The Harry Potter Reread has typed “Harry” so many times that it’s starting to mess up from sheer repetition and accidentally type “Haryr” instead. Which just looks hilarious.
We’re about to meet our very first Metapmorphmagus and visit the worse house in all of wizardom. It’s Chapters 3 and 4 of The Order of the Phoenix—The Advance Guard and Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
Index to the reread can be located here! Other Harry Potter and Potter-related pieces can be found under their appropriate tag. And of course, since we know this is a reread, all posts might contain spoilers for the entire series. If you haven’t read all the Potter books, be warned.
Chapter 3—The Advance Guard
Summary
Harry stalks upstairs and writes three identical letters to Sirius, Ron, and Hermione, telling them what happened and that he demands to know when he’s leaving Privet Drive, then waits for Hedwig to return. When she does, he snaps at her and sends her off with the letters, telling her not to return without good long replies. He expects to have them by morning, but three days pass and no word. Vernon tells Harry that he and Dudley and Petunia are going out, and that Harry is not to touch anything in the house and will be locked in his room. Later that night, Harry hears a crash downstairs and his door unlocks itself. He heads downstairs to find nine people crowded into the house, and one of them is the real Professor Moody.
Harry is still wary of this (given his experience last school year with fake Moody) until he hears the voice of Professor Lupin. Standing with him are some new faces who we will later come to know as Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Dodge, Dedalus Diggle, Emmeline Vance, Sturgis Podmore, and Hestia Jones. They’ve come to collect him. Moody is suspicious, so he makes Lupin ask Harry a question only he would know the answer to (the form of his Patronus). Moody then chastises Harry for stowing his wand in his back trouser pocket. It turns out that the Dursleys were lured away from the house by Tonks, who sent them a letter claiming that they’d won a best-kept English suburban lawn competition. They’re waiting for an all-clear to take him away, but not to the Burrow—to a new, undetectable headquarters that they’ve established. Harry tries to ask them questions, but they refuse to talk where people might be listening. This group all volunteered to guard him on the journey back to headquarters because they have to travel via broom; other methods of travel are out for various reasons.
Tonks goes upstairs with Harry to help pack his things. Her father is Muggle-born, and she’s a Metamoprhmagus, meaning she can change her appearance at will. (She changes her hair from violet to pink in Harry’s room.) She’s also an Auror, as is Kingsley; she only qualified a year ago and almost failed Stealth because she’s pretty clumsy. Harry asks if someone can learn to be a Metamorphmagus, and she divines that perhaps he’d like to hide his scar sometimes. She helps him pack (a bit sloppily, but household spells aren’t exactly her thing) and gets his belongings downstairs.
Lupin leaves a note for the Dursleys concerning Harry, and Moody casts a Disillusionment Charm on him so he can’t be seen. They go outside and mount their brooms once they get two distinct signals. Harry has one guard in front of him, behind him, and below him while the rest circle. At first he’s enjoying the flight, but it’s freezing up in the air, and Moody keeps making them change direction and double back to be certain that they’re not being followed. Finally, they touch down. Moody uses Dumbledore’s Put-Outer to turn out all the street lamps, then hands Harry a piece of parchment telling him that the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
Commentary
Three. Whole. Days.
No note like “Hey, we’re coming to get you, we just need some time, hang tight.” Just no word at all and then a group of people break into your house to take you away. On the flip side, I remember that I didn’t care at all when I first read the book because my favorite character was back, and I honestly didn’t think Harry had anything to complain about when Remus Lupin was standing in the foyer. Look, Harry! Someone nice who you trust! Don’t pout so much lil’ guy!
On a side note: the whole “I’m locking you in your room” bit from Vernon always struck me as particularly goofy from any perspective. Mainly because he must know that Harry could potentially magic open the lock on his door, or he wouldn’t tell him not to “steal” food or touch the television. But he decides to lock the door anyway, which is either incredibly neurotic or just comical overkill.
We get a slew of introductions, only a few of which really matter in the long run here. Dedalus Diggle is notable for being the rando in the top hat who greeted Harry at the Leaky Cauldron on his very first trip to Diagon Alley back in the very first book (and also bowed to him in a shop when Harry was even younger). We will later get to know Kingsley and Tonks better, and we meet the real Alastor Moody properly for the first time. I’ve always found his comment about Harry and other wizards blowing off their buttocks with their wands giggle worthy, but also wonderfully real-world adjacent; people who know their way around guns are usually the first people to wince when movie characters stick a pistol down the waistband of their pants for the same reason. It makes perfect sense for Moody to be that guy.
But still, this crew is on a rescue-and-deliver mission, and while I get that Harry’s got a bit of a legend built up around him, I cannot believe that these people stand in the doorway going “Aw yeah, he does look just like James, except for the eyes, yes, ah yes, he has his mother’s eyes,” like, if it’s really this obvious—and it must be because every flipping person who knew the Potters brings it up—then DON’T YOU THINK THAT MAYBE HARRY DOESN’T NEED TO HEAR IT ANYMORE, COULD YOU MAYBE JUST WHISPER BEHIND YOUR HANDS LIKE NORMAL SCHOOL CHILDREN.
For clarification, my understanding is that the reason why they couldn’t Apparate Harry to headquarters (even if he can’t do it himself, Side-Along Apparition could have still worked out) is because the Fidelius Charm placed on Number Twelve Grimmauld Place prevents it—and they don’t want to tell Harry where the headquarters are until he’s close to it for good reason.
Tonks is pretty adorable from the get-go and has the added bonus of being able to change her appearance at will, which is basically a dream that everyone has in their life at some time or another. She makes mention of both her parents in this chapter, who we will later find out are Ted Tonks and Andromeda… maiden name Black. Andromeda’s sisters are Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy. Needless to say, Tonk’s mother is the black sheep of her family—making her Sirius’ favorite cousin. Doesn’t stop Tonks from hating the first name her mother bequeathed her, Nymphadora. When I first read these books, I didn’t really get what her issue with the name was, but this time around I can’t blame her for loathing it; even the nicknames that you could draw from it don’t suit her in the slightest. Now I’m thinking of little Tonks at school, so pleased that the teachers tend not to use first names, but so aggravated that they keep called her “Miss Tonks.” The cutest.
I love that when Harry comes back downstairs, pretty much all the other members of the guard are poking at the Muggle kitchen oddities, while Remus is responsibly writing a letter on Harry’s whereabouts. <3 Always his lot in life, being one of the few rational wizards on the scene. Then we get our first proper look at/explanation of a Disillusionment Charm, which has the delightful descriptor of creating the sensation that a egg has been cracked over your head and raw yolk is running down. Anyone ever play that slumber party game when they were kids with the list of weird sensations: spider’s crawling up your back, getting bitten, all that stuff? The “crack and egg on your head” part was always the best, in my opinion. Now, Disillusionment Charms can be used to create Invisibility Cloaks, just not ones as god as Harry’s sooper special one. Eventually the charm wears off of those. Also, if wizards want to keep creatures like hippogriffs, they have to cast Disillusionment Charms on them to keep them invisible to Muggles. I feel like that is bound to cause more problems than it mitigates, though….
Now, this scene flying to Grimmauld Place is fairly anti-climatic from a reading standpoint. There’s potential, but nothing happens to them. Moody is paranoid, yet the worst that occurs is everyone freezing their bums off. But when you’re capable of juxtaposing it with what’s coming in the seventh book, when they leave Privet Drive the same way… no no no no. This is intentionally not-all-that horrific because it makes you lower your guard a little the next time, or at the very least makes you realize how different things are only two years on. The next time a trip like this takes place, people are going to die. It makes this blessedly uneventful journey something to cling onto.
Chapter 4—Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place
Summary
Harry is directed to think about the address on the note, and it pops up in front of him. (This is an example of how the Fidelius Charm works in realtime.) They tell him not to step too far inside once he enters the house. Moody undoes the Disillusionment Charm, then Molly Weasley greets him and tells him he might have to wait a bit for dinner—there’s a meeting for only the adults in the house, Order members. She leads Harry upstairs to Ron and Hermione; the whole place is dingy and near-derelict, and it looks as though it’s a home that belonged to dark wizards, lots of snake paraphernalia and house-elf heads mounted on the walls. When Harry gets to Ron and Hermione, his mood quickly turns sour. He’s not interested in their excuses about Dumbledore forcing them to keep silent. Eventually he goes off on them, bringing Hermione to tears.
He asks what the Order of the Phoenix is and they explains that it was a secret group started by Dumbledore the last time Voldemort came to power, currently made up of the people who fought against him last time. They haven’t been allowed to the meetings, but they used Fred and George’s Extendable Ears invention to listen in on them before Molly found out about the Ears and flipped. They know that certain members are tailing Death Eaters, and others are recruiting to the cause. And of course, some of them were keeping an eye on Harry. Ron and Hermione have been tasked with decontaminating the house because it’s so old and infested. Fred and George Apparate into the room (proving that they’ve passed their tests), and suggest that Harry chill out and use some Extendable Ears to listen to the conversation downstairs. Ginny comes in and informs them that it won’t work because their mother put an Imperturbable Charm on it, which is too bad because Snape is downstairs giving a very important report. They tell Harry that Bill is part of the Order and took an office job with Gringotts to be closer—one of the perks of that switch is that he seems to be hanging out with Fleur Delacour an awful lot, who got a job at the bank to improve her English. Charlie is also working for the Order from Romania.
Harry asks about Percy and everyone goes quiet. He’s warned not to mention him in front of Molly and Arthur. Apparently Percy got promoted to Junior Assistant of the Minister right after school term—and this was following an inquiry calling his competence into question for not realizing that something was off about Crouch when he’d been working for him last year. When he came to tell the family about it, Arthur called the move into question; it was strange for someone so young to get the position anyway, and apparently Fudge has been making it clear that anyone who supports Dumbledore should clear out of the Ministry. Because Fudge has never thought fondly of Arthur, Mr. Weasley suggests that Percy got this new job because Fudge intends for Percy to inform on the family. They had a massive falling out and Percy now lives in London. Molly tried to make reconciliations, but he slammed the door in his mother’s face. Apparently Percy thinks that Harry is a liar, and has been taking the Daily Prophet’s teachings to heart.
It turns out that Harry was making a mistake in not checking the paper past the front page. Though the Prophet has had no coverage of Voldemort’s return, they have been subtly smearing Harry, bringing up his name in reference to things that are hard to believe or out of proportion. Hermione is sure that it’s an edict from Fudge, trying to discredit him and the paper is building on the articles that Rita Skeeter wrote last year. Hermione says they didn’t report on the dementor attack, which they should have, and she suspects that they’re waiting to talk about the incident when if Harry gets expelled. Mrs. Weasley comes up and the twins vanish. She tells them they can all come down for dinner now because the meeting’s over. She also mentions someone called Kreacher, and when Harry asks about him, Ron explains that he’s a house-elf in this place and a crazy one at that. Hermione scolds him for it, saying Dumbledore agreed that they should be kind to him, but Ron is disturbed by the elf—who, granted, eventually wants his head mounted up on that wall like his mother, in the hallway.
The Order members who aren’t eating there file quietly out of the house, but Tonks knocks over an umbrella stand as they’re sealing the place up, which awakens a portrait of an older woman. She screams at them about being scum and half-breeds and filth who are defiling her home. No one can seem to silence her until Sirius bounds down the hall and gets the portrait curtains shut with Lupin’s help (not before she starts bellowing at him for being a traitor). Sirius turns to Harry and tells his godson that he’s just met his mother.
Commentary
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place is located in the Borough of Islington, London. An ancestor of Sirius’ (not his mother) magically “persuaded” the Muggle occupants out, then took the house and put appropriate wizarding protections on it. The reason why the house was passed on to Sirius, even though his mother had disowned him, is a magical spin on English laws dealing with Entailed Estate. Basically, inheritance passes to the designated heir regardless of legal action or disinheritance. The only way you can break an entail is if no living descendant meets the conditions set down in the entail. This is why Sirius received a house he didn’t want, but following his death, he was capable of leaving it to Harry—there were no more members of his immediate family to receive it.
Sirius’ father and brother (Orion and Regulus Black) both died in 1979. His mother, Walburga, died in 1985, though it’s unclear how or why; she would have only been about sixty years old. This does mean that she died while Sirius was in Azkaban, which leaves me to wonder whether or not he was informed of it when it happened. If not, Dumbledore likely told Sirius via their correspondence in Harry’s fourth year: “Hey, it’s great to have you back on the team. P.S. Your mom is dead and her house is yours now.”
This does mean that Walburga lived out her last six years alone at Grimmauld Place with only Kreacher for company, and we can presume that the behavior of her portrait is indicative of what she was like toward the end of her life. This is not to say the Walburga Black wasn’t completely odious before those final years (we’ll receive pretty clear evidence that she was), but the unchecked torrential fury directed at anyone who disturbs the painting seems like a substantial mental deterioration. Her death meant that Kreacher was left alone in that house for a decade, which we will see the effects of in upcoming chapters. In other news, Walburga did not become a Black by taking her husband’s name; they were second cousins, both already named Black, which is just extra creepy-making.
So, Harry heads upstairs to talk to his friends, then realizes that he kind of needs to unload on them and make it clear that he’s pissed. And with that, we get the first appearance of what fandom calls CAPSLOCK HARRY, which is what happens whenever Harry decides to scream at people for a length of time. He gets a lot of flack for this as a character, which I don’t think is warranted. No, what he says isn’t nice, but you know what? It’s healthy. Harry is accustomed to hiding his thoughts and feelings from just about everyone because years of abuse have instilled that behavior in him. Even when he’s pushing back against the Dursleys, it comes in the form of sarcasm and blasé-ness. He never unloads. And ranting to his friends is a lot better for him than pointing a wand at his cousin’s throat. Ron and Hermione, being good friends, know that because the explosion isn’t unwarranted, the best they can do is apologize and try to make him feel welcome and included again.
They include Harry by telling them everything they know, which isn’t much at all. The twins and Ginny don’t really know much either, and it’s weighing on everyone. It makes sense that the adults aren’t keen to have a bunch of kids privy to their secret war plans, but it’s hardly surprising that this particular group of kids aren’t happy to be idle… especially considering what’s just gone down with Percy.
There’s so much we don’t see where Percy is concerned, but it takes a special brand of deluded to do what that boy does. Ambition driving you is one thing, but not realizing that your promotion is circumspect when you’ve just been subject to an inquiry at work over a lack of competence involving your superior? Given that specific charge, how would Percy ever imagine that his name would come up as a good candidate to assist the Minister of Magic? Of course, it’s entirely possible that Arthur’s accusations have already crossed his mind, and hearing his father give voice to them made him snap. It’s not a far stretch to guess that Percy has wanted to say all the things he finally lets loose on Arthur for years.
But it’s extremely relevant that one of the earliest effects of this renewed war sees a splinter in the family that very much defines the term family for the entire series. Because wars do that. They break families, they turn friends against one another. There are dangerous, wide-sweeping effects in war as well, but it’s easy to forget the smaller trespasses.
You knew that Harry throwing away the newspaper without reading it through was going to turn out to be a bad idea. We’re getting the full force of just how problematic it is for the wizarding world to be so insular. There is one major newspaper for the UK’s magical community. That newspaper is heavily influenced by the government, to the point where they will gladly take directives from the Minister of Magic. In the previous book, it was all about breaking it to us gently. By this book, there’s no question: the system has been broken for a long time, and this war is only going to make that more obvious.
But one thing I love about this book is seeing Ginny really come into her own as a character. She’s comfortable now and far less shy, and she’s showing every sign of spending too much time with the twins. Only difference is that she’s been smart enough to avoid getting their reputation. After flicking dung bombs at the door where the Order meeting is taking place (to test it for the Imperturbable Charm), her mother asks who left so many of them there:
“Crookshanks,” said Ginny unblushingly. “He loves playing with them.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Weasley. “I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don’t forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please….”
Give Ginny Weasley her own spy show. No one will ever suspect because she’s too unflappable. It should be called I Can Get Away With Anything.
Emmet Asher-Perrin remembers how her jaw dropped when Sirius told Harry he’d just met his mother. You can bug her on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
In further defense of capslock Harry, he unloads on the people he feels sure won’t ditch him if he gets mad at them. It sucks for Ron and Hermione, and Hermione’s right to call him on it, but it’s sort of heartbreaking that he never does any of the usual teenager “I hate you” screaming at the Weasley parents or Sirius, because he’s not sure enough of his relationship with them to take that risk.
To add on to last week’s comments about how messed up it is that they left Harry alone to stew all summer after witnessing Cedric’s death and Voldemort’s return – let’s now add in the fact that they all knew the newspaper was slandering him, and they thought he was reading it. So not only is he being ignored by his friends after a traumatic event, he’s reading in the paper every day about how he’s a liar and delusional. And no one is offering Harry any reassurance or support.
I can see Ron and Hermione being too intimidated by Dumbledore to do anything – but I can’t see Molly standing idly by.
A lot of the silence imposed on everyone where Harry is concerned sounds to me like Moody’s doing. He’s most likely in charge of security and his utter paranoia is probably causing much of this.
I guess the Black house has to pass through the male line. Otherwise, Narcissa and/or Bellatrix should have been in line to inherit, shouldn’t they?
Percy is such a middle child.
My first thought at the Disillusionment Charm was totally ‘criss cross applesauce’ ;)
In a way, it kind of bothers me that Ginny is such a bald faced liar in this scene, but at least she uses her powers for good. ;)
I wonder what Walburga thought about her son’s imprisonment. Ironically, she possibly would have been pleased that he was a big supposed Death Eater? I guess it’s a good thing she died before the truth was out…
@2. Quietus
Well, she was a bit distracted, but yes, it seems odd.
When the twins are apparating all over the place and showing off in these chapters, I’m always reminded of them making fun of Percy for doing exactly the same in book 4.
I loved the scene in the TOofP film where the Advanced Gaurd accompanies Harry to 12 Grimmauld Place. Moody’s low recliner seat was classic.
From this book through the end of the series, Ginny is my favorite character. I would love to have read a few chapters in the last book from her POV when she, Luna & Neville were leading the resistence at Hogwarts before the final battle.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
wizards blowing off their buttocks
The only people I know who’ve had (nearly bad) accidents with handguns were experienced at handling them. One managed to blow the tip of his pinky off. We still, years later, make merciless fun of him for it. Another (no injuries this time) was cleaning his .45, pulled the slide back to make sure it was unloaded, and the slide slipped because his hands were covered with gun oil. The .45 went off, the Duke (a great dane) took off upstairs at warp 9, and we all had to change our underwear.
If I go off on how the wizarding world especially Moody (who must have a super special case by now) is completely unaware of PTSD every time I see it here I’ll be CAPSLOCK WIREDOG. Pretty much every adult through to the end of the book, where Dumbledore admits just how, and how much, he messed up… And then in HBP he makes the exact same mistake.
Hooray new Harry Potter re-read really makes the end of my ThursFriday so much better. There is a lot of teenage angst in this book, but hell they are 15, I would have flipped my lid much sooner than Harry with all the craziness he has had to deal with. Ron and Hermoine seemed to expect it though and it isnt until Harry yells at them later, because of their constant bickering, that they finally say, hey we get it your pissed off, but we’re on your side you don’t need to freak out on us so much.
Percy is such a fracking prat, I never thought he would come back around. When Deathly Hallows came out my wife and I were devouring it and after an all day reading sesh she let out a giant cheer and kept telling me I knew it, I knew it. She reads much faster than me and wouldnt tell me what happened, but it was when Percy finally comes through the portrait hole during the final battle at Hogwarts. My wife is a hug Percy fan and even wrote some epic fan fic about him. I’m glad he came through in the end but it shouldnt have taken him that long to figure it out and come back to the right side. Or maybe he figured it out pretty quickly and realized how much danger he and everyone else was in and it just had to pick his spot.
The biggest sin of this book is that most of the secrets that Harry is not being told, ostensibly because he is a security risk, are things Voldermort already knows. (I expect I will get all capslocky about this when it comes up.)
Good recap. I sympathize with CAPSLOCK HARRY, I would have lost it earlier and more often, but it does get tiresome to read.
As for the Disillusionment Charm, I was under the impression that it did not make you invisible, but rather provided a chameleon type effect to make it more difficult to spot you. Harry latter calls out that Dumbledore could cast a Disillusionment Charm so powerful that he became invisible, but I got the impression that this was somewhat rare for individual wizards to accomplish. I don’t doubt that this charm is the basis for invisibility cloaks, but maybe involves a bit more than a single wizard casting the charm to help make the cloak?
I also found it kind of amusing that they try to keep so much from Harry, when he is the absolute center of what’s going on. Talk about PTSD, this can’t help. I know what Dumbledore’s reason for this is, but everyone else (especially Molly), seem to be of the ‘You’re too young and can’t possibly cope with this’ mindset, which, wow- I think it is a bit too late for that really.
Ah, Book 5. Otherwise known in the fanfic community as ‘Harry Potter and the Best Place For A Delusional Empowerment Story. Also ‘Harry Potter and the Stereotypically Extreme Puberty Hormones’. It’s a common opinion among fanfic writers that his lousy attitude in this book is less PTSD and more PTSD compounding puberty. He’s at his ‘rebelious teen’ phase. The general opinion is Rowling overshot her mark, but some agree the PTSD makes it almost believable… almost. Otherwise it’s a ridiculously exagerated rebelion phase.
Also, this book is were some of the hat for Molly Weasley comes from, and not all of it is because she’s being so overbearingly motherly. Fred and George invented a LISTENING DEVICE– surely something a semi-secret society whose current objectives are sure to include information gathering, which involves eavesdropping– and she reams them for it! By rights, Fred and George shold have rose to become the Order’s Q-branch. instead, thier mother’s attitude pushes them to open a joke shop (admittedly, thier dream) and it takes a year for them to even begin developing practical protective items (Shield Hats, etc) that, due to thier commercial availability, THE ENEMY ends up having access to (Darkness Powder)!
(gasp, wheeze)
Sorr, had a Leigh-headesk moment.
One wonders how Percy isn’t a Slytherin. I mean, look at all that ambition! Did he ask the hat for Gryffindor like Harry did?
@Lisamarie, #4: “criss-cross, applesauce”? If you mean, why is it a DIS-illusionment Charm when it sounds like a don’t-look-at-me illusion, then I wondered that too.
But it allows Moody to say to Harry, “I have to Disillusion you.” Which allows us to nod knowingly and mutter, “Foreshadowing! There’s going to be a lot of disillusioning going on in the next few years.”
Oh Ginny. You were so much fun in this book and the next, so I was really annoyed that you never got to shine in the final book. (I may have understood the reasons for it, but I don’t have to like it.)
If dungbombs are the only thing that teenage Ginny lies to her mother about in the next few years, Molly may consider herself lucky. And I nodded ruefully when Molly failed to make the dirty-hands connection.
But I had to wonder, were all those dungbombs really necessary? Couldn’t something cleaner, and less of it, be used to test the charm on the door?
All that magical housecleaning may be necessary as a defense against both curses and germs, but maybe Ginny’s getting tired of cleaning. A few strategically placed bits of filth might have relieved her feelings.
Ginny – I’m hard pressed to call her lying in the service of good (@@.-@ however tongue in cheek you may have been). I also doubt that she gets away with it because of any special skill, so much as her mother is blind as to her faults. Had she been a boy, Molly would have noticed and cared.
Percy – to an extent, he’s frustrated with his family. They expect so much from him (look at Bill and Charlie and how much Percy has felt obligated to accomplish and how much Ron wishes he could), he takes pride in his work, and rather than support him in his promotion, they think it’s a lie. He’s just never good enough.
ND with a wand or gun – following up on @8, every gun owner has had a ND or will have one. All you can do is mitigate the risk. If you only ever point at what you are willing to destroy, finger on trigger when ready to shoot, etc. the impact of that eventual ND should be less than if you are reckless.
Traveling – how does nobody in London not notice someone on a broom. Seriously, how many million people and not a one of them is looking up? I get that they couldn’t (didn’t want to) Apparate directly there, but why not a few blocks away? Walking 1000 feet is surely less of a danger than flying for miles. Also, I thought the ministry couldn’t distinguish magic, and would a secret commando raid be unknown to them, suggesting Harry is still magiking? And why would Vernon think Harry would magic? He heard the message about the hearing, etc. He doesn’t like Harry and thinks him scruffy, but he doesn’t really think him a Brutus boy.
My head hurts.
@14, I totally agree about Percy. It’s pretty clear that Percy and Ron have more in common than they would like to admit. Percy would have started Hogwarts while Bill and Charlie were there and lived under their shadow. His behavior from PS/SS through PoA is always that of an middle child trying to prove himself. He parades his Prefect and Head Boy badges around and constantly drives himself to the academic standards of Bill. After PoA, Percy is always trying to work his job into the conversation. He just wants to be validated and taken seriously by his family, just like Ron.
Both Percy and Ron let their insecurities delude them and chose to walk out on their loved ones. The difference is that Percy’s delusions are entirely of his own making (Ron’s insecurities were always there but made exponentially worse by the Horcrux) and Percy took much, much longer to overcome his delusion. I’d actually love to get some Percy-centric info on Pottermore regarding his actions in DH. He’s not stupid. He worked closely with the minister and must have realized the takeover when it happened…but it still took him almost a year to break free and return to the Weasleys. What was he doing? Why did it take so long?
Chapter 3 infuriates me.
So, Moody is concerned that a DE could be impersonating Harry. When would that switch have occurred? When Harry was attacked by dementors. Yet, Remus Lupin, DADA EXPERT, says, “What’s your Patronus” AS IF the DE standing there when the dementors attacked Harru wouldn’t have noticed.
FAIL LUPIN
Also, if they can’t use magic means like Apparition to travel because of the Trace, WHY EXACTLY can Tonks use magic to pack?
FAIL JK
I don’t buy the Fidelus Charm excuse, because DD uses it to get CLOSE to where Slughorn lives in HBP. There isn’t any reason they couldn’t travel to Grimmauld Place via Apparition, THEN show him the note.
In re: Wand Safety
My late father, who was an Army Vet and a police officer, blew a whole in his and my mother’s waterbed while cleaning a shotgun.
Of course, my late father is that way because while having no ability to swin, he decided to go into a treacherous and dangerous river in pursuit of a boat that had come loose of it’s moorings.
CAPSLOCK! Just wanted to say it.
Personally, weapons are not something I would have anywhere close to me, so it is difficult for me to understand why anyone would clean a weapon in a bedroom of all places or place one in a belt. It causes chills down my spine just to think of the ramifications.
Wands can be just as leathel in the Magical World, so putting a wand in a back pocket wouldn’t be wise. Aside from doing physical damage it could be easily lost or stolen. Not sure where it should be stored, but the back pocket is a poor choice. Perhaps a side holster would work better. Hmmmmm.
There are incongruities in the story in these chapters, as outlined in the other comments, especially regarding the use of magic anywhere near Harry, since he could be accused of using magic all over the place! The ministry is very anti-Harry, so it is not as if they had been informed of Harry’s travel plans.
In the seventh book the “put-outer” was referred to as a “deluminator”, which makes more sense. “Put-outer” just sounds… well, um… dumb.
I think Molly was just too flustered over the meetings and tension to put much stock into what Ginny was saying. And Percy really is the ultimate “middle” child. Always something to prove, even if he doesn’t realize he is only proving it to himself. After all, the Twins couldn’t care less.
I agree with @12 that the Twins should have been used for recognisance and brought into the order. I’ve never discounted the wiseness and abilities of many children and adolescents. I do not make it a habit to judge based on age, whether very young or very old. When I first read the book I couldn’t understand why the Twins, Harry, Ron and Hermione weren’t brought into the order simply based on prior experience! Harry faced down Voldermort and he isn’t privy to any of the order’s information? Makes NO sense to me.
IME the two worst people with handling firearms are people who are distainful of them and do not treat them with the respect and caution they deserve, or people who have become too familiar with them and have forgotten to treat them with the respect and caution they deserve. Of the three negligent discharges described in this thread two of them clearly violated Rule #3 (keep the gun unloaded until ready to use). The third was probably violating #1 or #2 (point in a safe direction/ keep your finger off the trigger).
In all of the HP books I think this is the only instance where a character mentions or points out wands are actually incredibly dangerous tools in and of themselves. Moody is the only character I recall who mentions that wands should be stored and handled safely because, dang-it, if you move wrong or think the wrong thought at the wrong time they can hurt or kill someone. I’m not sure if JKR’s intent with this scene is to try and make a point about Moody being overly paranoid (“Haha, that Alastar, always so worried about such little things!”) or as an example of how lacksadasical the wizarding world is about pretty much everything that they are not pants-soilingly terrified of (“we have no problem giving children lethal weapons!”).
You know, I think JK Rowling missed (it may have been intentional) an opportunity in making Sirius’ place number 12, instead of number 13. She could have said all muggle buildings actually have a number 13, or 13th floor, but muggles can’t see it because that’s where wizards live…
It was a little later in this book where I realized that Fred and George are absolutely brilliant experimental wizards. I was fully expecting them to come up with all manner of goodies for the upcoming conflict.
I also figured that Percy would eventually redeem himself. I expected him to die doing it, though. That expectation really ramped up just before DH when word went around that a Weasley was going to die. He seemed like the perfect choice: He does something heroic, gets killed doing it, and we can share in the family’s grief without being too upset ourselves.
The dangerous nature of wands is touched on in GoF, during the Weighing of the Wands when Harry tries to hurriedly polish his wand like Cedric had, and it emits sparks.
@@@@@ 21 – Bear in mind JKR was writing this from a British perspective, and British buildings (when they go up that high, which is not massively common) do have thirteenth floors, flats are numbered 13, houses are numbered 13 etc.
There’s never really been a culture in Britain of renumbering to avoid 13 that I’m aware of; I’ve only ever seen it in US culture (and even there not as often as TV would lead me to believe I should see it). We do our superstitions differently here (the number of fanfics where I’ve seen a supposedly British person say “third time’s the charm” and think it’s witty because hey charms beggars belief; we don’t say that, we say “third time lucky”). Black cats are lucky.
When I imagine myself in the wizarding world, I’ve got an overrobe on. If it’s long sleeved, I have a wand spot in the sleeve. Otherwise, I have a pocket just inside the front.
I always loved Tonks’ blasé attitude: “who do you know that’s lost a buttock?”
Like it really is just Alastor being paranoid.
I think it’s mostly just Molly that doesn’t want the children in the Order. She’s a protector, and I think that she believes keeping them in the dark will keep them safe. Sirius and Lupin especially are able to recognize the ability of the young wizards, because they used to be capable and inventive young wizards.
I bet if the twins asked Dumbledore to join the the Order, he’d say yes.
Ginny lying to Molly here still makes me laugh. It’s not harmful, and it’s this kind of earnest demeanor that makes her a good leader for the DA in Book 7.
I think Percy was in Griffindor because that Hat is a little bit omniscient or something. Percy had the ambition for Slytherin, but nothing else. The Hat knew his true self and potential, just like it knew Neville and Hermione and Luna. It’s a thinking cap, you know.
@20 Rule #1 of firearms is “the gun is always loaded, no exceptions”.
@24. Really? I always thought the whole unlucky 13 thing was a fairly universally applied superstition in Western Europe and North America.
I did find this article about number 12 Downing Street, which used to be number 13, and how houses in Britain sell for less if they are number 13, but I didn’t find anything about skipping the whole 13th floor being as popular in the UK as it is here in the US (where Otis elevator says about 85% of elevators skip the number.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061317/Live-Number-13-Unlucky-Your-house-worth-6-500-neighbours.html
Anyway, thanks for pointing that out. I learned something new. Thanks!
@Aeryl – I always assumed the Lupin was really just asking Harry the question to appease Moody, who didn’t register that it wasn’t a particularly useful question, so it was more of a fail of Alastor’s part. I’d presume that Remus is thinking “pfft, like I wouldn’t know if a Death Eater had swapped out Harry.” He may be the most cautious of all the Marauders, but that doesn’t actually mean much in the long run…
@scm of 2814 – I agree that the twins would have been a boone to the war effort, but considering that Molly Weasley’s greatest fear is losing members of her family in the war, it’s hardly surprising that she was happy to direct them elsewhere.
@Jobi-Wan – Your wife writing Percy fanfic and waiting for his redemption is the best thing I’ve heard all week. Adorable.
@DemetriosX – You know, I always figured she couldn’t really kill Percy because he wasn’t likeable enough. If he had died after redeeming himself it would have been tragic definitely, but the emotional impact wouldn’t have been quite as high.
Is that elevator skipping 13 a residential thing? Building where I work (along with the others in our little office park) all have 13s. Tallest building I’ve ever lived in was only 9 or 10 stories.
I completely understood where Harry was coming from with CAPSLOCK Harry thing. From what I remember of being a teenager, it alwasy sucked when adults still treated you as a child. Then we have Harry who apart from having all the teenager this going on, has also had to suffer through quite a lot during his life. After all, Voldemort did not spare him when he was a child and they all have to know that Harry would be very central to the whole fight against Voldemort so keeping him in the dark is really not the smartest thing they could have done… I have to admit I understand where they are coming from but it was not the right thing to do… just my two cents. Loving the re-read.
Nobody seems to have mentioned yet that Dumbledore has a perfectly good reason to keep Harry in the dark at this point. He already suspects that Harry has a mental link to Voldemort, and he doesn’t want Voldemort to find out too much through it. This is why he avoids meeting Harry in person ALL YEAR (he also doesn’t want to have to deliver a magical smackdown on possessed!Harry for obvious reasons), and why he arranges for Harry to learn Occlumency. Unfortunately he does rather misjudge the influence of Severus and Harry’s mutual hatred when choosing a teacher…
Keeping the rest of the kids out, then, serves two purposes. Firstly, it gives Harry someone to be miserable about it with and contains the information because the more people who know a secret etc. etc. and because he knows that Hermione and Ron would tell Harry everything anyway. He probably also suspects that Fred and George would too, and I think he’d be right about that. Secondly, it keeps him on Molly’s good side, which I don’t know about you but I’d prefer to be. If nothing else it helps keep the Order’s domestic affairs in order.
It’s a shame though that Molly seems to be largely confined to housekeeping and childminding duties. She’s a highly capable witch in her own right but doesn’t really do much for the Order that we ever see. Is it super-secret? Is it just that she doesn’t want to? Is it considered unwise because she’s always been a homemaker so people seeing her out and about would potentially be suspicious? Is there something more sexist going on?
Hmm, I wonder if there’s any fanfic of Molly Weasley: Agent of the Order of the Phoenix.
@31: Molly is guarding the prophecy. In the chapter, where Sirius appears in Hogwarts in the fireplace, he says to Harry, that Molly is on duty.
@22 und @28: I think killing off Percy simply wouldn’t have fit. She can’t kill off every nasty/ambigous character, who sort of redeems himself. She did so with Snape, which was a big story at the end of book 7. Having Percy basically have the same story would be totally superflous, plot-wise. On the other hand, Percy witnessing his brother’s death and realizing, how much time he wasted in cutting ties with his family, does have an impact.
@31, Emphatically NO. Dumbledore has no reason to keep Harry in the dark as much as Harry was, because Voldemort already knows there is a prophecy, and he already knows where it is kept. Voldemort might not know that the Order is guarding it, but he finds out (without getting it from Harry) when someone places the Imperius curse on Sturgis Podmore –which was August 31, before school started!
Sirius’ life could have been saved by simply telling Harry (at any time, but certainly after the snake attack on Arthur):
1. There is a prophecy about Voldemort.
2. It’s hidden in the Ministry.
3. At the end of that corridor you’ve been dreaming about
4. It’s being guarded by the Order.
5. You’re dreaming about it because Voldemort is dreaming about it, that’s why you need occlumency lessons.
6. Voldemort can’t go there himself.
7. He might trick you into going there.
8. He might even fake another attack to make you think you have to go there.
9. Don’t allow yourself to be excited by the dream, and don’t think about that room. Dumbledore knows what is there and will tell you when you are ready and when it is safe (when you can block Voldemort from your mind). Your excitement is a symptom that Voldemort is planting ideas in your mind.
10. Really really don’t go there. If you have another vision, tell anyone else in the Order, but don’t go there yourself.
11. By the way, be sure to tell all of this to Ron, Hermione and Ginny, because they are much more sensible than you and will stop you from going if you take it into your head to go anyway.
(None of the above gives away anything Voldy doesn’t already know. It’s not a quetion of security. It’s a question of JKR wanting to keep the audience in the dark, and having to make all the adults idiots to do so.
@34, Exactly, given that Dumbledore will admit that he screwed up royally. His keeping the truth from Harry was more about his feeling that Harry wasn’t ready to know the reason Voldemort went after him.
The only thing I can think of is that Voldemort doesn’t know that they know that Voldemort knows…? Either about the prophecy, or Harry’s mind connection…but even that is probably debateable, especially once they start teaching Harry Occulmency.
I have to admit, overall, I always had the same feeling. OotP is my least favorite of all the books – not because of CAPSLOCK HARRY, or Umbridge…but because I remember I felt that the stuff with the Prophecy was all kind of a let down and didn’t really bring that much new to the table (aside from some of the backstory about why Voldemort targeted Harry and the twist that Neville could have been in his place). It just seemed kind of anticlimactic, and I wasn’t even sure that preventing Voldemort from hearing it would even have mattered that much (aside from keeping him preoccupied with it so he’s not doing other stuff). Now, as I re-read it, I might be able to put the pieces together, but while of course the full prophecy might have helped Voldemort THEN, I don’t see how much it would have helped him NOW.
@36, I don’t see that he was looking for it to help him, more to just teach him, so he could learn from his mistake.
Chapter 4 not only introduces the bolder, feistier Ginny but also the elements upon which she and Harry build their later relationship. Upon entering the room she teases just him like the twins did, but with gentler sarcasm. Hermione is tearful and slightly intimidated by CAPSLOCK!Harry, whereas Ginny is unfazed. When Harry angrily wishes that he wasn’t The Boy Who Lived, Hermione tries to rationalize and Ron/Fred/George urge him to buck up and move on; Ginny, who has recognized this aspect of Harry’s psyche since CoS (chapter 4), is the only one to express simple empathy. Also notable is that his dark mood subsides not long after her entry to the scene.
Gone is the schoolgirl crush; in this chapter, JKR resets the relationship to develop it on a firmer basis. All these elements of Ginny’s interactions with Harry—edgy and sarcastic humor, unflappability, genuine intuition for his emotional state, and a calming influence—recur in various combinations over multiple episodes through the remainder of the book (notably chapters 23, 29, and 33). Even those who don’t like the pairing must admit that, after nearly 700 pages of development in OotP, it is well on its way to becoming canon by the time HBP opens.