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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is the longest of the six books. 800+ pages. I’m just going to run quickly through it. (Otherwise I’ll never get to Book 6 before Saturday).

Once more, we start out with an alienated Harry. And it doesn’t get any better. I think Dumbledore makes a big mistake not involving Harry right from the beginning but waiting until he’s in danger.

Who sent Aunt Petunia that Howler? She obviously knows more about the wizarding world than we originally thought. Was she a squib?

Nymphadora Tonks wanders onto the Potter stage. We find out a couple chapters later that she’s related to Sirus Black (And that he’s related to the Weasleys – I wonder if Tonks is related to the Weasleys? Sirius says all pure-blood wizards are related – does that mean he’s related to Harry? Not necessarily. It isn’t clear how far back(generations) your relatives have to be before you are considered a “pure-blood”. )

And the infamous “underage magic” trial is ahead of us.

Don’t forget that Harry is only 15 when this book starts. He’s feeling persecuted AND he’s suffering from the beginnings of teenager angst. Not a good combination. Throw in Sirius Black, who’s been cooped up in that house for months… and good things are certainly not going to happen.

Putting Harry on trial in front of the Wizengamot for underage magic usage. Dumbledore wasn’t impressed. The Ministry of Magic must be falling apart.

We first meet Umbridge (Or do we? I wonder if she was one of the witches at the trials Harry saw in Dumbledore’s pensieve?)

Harry manages to not feel too put out over not getting to be a Prefect. A little bit of maturity. One wonders why Draco Malfoy got to be one. That’s a bad idea…

We finally meet Luna Lovegood – of the dirty blonde hair, light eyebrows, and bulging eyes (Hmmm… crossover territory – maybe Buffy is related to Luna? Has that ever been done?). Luna doesn’t seem to care what everyone thinks about her… but is very defensive of her father and his magazine (The Quibbler).

Why can Luna see those horse things (We haven’t gotten the name for them yet)? Who does she know who died (I think her mother but I haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet) ? As soon as we know what it takes to see one we know why Harry can.

Yikes… Umbridge as the new D.A.D.A. professor.

Harry! Temper! Getting banned from Quidditch for life? Not sure how Umbridge managed that…

So… Ron (Keeper) and Ginny (Seeker) both make the Quidditch team…

Ginny’s personality is really developing now that we’re into Book 5. Luna is still a little flaky. But Neville seems to be coming along.

I don’t recall any fics that actually have the info about getting into St. Mungo’s correct (if at all)

The Room of Requirement that Harry and Co. are using for “Dumbledore’s Army” is interesting. But different….

So… anyone think Umbridge fired Trelawney first because she thought it would make the biggest spectacle?

]]> http://neocows.net/blog/2005/07/26/book-6-hpootp/feed/ 0 http://neocows.net/blog/2005/07/21/book-6/ http://neocows.net/blog/2005/07/21/book-6/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2005 04:13:04 +0000 jacs http://neocows.net/blog/2005/07/21/book-6/ The not-quite-a-small-fry got her copy of Book 6 today (Wednesday morning) (I had it sent to her in NY via Amazon). She’s already read through Chapter 11 (in an afternoon). She’ll be done with it before I finish Book 2. Of course, she’s on summer vacation and I have to work….

We’ll see what she thinks about the end… I’ve heard vague spoilers but nothing concrete yet (And no, I don’t want to be spoiled…)