History Literature / HarryPotterandTheOrderOfThePhoenix

* ActOfTrueLove: Voldemort takes a moment to pull Bellatrix to safety with him before fleeing the Ministry of Magic and by doing so risks his own safety and harms his movement and even loses the opportunity to have his archenemy Dumbledore captured.

* FireForgedFriends: At the beginning of the book, Harry is embarrassed to be seen in public with Neville, Ginny and Luna, and the main trio are exasperated to have to bring them along on the mission to rescue Sirius. After the events at the Ministry, the six of them are now firm friends as they discuss Voldemort's return in the Hospital Wing, and Hermione even resists the urge to challenge Luna's latest rambling about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.

* {{Doorstopper}}: Over 750 pages no matter which edition and the ''longest'' book in the series; nearly a quarter of the word count of ''the entire series'' is contained in this one book, since it usually has smaller print than the others [[UpToEleven but ends up with the highest page count anyway]]. Magazines and newspapers pointed out that the book wouldn't fit through most mail slots if mail-ordered. Comedians had a field day joking that book 6 would be called ''Harry Potter and the End of Trees''.

* TwoTimerDate: Harry averts this on Valentine's Day in Hogsmeade, which is when Hermione has set up Rita Skeeter's interview with him. Cho, however, thinks it is this, which is how their burgeoning romance gets nipped in the bud.

* AllForNothing: By the end of the story, more than a few people were left reflecting on how fruitless their actions had been and just how badly they had screwed up.
** Cornelius Fudge and the Ministry of Magic spent nearly twelve months slandering Harry and Dumbledore because they thought that they were either insane or trying to make a grab for power. Fudge even manipulated and changed the law to his benefit, in an effort to oust both heroes, simply because he could not accept that Voldemort was back. In the end, all he did was delay the inevitable war and give Voldemort a chance to rebuild his army whilst denying the rest of Britain a chance to prepare for the coming conflict. As we learn in the sequel, his days were numbered.
** On the same note, Dolores Umbridge's efforts to silence Harry's "lies", her general intervention at Hogwarts and her effort to prevent her students from learning any real magic, were all for nought. When Dumbledore returns as the Headmaster, the first thing he does is cancel all of her decrees and dismiss what was essentially Umbridge's private police force.
** Although it is not shown, Percy undoubtedly got a very nasty shock when he realised that the family he had deserted for siding with Dumbledore against the Ministry had been right all along.
** The worst offender by far though is Marietta Edgecombe [[spoiler: i.e. Cho Chang's treacherous friend, who willingly sold out the rest of Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge, knowing that the group would be expelled]]. Not only will she have to spend the rest of her life branded as a snitch (both literally and metaphorically) but by the time she got back onto the Hogwarts Express, Marietta had learnt that the boy she thought was telling lies was in fact telling the truth all along. Thus, she is left shamed forever, receives little to no sympathy (in or out of universe) and is left to reflect on the fact that her actions really were all for nothing.

* CapsLock: Some reviewers complained about Harry yelling IN ALL CAPS in the book. While they may have a point, you have to wonder if they've ever actually had to talk with an angsty, grumpy fifteen-year-old with PTSD before. Let alone an angsty, grumpy fifteen-year-old who knows his life is in danger, and knows that everyone he trusts to protect him is lying to him, keeping secrets, or both. Not to mention having a mind-link to an AxCrazy sociopath who's deliberately trying to screw with him. Really, it's a minor miracle Harry ''isn't'' screaming at everyone at the top of his lungs all the time.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: More major (or at least plot-important) characters come up in this book than any since the first. Luna Lovegood, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mundungus Fletcher, Dolores Umbridge, Kreacher, Arabella Figg, Amelia Bones, Zacharias Smith, Phineas Nigellus Black, Bellatrix Lestrange...
** Several of these characters -- notably the Lestranges and Mundungus Fletcher -- had been mentioned in passing previously. Arabella Figg in particular [[spoiler:is revealed to be the very same "Mrs. Figg" mentioned all the way back in the first book.]]

** Moody has trouble with his magical eye because it keeps sticking (this is apparently been a problem after being revived from being impersonated for a year in the last book). So he pops it out of his head and later moistens it in water so it can move better, as he wants 360 degree visibility.

* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:The curse Hermione gave to anyone ratting on Dumbledore's Army was a permanent marking on the front.]]

** A Death Eater is stabbed in the eye with a wand during the final battle.

* ActofTrueLove: Voldemort takes a moment to pull Bellatrix to safety with him before fleeing the Ministry of Magic and by doing so risks his own safety and harms his movement and even loses the opportunity to have his archenemy Dumbledore captured.

* DeerInTheHeadlights: Harry Potter tries to make a stand in the climax, only for the situation to get drastically worse, causing him to freeze in fear as his life comes under threat. [[spoiler:Harry taunts Bellatrix over how Voldemort can't hear her frantic apologies for losing the prophecy. Then Voldemort appears right in front of him and announces that ''this'' time, he'll just kill Harry with no more theatrics. OhCrap indeed for Harry and Bellatrix alike.]]

* VillainousRescue: Voldemort takes a moment to pull Bellatrix to safety with him before fleeing the Ministry of Magic.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: An InvokedTrope with Umbridge's pink, kitten-decorated office. Also, when Harry and Cho go to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, on Valentine's Day, Cho says thinks the shop is cute, but Harry lies in agreement, as he is unpleasantly reminded of Umbridge's office.

** Although it is not shown, Percy, undoubtedly got a very nasty shock when he realised that the family he had deserted for siding with Dumbledore against the Ministry had been right all along.

* AdultFear: Molly Weasley's Boggart, which shapeshifts into one dead family member after another, starting with Ron and ending with [[LikeASonToMe Harry himself.]] Just to rub salt in the wound, Sirius arrives in time to see that last one, and is clearly shaken.

** Harry doesn't initially think Ginny falls in the CompetenceZone. She points out that she's three years older than he was during his first confrontation with Voldemort.

* AnchoredShip: Harry and Cho. Her emotional issues over Cedric's death make it too difficult for her to be in a relationship. Harry is suffering SurvivorsGuilt over the fact that Cedric died because of him, and Dudley mentions he's heard Harry screaming for him in his sleep. Not to mention that Harry, at that point in time, didn't have the emotional maturity to try and work Cho through her problems — instead, he gets angry at her for always wanting to talk about Cedric, which made things a lot more difficult for them. Had they both waited until they were both more stable emotionally, they could have gotten together and had a happy relationship.
* AngerIsNotEnough: Harry attempts to use the [[AgonyBeam Cruciatus Curse]] on Bellatrix Lestrange while burning with righteous anger at her for murdering [[spoiler:his godfather]] — and this allows him to use the Curse at all, but Bellatrix notes it doesn't hurt her much, because a Cruiciatus Curse fuelled by anger pales in comparison to one fuelled by ''sadism'' — which she is used to slinging around.

* ArrestedForHeroism: Harry is hit with this after the Dementor attack. The Ministry even declares him expelled from Hogwarts until Dumbledore reminds them that ''THEY'' had overstepped their authority and it's kind of ''his'' job to decide who's expelled from his own school.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When talking to Sirius and Lupin after seeing Snape's memory, Harry seems to be almost equally upset about the fact that his father kept messing up his hair to look cool as about him having been a bully at school.

* BadDate: Harry's first and only date with Cho is, by his own admission "a complete fiasco".
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: As Sir Nicholas explains, ghosts are created when a wizard or witch chooses not to pass on to the afterlife. Unfortunately, it seems one can't retract one's decision — Nick has had centuries to wonder if he chose well.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Hagrid is really protective of his little brother and he takes it bad when the centaurs say Grawp is not welcomed in the forest.

** Twice in a row: Harry and his friends are saved from the Death Eaters by members [[TheCavalry of the Order]] (Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley, and Mad-Eye Moody), then when the Death Eaters appear to gain the upper hand over the Order, Dumbledore himself arrives and saves the day, rounding up most of the Death Eaters within a matter of seconds.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The House of Black were an ''extremely'' elitist family of wizard supremacists. Whenever a family member married anyone not pure-blood, actually tried to treat Muggles and Muggle-borns like human beings, or were a Squib (which couldn't be helped), [[IHaveNoSon they were disowned]]. Because of the dwindling number of pure-blood families, several times the Blacks resorted to incest, which only resulted in mental instability.

** Mundungus Fletcher is lured away from his post with cauldrons from a questionable source, presumed stolen. Almost one year earlier Percy Weasley had been working on a report about cauldrons with slightly thin bottoms, which most buyers probably would not have objected to, but Percy did. It is left to the reader to connect the dots from Percy's efforts to take some cauldrons off the market, to the cauldrons that serve Umbridge's purpose a year later.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Harry forgets that several books ago, Ginny was possessed by Lord Voldemort for the better part of a year. For Harry, it was just one detail of one of his many adventures so Ginny's involvement wasn't a major event to him, but for Ginny it's probably the most significant event of her life thus far. He says he forgot about it, and her reply is a cool "lucky you". Harry feels sincerely sorry and apologizes.

* CallBack: Molly says Witches and wizards can't join the order of the Phoenix until they're of age. Fred and George, who turned 17 the previous April, protest in outrage, and Molly amends her statement to refer to witches and wizards who have left school. The twins end up leaving Hogwarts a few weeks early to start their own joke shop.
* CallingTheOldManOut: A non-heroic version occurs when Percy Weasley gets into a shouting match with his father during the hiatus between Books 4 and 5. During the fight, Percy blames his father for their family's poverty and a lousy reputation he's had to fight against since joining the Ministry. He vows to end his association with their family in order to protect himself from what he views as their foolish support of Dumbledore.
* CapsLock: Some reviewers complained about Harry yelling IN ALL CAPS in the book. While they may have a point, you have to wonder if they've ever actually had to talk with an angsty, grumpy fifteen-year-old with PTSD before. Let alone an angsty, grumpy fifteen-year-old who knows his life is in danger, and knows that everyone he trusts to protect him is lying to him, keeping secrets, or both. Not to mention having a mind-link to an AxCrazy sociopath who's deliberately trying to screw with him. Really, it's a minor miracle Harry ''isn't'' screaming at everyone at the top his lungs all the time.

** But then the boomerang comes back around again at the end of DH when [[spoiler:Expelliarmus is the spell that Harry uses that leads to Voldemort's death in their final confrontation. It doesn't kill him, but it stops Voldemort's Killing Curse in its tracks during their brief BeamOWar that leads to the Elder Wand flying out of Voldemort's hand and the Killing Curse rebounding.]]

* CorporalPunishment: Umbridge does not hesitate to use it on "problematic" students... to the tune of WritingLines with a quill that ''carves the words into their hand and uses their own blood as ink''. According to Rowling, Umbridge ''invented'' that quill.
** Worse, once she [[TyrantTakesTheHelm takes over as Headmistress]], she writes up a Educational Decree that allows [[ChildHater Filch]] to torture students (though only stringing them up by their ankles and ATasteOfTheLash are specifically mentioned). And he's absolutely ''delighted'' about it. Though we never see him actually punishing any students thusly, as Fred and George drop out of school before he can punish them for deploying their swamp and the subsequent open rebellion among most of the students leaves him overwhelmed with no idea which way to turn.

** (To an angry Harry) "You know, this is precisely why I loathed being a teacher! Young people are so infernally convinced they are absolutely right about everything."
** "I have better things to do than listen to adolescent agonising."

-->'''Creator/StephenFry:''' So if any of you hear someone pronounce her name [[NoPronunciationGuide "Rohw-ling"]], you have my permission to hit them over the head with — not with ''Order of the Phoenix'', [[InsultToRocks that would be cruel. Something smaller; like a fridge.]]

** After Umbridge fires Trelawney, Dumbledore pisses her off supremely by hiring Firenze the centaur. He reminds her that Educational Decree Number 22 gives the Ministry the right to appoint a teacher '''only if''' the headmaster cannot find one.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard

* TheHorseshoeEffect: Umbridge pursues an insanely harsh and fundamentalist interpretation of law and order. Despite her self-proclaimed virtue, she is ''incredibly'' guilty of numerous sins while trying to "the Ministry’s work", including pride. By the end of the novel [[spoiler: she goes so far as to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry, becoming the “naughty person” she claimed to oppose]].

* IronicEcho: At his trial, Harry is asked by one of the Wizengamot (Madame Bones) if his use of underage magic involved a "corporeal" patronus, which he was at first confused by. And during Dumbledore's Army meeting at the Hog's Head, her niece Susan Bones is one of the people who showed up, and she asks him if he can do a "corporeal" patronus as well, with their exchange almost exactly identical. However, Madam Bones' questioning comes during a trial prosecuting Harry, while Susan's questioning comes in support of Harry. [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay Harry instantly makes the connection between those two, and deduces that the two are related, which she confirms]].
* {{Jerkass}}: Harry himself acts as one towards his friends throughout the book. However, this is mitigated by the fact that it was to cover up the inferiority complex he felt after being subjected to the blood quill torture by Umbridge. It doesn't help that he's SurroundedByIdiots who are in complete denial of Voldemort's return. [[spoiler:He also seems to have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it's also rather heavily implied that sharing thoughts with Voldemort isn't doing his mental state any favours.]]

** Harry during his fight with Cho, while [[KickTheDog he tells her not to run off crying]], points out several facts: [[spoiler:Marietta sold out everyone, including ''Cho'', to Umbridge, who would have expelled them all. Also, her wanting to save her mother's job is a terrible excuse; Arthur Weasley works in the Ministry and Fred, George, Ginny and Ron didn't feel the need to betray anyone. He doesn't even have to bring up Susan Bones and her aunt Amelia.]]

* KilledOffForReal: A main character dies in the climax, and doesn't come back in the form of a ghost, portrait, Priori Incantum shade or Pensieve memory. This devastates Harry, and it's only furthered when Nearly Headless Nick explains that even if the character did return by any of these methods, it would only be a pale imitation of the original.
* KissingDiscretionShot: In the book, Cho leans in to kiss Harry, and the paragraph ends, then cutting to a few minutes later when he returns to the Gryffindor common room.

** The book opens with Harry dealing with his frustrations over going so long without knowing what Voldemort is up to following his resurrection during the events of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'', similar to how readers had to wait three years following ''Goblet of Fire'''s release to find out what would happen in this book.

* LetsSplitUpGang: During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Lucius Malfoy tells the remaining Death Eaters to split into pairs and search the various chambers for Harry and his friends. Suffice to say, it goes badly to the Death Eaters.

* LoveDoodles: Teenage James Potter writes Lily Evans' initials inside a drawing of a snitch. He's in love with her.

* MadnessSharedByTwo: Harry is now able to see the horses which pull the normally-horseless carriages for returning students to the school. Neither Ron nor Hermione or any of Harry's circle of friends can see them, and Harry wonders if he's having hallucinations, only for [[TheDitz Luna Lovegood]] to say she can see them too and reassure him that [[AssuranceBackfire he's just as sane as she is.]] Subverted when it turns out the horses (called thestrals) can only be seen by those who have watched someone die in front of them, and both Harry and Luna are perfectly sane.

* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Becomes an issue with Harry's father. Up until now, Harry has only been exposed to a spotless, eulogized version of James. When he witnesses some of his father's very human flaws such as his arrogance and tendency towards bullying, Harry is sent into an emotional tailspin.

* TheNotSoHarmlessPunishment: Harry is punished for speaking out against Umbridge in class by being made to write lines... [[DisproportionateRetribution with a magic quill that cuts his skin and takes his own blood as ink.]]
* ObsessiveCompulsiveBarkeeping: As the Power Trio and the rest of the students that will eventually take Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons with Harry meet at the Hog's Head, the bartender is described as clearly listening in, and continually scrubbing a glass with a dirty rag, which is actually making the glass dirtier. Harry notes he looks familiar but doesn’t know he’s Dumbledore’s brother who tells him what they’re up to and that they need help.

** Ron's finest hour as Gryffindor Keeper, when he helps them win the Cup, is never seen as during the match Harry and Hermione are away in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid meeting his giant half-brother Grawp. Needless to say, a lot of fans wish it had been featured onscreen, to both give Ron focus and allowed the Quidditch scenes to be more diverse.

** Bellatrix spends most of her screentime laughing at Harry and Neville and mocking them about their traumas. [[spoiler:Then Harry tries the Cruciatus Curse on her; while it only causes her momentary pain, she drops the act and tells him how to do it properly, that he has to ''want'' to be sadistic. Then she freaks out when he reveals the prophecy got smashed.]]

* PerceptionFilter: There's implied to be something like this on the entrance to Saint Mungo's as Harry notices that none of the muggles on the busy shopping street seem to see them stepping through the front window of a shop.

* ReadingTeaLeaves: It's part of the Divination O.W.Ls. Harry messes it up completely and tells his examiner that she'll be meeting "a round, dark, soggy stranger".

* SaveTheVillain: No one would have blamed Dumbledore if he left Umbridge to the centaurs' mercy. Regardless, he goes to rescue her after securing her dismissal as DADA teacher from Fudge, and bargains with the centaurs. They like him more than they like any other wizard, so Dumbledore returns quickly with Umbridge and gets her medical treatment before she leaves.

* ShaggyDogStory: Hagrid's trip to recruit the giants was one of these. He and Madame Maxime spent the entire previous summer trekking to the place where the giants live and spent many days presenting the leader of the giants gifts in hopes of winning him and the giants he led to the Order's side. Their efforts were wasted when another giant backed by the Death Eaters killed that leader and took over, forcing Hagrid and Maxime to make a hasty retreat. The only real long term effect their trip had on the story was [[spoiler:Hagrid finding and bringing his half-brother Grawp home with him.]]

* SpitTake: Ron spits butterbeer on himself when Hermione mentions that Ginny is going out with Michael Corner.
* StressVomit: Dudley, after the encounter with Dementors, promptly upchucks all over the doormat as soon as Harry gets him back home.

* TranquilFury: Dumbledore, twice in the book. The first time is when he ''calmly'' warns Umbridge that he "cannot allow [her] to manhandle my students," and it's enough to leave her cowed. The second, more subtle time is during his duel with Voldemort in the Ministry. Dumbledore notes that '''merely''' killing Voldemort wouldn't satisfy him, and that "there are other ways to destroy a man."
** Averted with Harry, who (thanks to the sheer amount of trauma he's under) bursts out yelling more than once.

* TraumaCongaLine: ''Deathly Hallows'' is the only other book in the series that rivals how much misery is piled onto Harry, and even then it's still a pretty close call. To set the tone, this book starts with Harry struggling to cope with the most traumatic event in his life so far (witnessing Cedric being murdered before his eyes, being tortured by knives and the Cruciartus Curse by the man he fears most while all alone and isolated from anyone's help, let alone how Voldemort toyed with him and nearly killed him once again). Said event has clearly given him PTSD and constant nightmares, and the only company he has are his abusive relatives, as his friends won't even write to him, nor can he get any information on Voldemort's current actions. [[TemptingFate Every time he thinks his situation can't get worse,]] [[FromBadToWorse it]] [[UpToEleven does.]]

* TraumaSwing: Harry does one of these at the start of the book (it's the only swing in the park that Dudley and his gang haven't broken).

* TheWarHasJustBegun: There's a reason why the final chapter is titled "The Second War Begins". [[spoiler:And the war's first casualty is Sirius.]]
* WartsAndAll: After spending many books with a very idealized view of his parents, Harry gets to view one of Snape's memories of them and is shocked to find out that his father was a showoff and could be kind of a jerk. The shock is so much so that he gets a lot of angst about whether or not everything he'd thought about his father was a lie. He eventually talks to Sirius and Lupin about it and they explain to him that, yes James was being a jackass in that specific instance, but he was an immature teenager at the time and was still a good man and a good husband overall. Later on, Harry witnesses Ron behaving very much like his father did in the memory and finally gets over the shock and accepts his father simply had his faults and flaws, just like everyone else.

* WellThisIsNotThatTrope: Dumbledore's speech before the welcoming feast:
-->To our newcomers, welcome! To our old hands — welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!

** Dumbledore makes a barbed comment about how the wizarding equivalent of the Supreme Court was called in to judge what is normally a mild misdemeanor, causing many of the court's members to shift uncomfortably in their seats.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Snape's worst memory is from the year he and the Marauders sat their [=OWLs=], which was in late spring 1976. Most of the students would have been fifteen years old when they began that year, but James Potter is said to have been fifteen years old at the time of the memory, both in narration and in dialogue -- though his joint gravestone with Lily in ''The Deathly Hallows'' reveals his date of birth as 27 March 1960.

-->Vernon: Fought 'em off, did you, son? Gave 'em the old one-two, did you?
-->Harry: You can't give a Dementor the old one-two!

** Harry speaks ill of Seamus' mother due to her believing Harry had lied in claiming Voldemort's return. Seamus ends up arguing with Harry as a result and backs down only when Ron intervenes and threatens to put Seamus in detention.

* EveryoneIsRelated: In this book, we belatedly find out that Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange are sisters and Sirius Black is their cousin, and that Arthur Weasley is a distant relative of all of them. Part of this is related to pureblood supremacy; such families want to keep their lines pure, and as more and more witches and wizards marry half-bloods, Muggleborns, and outright Muggles, the number of purebloods diminishes. That Arthur is related to them is coincidence, as they consider the Weasleys blood traitors.

* NoodleImplements: [[spoiler:The spell that Ron is hit with that makes him giggle and laugh at everything has ever been revealed, and causes him to bleed from his mouth.]]

* XanatosGambit: Umbridge tries this [[spoiler:at the beginning of the book when she sends a pair of Dementors after Harry. If they administer the Kiss, then he's out of the Ministry's hair. If he manages to drive them off with a Patronus charm, then they can prosecute him for underage magic violations and expel him from Hogwarts.]] She failed to think her plan through because [[spoiler:Fudge finds out by the end of the book that Harry and Dumbledore were telling the truth. If Harry had been desouled or expelled, the Ministry would have lost their Chosen One and the only person could defeat Voldemort]].

** Whatever that mysterious spell Dumbledore fired was, it causes no damage to a shield but produces a "chilling", gong-like sound. Voldemort mocks Dumbledore for not going straight for the kill, but Dumbledore calmly replies that there are other ways of destroying a person.

* XanatosGambit: Umbridge tries this [[spoiler:at the beginning of the book when she sends a pair of Dementors after Harry. If they administer the Kiss, then he's out of the Ministry's hair. If he manages to drive them off with a Patronus charm, then they can prosecute him for underage magic violations and expel him from Hogwarts.]]

** Minutes after ''that'', Ron has to interrupt Cho and Harry's conversation to attack her about supporting the Tutshill Tornadoes, her favoured professional Quidditch team.