Order of the Phoenix

"It's a secret society. Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

- Hermione Granger regarding the Order

The Order of the Phoenix was a secret society founded by Albus Dumbledore to oppose Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. The original Order was created in the 1970s. It was constructed after Voldemort returned to England from abroad and started his campaign to take over the Ministry of Magic and persecute Muggle-borns. The Order worked with the Ministry to oppose the Dark Lord and his followers, and played a crucial role in the First Wizarding War. Victory came in 1981, with Voldemort's first defeat at the hands of Harry Potter. Victory came with the high cost of many of their members.

The Order disbanded, but was reconvened in 1995 after Harry Potter informed Dumbledore of Lord Voldemort's return. The Ministry refused to admit that the Dark Lord had returned, thus the Order alone worked to protect Harry Potter and the prophecy concerning him and Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. After an intense battle occurred there on 18 June, 1996 between the Order, Dumbledore's Army, and the Death Eaters, the Ministry finally admitted the truth.

The following year would see the Order losing their leader and the Ministry being conquered by Voldemort. The Order remained an underground resistance, trying to protect Muggles and broadcast the truth during the worst days of the Second Wizarding War. They answered the call to arms by Dumbledore's Army on 2 May, 1998, fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters for the final time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Battle of Hogwarts ended with Voldemort's death at Harry Potter's hands and a decisive victory for the Order and their allies.

Origin


The Order of the Phoenix was founded by Albus Dumbledore during Lord Voldemort's first rise to power in the 1970s. Dumbledore formed the Order to combat Voldemort's increasing threat and power. Aurors from the Ministry of Magic also joined the Order to participate in more secretive, sudden assaults aimed to crush the Dark Rebellion. Dumbledore created a method of communication among Order members by inventing a way to make Patronuses speak.

Although the Death Eaters had been attacking mostly Muggles and Muggle-borns to spread terror, they soon turned to attacking "blood traitors" such as Order members as well. Fabian and Gideon Prewett were murdered by a group of six Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov. Caradoc Dearborn disappeared, the Bones family was almost completely destroyed, Benjy Fenwick was brutally murdered, and Marlene McKinnon and her family were murdered by Death Eaters, including Travers. Even as the Order suffered great losses, they continued to fight, and four of their members — James Potter, Lily Potter, Frank Longbottom, and Alice Longbottom — defied Voldemort himself three times.

The Prophecy
"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...."

- Sybill Trelawney's first prophecy

This defiance made the two couples and their infant sons Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom targets of a prophecy concerning a person with the power to defeat the Dark Lord. Then Death Eater Severus Snape heard part of the prophecy and reported it to Voldemort, who believed it referred to Harry Potter. He decided to hunt down the Potters, choosing the half-blood Harry, like Voldemort himself, as opposed to the pure-blood Neville. The Potters, who were in hiding under the Fidelius Charm, caused Snape to change his side, since he had always been in love with Lily Potter.



It was not enough to save them, however; the Potters' Secret-Keeper Peter Pettigrew betrayed them, and Voldemort came to their home in Godric's Hollow on 31 October, 1981. He summarily murdered James, but offered Lily a chance to live, as requested by Severus Snape. She rejected the offer, begging for her son's life, and Voldemort used the Killing Curse against her and then on Harry. Because Lily had willingly sacrificed herself out of love for her son, Harry was shielded from the spell, and the curse backfired. Because Voldemort had made Horcruxes, he did not die, but he lost his own physical form. He also inadvertently made Harry himself a Horcrux, as a piece of his soul embedded itself into a scar on Harry's forehead. Pettigrew fled the scene and faked his own death by hiding in his Animagus form (a rat) and cutting off his own finger, while murdering many innocent muggles with one spell, thus Sirius Black was blamed for his crimes, and thrown into Azkaban without a trial.

Disbandment


The First Wizarding War ended with a victory for the Order and the Ministry, but the Death Eaters were still a danger. Four of them — the Lestrange brothers; Rabastan and Rodolphus, Rodolphus' wife Bellatrix, and Barty Crouch Jr — attacked the Longbottoms shortly after their master's defeat. Seeking information about their master's downfall, the Death Eaters drove Alice and Frank insane with the Cruciatus Curse. The Death Eaters and many of their comrades were caught and sentenced to Azkaban, some of them turned in by Igor Karkaroff, who was released in exchange for information. Others, such as Lucius Malfoy, managed to avoid prison by claiming to have only served Voldemort under the Imperius Curse, though Order members were sceptical of such claims.

Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, who had turned spy for the Order "at great personal risk" prior to Voldemort's fall, suspected that Voldemort would return, and they determined that Harry Potter had to be protected, having Order members such as Minerva McGonagall, Arabella Figg, and Dedalus Diggle keep an discreet eye on him throughout his childhood. However, the war was over, and the Order was disbanded. The members were, for the most part, powerful witches and wizards with many other demands on their time and if the second incarnation of the Order is indicative, there may well have been internal pressures and uncertainties which, in the absence of a clear, external threat, would make it inadvisable to attempt to maintain the group.

The Order reconvenes
"Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us."

- Albus Dumbledore after the return of Lord Voldemort

On 24 June, 1995, Lord Voldemort returned to power. His servant Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Alastor Moody, had manipulated the Goblet of Fire in order to ensure Harry Potter became a Champion of the Triwizard Tournament. When Harry and fellow Champion Cedric Diggory touched the Triwizard Cup, not knowing that it had been made a Portkey, they were transported to a graveyard in Little Hangleton. Peter Pettigrew murdered Cedric and then performed a ritual to resurrect Voldemort, who then summoned his Death Eaters to him. Harry managed to escape and inform Albus Dumbledore of the Dark Lord's return.



Within an hour, the original Order members had been informed. Dumbledore sent Sirius Black, who was still wanted by the Ministry, in his Animagus form (a dog), to alert key members such as Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, and Remus Lupin to the new threat. Upon its reconstitution, the Order set up headquarters at 12 Grimmauld Place, London — Sirius's family home. The house was protected with the Fidelius Charm, with Dumbledore as Secret-Keeper. Members of the Order were assigned by Dumbledore to protect Harry Potter and for guard duty. Harry and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger also assisted the Order, though, being under-age, they were not official members.

Ministry relations


Although Dumbledore and the original members of the Order accepted the return of Lord Voldemort, members of the Ministry of Magic, including Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, were not convinced. Fudge preferred to believe that Dumbledore was spreading rumours in an attempt to undercut his authority as Minister. Years earlier, there had been widespread support for Dumbledore to take the position, although he declined, choosing instead to remain at Hogwarts. In his early years as Minister, Fudge was constantly bombarding Dumbledore, frantically seeking advice. These actions sowed the seeds of paranoia in Fudge, as he feared Dumbledore would usurp his power. He also accused Dumbledore of "going senile in his old years", and declared that he was clearly mistaken about Voldemort's return. However, some Aurors in the Ministry, such as Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks, came to believe Dumbledore and joined the Order in secret.



Under the Ministry's influence, the Daily Prophet portrayed Dumbledore and Harry as either liars or nutters, and thus many members of the wizarding public did not believe in Voldemort's return either. The Order was forced to exist underground and certain members were unable to even greet one another in public, for fear of exposing their allegiances. Voldemort and his Death Eaters took advantage of the Ministry's folly, conducting their business in secret for a year. Among their goals was to obtain a record of the prophecy concerning Voldemort and Harry, which was kept in the Department of Mysteries. The Order kept guard on the area, but were hampered by the Ministry's lack of cooperation.



Voldemort eventually managed to lure Harry there, along with five members of Dumbledore's Army, an organisation Harry, Hermione, and Ron founded at Hogwarts in response to Ministry employee Dolores Umbridge refusing to teach students practical Defence Against the Dark Arts. The group of teenagers were ambushed by twelve Death Eaters. The Order became aware of this through Severus Snape, and Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Alastor Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebolt raced to the Ministry to battle the Death Eaters. They managed to save the students, and the prophecy was destroyed, but Sirius was murdered by his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange. Albus Dumbledore helped round up the other Death Eaters, summoned the Aurors, and then duelled Voldemort in defence of Harry. All of the Order members that participated in the battle were wounded, with exception of Remus Lupin and Albus Dumbledore. In addition, all Dumbledore's Army members were injured except for Harry.

Several Ministry personnel, including Minister Fudge, entered the Ministry Atrium at the end of this duel, thus seeing Voldemort for themselves. Voldemort Disapparated with Bellatrix, but Fudge was forced to admit that Dumbledore and Harry Potter had been right. He was soon replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour as Minister for Magic.

Guarding Hogwarts
"Dumbledore's man through and through, aren't you, Potter?"

- Rufus Scrimgeour regarding Harry Potter's loyalty

The battle marked the official beginning of the Second Wizarding War. Although Scrimgeour was a more proactive Minister than Fudge had been, he proved to be suspicious of the Order and of Dumbledore as well. He tried to convince Harry Potter to ally himself with the Ministry to boost public morale, but Harry was disgusted by Scrimgeour's high-handed methods and declared his loyalty to Dumbledore and the Order. Over the course of the school year, Dumbledore taught Harry about Voldemort's past and of the existence of his Horcruxes.



In the meantime, the Order kept watch at Hogwarts. However, Draco Malfoy, becoming a Death Eater in place of his incarcerated father, managed to use a Vanishing Cabinet to get Death Eaters into the school, and the Battle of the Astronomy Tower ensued. Dumbledore was cornered by Malfoy, but the headmaster managed to convince the boy to lower his wand, and Severus Snape stepped in to kill Dumbledore. Not knowing that this was a plan Dumbledore and Snape had conceived earlier, nor of the headmaster's medical condition due to the curse, the Order believed that they had been betrayed.

Fall of the Ministry of Magic
"And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, they were surrounded. At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the middle of which the Order members had risen, oblivious."

- Description of the Battle of the Seven Potters



Now under the leadership of Alastor Moody, the Order's next goal was to remove Harry from his relatives' home before the protection offered by his mother's blood expired on his seventeenth birthday. Unfortunately, a number of the simpler solutions to the situation, such as Floo Powder or Apparition were unavailable due to monitoring by the Ministry, which was being infiltrated by the Death Eaters, and Harry, as an under-age wizard, still had the trace on him. The Order also assigned two of its members, Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones, to take Harry's relatives into hiding so that they could not be targeted by Death Eaters. Thus, the Order had to fly him out, using six decoys disguised as Harry with Polyjuice Potion. Despite being ambushed by over thirty Death Eaters and Voldemort himself, the Order managed to get Harry to safety at the Burrow, their next headquarters since Snape knew of 12 Grimmauld Place. Sadly, Moody and Harry's beloved pet owl, Hedwig, were killed in the fray.



Five days later, on 1 August, 1997, the Death Eaters seized control of the Ministry. Scrimgeour was murdered and Pius Thicknesse, who Yaxley had under the Imperius Curse, was installed as Voldemort's puppet Minister for Magic. Kingsley Shacklebolt managed to warn the Order of the coup by sending his Patronus to the Burrow, where Bill and Fleur's reception was being held. Death Eaters stormed the wedding looking for Harry. Various Order members were interrogated, but none were killed. In the meantime, Harry had vanished along with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The three sought to find and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, a concept and mission of which the rest of the Order had not been informed.

Resistance


While Voldemort controlled the Ministry, the Order members were fugitives. The Weasleys were kept under surveillance and the Taboo curse was placed upon Voldemort's name, since only enemies of the Dark Lord were willing to speak it aloud. Kingsley was nearly caught after saying the name, but managed to fight off the Death Eaters that attacked him and went on the run. The Weasleys were also forced into hiding, after it was discovered that Ron was travelling with Harry, "Undesirable Number 1," in the spring of 1998.



The Order led the underground resistance, participating in the radio programme Potterwatch, which broadcast the truth while the Daily Prophet and other news outlets were controlled by the corrupted Ministry. The Order encouraged people to do as they were doing — protect innocent Muggles from being harmed for the amusement of Death Eaters, and Muggle-borns who were being persecuted by the Ministry's new Muggle-Born Registration Commission. They also encouraged the wizarding community to stay strong and united, especially in such dark times.

Battle of Hogwarts
"We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast. A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix... All right, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"

- Kingsley Shacklebolt before the Battle of Hogwarts

On 1 May, 1998, the Order received the call to arms from Neville Longbottom, who was left leading Dumbledore's Army at the Death Eater-controlled Hogwarts. With the D.A., the Order of the Phoenix took a final stand against Voldemort and his army. They formulated the battle plan with the professors of Hogwarts, who led fighters to the three highest towers, while Kingsley, Remus Lupin, and Arthur Weasley led troops to the school grounds, and Fred and George Weasley organised the defence of the entrances and passageways into the school.



The Battle of Hogwarts, beginning at midnight on 2 May, resulted in Order members Remus Lupin being murdered by Antonin Dolohov, Nymphadora Tonks was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, and Fred Weasley being killed in an explosion.

Severus Snape met in secret with Voldemort, Voldemort killed him in order to gain the full power of the elder wand.

Voldemort withdrew his forces, and gave Harry an ultimatum, face him, or he would destroy Hogwarts. After learning from Snape's memories that he had to die in order for Voldemort to be defeated, Harry willingly went to Voldemort, not putting up a fight. Harry however survived the encounter briefly entering limbo. Harry returned to the land of the living to finish his fight, resulting in him defeating Voldemort. The remainder of the Death Eaters were either captured or fled.

Permanent Disbandment
After the final downfall of Voldemort, the Order was disbanded since their mission was complete. The surviving members resumed their lives, though hailed as war heros and revered for their contributions to fighting the Dark Forces. Several young members, notably Harry and Ron, went on to become Aurors in order to track down the remaining followers of Voldemort who were still at large.

Members
"Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves [...]"

- Kreacher insulting various Order members

Allies
During the First Wizarding War, the Order was allied with the Ministry of Magic. During the Second Wizarding War, however, the Ministry was at times sceptical of Lord Voldemort's return, and later taken over by Voldemort's followers. The Order was allied with Dumbledore's Army, as well as various individuals, during that conflict.

Etymology
The Order of the Phoenix is named for the magical bird. The Order's founder and original leader, Albus Dumbledore, had a phoenix named Fawkes for pet, and his Patronus also took the form of a phoenix. Fawkes gave two feathers to comprise the cores of the wands of Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, key figures in the conflict between the Order and the Death Eaters. Fawkes also participated in the conflict at least twice: he came to Harry's aid against Slytherin's Basilisk, and later at the battle of the Department of Mysteries intercepted a Killing Curse Voldemort aimed at Dumbledore.

In mythology, the phoenix often represents resurrection and life after death. This could allude to how the Order of the Phoenix was reborn after Voldemort returned to power, and how Harry Potter survived two Killing Curses. The Order's name thus symbolises their opposition to an organisation focused on causing death and finding unnatural, Dark methods of achieving immortality.

Behind the scenes

 * While not confirmed, it is likely that the surviving members of the Order got celebrity status of sorts, just like the members of the, as of 2014, 'legendary' Dumbledore's Army.
 * It's implied that as with the Death Eaters, there are more members that haven't been seen. Ron and Hermione inform Harry that they believe there to be more than the twenty something members that they've met, and Moody tells Harry of a rear Advance Guard that was to take over if the initial group were to be attacked. Furthermore there are a few unknown members seen in the photograph of the original Order in the Order of the Phoenix film. Still, their numbers are significantly fewer than those of the Death Eaters.
 * In the film adaptation of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, which differs significantly from the novel version, the Order of the Phoenix members Apparate into the Department of Mysteries, and save the Dumbledore's Army members by Apparating directly into the area where the Death Eaters holding them at wand-point.
 * Also in the films, Order members are shown as Apparating in clouds of white smoke, while the Death Eaters Apparate in clouds of black smoke. This may be a reference to the Death Eaters' use and corruption by Dark Magic, causing them to apparate in black smoke, as opposed to the white smoke of the Order members.
 * Molly Weasley is not stated to have been a member of the original Order, despite her brothers being members. This is likely due to the fact that she gave birth to, and took care of, seven children during the course of the First Wizarding War.
 * If the list of members of the Order of the Phoenix, above, is complete, then the mortality rate (including permanent incapacitation) of members, during the First and Second Wizarding Wars combined, rivals that of the Black Death in fourteenth-century Europe. About 44% of members died during the First Wizarding War, and 26% were killed by Death Eaters during the course of the Second Wizarding War. Horace Slughorn refers to this in
 * It may be that the Order of the Phoenix was inspired by the, where one of J.K. Rowling's professed favourite authors, , was a member. The argument is made more likely by the fact that several original members of the Order of the Phoenix seem to be named after members of the Fabian Society: Emmeline Vance for , Fabian Prewett for the Fabian Society itself, Sturgis Podmore for , and Kingsley Shacklebolt for . The Fabian Society's members were also closely associated with a magical association called the.
 * It was also mentioned that Albus Dumbledore named the Order of the Phoenix after Fawkes, his pet Phoenix.
 * In J.K. Rowling's early plot outlines of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (http://chandlermariecraig.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/rowling_outline2.gif) it seems that the titles of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army were swapped - the Order of the Phoenix being the group Harry, Ron and Hermione set up at Hogwarts, whilst Dumbledore's Army being Dumbledore's original army in the First Wizarding War.

Appearances

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Notes and references
Orden del Fénix Fööniksi Ordu Ordre du Phénix Orde Phoenix Zakon Feniksa Орден Феникса Feeniksin kilta Orde van de Feniks