The story continues with Harry's second year at Hogwarts. Several new characters are introduced, such as Moaning Myrtle, Gilderoy Lockhart, Colin Creevy, Ginny Weasley and Dobby.

Harry is warned by Dobby, a house elf belonging to Lucius Malfoy, that he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts for his second year. Harry is still determined to return despite Dobby's advice, pleas, and attempts to stop him using magic. The Dursleys have locked away his books and wand, so Harry is a prisoner, but the Weasleys come to the rescue in their dad's flying car. After spending a pleasant summer with his best friend Ron, the whole family go off to platform 9¾ for the school train, but Harry and Ron are unable to enter the platform. In desperation, Harry and Ron take the car and fly to Hogwarts where they crash land, breaking Ron's wand.

Harry finds himself at the center of attention of three people: the vain new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, admirer Colin Creevy who loves taking photos, and Ron's sister Ginny Weasley who has a crush on Harry. Events take a really bad turn when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and something goes on a rampage, turning students into statues. According to legend, the Chamber was built by Salazar Slytherin and can be opened only by his true heir to purge Hogwarts of students who are not pure-blood wizards. Many suspect Harry of being the Heir, especially after he inadvertently speaks Parseltongue (the language of snakes), a distinctive ability of Dark wizards which Harry gained when Voldemort tried to kill him as a baby. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend the majority of the novel trying to discover the true identity of the Heir of Slytherin.

The attacks increase in frequency, leaving more pertified characters in the hospital wing, including Hermione. To top it all, a message is written on a wall declaring that a student - Ginny Weasley - has been taken into the Chamber, where "her bones will lie forever."

With Ron's help, Harry discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, where he discovers that it was Ginny who opened the Chamber, but that she wasn't acting of her own free will - she was possessed by Lord Voldemort, whose name at school was Tom Riddle. Riddle had imprinted a memory of himself in an enchanted diary, hoping to one day continue the work he had begun when he first opened the Chamber fifty years ago. That time, Hagrid had been blamed for what happened and had been expelled from the school.

The memory of Tom Riddle becomes steadily more alive as it steals the life from Ginny. It tries to kill Harry by setting loose the basilisk (the monster responsible for petrifying the students) but Dumbledore sends Fawkes, his phoenix, to give Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk so that it cannot use its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. Riddle is vanquished and Ginny restored to life when the diary is destroyed. The petrified students are restored to normal. Lucius Malfoy had owned the diary and must have given it to Ginny, but there is no evidence to prove what he did. The remains of the diary are returned to Lucius but Harry places a sock inside it. Lucius hands the book to his house elf Dobby, unwittingly giving him a gift of clothing, which is the traditional way a master frees a house-elf. Dobby is free and becomes forever grateful to Harry.

Meanwhile, Gilderoy Lockhart has been exposed by Harry and Ron as a fraud who wipes the memories of others and claims their achievements. When Lockhart tries to wipe their memories using Ron's malfunctioning wand, the spell backfires and wipes his memory instead, leaving him permanently confused and confined to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies.

The Quidditch World Cup

In this book, Harry Potter spends the end of his summer with the Weasleys in anticipation of the Quidditch World Cup. During the World Cup, a group of Death Eaters attack a number of Muggle bystanders, but flee when the Dark Mark - Voldemort's sign - mysteriously appears above them. The sign is found to have been made by a wand found with Winky, the House-Elf of Barty Crouch, a respected official at the Ministry of Magic. Winky is fired by her master at once. Crouch's treatment of Winky prompts Hermione to start campaigning for elves' rights.

The Tri-Wizard Tournament

There is a surprise in store for Hogwarts students at the start of the new school year. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is famed Auror (a wizard trained to fight the Dark Arts) Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, an old eccentric who manages to simultaneously terrify, awe and amuse the students with his combined paranoia and astonishing knowledge and intelligence. What is more, the Triwizard Tournament, a centuries-old interschool competition that was banned for years due to its increasingly dangerous "tasks" is to be restarted, and to be held at Hogwarts. The names of all intending participants will be put into a goblet - known as the Goblet of Fire - which will shoot out one name from each of the three competing wizarding schools (Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang). After choosing famous international Quidditch player and Durmstrang student Viktor Krum, eerily beautiful Beauxbatons student Fleur Delacour , and Hogwarts Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory , the Goblet spits out Harry's name - although he is too young to have added his name to the Goblet and a Hogwarts champion has already been selected. Harry is forced to participate although he suspects that he has been deliberately put in grave danger. Many students are outraged (particularly as their best efforts to put their names in the Goblet failed) and to Harry's intense dismay, his best friend Ron Weasley is suddenly jealous.

The First Task is an unknown challenge, but Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid reveals it to Harry as well as to Madame Maxime, the enormous, elegant Headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy. For the First Task, The champions must battle a dragon in order to retrieve a golden egg from among her own eggs. Igor Karkaroff, Headmaster of the Durmstrang Institute sees the dragons, although from a hiding place. This leaves Cedric Diggory as the only champion not knowing what awaits him. Harry feels it is unfair that all the other champions are aware of what awaits them in the First Task, and informs Diggory. He is surprised when, after Diggory walks away, Professor Moody calls Harry into his study and, not only praises him for telling Diggory about the task, but then hints at how Harry can successfully complete the First Task. At the start of the First Task, the champions randomly draw a numbered miniature dragon from a silk bag, which indicates which species of dragon they will face and in which order the champions will complete their task. Harry is number four, and draws the Hungarian Horntail, supposedly the most dangerous dragon of them all. Harry, with the aid of his broomstick, outmanouvers the dragon and manages to steal the golden egg with only one injury in his shoulder. The task is terrifying for Harry's friends Ron and Hermione, and Harry's friendship with Ron is saved once Ron realises just how perilous the Tournament will be for Harry.

The golden egg provides the clue to the Second Task, which takes place in February.

In the last part of the Tournament - in which the four competitors have to run through a maze populated by many dangerous creatures - Harry and Cedric arrive at the trophy (placed in the centre of the maze) first and decide, because of the help they provided to each other, to grab the trophy at the same time, since it will be a Hogwarts victory anyway.

Confrontation in the Graveyard

The trophy turns out to be a Portkey, a magical object which transports them to a graveyard - where they find Peter Pettigrew (also known as Wormtail) and Lord Voldemort. Peter kills Cedric using the unstoppable Avada Kedavra curse, then uses Harry's blood as part of a macabre ritual which results in Voldemort being reborn, more powerful than before, and immune to the charm which had prevented him from harming Harry twice in the past. Voldemort then summons the Death Eaters and attempts to kill Harry, to prove that "the boy who lived" will not be his undoing again. However, because Harry's and Voldemort's wands are formed from the same core - a feather from Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes - a freak phenomenon known as Priori Incantatem occurs, in which the wands connect by a golden light and Voldemort's wand begins to produce ghostly echoes of its past victims - including Harry's parents. The echoes hold off Voldemort while Harry escapes the Death Eaters (Voldemort's supporters) and his deadly enemy to the trophy which transports him and Cedric's body back to Hogwarts.

Barty Crouch, Jr. Revealed

On reaching Hogwarts again, Harry lands in the centre of the confusion caused by his disappearance. He is led up to the castle by his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and Auror (Dark-wizard-catcher), Professor Moody. Moody reveals himself as a Death Eater, saying that it was he who put Harry's name into the Goblet, and who ensured that Harry made it through the three rounds of the tournament so that he would be delivered to Voldemort. As Moody is about to attack Harry, Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall barge into the room, and stop Moody. After Dumbledore's interrogation of "Prof. Moody", it is revealed that "Moody" was Barty Crouch's son in disguise. The real Professor Moody had been kept imprisoned in a magical trunk for the entire year.

Having learned that Voldemort had risen again, Dumbledore began proceedings to restart the Order of the Phoenix. Snape and the Durmstrang Headmaster are revealed as ex-Death Eaters. Barty Crouch Jr. has his soul sucked out by a Dementor before he can repeat his story to The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. The Minister refuses to believe that Voldemort has risen again on the word of Dumbledore and Harry, which results in Dumbledore being removed from several important posts within the wizard community, and the reputation of Harry Potter (and Dumbledore) being trampled judiciously in the next book.

P.s i dont think they metioned this...but harry had devolped a crush...Cho chang

Severus Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Draco Malfoy's mother Narcissa that he will protect Draco and aid him in his first, unspecified, mission as a Death Eater.

Security measures have been increased at Hogwarts. Snape is given his coveted Defence Against the Dark Arts post while Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter persuade Horace Slughorn to return from retirement to replace Snape as Potions teacher. Slughorn lends Harry an old textbook marked as the property of the "Half-Blood Prince". Its handwritten notes help Harry to outdo even Hermione in Potions.

Using his Pensieve, Dumbledore shows Harry a number of memories throwing light on Voldemort's past. Dumbledore theorises that Voldemort has split his own soul into seven parts, storing six of the pieces in Horcruxes: magical objects which grant immortality as long as they exist. While two of Voldemort's Horcruxes have already been destroyed (Tom Riddle's diary by Harry^[HP2] and Marvolo Gaunt's ring by Dumbledore), Dumbledore believes that there are four more that must be destroyed. He and Harry set off to retrieve one (Salazar Slytherin's locket), but Dumbledore is heavily weakened by drinking the potion guarding it.

The two return to find the Dark Mark over Hogwarts and Death Eaters attacking students and staff. As they investigate, they are surprised by Draco. Dumbledore paralyses Harry, who is wearing his invisibility cloak and cannot be seen. Harry witnesses all the events that follow but remains invisible. Draco reveals that he let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts via a magical cabinet. Other Death Eaters soon arrive and urge Draco to fulfil his mission, but he hesitates. Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore with the Avada Kedavra, fulfilling his vow to Draco's mother. With Dumbledore's death, the spell is broken Harry is again free to move. Harry pursues Snape, who identifies himself as the Half-Blood Prince before fleeing Hogwarts.

Minerva McGonagall becomes the interim headmistress of Hogwarts, but she and the other teachers fear that the school may have to be closed down. Harry discovers that the locket he and Dumbledore recovered is a fake. The actual locket was taken by a mysterious "R.A.B.". After Dumbledore's funeral, Harry decides not to return to school so that he can devote his time to destroying the remaining Horcruxes and defeating Voldemort. He tells his friends Hermione and Ron about his decision, and the two insist on coming with him to seek out the Dark Lord. The book ends with Harry's observation that, whatever the future brings, at least he'll get to spend one more summer day with Hermione and Ron.

Harry's life at the Dursleys takes a horrible turn when his Aunt Marge comes to stay. Although Harry is well aware of the Hogwarts prohibition on students doing magic outside of school, Aunt Marge's cruel insults toward his parents so enrage him that he unintentionally and unconsciously "blows her up" (makes her expand in size) and she floats away on her own hot air.

Harry runs away from the Dursleys and is picked up by the Knight Bus; en route to London he learns that a dangerous wizard criminal named Sirius Black has escaped from the terrifying wizard prison, Azkaban. Harry is found but—to his bewilderment—not punished by the Ministry of Magic for blowing up his aunt.

Harry soon learns why: Sirius Black is believed to be after him, and the Ministry of Magic seems more concerned about his safety than about the fact that he blew up his aunt. There are visible signs of tighter security in the wizarding world. The Minister of Magic informs the Muggle Prime Minister of Black's escape from prison. Hogwarts School is now protected by the Dementors of Azkaban to prevent Black from getting into the grounds. The mystery deepens as Harry discovers that Black has mysterious ties with his own parents and their death at the hands of Lord Voldemort.

The story takes an unexpected turn when Harry finds that Sirius Black was innocent and wrongly sent to Azkaban. The real criminal is Peter Pettigrew, who is believed dead at the hands of Sirius Black. It was Pettigrew who betrayed Harry's parents to Lord Voldemort, and later killed a number of Muggles in an incident for which he framed Sirius Black and faked his own death. Pettigrew turned out to be an animagus, a wizard who can take the form of a particular animal at will, and had really spent the last twelve years disguised as Ron's rat, Scabbers.

Pettigrew gets away and the Ministry refuses to believe Harry, Ron and Hermione's tale. Dumbledore does believe the story however, and they sneak Sirius to freedom on the back of a hippogriff.

Harry is wandering about Little Whinging arguing with his cousin Dudley, when he is attacked by Dementors. Harry drives them off with a Patronus Charm, although Dudley is hurt. A neighbour, Arabella Figg, comes to help, revealing that she has been asked by Albus Dumbledore to keep an eye on Harry. Back home, Harry receives a letter stating that he has been suspended from Hogwarts (as students are forbidden to do any magic outside of school), and must appear at a hearing at the Ministry of Magic to explain his actions.

Cover of the UK Adult Edition, Bloomsbury

Several members of the Order of the Phoenix come to escort Harry safely to their headquarters at the Black family home, 12 Grimmauld Place. The Weasleys, Hermione, and Harry’s godfather Sirius Black are all already there. Harry is upset because, on Dumbledores orders, no one has been telling him what has been happening in the fight against Lord Voldemort. Minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge, refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned, and has been been using The Daily Prophet to publish articles discrediting Harry and Dumbledore.

Harry is taken to the hearing by Mr. Weasley. They arrive barely in time, as the time and place have been changed without telling them. Dumbledore also arrives just in time bringing Mrs Figg as witness that Harry acted in self-defence. As they leave, Harry is disturbed to see Lucius Malfoy, a known Death Eater visiting Fudge at the ministry.

The friends return to Hogwarts, meeting [[Luna Lovegood] on the train. Hagrid has not returned to the school, and Dolores Umbridge has been appointed by the ministry to become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. It becomes clear she has been appointed to take control of the school, and refuses to teach her classes anything useful to fight Voldemort. She is appointed High Inquisitor and starts to intimidate staff and students alike.

Ron is made the new keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The season starts well, but then Umbridge bans Harry, Fred and George from the team. Hagrid returns, revealing he was sent on a secret mission by Dumbledore to seek aid from the giants. Both he and Professor Sibyll Trelawney are under heavy scrutiny by Umbridge, as she views both of them as incompetent. Umbridge sacks Professor Trelawney, but Dumbledore manages to replace her with his own appointment, Firenze, before she can use her authority to impose another teacher.

Harry has had a number of strange dreams, mostly about running down a hallway and attempting to open a door in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. In one of these nightmares, Harry dreams that he is a snake attacking Ron's father, Arthur Weasley, who works at the Ministry. Waking up, Harry raises the alarm, believing his dream to have been a vision, and Arthur is indeed discovered with poisonous snake bites. Harry begins to wonder if he is being possessed and transported by Voldemort to do his bidding. Dumbledore reassures him, but asks Severus Snape to give Harry lessons in the art of Occlumency, the ability to block one's mind from another.

Hermione contacts the journalist Rita Skeeter, threatening to reveal to the authorities that she is an unregistered animagus unless she writes an article for Harry about Voldemort's return. Luna Lovegood's father runs The Quibbler', and he agrees to print the article. When it appears, Umbridge is furious. She bans the magazine, but the story spreads rapidly through the school.

Hermione convinces Harry that as Umbridge refuses to teach her subject, Harry must teach the students himself. They form the D.A., Defence Association, but this becomes Dumbledore’s Army, as Umbridge’s decrees controlling the school become more and more severe. Umbridge eventually discovers a meeting of the D.A, and catches Harry. Dumbledore pretends that it was he who organised the meetings, and is dismissed by Umbridge, who appoints herself as new headmaster. The Weasley twins use their talent for practical jokes to cause trouble around the school, while all of the teachers pointedly do nothing to help the new Headmistress. The twins set off one last prank as a decoy so that Harry can talk to Sirius via the fireplace in Umbridge's office. They quit in spectacular fashion to start their own joke shop, 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes', leaving a magical swamp inside the school.

Harry has another dream in which he sees Sirius captured in the Department of Mysteries, and being tortured. He makes a desperate attempt to contact Sirius via the fireplace in Umbridge's office, but the Black family's house-elf, Kreacher, deliberately tricks Harry into believing Sirius has vanished. Umbridge catches Harry, but Hermione fools Umbridge into believing that they have been hiding something in the woods. Umbridge reveals that it was she who had sent the Dementors to attack Harry. Once in the woods, Umbridge foolishly insults the centaurs, and in the confusion which follows Harry and company manage to find the school Thestrels, on which they fly to London and the Ministry of Magic.

Harry and some of the D.A. arrive in the Department of Mysteries which Harry saw in his dream, but find it occupied by a group of Death Eaters. The dream was not real, and had been a trap. Voldemort is seeking to steal a prophecy from the ministry, and needs Harry to be there to get it.

A great skirmish begins between the students and the Death Eaters. Most of the students are injured, but, as they near defeat, five of the adult wizards from the Order of the Phoenix appear to help them. During the ensuing battle, the glass sphere which holds the prophecy is shattered. Also, tragically, Sirius is struck by a curse from the wand of his cousin, the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, and dies. Dumbledore shows up and ropes off most of the Death Eaters, but Bellatrix escapes.

Harry blindly chases after Bellatrix and catches up with her in the main atrium of the Ministry of Magic, where they fight. Lord Voldemort himself appears inside the atrium and duels with Dumbledore. Alerted Ministry of Magic employees arrive in time to see Voldemort for themselves before he disapparates taking Bellatrix with him. Cornelius Fudge finally accepts that Voldemort has returned.

Long Plot Summary

The Order of the Phoenix

The story begins with Harry at the Dursleys' home experiencing some teenage angst. Harry is frustrated because he doesn't know what the newly-reborn Lord Voldemort is planning, and because his friends won't share any information through correspondence. After an argument with his aunt and uncle, Harry wanders around Little Whinging and meets his obnoxious cousin, Dudley. As the two boys are heading home, Dementors appear and attack them, but Harry drives them off with the Patronus Charm. This saves Dudley from having his soul sucked out, but still leaves him chilled and almost unconscious. Fortunately their neighbour, Mrs. Figg, arrives to help. She later reveals that she is a Squib and that she has been watching over Harry on Professor Dumbledore's instructions.

Once the boys arrive home, Vernon and Petunia turn on their nephew, blaming him for Dudley's condition. Vernon demands that Harry leave, even though Harry explains that Voldemort is after him. As this is going on, Harry receives a letter stating that he has been expelled from Hogwarts (as students are forbidden to do any magic outside of school) but then several more letters arrive in quick succession. Letters from Arthur Weasley and Sirius Black warn Harry not to leave the house, while another overturns his expulsion and orders him to appear at a hearing at the Ministry of Magic. The last letter is a Howler which screams "Remember my last, Petunia". Upon hearing this, Petunia insists that Harry will have to stay.

After being locked in his room for several days, a menagerie of wizards and witches comes to rescue Harry, Professor Remus Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody among them. They take him to 12 Grimmauld Place, the home of the Black family, who have used various techniques to hide the building, making it an ideal headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. The Weasleys, Hermione, and Sirius are all staying there. Sirius has been ordered not to leave the house because of the Ministry's continued search for him (see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). Harry finds himself angry and argumentative with those at Grimmauld Place, fuelled by his feeling that, despite his trust, they have not been honest with him. He is also disappointed to learn that Ron and Hermione have been made school Prefects, but he has not. They all maintain that Dumbledore ordered absolute secrecy, which is why Harry has not been made aware of events. Harry nonetheless manages to learn quite a bit about what has transpired since the end of the last school year.

Although both Harry and Dumbledore have told the world that Lord Voldemort has returned, no one believes them. Indeed, the complacent Ministry of Magic, keen to avoid panic, has been working to discredit them both, using the wizarding newspaper The Daily Prophet to suggest that Harry and Dumbledore are eccentric liars. Dumbledore's supporters, however, have reformed the Order of the Phoenix, which existed the last time that Lord Voldemort threatened the world. A number of new members are in the Order as well, and it is dedicated to saving everyone from the resurgence of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Harry on Trial

Cover of the US Edition, Scholastic

Harry's hearing for his possible expulsion from Hogwarts finally arrives. It fills much of the household with trepidation, but they are fairly confident that he will be acquitted -- he used the magic strictly in self-defence, which is permissible under the rules. However, upon arrival at the Ministry of Magic, Harry and Mr. Weasley find out that the hearing has been brought forward without their knowledge, and its location moved to the basement, near the Department of Mysteries. Luckily, they make it just in time, though when Harry arrives, he realises that a full trial has been called, with the entire Wizengamot assembled.

Although this appears to be an attempt to intimidate Harry and to keep Dumbledore from showing up as Harry's defence, the ancient wizard and headmaster of Hogwarts appears nonetheless. Mrs. Figg also appears as a witness, testifying that the Dementors were real, not mere figments of Harry's imagination or lies, and Harry is exonerated. However, something seems strange - Dumbledore scarcely pays any attention to Harry, and as the young boy leaves, he sees Lucius Malfoy conferring with Cornelius Fudge. This shocks Harry, as Malfoy is a known Death Eater, though Mr. Weasley alludes to bribery.

Return to Hogwarts

Eventually, Harry and his companions return to school. On the Hogwarts Express they meet a girl named Luna Lovegood, who takes on a prominent role later in the book. At Hogwarts they discover shocking news: Hagrid has not yet returned from whatever task Dumbledore sent him on at the end of last term; and their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is none other than Dolores Umbridge, one of the Wizengamot panel members at Harry's hearing. Umbridge refuses to allow the students to use actual magic in her classes, and it soon emerges that she works for the Ministry of Magic, which has installed her as a teacher at Hogwarts by decree, against Dumbledore's wishes, and in order to impose the Ministry's agenda on the school.

Once school starts, things happen at a rapid pace. The fifth year is when the O.W.L.s are taken, and the teachers push the students hard in preparation. Professor Umbridge gains more and more influence on the school, through a succession of further Decrees passed by the Ministry of Magic, culminating in her appointment as Hogwarts High Inquisitor, and begins to make intrusive and intimidating inspections of teachers and students alike. Ron is made the new keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Umbridge's Oppression

Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, is a particularly unpleasant character. In light of her refusal to teach anything useful in her Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, Hermione convinces Harry to give secret lessons to a number of students who want to learn how Defence Against the Dark Arts really works; reluctantly, he agrees, and they all sign a paper stating their intent to never reveal the group to Umbridge.

Hagrid later returns, looking much the worse for wear. Although he eventually divulges his mission to recruit the giants to the Order's side, he is much more reluctant to come clean about the cause of his injuries. Both he and Professor Sibyll Trelawney are under heavy scrutiny by Umbridge, as she views both of them as incompetent; Umbridge is also prejudiced against "half-breeds," and Hagrid is half-human, half-giant.

As Umbridge convinces Fudge to pass more edicts, activities in the school become intensely curtailed. All student groups are banned; the Slytherin Quidditch team is almost immediately reactivated, but the Gryffindor team is held up until Minerva McGonagall goes over Umbridge's head and has Dumbledore reinstate it. The Slytherins compose a taunting ditty entitled "Weasley is Our King" in an attempt to intimidate Ron into playing poorly. It succeeds, but Harry captures the Snitch in the first game to clinch victory. However, a fight afterwards provoked by Draco Malfoy results in Harry and Fred and George Weasley being permanently banned from playing by Umbridge.

Dumbledore's Army

Secretly, however, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes led by Harry go on. They now call themselves the "D.A.", initially for Defence Association but settling on Dumbledore's Army. The name expresses the students' defiance of the paranoid and complacent Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who fears that Dumbledore is seeking to create his own army to use against the Ministry itself.

All along, Harry has had a number of strange dreams, mostly about running down a hallway and attempting to open a door in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. In one of these nightmares, Harry dreams that he is a snake attacking Ron's father, Arthur Weasley, who works at the Ministry. Waking up, Harry raises the alarm, believing his dream to have been a vision, and Arthur is indeed discovered with poisonous snake bites and hospitalised, eventually recovering from his injuries. Harry begins to wonder if he is being possessed and transported by Voldemort to do his bidding; others reassure him that this cannot be so. Soon, however, Dumbledore orders Harry to be placed under Severus Snape's tutelage in the art of Occlumency, the ability to block one's mind from being manipulated.

Hermione has contacted the journalist Rita Skeeter, threatening to reveal to the authorities that she is an unregistered animagus (see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) unless she interviews Harry concerning the truth about Voldemort's return. Luna Lovegood's father happens to be the editor of The Quibbler, and her father agrees to take Rita's article. When it appears, Umbridge is furious: she forbids Harry to go on any further Hogsmeade trips, and bans copies of The Quibbler inside the school. Fortunately for Harry, this gives the magazine the lure of the forbidden and soon the publication spreads like wildfire throughout the school despite Umbridge's frantic efforts to stop it.

Empowered to do so by Ministry edicts, Umbridge sacks Professor Trelawney, but Dumbledore, citing his remaining authority as Headmaster, insists that Trelawney be allowed to stay in residence at the castle despite Umbridge's attempt to evict her as well. Dumbledore also manages to recruit a replacement Divination teacher, a centaur named Firenze, whom Harry met in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This irritates Umbridge greatly. Dumbledore has outwitted her using her own rules; the Ministry decrees have only given Umbridge the power to make appointments when the Headmaster is unable to find a satisfactory candidate. She also dislikes what she disdainfully - but wrongly - refers to as "half-breeds", including centaurs.

A Dating Disaster

Harry's attraction to the Ravenclaw Quidditch player Cho Chang further complicates the situation; he is awkward and confused in close situations with her. A particularly painful experience in the wizarding town of Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day appears to destroy what little foundation the two had built for their relationship; Harry's continuing close friendship with Hermione and Cho's sorrow over the death of her ex-boyfriend, Cedric Diggory appear to be the key problems they face. Also, Harry has trouble understanding or communicating with Cho adequately.

Things begin to come to a head when, in the middle of a DA meeting, the members are informed that they have been exposed and Umbridge is on her way to punish them. Harry is the only one caught and is taken to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore, in order to protect the students, convinces Fudge and Umbridge that it was his idea to form the DA in order to depose Fudge as Minister of Magic, pandering to Fudge's existing paranoia. Dumbledore escapes, and Umbridge is installed as the new Headmistress (per one of the many Decrees passed by the Ministry) and forms an Inquisitorial Squad. The Weasley twins use their talent for practical jokes to cause trouble around the school, while all of the teachers, who dislike Umbridge intensely, pointedly do nothing to help the new Headmistress cope.

The Weasley twins set off one last prank as a decoy so that Harry can talk to Sirius via the fireplace in Umbridge's office - the only one not under surveillance - and are caught; they decide to leave Hogwarts in spectacular fashion, leaving a magical swamp inside the school, and to use the winnings from the Triwizard Tournament given to them by Harry to start their joke shop, 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'.

Sirius in Trouble

During the Astronomy OWL exam at night, Harry and others witness a group of people attempting to capture and expel Hagrid. Professor McGonagall tries to stop them, and is hit with a number of Stun Charms, which incapacitate her. Soon after, Harry has a dream which seems to complete the journey down the hallway: as Voldemort, he has Sirius captured in the Department of Mysteries, and is torturing him.

Harry and his crew make a desperate attempt to contact Sirius via the fireplace in Umbridge's office, but the Black family's house-elf, Kreacher, deliberately tricks Harry into believing Sirius has vanished; he was in fact tending to Buckbeak, the hippogriff. Umbridge and her minions--mainly Slytherin students--capture Harry's gang. Thinking fast, Hermione makes up a story about who they were trying to contact, and says that they were protecting a weapon, and that she and Harry would lead Umbridge to it. Umbridge asks Snape to give her some Veritaserum, but he claims he has none left; she is not aware that he is also a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Umbridge tells Harry that it was she who ordered the Dementors on him during the summer.

Escape to London

Hermione entices Umbridge to march her and Harry into the woods, knowing that the haughty centaurs, furious that one of their brethren now works for humans, are disposed to hate adult wizards. The centaurs take Umbridge away, and are about to do the same to Harry and Hermione, when Hagrid's half-brother--a "small" giant named Grawp, whom Hagrid had brought back with him from his quest over the summer--appears and distracts the centaurs. Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville arrive, and they resolve to go to the Ministry to rescue Sirius, riding on thestrals, horse-like creatures visible only to people who have seen death.

Upon arriving at the Department of Mysteries, and after a number of false turns, they arrive at the location in Harry's dream, to find not Voldemort and Sirius but a group of Death Eaters. The Death Eaters include, among others, Draco's father Lucius Malfoy; MacNair the executioner in the employ of the Ministry; Azkaban escapee and former Department of Mysteries employee Rookwood; and Azkaban escapee Bellatrix Lestrange, who is Sirius's cousin and the torturer of Neville Longbottom's parents. The vision of Voldemort and Sirius at the Department of Mysteries was a trap. When Voldemort realised that Harry's dreams gave him access to Voldemort's mind, he planted the vision of Sirius being tortured to lure Harry to the Ministry and use him to retrieve a glass sphere, the record of a prophecy, from the Department of Mysteries. The prophecy, made before Harry's birth, is apparently about Voldemort and Harry. Only the subjects of a prophecy can handle it, and as Voldemort does not want to risk discovery, he lures Harry into retrieving it for him. Having previously heard the first part of the prophecy relating to Harry's ability to conquer the Dark Lord - on which basis Voldemort attempted unsuccessfully to murder Harry as a baby, precipitating his own downfall - Voldemort is now determined to hear the full prophecy, hoping to learn how to destroy Harry.

The Battle

A great skirmish begins between the students and the Death Eaters. Most of the students are injured, and, as they near defeat, five of the adult wizards from the Order of the Phoenix appear to help them, including Sirius. During the ensuing battle, the glass sphere which holds the prophecy is shattered. A ghostly image pronounces the prophecy but no one can hear it amidst the fighting. Also, tragically, Sirius is struck by a curse from the wand of his cousin, the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange. He falls through a veil inside an arch in the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries, and vanishes. Dumbledore shows up and ropes off most of the Death Eaters, but Bellatrix escapes.

Harry blindly chases after Bellatrix, intent on avenging Sirius, and as catches up with her in the main atrium of the Ministry of Magic, where they fight. Then Lord Voldemort himself appears inside the atrium. He and Dumbledore duel, and after a dramatic fight and a brief episode where Voldemort actually manages to possess Harry, tempting Dumbledore to kill him in Harry's body, Voldemort eventually retreats by disapparating, taking Bellatrix with him. Alerted Ministry of Magic employees arrive in time to see "He Who Must Not Be Named" for themselves. Among them is Cornelius Fudge, who finally accepts Voldemort's return and believes what Dumbledore and Harry have been saying. In turn, the Daily Prophet reverses its hostile attitude towards the pair, restoring their reputations and praising them for warning the wizarding community of Voldemort's return.

The Prophecy

As the story draws to a close, Dumbledore explains much to Harry. He did not wish to be close to him during the year, as he could sense Voldemort's growing power over the boy--indeed, on more than one occasion, Harry was filled with a desire to strike down Dumbledore. He regretted not helping Harry learn Occlumency, and also reveals the prophecy. It turns out that at her initial Hogwarts interview, held sixteen years ago at the Hog's Head Inn at Hogsmeade, Sybill Trelawney prophesied that:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...

This was interpreted to mean that Voldemort would kill either Harry or Neville Longbottom, who were both born at the end of July, or vice-versa. After Voldemort, hearing of the prophecy, attacked Harry as a child, the latter part of the prophecy was realised; Harry would be his foe and kill or be killed by him, not Neville.

The existence of this prophecy brings clarity to Dumbledore remarking that Trelawney's prediction in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has been her second real one. The first prediction was the Harry/Voldemort prophecy.

Dumbledore also tells why Harry must stay with the Dursleys each summer. After Harry's mother died to save him, the charm of protection against Voldemort that her act cast on Harry is sustained as long as Harry has a home among those who share Lily Potter's blood. Aunt Petunia, Lily's sister, therefore acts as a protector for Harry, and it was Dumbledore who sent Petunia the Howler at the beginning of the story to remind her of this.

In the end, Harry goes back to the Dursleys', but not without Vernon and Petunia getting a stern talking-to by a number of wizards in the Order (including a menacing Alastor Moody). Changes are brewing in the wizarding world. Indeed, the last chapter of the book is entitled "The Second War Begins."

Miscellaneous remarks

• Some view this book as a commentary on the repression of free speech. Umbridge's punishment of Harry for talking about Voldemort and the banning of the edition of The Quibbler containing an interview with him support this.

• Some also consider that there are strong parallels between the wizarding world in Book Five and pre-World War II Europe. In both instances, a great war has already been fought. However, the loser of the first war has been regaining power and building an army. The evil ruler embraces an ideology that can be seen as racist (many of the supporters of Voldemort are obsessed with maintaining the "purity" of wizard blood). Many respectable and powerful citizens fall under his sway and accept his ideology. However, those in the Muggle world are unaware of the evil that is gathering, while those in the wizarding community are constantly fed placating rhetoric by the press (The Daily Prophet) and The Ministry of Magic. In a parallel with Adolf Hitler, even though Voldemort and his followers are obsessed with purity of blood, Voldemort is a half-blood himself.