Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Major Events/Battle at the Department of Mysteries
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| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Major Event | |
| Battle at the Department of Mysteries | |
|---|---|
| Location | Ministry of Magic |
| Time Period | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
| Important Characters | Harry Potter |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
After seeing a vision of Sirius being tortured, Harry and five members of Dumbledore's Army go to the Department of Mysteries, where they are trapped by twelve Death Eaters. They are later helped by a few members of the Order of the Phoenix, although Sirius is killed. Strengthened by the arrival of Dumbledore, Harry chases Sirius's killer, Bellatrix Lestrange, and duels her. Lord Voldemort appears on the scene, but Dumbledore comes to Harry's rescue. They duel, and Voldemort apparates away, but not before being seen by the Minister for Magic.
[edit] Event Details
Harry has a vision of Sirius being in the Hall of Prophecies of the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, where he is being tortured by Voldemort. Harry tries to set up a distraction with the help of Ron, and accepts assistance from Ginny and Luna Lovegood to block student access to the hall outside Professor Umbridge''s office. Then, with Hermione, he enters Umbridge's office to use the fireplace, which is the only one not being monitored. When he contacts Sirius's home, Kreacher, the house elf, tells Harry that Sirius "will never return from the Department of Mysteries".
Umbridge pulls Harry out of the fireplace, and Harry sees that between herself and her Inquisitoral Squad, she has captured all of the conspirators plus Neville. Umbridge summons Professor Snape, demanding Veritaserum to allow her to discover who Harry was talking to, but Snape says that he had already given her all his Veritaserum and it would take significant time to make more. As Snape is leaving, Harry, suddenly remembering that Snape is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, tries to tell Snape what he has perceived, but Snape appears to take no notice.
Umbridge then decides to use cruder methods to extract the truth from Harry. To prevent Umbridge from casting the Cruciatus curse, Hermione makes up a story about a "weapon" in the forest, and says that they were trying to contact Professor Dumbledore to let him know it was ready. Umbridge believes her, and follows Hermione as she leads them into the part of the Forbidden Forest where Centaurs roam. Surprised by Centaurs, Umbridge insults them to the point where they capture her and take her away, in the process, possibly accidentally, breaking her wand. The centaurs now try to determine what to do with Harry and Hermione, who had apparently deliberately brought the irritating Umbridge into their midst. The debate is interrupted by Grawp, Hagrid's half brother, who arrives and creates a diversion.
The two, managing to get away from the Centaurs, are then joined by Ginny, Neville, Ron, and Luna, who have overpowered the Inquisitorial Squad members and retrieved Hermione's and Harry's wands. Luna points out that they can fly to the Ministry on Thestrals. They enter the Ministry through the visitor's entrance, and proceed down to the Department of Mysteries. On their way to the place Harry saw in his vision, they step into a room featuring a black veil, behind which Harry, Luna, and apparently Ron can hear voices.
The place of Harry's vision turns out to be a vast hall, filled with shelves full of glass phials. Though they are in the place that Harry had seen, there is no sign of Sirius or Voldemort. Looking around, Ron notices a phial that has Harry's name on it, and Harry, curious, lifts it off the shelf. Suddenly, the six students are surrounded by a group of Death Eaters. The students use the Reductor Curse on some of the shelves, and manage to escape the room and scatter in the confusion. Harry, Hermione, and Neville end up in the Hall of Time, while Ginny, Luna, and Ron apparently end up in a different hall. Harry, Neville, and Hermione are cornered by a pair of Death Eaters. They manage to disable the Death Eaters, but in the process Hermione is knocked out and Neville's wand and nose are broken by a kick from Dolohov.
Harry manages to bring the unconscious Hermione and the wounded Neville to the anteroom, where they meet up with Ginny's group. Before they can find their way into the hallway outside, a second door into the anteroom opens and more death eaters, led by Bellatrix Lestrange, enter and resume the attack. The students retreat through a doorway, finding themselves in the Brain Room; Ron, who has been left apparently drunk by a spell attack, summons one of the brains and is incapacitated by the "tentacles" of thought emanating painfully from it. Retreating again into a study room, Harry and Luna as the only uninjured members of the group start trying to seal the doors, but Death Eaters enter through an as-yet unsealed door, and disable Luna and Ginny. Harry, knowing that the Death Eaters are only after him, tries to draw them away by running through a different doorway, and promptly falls down the stone steps of the amphitheater of the room of the Veil.
Standing alone on the dais of the Veil, Harry is now standing alone against the ten remaining Death Eaters. For some reason, they seem unwilling to force Harry to give up the Prophecy which he still holds. The standoff is broken by Neville, who bursts onto the scene trying to Stun the Death Eaters and failing; whether it is because he is trying to use Hermione's wand, or because his speech is impaired by his broken nose, his spells are ineffectual. Two Death Eaters seize him, and Bellatrix uses the Cruciatus curse on him, as she had on his parents, to force Harry to give up the prophecy. As Harry wavers, though, five members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Sirius Black, arrive and start dueling the Death Eaters. During the ensuing battle, Harry gives Neville the prophecy to free up his hands. Neville is hit by a Tarantallegra jinx. As Harry tries to pull him up the steps to safety, Neville's robe rips and the Prophecy falls on the ground and shatters.
As the battle rages, Dumbledore arrives and quickly subdues most of the fighters. One battle, though, is still going on, between Bellatrix and Sirius, who by now is standing on the dais of the Veil. Bellatrix fires a spell at his chest, and Sirius falls through the black veil – this is a literal "passing through the veil" rather than figurative.
Bellatrix now runs up the amphitheater steps and out through the Hall of Thought, where the tanks of brains are. Enraged, Harry chases after her, and duels her in a higher level of the Ministry. Suddenly, Dumbledore and Voldemort arrive, and duel each other, with Harry and Lestrange repressed by statues. Voldemort then tries to possess Harry, and flees with Lestrange when Harry's love for Sirius chases him out of Harry's mind. As Voldemort returns physically to free Bellatrix, Cornelius Fudge and a number of Aurors, summoned by Dumbledore, arrive and see him. Reluctantly, Fudge must now accept that Harry and Dumbledore were telling the truth all year. While Fudge is still stuttering over these revelations, Dumbledore creates a Portkey, and hands it to Harry; it promptly takes Harry to Dumbledore's office.
[edit] Notable Consequences
The death of Sirius made Harry very sad and angry over the summer, and also deprived him of one of his greatest friends and his godfather. However, Sirius leaves the house at Grimmauld Place to Harry in his will; if Harry is actually able to take possession, a point which we won't have cleared up until the next book, he may be able to use the house as a refuge, it being so well concealed.
The remaining Death Eaters, trapped in the amphitheater by Dumbledore, were sent to Azkaban. With the Dementors having departed to enter Voldemort's service, this may prove a pointless exercise; however, it does clearly show the Wizarding World where the loyalties of the captured Death Eaters lie. In particular, this will prove an issue for Lucius Malfoy, who is now clearly a criminal. This will significantly change Draco's status as well, as he is now the child of a convicted felon. Draco will end up taking his anger out on Harry, with the mistaken, but all too human, idea that it was Harry's fault that Lucius got caught, rather than Lucius' fault for supporting Voldemort.
In the next book, Dumbledore will say that he is not surprised that Harry's scar has stopped hurting; Voldemort will have found Harry's mind, with its love for Sirius, a very uncomfortable place to inhabit. This reluctance on Voldemort's part to re-enter Harry's mind may prove useful.
Dumbledore's comments on the loyalty of house-elves and the need to treat them honorably, which he makes in his office after the battle, may have some effect on Harry in later books.
Also, now the wizarding world knew that Voldemort was back, this event also signaled the start of the Second Wizarding War.
[edit] Analysis
It is after the attack on Arthur Weasley that Dumbledore realizes there may be a mental connection between Harry and Voldemort, and it is at that time that he charges Professor Snape with teaching Harry Occlumency. This actually may be one of Dumbledore's few mistakes. Dumbledore apparently assumes that Voldemort's intent is to read Harry's mind, when it becomes apparent that the intent is rather to insert images into Harry's mind. Our story does not indicate whether Occlumency will prevent this effect. In any event, it is the placement of images into Harry's mind that leads him to the Ministry.
This particular episode is a remarkably good example of the art of the story-teller, as well. The author hurries us along the path that Harry is following, and does not leave us time to consider several large discrepancies. For instance, when Harry sees Voldemort and Sirius in the Ministry of Magic, it does not occur to him, or to us, to wonder how Voldemort could possibly have gotten into the Ministry undetected at three in the afternoon on a weekday. Neither we nor Harry think of the magic mirror Sirius had given Harry at Christmas. In Harry's disappointment at finding Professor McGonagall gone, it does not occur to us that Snape is a member of the Order. The author does an excellent job of not only showing us Harry's sense of urgency, but of making us share it.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Greater Picture
One of the major things that this particular escapade taught Harry was that it was possible for Voldemort to generate false mental images. Knowing that this is possible, it is significantly less likely that Harry will be taken in later by false scenarios that Voldemort generates. Hermione, of course, is less certain. Knowing that Harry has been taken in by mistaken perceptions of Voldemort's thoughts, Hermione is always suspicious of the perceptions Harry receives from him, until almost the end of the seventh book. It is only during the battle at Hogwarts in the seventh book that Hermione actively asks Harry to look into Voldemort's mind, to see where Voldemort is.
It is perhaps telling that after this episode, Voldemort never tries to re-enter Harry's mind. As mentioned, Harry's mind is a very uncomfortable place for Voldemort, with its deep emotions that he cannot understand. However, Harry is able to perceive what Voldemort is thinking at times of great emotional stress for Voldemort. Harry's emotional stress seems to dampen these perceptions.
As mentioned above, Dumbledore had intended Occlumency to be a means of breaking this mental bond between Harry and Voldemort. It is entirely possible that, even with a more suitable teacher, it would not have worked. By the end of the sixth book, Dumbledore has become convinced that Voldemort's already tattered soul ripped again, either at the death of Harry's mother or at the attempt to kill Harry himself, and attached itself to Harry. It is uncertain whether that link between Harry's soul and Voldemort's can be broken by means of Occlumency. One must wonder when Dumbledore came to this conclusion about the soul shard having adhered to Harry. The reader may suspect that this was a conclusion Dumbledore had reached when he had heard Voldemort's plan to create multiple Horcruxes, but this is uncertain. The first time we hear of this belief is in Snape's memory, on an occasion which we believe to be the same night as Ron's poisoning. Harry's successful retrieval of this memory from Slughorn, however, happens significantly after the date of Ron's birthday and near death, which means that Dumbledore will not have had confirmation of the number of Horcruxes at that time. As we cannot be absolutely certain of the dates of Snape's memory, however, this is inconclusive. One thing we do know is that Dumbledore had been concerned about the possibility of there being multiple Horcruxes since the discovery of the diary in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He would have been certain that there were multiple Horcruxes by the beginning of the sixth book, as he had then found and destroyed the ring Horcrux.
