Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 21: The Eye of the Snake

• “Hagrid’s reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid’s enormous hand; others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Harry knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank’s lessons, and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of him knew that they had good reason: Grubbly-Plank’s idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off.” – So, it is not just Harry, Ron and Hermione who have a good relationship with Hagrid (though they are the ones who are closest to him), but the Wesley twins and Lee Jordan as well. Harry of course is connected to Hagrid because he is the one who introduced him to the Wizarding World, and Ron and Hermione are connected to Hagrid through Harry. I suspect that Fred, George and Lee became friends with Hagrid while sneaking into the Forbidden Forrest. But also not everybody loves Hagrid: people like Lavender and Parvati only know him as their teacher, and again he is not that good at it. Even Harry admits that.

• I love the Thestrals and their symbolic meaning. That seeing death puts a mark on you, that it changes you and the way you look at the world, that in the Wizarding World you are literary able to see things you didn’t see before. And how terrifying it must be to see them for the first time. I know there is an ongoing discussion how Harry should have been able to see the Thestrals at the end of fourth year, but the first time he notices them is in book 5. Rowling explained that Harry needed some time to understand the death he has witnessed, and only then he could see them. Of course it is possible she simply made a mistake and didn’t think of the Thestrals before writing book 5. But I like her explanation. Because it does take time to understand death and I don’t think the human mind is actually able to fully understand that something ends, that someone is completely gone. Harry was still under shock by the time he left Hogwarts last year. And this is something that further isolates Harry from his friends: the trauma he experienced, that ugly feeling that he is through something they could never understand, that his pain is unique to him (and well, I’ve been there, so I can relate).

• Next to Harry two other students can see the Thestrals: Neville and Theodore Nott (though his name is never mentioned). But it also seems that Hagrid can see them, so he saw someone die as well (his father?).

• “‘And they’re cheeky little snot-rags, you know, we definitely weren’t that rude when we were in first year,’ said Ron […]” – You know that is the first sign of getting old, complaining about youngsters (I do it all the time).

• “‘All those poor elves I haven’t set free yet, having to stay here over Christmas because there aren’t enough hats!’ Harry, who had not had the heart to tell her that Dobby was taking everything she made, bent lower over his History of Magic essay.” – Because it is so much better to let Dobby do all the work alone instead.

• Also leave it to Harry to assume he would spent the holidays alone at Hogwarts, after Molly literary said he was as good as a son to her. And leave it to Ron to forget to mention Harry is invited to spend the holidays at the Burrow. Boys *shakeshead*

• “‘Mistletoe,’ said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry’s head. He jumped out from under it. ‘Good thinking,’ said Luna very seriously. ‘It’s often infested with Nargles.’” – False romantic lead: Harry obviously assumes Luna mentions the mistletoe because she wants to kiss him, but I don’t think that thought had ever crossed her mind.

• “Neville had improved beyond all recognition.” – I wonder why that is. Could it be… perhaps… maybe… all Neville needs is a competent teacher and a bit of extra time? *LookingatyouSnape*

• Poor Hermione, having to explain complex feelings to the boys she calls her best friends. And it shows how immature Ron is compared to Hermione, thinking only in categories of ‘sad’ and ‘happy’, as if there is nothing in between or you can’t be both at the same time. No wonder it took him years to figure out his feelings for Hermione. And no wonder most teenage girls prefer older boyfriends.

• “‘What if he doesn’t want to ask her?’ said Ron, who had been watching Harry with an unusually shrewd expression on his face.” – I feel like Ron rather talks about himself here instead of Harry. He, just as Hermione, knows very well that Harry liked Cho for ages. So this is more about the expectation of the boy making the first move and asking out the girl he likes. Which Ron doesn’t do, despite liking Hermione for ages.

• “He did not answer. Yes, he had liked Cho for ages, but whenever he had imagined a scene involving the two of them it had always featured a Cho who was enjoying herself, as opposed to a Cho who was sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder.” – The most annoying thing about Harry is not his anger issues or his yelling, but his inability to deal with emotions, both his own and that of others. Of course nobody is comfortable when someone cries in front of you, but to Harry Cho’s behaviour is annoying and he later admits that one of the things he likes about Ginny is the fact that she hardly ever cries. Expressing your emotions is considered to be weak, to be girlish, and it is hurtful and damaging to get told to toughen up and to control your emotions, for both girls and boys. Not that Harry ever says that. And it is also very likely that the Dursleys never taught him how to react to crying properly; they probably didn’t care at all when he cried as a child or told him to stop.

• “That’s what they should teach us here, he thought, turning over on to his side, how girls’ brains work … it’d be more useful than Divination, anyway …” – There are a lot of subjects more useful than Divination. Again, it doesn’t seem like sex education is something Hogwarts students get, and they never mention any teenager magazines who give advice in those areas (though they could still exist and Harry simply never reads them). I mean it is possible that the reason the Weasleys have so many children is simply because Molly and Arthur never learned how to use protection, for all we know.

• Kudos to Neville for doing the responsible thing after Harry’s dream and getting a teacher.