During the summer, Harry is frustrated by the lack of communication from his friends and byDumbledore's refusal to let him help in the struggle againstLord Voldemort. One evening,Dementors attack him and his cousinDudley, but Harry fends them off using thePatronus Charm. Later, members of theOrder of the Phoenix arrive at the Dursley residence and take Harry toNumber 12, Grimmauld Place. Number 12 isSirius Black's family home and the headquarters of theOrder, which is a secret organisation founded by Dumbledore to fight Voldemort and hisDeath Eaters. Harry wants to join the Order, but is too young.
Under the leadership ofCornelius Fudge, theMinistry of Magic is waging asmear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, claiming they are lying about the return of Voldemort. Harry faces legal charges for the Patronus Charm he performed, but is exonerated and returns toHogwarts.Dolores Umbridge, a senior Ministry employee, is the newDefence Against the Dark Arts professor. She implements a textbook-only curriculum and forbids the students from practicing defensive spells. Harry, Ron, and Hermione form a secret student group called Dumbledore's Army, which meets in theRoom of Requirement to practice defensive magic under Harry's instruction.
One night, Harry dreams thatArthur Weasley is attacked by Voldemort's snake,Nagini. The attack actually occurred, and Dumbledore realises that Harry's mind is connected to Voldemort. He ordersProfessor Snape to teach HarryOcclumency to keep Voldemort out of his mind. Meanwhile, during Christmas break, Arthur is brought to St Mungo's Hospital, but he survives thanks to Harry's timely warning. When Umbridge discovers Dumbledore's Army, Dumbledore saves Harry from expulsion by claiming he formed the group. To avoid arrest, he goes into hiding. Umbridge is appointed headmistress and begins enacting strict rules and regulations.
During exams, Harry has a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius at theDepartment of Mysteries. He attempts to contact Sirius at Grimmauld Place, but Umbridge catches and interrogates him. Hermione intervenes and convinces Umbridge to go with her and Harry into theForbidden Forest. When Umbridge provokes thecentaurs who live there, they take her captive. Harry and his friends fly to the Ministry to rescue Sirius, but he is not there. Instead, they find shelves containingglass spheres, one of which bears Harry's name. Harry picks it up and is immediately surrounded by Death Eaters.Lucius Malfoy reveals that Harry was lured to the Ministry by a false vision from Voldemort, who wishes to hear the prophecy contained in the sphere. He asks Harry for the sphere, but Harry refuses to give it to him.
The students fight the Death Eaters with help from several Order of the Phoenix members. Neville accidentally knocks the sphere down some steps, destroying it.Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius by knocking him through a mysterious stone archway. Voldemort appears and tries to kill Harry, but Dumbledore arrives and thwarts him. Fudge and other Ministry of Magic employees arrive on the scene and witness Voldemort just before he flees. Back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore tells Harry the prophecy was made byProfessor Trelawney, who predicted the birth of a child with the power to vanquish Voldemort. This prophecy caused Voldemort to murder Harry's parents, and it is why he wishes to kill Harry as well. Harry feels overwhelmed by the prophecy and the loss of his godfather, but the wizarding community now believes him and respects him. Motivated by his friends, Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer.
Harry Potter fans waited three years between the releases ofHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire andHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.[2][3] Before the release of the fifth book, 200 million copies of the first four books had already been sold and translated into 55 languages in 200 countries.[4] As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queuing outside book stores on 20 June 2003 to secure copies at midnight.[4] Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from anEarlestown, Merseyside warehouse on 15 June 2003.[5]
In 2004, the book was cited as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and as anAmerican Library Association Notable Book.[6][7] It also received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio 2004 Gold Medal, along with several other awards.[8] Rowling was praised for her imagination byUSA Today writer Deirdre Donahue.[9]The New York Times writer John Leonard praised the novel, saying "The Order of the Phoenix starts slow, gathers speed and then skateboards, with somersaults, to its furious conclusion....As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better."[10] However, he also criticised "the one-note Draco Malfoy" and the predictable Lord Voldemort.[10]The book was a nominee and finalist for the 2004Prometheus Award.[11]
After the publishing ofOrder of the Phoenix, the sixth book of the series,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published on 2 April 2005 and sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[1][17] The seventh and final novel,Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[18] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[17]
A video game adaptation of the book and film versions ofHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was made forMicrosoft Windows,PS2,PS3,Xbox 360,PSP,Nintendo DS,Wii,Game Boy Advance, andMac OS X.[24] It was released on 25 June 2007 in the U.S., 28 June 2007 in Australia, and 29 June 2007 in the UK and Europe for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2,Windows, and 3 July 2007 for most other platforms.[25] The games were published byElectronic Arts.[26]
The first[citation needed] official foreign translation of the book appeared in Vietnamese on 21 July 2003, when the first of twenty-two instalments was released. The first[citation needed] official European translation appeared inSerbia and Montenegro inSerbian by the official publisherNarodna Knjiga in early September 2003. Other translations appeared later (e.g. in November 2003 in Dutch and German). The English-language version has topped the bestseller list in France, whereas in Germany and the Netherlands, an unofficial distributed translation process was started on the internet.[27]
^Knapp, N.F. (2003)."In Defense of Harry Potter: An Apologia"(PDF).School Libraries Worldwide.9 (1). International Association of School Librarianship:78–91. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 9 March 2011. Retrieved14 May 2009.
