Harry Potter HFriday - Part the It's Finally Here

Oooorder of the Phoenix!! This one is my favorite (I may have mentioned). A lot of people seem to feel like this one is too angsty; that Harry whines and then rages too much, that it's too dark, or whatever.

That may be true, but in my fairly extensive experience of teenagers, ALL 15-year-olds are angsty and whiny and rage-y. Especially when they have some serious PTSD from the utter LACK of true adult supervision at their school and the fact that their surrogate mother/aunt NEVER HUGGED THEM. Petunia, you are awful. Remember my last, indeed.


I have like 20+ notes on this, so I may have to just resort to bullet points.

• Even though Harry's a bit of a prat here (lookit me, using English slang like a prefect!), he continually re-evaluates and tries to be honest with himself. This makes him a FAR better teenager than I was - based solely on how I remember nothing but feeeeeeeeelings from about age 13 to 19. 
• Hermione and Ron are Good and Loyal Friends, and it is great how they aren't afraid to tell Harry when he's taking shit out on them. Harry, in turn, throws a little inward fit but does try to be better. 
• I'm always surprised by Hermione's insights in this book. She's growing up to be quite the intuitive young lady, which is rare for someone as book-smart as she is. Hermione's a catch, is what I'm saying.
• HOW GREAT is all the dark magic stuff in the pre-Hogwart's chapters? 
• Molly and the boggart.

• LUNA. LOVEGOOD. 

• Umbridge: worse than any teacher any of us could possibly have ever had, and the worst is yet to come. She makes me want to rub my hands together and cackle with glee every time she shows up because I know it's going to be so delightfully infuriating. 

• "...but [Harry] was impatient with all [Mrs. Weasley's] mollycoddling..." 



I see what you did there, JK.