Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Order of the Phoenix/Chapter 38
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Chapter 38 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Second War Begins
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Dumbledore is officially reinstated as Hogwarts' Headmaster, and the Ministry of Magic publicly acknowledges that Lord Voldemort has returned. The students have largely recovered from their injuries, although Hermione, Ginny, and Ron are still in the infirmary. Harry goes to visit them, finding Luna and Neville there. Also in the infirmary is Dolores Umbridge, although she is no longer a Hogwarts teacher. Dumbledore personally went into the Forbidden Forest to retrieve her from the Centaurs. Deeply traumatized by her experience, she is barely able to speak. Ron torments her by making soft "clip clop" hoof noises with his tongue, causing the frightened woman to bolt upright in bed, frantically looking around. Hermione and Ginny can barely suppress their giggles.
Hermione laments that the Prophecy was lost, and they will never know what it said; Harry prefers to withhold its contents from them. Finding their ongoing speculation too hard to bear, especially knowing he must be either murderer or victim, he excuses himself to go visit Hagrid. Along the way, he is confronted by a vengeful Draco Malfoy, who threatens to curse him in retaliation for his father's imprisonment in Azkaban. Harry is quicker on the draw and has Draco at wandpoint, but Snape intervenes before either can jinx the other. Snape is about to penalize Gryffindor, but sneeringly comments that there are no House points left to deduct. Just then McGonagall arrives from St. Mungo's Hospital. When she discovers that Umbridge's "Inquisitorial Squad" has deducted all the House points from Gryffindor, she awards Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Neville, and also Luna (of Ravenclaw), fifty points each for alerting the wizarding world about Voldemort, then subtracts the ten points Snape wanted to deduct.
Harry reaches Hagrid's hut, but finds no relief there; while Hagrid points out that now everyone knows he was telling the truth, it is meaningless with Sirius gone. He excuses himself and heads for the lake where he can think without being disturbed. Only now does he truly understand the meaning, "a marked man".
The day before the term ends, Professor Umbridge leaves Hogwarts, attempting to exit secretly, but gets whacked alternately by a walking stick and a sock full of chalk, courtesy of Peeves, who followed the twins instructions. Most of the school watches as she leaves, and McGonagall expresses regret that she can not run cheering after Umbridge as well, as Peeves had borrowed her walking stick.
The next day, Harry packs his trunk rather than attending the Leaving Feast. He finds the package Sirius gave him at Christmas. He remembers Sirius telling him, "Use it if you need me, all right?" Inside is an old mirror, along with a note from Sirius explaining that Harry can contact him with it. Harry thinks it could be a link to Sirius in the afterlife, but he only sees his own reflection. Realizing that Sirius did not have the matching mirror with him when he went through the death arch, Harry angrily tosses it into the trunk, shattering it. A thought suddenly occurs to him, and he seeks out Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost. He asks Nick if Sirius could also have become a ghost, but Nick explains that very few wizards choose to remain earthbound as spirits. He did so only because he feared going on to the next world.
A disappointed Harry is heading back to the Gryffindor Common room when he runs into Luna in the hall. She is searching for her belongings that other students have hidden. Feeling sorry for her, Harry offers to help, but Luna declines, saying everything always turns up eventually. He asks who she knows who had died, and she says that her mother was killed in an accident. Harry offers his condolences, but she says it is okay because she knows she will see her mother again. She explains that she believes the voices they heard from behind the veiled archway in the Department of Mysteries are the dead who are just lurking out of sight. As he watches Luna head for the Leaving Feast, Harry surprisingly feels better.
On the Hogwarts Express, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle attempt to attack Harry, but members of Dumbledore's Army intervene and jinx them until they are unrecognizable. Cho Chang walks past in the corridor outside Harry's compartment; she blushes but doesn't stop. Ron asks if there is anything still going on between them, and Harry truthfully responds there is not. Hermione delicately mentions that Cho is dating Michael Corner, but Harry is unaffected, feeling it is in his past. Ron is concerned, though, as he recalls Ginny was seeing Michael Corner; she says that when Gryffindor had beaten Ravenclaw, Michael had gone to comfort Cho instead of celebrating with Ginny, so she had dumped him. Ron suggests, with a sideways glance at Harry, that she can now find someone better, and Ginny asks if Dean Thomas would be someone better, because that's who she's going out with now.
They are greeted at the station by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, Lupin, and "Mad Eye" Moody who tell Harry they plan to have a stern talk with his aunt and uncle about how they treat him. The twins are also there, decked out in new clothes, and say their new joke shop is doing well. The whole group confront Uncle Vernon, intimidating him into making the necessary concessions for Harry's comfort over the summer, and saying that they will be in touch, either by Harry's owl, or in person. Harry bids Ron and Hermione goodbye, and Ron promises that they will be seeing Harry very soon.
[edit] Analysis
The book ends on a tragic note. For Harry, Sirius' death creates yet another deep void in his life, although, unlike when his parents died, it is the first time he has lost a loved one that he actually knew and had a lengthy relationship with. Not only is he filled with grief, but also guilt over his rash behavior and the mistakes he made leading to the tragedy and nearly costing his friends their lives. Although Harry blames himself for Sirius' death, he fails to recognize that his godfather's reckless behavior also significantly contributed to his own demise. He also blames Dumbledore for withholding information and Snape, who, despite Dumbledore's unwavering faith, he believes deliberately waited to warn the Order of the Phoenix. Harry's attempts to contact Sirius in the beyond indicates he is unwilling to accept that his godfather is truly gone, although his talk with Luna provides some comfort and bolsters his hope that there may actually be an afterlife.
Harry realizes that Voldemort is an even greater threat, and although he now knows that returning to Privet Drive each summer sustains his mother's magical charm that protects him, this understanding provides little comfort as he prepares to endure yet another cheerless summer with the Dursleys. Harry will have time to reflect on what has happened and hopefully learn from his mistakes, although his path to maturity has been more traumatic than most. Mourning Sirius' death will cause him to feel even more alone and unloved, and likely isolating himself, as he often does during stressful times. As a result, he can overlook or shut out those people left in his life who care for and support him. As he grieves his lost godfather, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Dumbledore, and the others draw closer to him; they are his true "family."
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- What did Sirius give Harry for Christmas? Why did Harry wait so long to open it?
- Why does Harry offer to help Luna find her belongings? Why does she decline his offer?
- Why does Harry seek Nearly Headless Nick's advice? What does Nick tell him?
- What does Luna mean when she tells Harry that she will see her deceased mother again? How does that affect Harry?
[edit] Extra Study
- Did Harry's delay in opening the Christmas present from Sirius contribute to Sirius' death? If so, how?
- Why does Harry blame himself for Sirius' death? Who else does he blame and why?
- How might Sirius have contributed to his own death?
[edit] Greater Picture
There are two interesting plot points in this chapter. Firstly, Luna tells Harry that the voices they heard from behind the veiled arch are of those who have died and are merely waiting in the shadows. She believes they will be seen again, she fully expects to eventually be re-united with her mother, and that Harry will be re-united with Sirius. While that may seem like wishful thinking on her part, it actually foreshadows Harry's own experience in the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when he is able to summon his parents' spirits, as well as Sirius and one other character who has been killed (Lupin), and speak with them.
Secondly, the broken mirror will also play an important role in the last novel. Harry keeps a mirror shard with him while he searches for Voldemort's Horcruxes (soul fragments). On several occasions he glimpses someone's blue eye staring at him in the reflection—an eye that could be Albus Dumbledore's.
