The Short Version
Today we are rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book five of seven, with a magnifying glass, because this is a book that plants its secrets everywhere.
Fair warning. This video has spoilers for the ending, and near the end I will flag payoffs from later books in the series, so skip that part if you are still reading. Here is the short version. The door, the dreams, the weapon, Neville, Kreacher, the Thestrals and Sirius’s gift are all quietly set up long before the Ministry.
The Dream Of The Door
Let’s start with Harry’s dreams. As the book goes on, he keeps walking down a plain corridor with torches, towards a black door. Each time, he gets a little closer, and each time he wakes up shaken.
The clue is that Harry has already been there. On the day of his hearing, Mr Weasley takes him down a corridor, past a plain black door, and then off to the left down some steps. Harry does not think anything of it.
It only clicks later, during an Occlumency lesson, when he sees that memory again and realizes his dreams are of a real place. Snape tells him that there are many things in the Department of Mysteries, and none of them concern him.
The Weapon That Wasn’t
Next, the weapon. At Grimmauld Place, Sirius says that Voldemort is after a weapon, something he did not have last time. Harry spends half the book convinced that he knows what it means.
At one point he even decides that he himself is the weapon, because he saw through the snake’s eyes when Mr Weasley was attacked. Then he relaxes, and thinks he is not the weapon after all.
Hermione deduces that whatever it is must be guarded by protective spells, and that is why an employee of the Department of Mysteries ended up in St Mungo’s. She is right. And that same man, Bode, rode the lift with Harry on the day of his hearing, and stared at him all the way down.
The Prophecy And Neville
The word prophecy is almost absent from the first thirty chapters. Instead, Rowling gives us hints. The Hog’s Head is where Hermione holds the first meeting of the secret group, and she says nobody will overhear. In the end we learn the prophecy was made there, and was overheard.
Now Neville. His mother and father are patients at St Mungo’s, and his gran takes him to see them at Christmas. We learn that Bellatrix Lestrange tortured them. At the Ministry, Neville’s wand is his father’s, and it breaks. And when Umbridge asks if he can see Hagrid’s Thestrals, he says yes, because he watched his grandfather die.
All of this sets up Dumbledore’s reveal. The prophecy could have been about Neville, but Voldemort chose Harry. Two boys, two sets of parents, one scar.
Kreacher
Kreacher is the sneakiest clue in the book. In the first weeks at Grimmauld Place, he is always muttering, always stealing things back from the rubbish. He mutters that Sirius’s friends are plotting against the Dark Lord, and he means it as an insult.
In the cleaning scene, the group finds a heavy locket that none of them can open. They also find a golden ring with the Black crest. Kreacher keeps trying to smuggle things out of the rubbish, and he bursts into tears when Sirius takes the ring.
Then he disappears. Sirius shouts at him to get out. Nobody sees him for weeks, until Sirius says he was lurking in the attic. When he reappears he is in a better mood, and he stares at Harry. Hermione had even left him a present, a quilt. Dumbledore later says Kreacher went to Narcissa Malfoy.
The Mirror And The Thestrals
Sirius’s gift is another small seed. As Harry leaves for school after Christmas, Sirius hands him a badly wrapped package, and tells him to use it if he needs him. Harry thinks he will never use it, because he refuses to lure Sirius out of safety.
Only at the end do we learn it was a two way mirror. It’s a bittersweet clue, because the mirror is where the book hides its biggest irony. If Harry had remembered it, he could have called Sirius to check.
And then the Thestrals. On the first night back, Harry sees them for the first time, pulling the school carriages. Later, Hagrid teaches a class about them, and says that once they are tamed you will never be lost again, just tell them where you want to go. That is exactly how six students reach the Ministry.
Umbridge, The Quill And The Centaurs
Umbridge’s blood quill is a clue about her character rather than the plot. The words I must not tell lies are cut into the back of Harry’s hand, and they scar. It tells you right away that she is cruel in a deliberate way.
More important is her contempt for creatures she calls half breeds. She warns about dangerous half breeds in her very first lesson, and she calls Hagrid one at the end. In the Forest, she uses the same word on centaurs, and that choice is her downfall.
Even the Dementors in chapter one are a clue. At the end, in her office, Umbridge casually admits that she sent them after Harry.
The Dreams And The Scar
Look back at Harry’s scar and the dreams. Throughout the book, Dumbledore will hardly look at him. It stings, but the reason is that Dumbledore fears something of Voldemort stirs behind Harry’s eyes.
Dumbledore tells Harry that Voldemort might possess him, and that is why he kept his distance. Once you know that, every missed meeting and every awkward silence takes on a new meaning.
Series Spoilers
This is your series spoiler warning. If you have not finished all seven books, skip ahead to the last section.
First, the locket. It is not just a creepy heirloom. In book seven it turns out to be one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, taken by Regulus Black, and Kreacher is the one who knows its story. Kreacher goes from villain to hero.
Second, Neville. In the final book he becomes a leader of Dumbledore’s Army, and he is the one who kills Nagini with the sword of Gryffindor. The prophecy that nearly named him comes full circle.
Third, the mirror. A shard of it comes back in book seven, and it helps summon rescue when Harry needs it most.
Fourth, the veil. Luna says the voices are just out of sight, and in the last book Harry sees those he lost. And Snape’s worst memory, with the girl who stood up for him, is the key to his story in book seven.
Final Thoughts
That is the pattern of this book. A door, a dream, a locket, a gift. Each of them looks small, and each of them pays off.
Rowling plays fair, and that is why the Ministry sequence feels earned. If you spotted these clues the first time, I am impressed. Tell me in the comments, which clue did you miss? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.
