Order of the Phoenix

The Order of the Phoenix is a secret society founded by Albus Dumbledore to oppose Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. The original Order was created in 1970, 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 at the 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 a battle occurred there in 1996 between the Order and the Death Eaters, the Ministry admitted the truth. However, the next year would see the Order losing their leader and the Ministry being taken over 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 May 2, 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 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.

Although the Death Eaters had originally been attacking mostly Muggles and Muggle-borns to spread terror, they soon turned to attacking "blood traitors" such as Order members as well. Gideon and Fabian Prewett were killed by a group of five Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov. Caradoc Dearborn disappeared, the Bones family was almost decimated, and Marlene McKinnon and her family were killed by Death Eaters, including Travers. Even as the Order suffered great losses, they continued to fight, and four of their members — James and Lily Potter, and Frank 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...."

- Sybill Trelawney's prophecy

This made the two couples and their infant sons Harry and Neville targets of a prophecy concerning a person with the power to defeat the Dark Lord. Death Eater Severus Snape heard part of the prophecy and reported it to Voldemort, who believed it referred to Harry Potter. His decision to hunt down the Potters, who were in hiding under the Fidelius Charm, caused Snape to switch sides, 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 October 31, 1981. He summarily killed James, but offered Lily a chance to live, as requested by Snape. She refused, 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 protected, and the curse backfired. Because Voldemort had made Horcruxes, he did not die, but he lost physical form. He also inadvertantly 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, and 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 — Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, as well as Barty Crouch Jr — attacked the Longbottoms shortly after their master's defeat. Alice and Frank were driven insane by 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.

Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, pardoned for his crimes because he had turned spy for the Order, suspected that Voldemort would return, and determined that Harry Potter had to be protected. However, the war was over, and the Order was disbanded.

The Order Reconvenes
On June 24, 1995, Lord Voldemort returned. His servant Barty Crouch Jr, in disguise as Alastor Moody, manipulated the Goblet of Fire in order to make Harry Potter into 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 killed Cedric and then performed a ritual to resurrect Voldemort, who then called his Death Eaters to him. Harry managed to escape and inform Albus Dumbledore of the Dark Lord's return.

Within an hour, the old Order members had been informed. Dumbledore sent Sirius Black — who had been proved innocent in 1994 but was still wanted by the Ministry — in his Animagus form of a dog to alert key members such as Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, and Remus Lupin to the new threat. Upon its reconstruction, the Order set up headquarters at Number Twelve, 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 were not official members because they were underage.

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 for Magic. 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 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, thus many members of the 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 of 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 was 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 Black was killed by his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. Albus Dumbledore helped round up the other Death Eaters, called the Aurors, and then dueled Voldemort in defence of Harry.

Several Ministry personnel, including Minister Fudge, entered the Ministry Atrium at the end of this duel, thus seeing Voldemort for themselves. Voldemort Disapparated, but Fudge was forced to admit that Dumbledore 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 to Harry Potter

The battle marked the official beginnining 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 managed to use a Vanishing Cabinet to get Death Eaters into the school, and the Battle of the Lightning-Struck Tower ensued. Dumbledore was cornered by Malfoy, but the boy lowered his wand, and Severus Snape stepped in to kill Dumbledore. Not knowing that this was a plan Dumbledore and Snape had designed earlier, the Order believed that they had been betrayed.

Protecting Harry and Losing the Ministry
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. The Ministry was being infiltrated by the Death Eaters and Harry was being watched. 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 was killed in the fray.

Not long after, on August 1, 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 by sending his Patronus to the Burrow. Various Order members were interrogated, but none hurt. In the meantime, Harry had vanished along with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The three sought to find and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, of which the rest of the Order had not been informed.

Resistance
While Voldemort controlled the Ministry, the Order's 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, "Public Enemy Number One", in the spring of 1998.

The Order led the underground resistance, participating in the radio program Potterwatch, which broadcasted the truth while the Daily Prophet and other news outlets were controlled by the Ministry. The Order encouraged people to do as they were doing — protect innocent Muggles being harmed for the amusement of Death Eaters, and Muggle-borns who were being persecuted by the Ministry's new Muggle-Born Registration Commission.

Battle of Hogwarts
On May 2, 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. The Battle of Hogwarts resulted in Order members Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley losing their lives, but they triumped over the Death Eaters, and Voldemort himself was defeated by Harry Potter.

In the aftermath of the war, the Order was presumably disbanded once and for all.

Allies of the Order of the Phoenix
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 skeptical 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 the magical bird. The Order's founder and original leader, Albus Dumbledore, had a phoenix named Fawkes for a magical familiar, 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 times, once coming to Harry's aid against Slytherin's Basilisk, and on another occasion swallowing 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 symbolizes their opposition to an organisation focused on causing death and finding unnatural, Dark methods of achieving immortality.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Notes and references
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