Follow TV Tropes

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

Following

Tear Jerker / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Go To

    open/close all folders 
     From the Book 
  • It's revealing that Harry is still mourning Cedric, complete with having nightmares where he still fails to save him. He just doesn't express himself outwardly the way Cho does because Harry is also a Shell-Shocked Veteran from watching him die, being tortured by Voldemort, and barely escaping with his life. Dudley mentions, while he and Harry are arguing, that he's heard his cousin crying out, "Cedric, NO!" in his sleep, asking snidely if Cedric was his boyfriend. Cedric wasn't, but he was a part of Harry's life regardless, and he was a friend when the going went tough.
  • Neville's friends walking in on him and his grandmother Augusta at the hospital. Harry (who already knows what happened to his parents, but hasn't told Neville) tries to discreetly get everyone else away before they and Neville see each other, but it's too late.
    • Neville is unable to look his friends in the eye as a sympathetic Harry is helpless to stop it, all the while Augusta is being very harsh, telling his friends that "he hasn't got his father's talents". She then scolds Neville for not telling them about the fate of his parents ("tortured into insanity", as she puts it), saying he should be proud and not mistake the pain and trauma for shame.
    • Neville's poor mother not recognising him. She always gives him a gum wrapper whenever he visits, and Neville keeps them instead of throwing them away. When she hands him the wrapper, Neville finally stares at his friends expecting them to laugh, but they all look on in horror.
      Harry did not think he'd found anything less funny in his life.
    • Everyone except Harry (who already knows) then starts crying after Neville leaves. Harry even thinks that this is the least funny thing he ever sees in his whole life, and this is from the guy who witnessed Voldemort's return and Cedric's death half a year ago.
    • It's made even sadder when you realise that Neville's grandmother is wrong: Neville is proud of his parents - massively so - but he doesn't want people's pity. Harry notes that he's looking around, daring anyone to say anything.
  • Lupin stopping Harry from chasing after Sirius through the veil. He's got him wrapped in a hug, pulling him away, as Harry refuses to believe that Sirius is dead and keeps calling for him.
  • A subtle one with Lupin when Sirius dies: He's just lost the last of his best friends, but instead of breaking down, he's trying to comfort Harry.
  • The scene where Dumbledore explains to Harry why he wasn't made a Prefect and starts shedding a few tears himself:
    Dumbledore: I must confess... that I rather thought... you had enough responsibility to be going on with.
    • The fact this appears in the chapter header art only makes it hit home more.
  • Molly's personal boggart of seeing her husband and sons (and Harry) killed. It doubles as a dark Heartwarming Moment of sorts, as it's clear she thinks of Harry as her son, too. Afterwards, when Harry goes upstairs and can't believe that, less than an hour ago, he was worrying about who had become Prefect. That he had "never felt more grown-up in his life", it's like it's just dawning on him how real the situation is and that people he cares about could die. Also, with some Fridge Brilliance: Throughout the books (and especially in Deathly Hallows), we see that Ron feels inadequate and unloved compared to his siblings and friends. But his is the first body that we see Molly's boggart turn into. Also, not even in her absolute worst nightmare could Mrs. Weasley imagine Fred and George being apart, even in death. J. K. Rowling, why couldn't you as well?
    • And then there's Sirius's reaction to seeing what looks like Harry's dead body. Not only would he be shaken at the idea of seeing his godson dead, but it probably also brought back memories of seeing James dead.
  • Bellatrix taunting Neville about his parents ("Longbottom? Why, I've had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!"). It's made all the worse by the fact that we've seen them now. The Tear Jerker is his furious and heartbroken "I KNOW YOU HAVE!"
  • The scene in Dumbledore's office at the end is this when Harry learns about the prophecy after Sirius's death.
    Harry: I DON'T CARE! I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE—
    Dumbledore: You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.
  • Deathly Hallows reveals it to be a Tear Jerker for another reason, but here, Harry's Broken Pedestal moment with his father as a teenager is really sad. Throughout the book, he's full of emotional confusion and psychological trauma and feels that Adults Are Useless. And to see that his ideal image of his father is not true wounds him in a real way. Especially when he wonders if he really wanted to be like his father anymore after being told by everyone who knew James. He eventually accepts it, much like people in life come to terms with flaws in their heroes or people who they look up to, but it's only salt in the wounds he already had.
  • The "flaw" in Dumbledore's plan.
    "I cared about you too much. I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act. Is there a defence? I defy anyone who has watched you as I have — and I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined — not to want to save you more pain than you had already suffered. What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, well, and happy? I never imagined I would have such a person on my hands."
    • This is basically Dumbledore admitting that not only did he begin to love his most effective intended weapon against Voldemort the moment he saw how brave and selfless and good Harry had become, but he was also probably trying to stop himself from caring about anyone this much after what happened to his sister.
  • After Harry learns about the prophecy, he goes alone to think and just wants to be left alone.
  • When Harry encounters Luna putting up signs asking for her stuff back, she acts so heart-breakingly nonchalant about the fact that people treat her this way because she's different, and Harry finally begins to understand her in a way he never has before.
  • The scene where Moody shows Harry a photo of the original Order of the Phoenix. Not only did many of them end up suffering cruel and horrible fates during the First Wizarding War, but they are all smiling and waving at the viewer despite knowing they probably aren't going to make it.
  • The fact that There Are No Therapists is something of a Tear Jerker, but it hits really hard here. Harry (as-of-yet-unrevealed Horcrux problem notwithstanding) is not only dealing with usual adolescent hormones, which is scary enough, but he also bore witness to a terrifying series of events at the end of Goblet of Fire and was on the train to his so-called "home" before he even had a chance to process everything. And to make it even worse, the Ministry of Magic, the Daily Prophet, and Dolores Umbridge are putting him through insane amounts of crap and persecution just because he has the temerity to actually tell the truth about Voldemort. No wonder he completely breaks at the end of the book and actually implies a desire to die at least twice.
  • Harry's reaction to Percy's letter advising Ron to stop being friends with him. It's particularly sad considering Harry thought he knew Percy well enough that he'd never do something like this. It also makes him understand how bad the rumours are about him, making him understand how Sirius must feel about being called a murderer. And then there's Ron's reaction. He calls Percy the world's biggest git as he tears up the letter and throws it into the fire.
    He had known Percy for four years, stayed in his house during the summers, shared a tent with him during the Quidditch World Cup, even been awarded full marks by him in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament last year, yet now, Percy thought him unstable and possibly violent.
    • Hell, just everything to do with Percy in this book. Percy was given the job of Junior Assistant to the Minister for Magic and was so excited and expected his family to feel the same, but they didn't. Arthur felt that Fudge gave him the job so he can use him as a spy since Arthur is a huge supporter of Dumbledore, whose name is mud with the Ministry. This sparked a huge row between Arthur and Percy, with Percy shouting that he's had to struggle against Arthur's reputation since joining the Ministry and that the reason the family is so poor is that Arthur has no ambition. Percy then stated that if his family was going to side against the Ministry, he wanted no part of them. After that, he left The Burrow and moved to London. Molly tried to convince him to come home and he responded by slamming the door in her face. It's no wonder Ron warns Harry not to mention Percy around his parents, as every time he's mentioned, Arthur breaks whatever he's holding while Molly bursts into tears.
      • And to rub salt into the wound, Percy sent back a Christmas sweater Molly sent to him, without even opening it.
  • Harry's outburst at Ron and Hermione when they suggest that he teach them Defence Against the Dark Arts. It starts with him thinking it's a joke, but he gets increasingly angry as they smirk at him when he honestly admits that a large measure of luck and help were necessary for him to prevail. It finally culminates in Harry flat-out shouting at both his friends that they have no idea what it's like to be in his position, to have to face the horrors he's faced alone in most cases, moments away from being murdered, tortured or witnessing someone's death; and often suffering moderate (and, in one case, nearly fatal) injuries and barely escaping with his life, and in the middle of it all, he mentions Cedric Diggory (Voldemort's last victim) and how it could just as easily have been Harry instead. It speaks volumes about the regret, sorrow, and hardship he's undergoing and his overall reluctance to meet such unfair challenges.
    • Harry's Hair-Trigger Temper in general. Hermione and Ron quickly learn to walk on eggshells around Harry since they're never quite sure if anything they might say will send him flying into another rage. And despite this, they still need to tell him some hard truths and start prefacing their sentences with variations on "Now, please don't start yelling at us again, but." Lesser friends would have fled from someone so unpredictable.
  • Imagine watching a beloved family member who's come back from war and they're not the same, and as much as you love them and want to help, you can't because you just haven't seen what they've seen. Perhaps unintentionally (but perhaps not) JKR paints a stark picture of what happens to the loved ones of someone who experiences a life-altering trauma. Harry figuratively and literally went through a portal and came back a different person, and most of the people that care for him most deeply have no idea what to do.
  • A Harsher in Hindsight moment when re-reading the book and Sirius scolds the twins and says, "This is why you are not in the Order! You don't understand! There are things worth dying for!" A slap in the face considering he dies later on trying to help his godson.
    • One must wonder how much this line stuck with the twins, as they eventually do join the Order, and Fred indeed does die in the final battle.
    • Fred's retort is almost worse - "Easy for you to say, stuck here! I don't see you risking your neck!" By the end of the series, both Sirius and Fred would wind up "risking their neck" as a part of the Order and dying as a result.
      • It's almost a certainty by this age that he and George are aware of what happened to their uncles, Fabian and Gideon. It's also likely they have pictures and perhaps even vague memories of them given that they were named after their uncles in a roundabout way and were about three years old when they were killed. They might have understood far better than Sirius gave them credit for.
  • The uneasiness and paranoia that Harry develops for a bit in the book, worried that he was an easy person for Voldemort to possess and could end up hurting his friends at any moment. So paranoid and scared is he that he doesn't think of the obvious until Ginny points it out when his friends talk to him: That he had Ginny in the vicinity all along, someone who he knows had first-hand experience with being possessed by Voldemort, and could have asked about her experience to see if it really fits his. Granted he most probably didn't want to open wounds but given how relieved he is when they do talk (he feels like singing Christmas songs with the elated Sirius), much of his fear and doubt could have been avoided by an earlier heart-to-heart.
    • That said, Harry had understandable reasons for not reaching out to Ginny; he'd never been quite as close to her as he'd been to the others up until that point. And even (perhaps especially) if he had, he likely wouldn't have felt good about asking her to relive such a traumatic event that one can only assume nobody ever brought up.
  • A small one, but Hermione mentions writing to her parents when she's made a Prefect because "it's something they can understand." She probably doesn't have much contact with them because they can understand so little about her life.
    • At this point in the series, who's to say she even wants to tell them anything? No doubt her parents have asked her how things were and she can't explain, among other things, that there's an uber-powerful Dark Wizard on the loose that wants her best friend dead.
  • Following Sirius's death, Harry briefly considers that he may have come back as a ghost and seeks out Nearly-Headless Nick to try and find out. Nick says he's been expecting Harry to approach him, as students who have experienced the death of a loved one often come to talk to him about it. Unfortunately, Nick is only a ghost and ultimately knows nothing more about death than he did when he was alive, knowing only that Sirius did not choose to become a ghost and instead passed on. While Harry's brief hope that he might see a form of Sirius again being quickly crushed is sad, the real sorrow comes from the great melancholy in Nick's lamentation of the feeble imitation of life he chose because he was afraid of death and how he sometimes wishes he had chosen to move on. It's a poignant insight into a normally comedic side character and the lonely nature of the ghosts in general.
  • Harry essentially having suicidal thoughts, when he wants Dumbledore to kill him so the pain of being possessed by Voldemort will stop and he can be reunited with his godfather.
  • Umbridge attempts to have Professor Trelawney sacked and evicted from the castle. Umbridge cheerfully calls her a fraud and a failure while Trelawney begs her for mercy. While Umbridge is right that Trelawney isn't a good teacher — something that the Trio has noted and mocked — it's very different to kick her out, especially in such a humiliating way. Dumbledore has to step in, along with Minerva, and the former tells Umbridge not to talk to his teachers that way.
  • At the age of nine, Luna watched her mother be killed by a spell of her own making.note ; she's said to be "conversational" about it. So either she's accepted it so easily that she can talk about it... or her weirdness is her coping method.
  • Snape's Worst Memory. While he was unpleasant and antisocial even as a teenager, it can still be quite hard to picture him being thrashed around, hexed, humiliated, and with his pants forcefully pulled down, with almost no one coming to his defence. Not even a teacher intervenes, and it's implied that this was a regular occurrence. James starting it because he was bored and nonchalantly saying it's just because Snape exists makes it even worse.
    • It's pretty sad from Lily's perspective too. She was the only one who did the right thing and stood up for someone who was immensely unpopular, and she gets called a slur for it.
    • Harry's reaction makes it all worse, with his father becoming a Broken Pedestal and worrying that his mother hated him.
  • Earlier, Harry rebounds Snape's Legilimens with a shield charm and accidentally sees some of his memories, including "a hook-nosed man shouting at a cowering woman while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner." The implication is that Snape was abused, or at least grew up in a broken household where he was forced to watch his mother abused. Even though Harry hates his guts, he still feels a flicker of sympathy for him at that moment.
  • Sirius's death, in general. Harry loses the closest he's ever had to a father, and it's all his fault. While Harry loses a lot of mentor figures over the course of the series, Sirius is the first (other than his parents, who died in the past) and the one he was closest to.
  • Phineas Nigellus's reaction to Sirius's death, especially factoring in how harshly he had treated him in the past. He vanishes from the portrait in Dumbledore's office, and the narration speculates he's going to wander through Grimmauld Place calling for his descendant. He never does return, either.
  • Grawp saves Hermione and Harry from the centaurs. Then he asks them where "Hagger" is and starts crying when "Hermy" says that she doesn't know. "GRAWP WANT HAGGER!" (Thank goodness Hagrid comes back that night and makes up with his little brother.)
  • The scene where Umbridge tries arresting Hagrid, rather than firing him, during the O.W.L. astronomy exam. At first, Professor Tofty is reminding everyone to focus because that's his job. Then he sees the Aurors shooting Five Stunners at Minerva In the Back. He goes Oh, Crap! and Everyone Has Standards, saying that's not fair. Needless to say, few students finish completing their star chart as Hagrid runs into the night with an injured Fang.
  • Lee Jordan goes My God, What Have I Done? when Hermione explains that Umbridge blamed Hagrid for the Nifflers getting into her office. He confesses that he was doing it, using a levitation spell. No one blames him for causing good trouble.
  • Cho does not have a good year, to put it lightly. Her boyfriend was murdered, and the only witness to his death is crushing on her. She doesn't consider going to Luna for advice because no one knows that Luna's mother died when she was younger, and the girl is considered a Cloud Cuckoolander even by Ravenclaw standards. Despite herself, Cho bonds with Harry and kisses him a few times because he's the last connection to Cedric that they both have. Harry, in the meantime, is feeling guilty about this — it's his fault Cedric died, he believes— and they have a fight on their first date about it. Then her best friend betrays her and the DA, dissolving it and sending Dumbledore, their last protection, on the run, and allowing a bunch of power-hungry Slytherins to dock points while Umbridge starts her sadistic reign. Oh, and Harry breaks up with her for trying to defend Marietta, telling her rightly that the other girl's actions were inexcusable because Marietta sold out her best friend under the lame-ass reason that her mother's job was in peril. You can't blame Cho for being a mess for the rest of the year, knowing she was partly responsible for the way things went with Harry, the school, and Marietta.
  • Marietta's Oh, Crap! when she has SNEAK written in pustules across her forehead is satisfying for some readers. The sad part is, she's wailing in pain and embarrassment while covering her face. For the rest of the year, she's labelled as the student who sold out Dumbledore, including her fellow Ravenclaws, and the acne marks are permanent. Even supreme Healer Madam Pomfrey can't remove them. Don't cross Hermione.

     From the Film 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trelawneysacked.png
"Hogwarts is my home!"
  • A subtle one right out of the gate, with Harry brooding alone at a playground and watching a mother and son leaving the park. And Harry just stares at the empty roundabout and you know that he's thinking about, among other things, how much he misses his own mother and how he never got to have moments like that. Then Dudley shows up with his gang and reminds him as much.
  • The scene where Umbridge fires Trelawney. "Hogwarts is my home!"
    • It's even sadder when the poor woman breaks down while most of the students and a few teachers are looking in on the scene. Good thing McGonagall and Dumbledore were there to stop Umbridge.
    • One can only imagine that Harry, who felt the same way about Hogwarts and, for a few short moments the previous summer, was actually expelled from the place, actually sympathised with Trelawney for once.
    • Hermione's reaction. She always seemed indifferent about Trelawney, not really taking her seriously. But, like Harry, she actually feels bad for the woman.
  • Umbridge is already a vile piece of work, but in the film, it is revealed she uses her quill on little kids, saying "naughty children deserve to be punished."
  • One of the most memorable parts is Harry and Luna in the forest with the Thestrals. If you've ever been ousted from peer groups for being odd or different, this scene hits very close to home.
    Luna: They're called Thestrals. They're quite gentle, really, but people avoid them because they're a bit...
    Harry: Different.
    • Made even sadder when the only reason that Harry and Luna can see the Thestrals because Harry couldn't at first, is that they've seen death. Insert a flashback of the previous film's climactic scene and aftermath.
    • In other words, Luna watched her mother die. Said death was also implied to not have been pretty. At all. In Luna's own words, "It was quite horrible."
    • Luna is also barefoot in this scene. She says it's because all her shoes have disappeared and that she suspects Nargles are behind it, but maybe it's because she likes being barefoot.
    • It's mentioned in Hogwarts Mystery that years later after the war, Professor McGonagall notices a spike in the number of students that can see Thestrals...
  • Every scene with Harry and Sirius together:
    • Whenever Harry and Sirius hug. Every single time.
    • Sirius showing his spot of the Black Family Tree that his own mother burned off after he ran away from home ("Charming woman"). Then he tells him he went to stay with James Potter's family ("I was always welcome at the Potters").
      • Previously, we had only seen bits of Sirius's damage from his stay in Azkaban, and that was mostly the screaming newspaper photo and how he acted after he met up with his old friends in the Shrieking Shack. This shows that the scars and damage are much deeper.
    • When Sirius tells Harry that, when the war is over, they can finally be a proper family. A Heartwarming Moment, yes, but also a Tearjerker because Sirius dies before they can. The next time they meet, in fact.
    • Sirius's death. Even for those who don't cry very often at films, this was absolutely devastating.
    • The line:
      Sirius: Nice one, James!
      • Not just because those are his last words, but also because he sees himself fighting alongside his deceased friend one more time.
  • Hagrid's plea to the Trio to look after Grawp for him. He's such a big softy.
    • Grawp's face after Hermoine demands to be put down. He looks hurt.
  • The scene where Fred and George sit down to comfort a crying first-year after he's been punished. They show him their hands and say, "See, it's not so bad. You can hardly see the scars." Despite being comedic characters, they're also good men, protecting and comforting the weak when they need it. And that's why the two slacker jokesters are Gryffindors.
  • The utter despondency and grief on Remus's face when Sirius gets killed.
    • And Harry's absolute anguish during this scene is heartbreaking. After Sirius goes through the arch, the score starts playing over the scene so that you don't hear any of the character's voices. But then you see Harry stare at the arch in horror and say "No!" Then it cuts to him screaming in agony as Lupin tries to calm him down. You really do want to see Bellatrix get her comeuppance as she gleefully sings "I killed Sirius Black!".
      • And the worst part was that Daniel Radcliffe wasn't miming that scream. The reason you don't hear any audio at that moment was that they cut it during post-production. Apparently, it was too agonizing.
  • Bellatrix gets a tiny one while still being a monster. Harry chases her down as she's mocking him, and he uses the Cruciatus Curse. As in the book, it knocks her down for a few seconds because it's only righteous fury. Then it's not her telling him he has to want to hurt her for the curse to work; it's Voldemort. The man shows up behind Harry, encouraging him to torture one of his most faithful Death Eaters. Bellatrix looks more hurt by this than the curse itself, that Voldemort would treat her as another of his playthings. Harry himself is disgusted, and he drops his wand knowing he's a dead kid.
    Voldemort: You know the spell, Harry.
  • Dumbledore trying to reach Harry through Voldemort's possession of the latter, stunned and near tears with a real look of concern on his face.
    Dumbledore: Harry, it's not how you are alike. It's how you are not.
    • When Harry is possessed by Voldemort and fights back by remembering everything which makes them different.
      Harry: You're the weak one. And you'll never know love. Or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.
  • The Trio first trying to recruit students to train against the Dark Arts. Everyone there still doesn't believe Harry about Voldemort's return, so Hermione and Ron start gloating about Harry's accomplishments, but Harry points out that he did all those things when he was about to die and that he doesn't want anyone going through anything similar. His candor about danger is what convinces everyone he's telling the truth.
    Harry: Look, it all sounds "great" when you put that way, but the truth is most of that was just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time, and I nearly always had help. (...) In school, if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow, but out there, when you're a second away from being murdered... or watching a friend die right before your eyes... you [all] don't know what that's like.
  • The flashback that reveals that Snape was bullied by the Marauders, which is made actually worse in this version by the fact that Lily is seemingly not present to come to his defence here. Snape is just sitting by himself, minding his own business, then the Marauders suddenly come in, disarm him of his wand, and string him up for no other reason than thinking it's funny. It makes him come off as an even bigger victim than he already was in the book.
  • Neville's Backstory.
  • Cho standing silently in the hallway as the students walk around her while completely ignoring her presence, treating her like an outcast for revealing the existence of Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge (though not outright stated, it is implied she may have been forced to do so with Veritaserum). When she tries to reach out to Harry, he ignores her too.

Top