The novel features Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of Harry's nemesis Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has won several awards, including being named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. The book has also been made into a film, which was released in 2007, and into several video games by Electronic Arts.
Harry Potter is spending another horrible summer with his dreadful Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon when a group of evil
spirits called Dementors stage an unexpected attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley. After using magic to defend himself and Dudley, which gets him expelled from Hogwarts, Harry is visited by a group of wizards and madeye and whisked off to number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. Number twelve is the home of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. The Order is a group of witches and wizards, led by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, dedicated to fighting the evil Lord Voldemort and his followers. The Order is forced to operate in secrecy, outside of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic, which is headed by the dense and corrupt Cornelius Fudge. Fudge refuses to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned. Harry, who witnessed Voldemort's return the previous June and was tortured and nearly murdered by him, is suffering from nightmares about what has happened to him. He is also angry with those he is close to, especially Ron and Hermione. Harry used magic to fight off the dementors, and since underage wizards are not permitted to use their wands outside of school, he must face a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry. With Dumbledore's help, Harry is cleared by the Wizengamot and permitted to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Reunited with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry returns to Hogwarts and learns that Dolores Umbridge, an employee of Fudge, will be his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The Sorting Hat, which traditionally sorts all new students into one of four houses, cautions the students against becoming too internally divided. Meanwhile, the wizard newspaper, the Daily Prophet, continues printing untrue and unfair stories about Harry. Many of his classmates are whispering about him behind his back, but Harry ignores them and tries to concentrate on his studies, since all fifth-year students at Hogwarts are required to take rigorous standardised exams that are O.W.L.s, or Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations. However, Professor Umbridge and Harry soon clash, as she, like Fudge, refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned and punishes Harry by forcing him to write lines with a special quill that carves "I must not tell lies" into the back of his hand.
Umbridge refuses to teach her students how to perform defensive spells, and before long, Fudge appoints her High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, giving her the authority to inspect all faculty members and evaluate their skills. In desperation, Harry, Hermione, and Ron form their own Defense Against the Dark Arts group, also known as the D.A., or Dumbledore's Army. Twenty-five other students sign up, and they meet as often as possible to learn and practice Defense spells. Harry wishes desperately to contact his godfather Sirius to discuss the situation, but Umbridge is inspecting all owl posts and patrolling the fires that students can use to make contact with wizards residing outside of Hogwarts. Umbridge openly dislikes Harry, whom she considers a liar, and eventually bans him from the Gryffindor Quidditch team for "Muggle dueling" with Draco Malfoy. Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, storm out of Hogwarts in protest, moving to London where they plan to open a joke shop in the wizarding town of Diagon Alley using the money Harry won last year in the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry continues to have upsetting dreams about walking down a corridor at the Department of Mysteries, deep inside the Ministry of Magic. At the end of the corridor, Harry goes through several doors and enters a room full of dusty glass spheres. Harry always wakes up before he finds out what the dream means or what the spheres signify. One night, Harry has a vision where he inhabits the body of a large snake, and attacks Ron's father. Harry wakes up horrified, and Professor McGonagall takes him to Dumbledore immediately. Dumbledore uses the portraits on the walls of his office to raise an alert, and Mr. Weasley is promptly rescued by two members of the Order. The Weasley family, accompanied by Harry and the Order, visit Arthur Weasley in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Afterwards, Dumbledore demands that Harry take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, which should help Harry protect his mind against further invasions by Lord Voldemort.
Harry is unsuccessful at Occlumency because he has such difficulty clearing his mind of all thoughts, making it difficult for him to focus on closing his mind off to all outside influence. Meanwhile, his scar (from the attack in which Voldemort killed Harry's parents) burns horribly every time Voldemort experiences a powerful emotion. The D.A. continues to meet regularly, and Harry's peers show great improvement until they are caught by Umbridge. Dumbledore takes full responsibility for the group and resigns as Headmaster. Umbridge takes over his position. The students begin taking their O.W.L. exams, and Harry has another vision, this time about Sirius being held captive and tortured by Voldemort. Horrified, Harry becomes determined to save him. Hermione warns Harry that Voldemort may be deliberately trying to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries, but Harry is too concerned about Sirius to take any chances.
Harry sneaks into Umbridge's office, and, using her fireplace, transports himself to Twelve Grimmauld Place to look for Sirius. Kreacher, the House of Black's house elf, tells Harry that Sirius is at the Ministry of Magic. Harry returns to Hogwarts when he is pulled back through the fire by Umbridge to find that he and his friends have been caught in Umbridge's office. Ron, Luna, Ginny, and Neville have all been seized by Slytherins and gagged. Umbridge decides to use the Cruciatus curse on Harry, but Hermione then tells her Harry was trying to contact Dumbledore. Hermione and Harry convince Umbridge to follow them into the forest, where they claim to be hiding a weapon for Dumbledore which they had just finished and wanted to tell him about. Once in the forest, centaurs carry Umbridge away. Harry and his friends climb aboard flying horses called thestrals and speed off to the Ministry. Once they arrive, Harry cannot find Sirius and realises that Hermione was right. Harry also sees that one of the glass spheres has his name on it, as well as Voldemort's. Harry grabs the sphere, and Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy surround to attack, demanding that Harry hand over the prophecy. Employing all of their Defence skills, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville have moderate success fighting the Death Eaters, but they are ultimately helped enormously by the arrival of several members of the Order, including Dumbledore. In the midst of the fight, Harry drops the glass sphere and it shatters. Sirius is killed by his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, when she blasts him through the veil.
Harry tries to avenge his godfather and follows Bellatrix, but is met by Voldermort at the fountain. Dumbledore appears shortly after Voldemort and the two engage in an intense duel. Voldemort fights Dumbledore to stalemate, then possesses Harry in an attempt to get Dumbledore to sacrifice Harry in the hope of killing him. Voldemort and Lestrange escape, just as Fudge appears at the Ministry, finally faced with incontrovertible evidence that the Dark Lord has returned. Dumbledore sends Harry back to school, where, after Harry has a breakdown, screaming that "he's had enough" of all the pain and anguish and death and destruction, he explains that the sphere was a prophecy which stated that Harry has a power that Voldemort will never know: the power of love, given to him by his mother's sacrifice fifteen years earlier. The prophecy goes on to claim that neither Harry nor Voldemort can live while the other survives. Dumbledore takes this opportunity to tell Harry why he must spend his summers with the Dursleys in Little Whinging: because Harry's mother died to save him, he is blessed with her love, a blessing that can be sealed only by blood. Harry's Aunt Petunia, his mother's sister, makes that bond complete by taking Harry into her home. As long as he still calls Little Whinging home, Harry is safe. The Order members strongly advise the Dursleys to treat Harry with the respect he deserves, and he returns home with them to face another miserable summer.
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