For the 20th anniversary of “Harry Potter,” I’m looking back at the books and films of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World saga.
The three-year wait between “Goblet of Fire” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”(2003), known among fans as “The Long Summer,” is the last period when the series could be dismissed as just kids’ books. Clocking in at 870 pages, the fifth tome is big enough that some young readers probably had trouble lifting it. But more notable is the adult-leaning thematic content, as J.K. Rowling delves into the flaws of government – particularly public schooling – and the power of the press to influence popular thought.
Although Rowling’s love of school has been apparent from the beginning of the series, she has also peppered in less-enjoyable aspects, from the boring teaching style of Binns to Trelawney’s worthless Divination class to the blatant way Snape favors Slytherins and harasses Gryffindors. Now, in “Order of the Phoenix,” she introduces the most evil character in the saga, new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Dolores Umbridge, who answers directly to Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge.
Many will balk at the notion that anyone other than Voldemort is the most evil character, but my case is that Voldemort is honest about his evil goals, whereas Umbridge hides behind her government position and enjoys wielding her power over teenagers who can’t fight back. Umbridge is not as magically powerful as Voldemort, and that’s the only reason people rank her as less evil. Whereas Voldemort aims to kill Harry, he’s not particularly interested in seeing him suffer; he just needs Harry out of the way. Umbridge literally tortures Harry in detention, making him write “I will not tell lies” with a magic quill that draws blood from his hand. Later, Lee Jordan suffers the same fate.
I find it interesting that Rowling doesn’t present this in particularly dark fashion; when Harry suggests a salve for Lee’s hand, it’s a tossed-aside joke. I wonder if physical punishment of students was more common in Rowlings’ days, because it strikes me that in modern times, Umbridge’s detention methods would cause enough outrage among parents to lead to political upheaval that would ultimately get her sacked, despite her position. (Harry keeps quiet about his detentions, but one would think word of Umbridge’s methods would still get out, via Lee or other students.)
Then there is Umbridge’s psychological torture, such as banning Harry and the Weasley twins from the Gryffindor Quidditch team. On a more timeless note, Umbridge is an aggressively bad teacher, and she’s universally recognized as such by everyone except the Slytherins. Worse than someone who teaches to the test, Umbridge purposely teaches less than what’s needed for the end-of-year Ordinary Wizarding Level exams. As an incredulous Parvati Patil says in Chapter 12: “Are you telling us that the first time we’ll get to do the spells will be during our exams?”
Also timeless is Rowling’s portrayal of the corrupt Ministry of Magic, which — with the help of the Daily Prophet – works hard to convince the public that Voldemort has not returned. That’s not a perfect parallel with modern Western governments, which tend to emphasize villainous threats to be afraid of, namely terrorists and rogue nations. However, “Phoenix’s” government/media collaboration does parallel the way the most serious threats to liberty – such as the debt and the devaluation of the dollar – never come up for mainstream debate or discussion.
Almost certainly, “Phoenix” was foremost of the books law professor Benjamin Barton was thinking of when he wrote that “Rowling may do more for libertarianism than anyone since John Stuart Mill.” And indeed, the mere invention of the rotten Ministry and its deeply flawed school system might be enough to categorize this as a libertarian text. But not content to wallow in the misery, the author offers a breath of fresh air: Rather than staying victims, the students find a workaround. The lack of a decent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher directly leads many Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws to form Dumbledore’s Army, with Harry and Hermione as the instructors.
Meanwhile, Fred and George Weasley drop out of school and immediately find entrepreneurial success with their joke shop. They say they don’t need to graduate from Hogwarts, but rather than setting up a cautionary tale, Rowling shows that the twins are right: They don’t need school. (And later in the series, the main trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione likewise fail to graduate, yet turn out to have full lives.) It’s no wonder that – for all their success – the “Harry Potter” books haven’t found their way into many public-school literature curriculums.
Additionally, this ain’t a brisk book to get through, even for a speed-reader. But “Phoenix” gets value for its page count, as we meet the titular Order, which includes old favorites Sirius, Lupin and Moody, plus the colorful Tonks. With Snape a member of the Order, and Dumbledore as an ephemeral overseer, we get a clear picture of the structure of the fight against Voldemort. (Among villains, the Black family’s crooked house-elf Kreacher is a fun addition, while Lucius Malfoy and the newly introduced Belatrix Lestrange chew scenery as Death Eaters.)
Still, the Order is the old guard; the “Potter” saga is ultimately about Harry’s age group, and it’s wonderful to meet so many new Hogwarts students here. While Rowling’s writing of the Harry-and-Cho not-quite-romance is as giggle-worthy as her Yule Ball material in “Goblet,” my favorite new character is Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw who falls in with Harry’s crowd. She reads the Quibbler upside-down and says everything “vaguely.” (Some critics loathe Rowling’s heavy use of adverbs, but I think she wields the tool wonderfully, particularly when describing a character’s tone of voice.)
I spent much of “Phoenix” irked by Dumbledore, just as Harry is. The Hogwarts headmaster seems unnecessarily distant from Harry, and it bugged me that he didn’t seem to do anything to stop Umbridge’s reign of terror. However, the penultimate chapter, “The Lost Prophecy,” made me forgive the character and the author. It’s essentially a long version of the Obi-Wan-and-Luke scene in “Return of the Jedi,” except that Dumbledore doesn’t make excuses; he admits he was wrong to keep his distance from Harry as a way of protecting him. An info-dump it may be, but I also appreciate how the headmaster explains his reasoning for allowing Harry to live under the cruel roof of the Dursleys. (And in the delicious final pages, the Order finally corrects this error, telling Harry to contact them if he is mistreated by the Dursleys over the summer.)
There is one thing missing from the book, though. In “Goblet,” veratiserum (essentially, truth serum) is introduced, and “Phoenix” starts off with Harry wrongly accused of inventing rogue dementors as an excuse for his out-of-class magic use. Couldn’t the court have given him veratiserum and gotten the truth? Rowling’s writings outside of this book explain that strong minds can overcome veratiserum, and therefore it can’t be used in court, but it would’ve been nice to have that explained here.
“Phoenix” often ranks last or second-to-last on fans’ account of the series, probably because the Umbridge stuff, while resonant, is not particularly enjoyable to read. And while the page count doesn’t mean the book is a slog, it does mean it takes longer to read, and as such, it’s harder to pinpoint an overarching theme. There’s so much stuff in here, from the unlikely coziness of the musty Grimmauld Place to Ron’s travails as a Quidditch keeper to the kids’ epic (and admittedly, somewhat overblown) fight against the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries.
I haven’t even mentioned that Harry’s world is rocked by the notion that his father might have been a bully when he was Harry’s age, or that this book answers the crucial but often brushed-aside question of “Why did Voldemort want to kill Harry in the first place?” Or that it introduces a new head-scratcher: Is Sirius truly dead? Or is he trapped in another realm, behind the veil in the Department of Mysteries? The variety of topics probably hurts “Phoenix” in the rankings, but in terms of delivering page-by-page enjoyment, Rowling is very much on her game with this loaded and pivotal installment.
Movie review: “Order of the Phoenix”
Next book: “Half-Blood Prince”