History Awesome / HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix

* One of Neville is crippled, unable to cast spells, and still [[EyeScream stabs a Death Eater in the eye]] with Hermione's wand. While it would be awesome in any context, it's made more so given how few {{combat pragmatist}}s we see in the series, especially amongst the purebloods.

** The fact that Harry, after noticing Kingsley's spell, is capable of recognizing the effects of the Memory Charm in Marietta, and [[AwesomenessByAnalysis links the two facts in about five seconds]].

* Harry averting LoveMakesYouDumb when he calls out Cho for defending Marietta. Yes, it's a KickTheDog moment where he tells her not to run off crying, but also Harry is not going to just let his crush for a girl forget that her so-called best friend would have let them all get expelled. He's right that Marietta made a choice, and it's her fault Umbridge became headmistress. What's more, Harry realizes that his crush was just an infatuation because if he actually knew Cho, he would have known about her irrational loyalty to Marietta. Then he's fine with moving on from her when she goes on to date Michael Corner.

** [=McGonagall=]'s answer to Umbridge about Harry getting poor grades in her subject: "I should have made my meaning plainer. He has achieved high marks in all Defense Against the Dark Arts tests by a ''competent'' teacher." which, at that point, pretty much meant the fake Moody from the previous year... and [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lupin]]. [[FantasticRacism Umbridge must have loved that]].

** [=McGonagall=]'s answer to Umbridge about Harry getting poor grades in her subject: "I should have made myself plainer: he has achieved high scores on exams applied by a ''competent'' teacher." which, at that point, pretty much meant the fake Moody from the previous year... and [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lupin]]. [[FantasticRacism Umbridge must have loved that]].

*** Just to hammer it home -- Hagrid's hands are, in the first book, described as being "as big as dustbin lids". This means that two of the Aurors were knocked unconscious by hands the size of dustbin lids hitting them with all the force an eleven-foot-six-inch-tall half-giant ''can'' hit someone with.

*** Which is mildly degraded by the fact that this (''very'' inadvertently) led to Dumbledore's death.
*** But Dumbledore would've died anyway due to wearing Gaunt's ring later that summer. So this actually gave Dumbledore a quick and painless way out ''and'' prevented Voldemort from gaining full control of the Elder Wand even if his plan didn't quite go right.

* Hermione showing just how much she owned Rita in the Three Broomsticks. Also [[KickTheSonOfABitch (while pretty cruel)]] that she had the foresight to see that one of DA might betray them and came up with a jinx that even Pomfrey couldn't remove to mark them -- and her spell incapacitated Marietta enough that she was prevented from spilling too much about the DA. ''Not to mention'' that she came up with a pretty good lie to keep Umbridge from torturing Harry later on.

* One for Harry for his teaching style. He made sure that the DA learn Defense Against the Dark Arts so thoroughly, that the effects of the training is seen in later books. In fact, by the last book, of all the organisations opposing Voldemort, the DA is the only one which casualties are minimal.[[note]]Just three: Colin Creevey, Fred Weasley and Lavender Brown.[[/note]]

* Dumbledore showing up right when the Order members begin losing to the Death Eaters. By the time the Death Eaters realize what's going on, Dumbledore already has his wand out and quickly disables all of them (except Bellatrix Lestrange and he even gets her soon enough). [[HopeBringer As soon as he arrives, Harry instantly thought to himself "we are saved" before Dumbledore had even done anything except show up!]] For some reason, this was completely left out of the film!

** It’s also very possible that Dumbledore visited and somehow helped Hagrid’s half brother Grawp, as it’s mentioned shortly afterward that Grawp started behaving better.

** What about the doctors at St. Minho’s who actually healed him? Don’t they deserve some credit?

* Dumbledore showing up right when the Order members begin losing to the Death Eaters. By the time the Death Eaters realize what's going on, Dumbledore already has his wand out and quickly disables all of them (except Bellatrix Lestrange and he even gets her soon enough). [[HopeBringer As soon as he arrives, Harry instantly thought to himself "we are saved" before Dumbledore had even done anything except show up!]]

-->'''Umbridge:''' So - you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?\\

** He's probably (read: definitely) right; [=McGonagall=] was able ''to keep James Potter and Sirius Black in line'' in her classes - a miracle in itself and apparently only Dumbledore and James's parents managed it before - so Umbridge has no chance in hell of following her around.

** On a similar note, her inability to join Peeves in chasing Umbridge from the school is because he had stolen her walking stick, which he used to whack Umbridge with. The way it's written - and said, on the audio tape - makes it plainly clear that Peeves went to [=McGonagall=] ''and told her explicitly what he was going to use it for and she '''allowed''' him to use it.''

** Even better, Dumbledore is showing that living "forever" isn't bad - ''Fawkes'' lives forever (or, at least, dies and comes back over and over again for all of his many lives). It's not immortality that's bad - it's ''Voldemort'' that is the problem. What you do with "forever" is what's important - look at Flamel; he ''literally found a way to achieve immortality'' and discovered many uses of Dragon's Blood, but all Voldemort wants to do is murder.

*** Just to hammer it home - Hagrid's hands are, in the first book, described as being "as big as dustbin lids". This means that two of the Aurors were knocked unconscious by hands the size of dustbin lids hitting them with all the force an eleven-foot-six-inch-tall half-giant ''can'' hit someone with.

*** For Neville, it's not ''just'' because Bellatrix is an evil wizard - ''ItsPersonal''. No wonder Neville's kicking up a fuss. His parents have ''literally gone bat-shit insane because of her'' and he wants to avenge them and, by God, he intends to, his own safety be damned.
* "Weasley Is Our King" is transformed from a mocking taunt to a song of triumph - one of the few victories that Ron wins for himself.

** And how does Harry subdue her temporarily? ''[[AgonyBeam The Cruciatus Curse.]]'' Harry pulls out an Unforgivable Curse, he's just that angry. But Harry's real Moment of Awesome is that it only works temporarily, since as Bellatrix says, "you have to really mean them. Righteous anger won't hurt me for long." Despite being the angriest he's been in a book full of him being angry, Harry's still a fundamentally good enough person that he doesn't want to see a person he hates suffer horribly for no reason.

*** Moody took Tonks as his "protegée". Apparently Moody really ''is'' a good teacher, as he taught a woman who is always falling over due to her constantly shifting centre of balance to be a competent fighter.

* J.K. Rowling has revealed that, no matter what anyone else thinks, Luna is perfectly fine with how she is - she just gives no fucks to anyone else's thoughts: ''she'' is happy with who she is. Who else can say ''that?''

* Small one for Cho. When Filch is antagonizing Harry about a letter, trying to meddle in his private business, Cho backs him up - and in the audiobooks, Stephen Fry gives her a tone that's daring Filch to try anything.

*** Lucius Malfoy, pure-blood extremist. Meet the fist - a ''Muggle'' form of fighting.

* When The Wizengamot is voting whether to convict Harry or not, Madame Bones raises her hand to pardon him. As she does so, ''she meets Fudge's eyes and '''glares.''''' When the head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement - who, it's implied, ''was not consulted before the expulsion and the trial occurs'' - glares at you, you ''know'' you've fucked up.

* Professor Umbridge is begging for her life, pleading to not be attacked by the centaurs she rather stupidly insulted to their faces, one of whom she nearly ''strangled to death''. She pleads, "Potter, do something! Tell them I mean no harm!" Harry - clearly remembering her [[ColdBloodedTorture 'punishment']] - just glares at her and coldly replies:

* An off-screen moment of awesome for the Longbottoms, then part of the first Order of the Phoenix, who were tortured with the Cruciatus Curse for information by Bellatrix - and never gave in. Even in absolute agony, and knowing that their spouse was also being tortured (possibly just a room, or a few feet, away), and they still didn't give away any information.
** Not that it diminishes what they managed to do, but there was little they could say - they didn’t have any information on where Voldemort was, but the Lestranges and Barry Crouch Jr. thought the Longbottoms did and that’s why the couple were tortured.

** Back at Hogwarts, when Seamus antagonises Harry, Ron comes to his defence and calls Seamus - and the entire common room - on the fact that if they have a problem with Harry, they have one with him too.

[[folder: Book]]

*** Even better - Dumbledore says he wouldn't want to break out of Azkaban ''because it's a waste of his time and he'd rather be doing something else'', but he later breaks ''into'' the Ministry of Magic - apparently without breaking a sweat.

[[folder: Movie]]

** After Umbridge left, Flitwick removed the swamp they made, which Umbridge had been trying to get rid of for months with no success, in about ''3 seconds'', leaving just a small patch, commenting it was "A nice piece of Charms work".

** Not that it diminishes what they managed to do, but there was little they could say - they were tortured by the Lestranges and Barty Crouch, Jr. because the latter thought they had information about where Voldemort was after attacking the Potters.

*** It then becomes even more awesome when you remember that, in ''Deathly Hallows'', we see ''[[MamaBear just]] [[BerserkButton how]] [[OneHitKill scary]]'' Molly can be when you royally and truly piss her off.

* "None of them had seen [[GentleGiant Hagrid]] in a [[UnstoppableRage real temper]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes before...]]" Umbridge has two teachers dismissed from Hogwarts during her reign as High Inquisitor: Professor Trelawney (Divination teacher) and Professor Hagrid (Care of Magical Creatures teacher), the former because she wasn't actually a prophet (or so she thought), the latter because [[FantasticRacism he was a half-giant]]. When Professor Trelawney is dismissed, she cries like a baby, ''begging'' Umbridge to let her stay, saying "Hogwarts is my home!" and generally being really pathetic, even though it was a sad scene nonetheless. When Hagrid is dismissed, does he cry? No. Does he beg to be allowed to stay? No. What does he do? He delivers an epic CurbStompBattle to the four Aurors (read: exceptionally powerful wizards) that came to take him away, with his ''bare hands'', '''''while holding his unconscious dog under his arm''''', while the whole time Stunning Spells are [[NoSell bouncing uselessly off him]] (which Hermione later explains is due to his giant's blood, giants being notoriously hard to Stun). [[DirtyCoward Umbridge]] [[OhCrap is]] [[Didn'tThinkThisThrough freaking]] '''''[[VillainousBreakdown terrified]]''''', two of the Aurors get knocked out cold by Hagrid (who as mentioned before, is not using any magic, and is facing a team of the most highly-skilled wizards there are), and it ends with Hagrid fleeing into the ''Forbidden Forest'', [[ShootingSuperman still being bombarded with spells that are doing absolutely nothing to him]].