Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Order of the Phoenix/Chapter 19
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Chapter 19 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Lion and the Serpent
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[edit] Synopsis
Harry is pleased with the D.A.'s progress, and he takes great pleasure in flouting Umbridge's regulations. With various team Quidditch practices, it is difficult to have a regular night for Dumbledore's Army to meet, but Hermione has a solution: she gives everyone fake Galleons that transmit messages. Harry can use them to summon them for the next meeting. Terry Boot is impressed, saying this is a Protean Charm, and it is NEWT-level magic.
The first Quidditch match is approaching, and Ron is a nervous wreck. Their opponent is Slytherin, and the students are wearing badges reading, "Weasley is our King". It is a cruel effort to undermine Ron's confidence by implying he will win the game for Slytherin with his poor Quidditch skills. During the game, Slytherin students sing, "Weasley is our King" to further unnerve him. It apparently works, as Ron plays badly, missing several shots, but Harry catches the Snitch, winning the game for Gryffindor.
After the game, Harry (already angry after Crabbe hit him with a bludger after the final whistle) and George Weasley jump Malfoy and his cronies for mocking Ron. McGonagall hauls them into her office and assigns each a week's detention. However, Umbridge barges in with another Decree in hand, declaring she now has sole authority over all student discipline. Over McGonagall's protests, she permanently bans Harry and George from Quidditch. She also bans Fred Weasley, even though he was never involved in the incident. Umbridge also confiscates their brooms.
Back in the Common room, Angelina worries about what to do without team Beaters and a Seeker. She goes to bed, leaving only Harry, Hermione, and Ginny in the Common room. Ron enters through the portrait hole, still in his Quidditch robes and covered in snow. He threatens to quit the team, saying he never should have thought that he could be a Keeper. When Harry and Ginny tell him about Umbridge's permanent bans, Ron says this is the worst he has ever felt. Harry agrees. Hermione says she knows something that will cheer them up: Hagrid is back.
[edit] Analysis
Just as the Gryffindor Quidditch team is allowed to reform, improving Harry's unhappy mood, Umbridge squashes it again. She grows more dictatorial by the day, and it seems she is getting new decrees passed solely to increase her power. She obviously also favors Slytherins. Although Crabbe was involved in the fight, he only had to write lines as his punishment, while Harry, Fred, and George were permanently banned from Quidditch. That Fred was included, even though he was uninvolved in the incident, shows how biased and vicious Umbridge truly is. Harry had previously asked Sirius if he thought Umbridge was a Death Eater. Sirius does not believe she is, and her actions seemingly support this. Rather, they indicate a growing addiction to, and abuse of, power.
What we are seeing here is another aspect of Umbridge's carrying out the agenda of the Ministry. As we have seen, she, along with Cornelius Fudge and other Ministry officials, continue to wage a public smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, refuting their claims that the Dark Lord has arisen. Close-minded and paranoid, they suspect Dumbledore is recruiting Hogwarts students for a secret wizard army with which to overthrow the Ministry. That is why Fudge refuses to allow real defensive magic to be taught. We believe that Umbridge was placed at Hogwarts solely as Fudge's spy and to deliberately meddle in its operations; that belief is unchanged, and she will do anything with her ever-increasing and Ministry-backed authority to prevent Harry or Dumbledore from becoming what is perceived to be an even greater threat. Her banning Harry from Quidditch seems, in light of her apparent mission, to be a step in demoralizing, and thus further discrediting, Harry. It is uncertain why she chooses to ban Fred as well as George, despite her "explanation"; the simplest explanation seems to be "because I can."
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- Why did Crabbe receive such a light punishment for the same offense as Harry and the Twins?
- Why would calling Ron a "King" be insulting and what effect does it have on him? Who is doing it?
- Why would Umbridge ban both Weasley twins from Quidditch when only one was involved in the incident with Malfoy?
- Why would Umbridge confiscate the students' brooms?
[edit] Further Study
- Why does Umbridge favor Slytherin students?
- Why is McGonagall angry at Umbridge? What does this indicate?
[edit] Greater Picture
While we have not yet seen this, Umbridge will shortly be revealed to have an unreasoning hatred of what she terms "half-breeds": magical creatures that show human characteristics but are not human. We will see this in her reaction to Hagrid, and later her reaction to the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest. This actually suggests that Umbridge will again act to make things more difficult for Harry. With the confiscation of his broom, and his Quidditch ban, Harry will find that the only things about Hogwarts that he still enjoys are teaching Dumbledore's Army and his friends, notably Hagrid. Hagrid's return is heartening, but with Umbridge threatening to sack Hagrid, yet another of his few pleasures comes under threat of almost immediate removal.
Ron's lack of confidence in his own Keeping will be a recurring thread in this book and the next. He will finally hit his stride in time for the final match of the year, which will be won, and the Quidditch Cup with it, thanks to his efforts, but he will have lost faith in himself again by the start of the next book. This is likely meant to illuminate Ron's lack of maturity; he tries out for Keeper but then does not have the inner strength to keep at it, and after the disappointments on the field he tries to run away. It is only through external influences that he is convinced to stick with it. This sort of pattern is quite realistically rendered; one can see that the author is well aware of how boys venture into new and complicated endeavors.
