Order of the Phoenix: End of Book Discussion

[Brianna]

Discuss the entire book here. No spoiler tags are necessary since it is assumed everyone has completed it. I'll find some discussion questions as well and add them here.

[Ria]

Oh, wow. This was such a beautifully written book. I went into it thinking it would be boring and I wouldn't like it as much as the others and I did feel as if there was something missing from the previous books. I'm not quite sure what that something is, definitely the innocence of the first three books, but there's something else and I can't really put my finger on it. I read this book with a feeling of loss. Not only because Sirius died, but because many more deaths and much suffering will come. As Hermione said, this is only the beginning. That did not stop me from devouring at least 400 pages' worth of book during the weekend.

It's stunning how well Rowling writes the feeling of pain, loss and emptiness that Harry goes through after what happened to Sirius. I do feel that the last two chapters were the strongest one in the whole book.

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, though this was most certainly not it. I'm still not comppletely sure how I feel about it, I can only say that it is absolutely beautiful and that I am quite eager to read the following books. I might cheat and read them earlier than was intended in the buddy read, but I do have some other books to read first, so I might end up waiting. I'll decide later I guess.

[Ria]

Okay, so here are the questions I found. I might answer them at some point. I combined questions from two different websites, hope you find them interesting.

1. While out one evening, Harry and his cousin Dudley are unexpectedly attacked by a group of dementors. Seeing no other choice, Harry fought off the dementors even though it is against the rules to use magic outside of the school. This is the fourth time Harry has broken this rule. Do you think that Harry has been given too many free passes throughout his years at Hogwarts? Would other students have been able to get away with as much?

2. Harry spends a lot of Book 5 being quite grouchy. Do you find Harry harder to like in Order of the Phoenix? How does Book 5 change your perception of Harry's general character? And what do you think Harry has learned from his experiences in Book 5?

3. Romance is a fairly big part of Book 4. How does Harry's crush on Cho Chang change once we get to Book 5? How does the romance subplot add to the novel as a whole? How would it change the series of Harry and Cho had managed to make it work past one real date?

4. In her fourth year, Hermione founded S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, in an effort to gain basic rights to house-elves. However, most house-elves do not want to be free. In Order, Hermione begins leaving traps around the Gryffindor common room to inadvertently free the eleves while they are cleaning—something that insults and terrifies the elves. What does this says about Hermione's character?

5. Based on the advice from Professor McGonagall and Dolores Umbridge after taking their O.W.L. exams, what wizarding career do you think would best suit Harry, Ron and Hermione?

6. Why do you think Rowling included Harry balancing first crushes and O.W.L. exams while fighting the most powerful Dark wizard in history?

7. In all of the previous Harry Potter novels, Harry's enemies have somehow been connected to Voldemort. But in Book 5, while Voldemort is active and certainly important to the plot, the main body of the novel emphasizes a completely different enemy: Professor Dolores Umbridge. Why does Rowling shift away from Voldemort for so much of Book 5? What makes Professor Umbridge so villainous?

8. Harry has never known the connection between himself and Voldemort until Dumbledore reveals the Self-fulfilling prophecy that was made at Harry's birth: the Dark Lord would mark him as his equal and that neither could live as the other survives. Why has Dumbledore waited so long to reveal this to Harry? Could Harry have been more successful in fighting Voldemort if he had this knowledge?

9. Were you surprised that Dumbledore appointed Severus Snape to teach Harry Occlumency? Did your opinion of Snape change after reading the chapter "Snape's Worst Memory?" What about your opinion of James Potter?

10. How do you find the pacing of Book 5? It is the longest of the Harry Potter novels: why? How does the momentum of Book 5 compare to the other novels in the series? Is there anything you would have trimmed out?