her portrait that the members of the Order of the Phoenix are “blood traitor[s],” “half-breeds,” “mutants,” and “freaks” (72). Characters like the Weasleys are established as morally upstanding in their angry condemnation of these discriminatory views: “‘Don’t call her a Mudblood!’ said Ron and Ginny together, very angrily” (99).
The climactic conclusion of the book is foreshadowed in these opening chapters. The tapestry contains the name of Bellatrix, a Death Eater who will kill Sirius in the battle at the Ministry of Magic. Furthermore, Sirius alludes to the prophecy of Voldemort seeking “a weapon. Something he didn’t have last time” (88). Voldemort’s efforts to attain the prophesied weapon drive the plot.
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