Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 36: The Only One He Ever Feared

• “But some part of him realised, even as he fought to break free from Lupin, that Sirius had never kept him waiting before … Sirius had risked everything, always, to see Harry, to help him … if Sirius was not reappearing out of that archway when Harry was yelling for him as though his life depended on it, the only possible explanation was that he could not come back … that he really was –“ – This moment is utterly heartbreaking. And it shows how Harry saw Sirius – as the one person who was always there for him, who would always help him, always support him, someone he can trust. I think the only other two people who fit in that role are Ron and Hermione. Because Harry has learned not to rely on the adults in his life. Not even Dumbledore is always there when he needs him. He is used to handle things on his own, but he is still a child, and he still longs for a parent in his life, something he never had, and someone who can give him things that his friends can’t. I still think that the relationship between Harry and Sirius is complicated and at times unhealthy. It didn’t grow natural, the way things do between children and parents. Both had expectations and projected things at the other person. But Harry loved Sirius in the unconditional way a child loves their parents, perhaps even more, because he never had parents in the first place.

• “‘Harry … I’b really sorry …’ said Neville. His legs were still dancing uncontrollably. ‘Was dad man – was Sirius Black a – a friend of yours?’ Harry nodded.” – On their entire rescue mission neither Neville or Luna were actually informed about Sirius. To them he is technically still a mass murderer on the run, and they simply trust their friends and support them, without asking any questions.

• “Lupin turned away from the archway as he spoke. It sounded as though every word was causing him pain.” – Reminder that the night Harry’s parents died Lupin lost everything: James and Lily, Peter, who he believed to be dead, and Sirius, who he believed betrayed them and was responsible for the other deaths. And even though the truth comes out, Lupin still loses Sirius again, his oldest and closest friend.

• “‘Where’s the exit?’ he shouted desperately, as the wall rumbled to a halt again. ‘Where’s the way out?’ The room seemed to have been waiting for him to ask. The door right behind him flew open and the corridor towards the lifts stretched ahead of him, torch-lit and empty. He ran …” – That’s it? They only had to ask which room is the one they were looking for? Or does it only work for the exit? There has to be some sort of system, otherwise all the people who work at the Department of Mysteries get lost the entire time.

• “‘Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?’ she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. ‘You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won’t hurt me for long – I’ll show you how it is done, shall I? I’ll give you a lesson –’” – I love how complex magic works in this universe. There are incantations and wand movements, but we know advanced wizards can work magic without words, sometimes even without a wand. And there is intent. Something as cruel as an Unforgiveable Curse needs the right intent. That is what Moody or rather Barty Crouch Jun. told them, that they all could yell Avada Kedavra at him and nothing would happen, because you really need to want to kill someone. You can only cause pain or kill someone if you truly want it, which in return tells a lot about the person who successfully casts an Unforgiveable Curse. (And in book 7 we have two ‘positive’ characters who cast an Unforgiveable Curse: Harry uses both the Crutio and the Imperius Curse, Molly Weasley uses the Killing Curse, which I think is really fascinating)

• “‘Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness –’” – There is of course a simply reason why Dumbledore can’t kill Voldemort right here and now: he needs to destroy the Horcruxes first. Voldemort believes Dumbledore is above killing him, though I wonder if he perhaps suspected that Dumbledore knew about his secret and that that is the real reason Dumbledore didn’t try to kill him. And that is of course what Dumbledore means when he says that there are worse things than death, because Voldemort has destroyed his soul beyond repair in order to become immortal, but one could debate if he is even truly alive, truly human, in the state that he is now.

• “Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide and swallowed the jet of green light whole: he burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled and flightless.” – How handy to have a pet that can shield you from a Killing Curse (without actually dying).

• “Let the pain stop, thought Harry … let him kill us … end it, Dumbledore … death is nothing compared to this … And I’ll see Sirius again … And as Harry’s heart filled with emotion, the creature’s coils loosened, the pain was gone; Harry was lying face down on the floor, his glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood …” – Voldemort of course could never understand or even bear the kind of loss and grief Harry is experiencing right now. Perhaps he could not even have done it even when his soul was still intact. But we have again Harry’s suicidal thoughts. He longs for Sirius, longs to be reunited with him. Of course he is experiencing immense pain at this moment – both physical and psychological. But Harry is drawn to Death and surrounded by Death, so unlike Voldemort who fears death like nothing else.