Tammy’s Reviews > Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix > Status Update

Ch. 12 In the morning, Harry is still mad and Ron and Neville help him cool down. In the common room are posters about the twin’s new enterprise. Hg wants to stop them but Ron refuses. They go to breakfast and speculate about Hagrid. Angelina is their quidditch coach and lets them know that there is an opening for keeper. Owls come and Hg gets her Daily Prophet to scan and throw out.

He doesn’t know the password. Neville bails him out (the Latin name of the stinksap plant). I forget if this is a clue. Harry goes up to his room and has a quarrel with Seamus whose mother thinks Harry is a liar and Dumbledore is a crank. She was close to pulling him out of school. When Ron shows up, the two have their wands out. Ron and Neville staunchly supports Harry in spite of the rubbish in the Daily Prophet.

Attention drifts. Luna reads The Quibbler. Students quietly talk to her. The rebellion quietly begins. McGonagall’s death stare should have killed her. She finishes her speech and hardly anybody claps. So awkward. Hg fills in the blanks for what Umbridge is telling them. They are dismissed. Ron and Hg do their prefect duties, leaving Harry to face stares on his own. Harry bolts and takes short cuts. He’s angry.

Her voice sounds as serious as her pink bow and cardigan. She speaks a lot of fluff about being everyone’s friends. Her voice changes into more business like when she speaks on behalf of the ministry of magic. She predicts change, but not for the sake of change. Some things will be new and some will be old. Her undertone is that Dumbledore needs to go because he’s stuck in the past.

The quarrelling couple quarrels and Harry ignores them. Dumbledore stands up which shuts them up. He gives the usual announcements about rules (encouraged by Filch), staff changes, and quidditch. Umbridge is DoDA. Blech. That’s like asking an atheist to teach about religion. Suddenly she clears her throat and interrupts his speech. Everyone is astounded and boy is this a foreshadowing!

Ron stuffs himself and his focus on the body is even more excessive than usual. Nick tells them that, when the sorting hat thinks the school is in danger, it tells them to unite. Everyone is disgusted by Ron’s atrocious table manners. Nick surmises that the hat knows because it lives in Dumbledore’s office. In light of the bullies at Slytherin, they are all dubious. Ron insults Nick’s use of physical metaphors.

Ron asked if the sorting hat had ever done this before but McGonagal gives the death stare and even Nearly Headless Nick gets quiet. Harry remembers how he felt as a newbie and he sees how scared the first years look. Ron’s stomach was roaring when they got to the last child. In spite of his reservations, Harry was glad to see Dumbledore because so much is new and disorienting. His speech is short and sweet. Tuck in.

Hogwarts was better when the four were united. The cracks form when students were sorted by qualities. They became cliquish (a bit like the Divergent series which, ahem, came later). When discord showed up, things got worse. There was dueling and fighting. Slytherin clashed and took off. He warns them that the school is in danger again and it is time to unite, not fight. Let the sorting begin!

Its song is different this year. In previous years, it talks about the different qualities of each house and his job in figuring out which house each student goes best. This time he gives a history lesson. What intrigues me is how Slytherin and Gryffindor were close friends at the beginning as well as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. On the humors chart I made these pairings are at opposite poles so this taps into alchemy!

They notice that Grubbly-Plank is at the head table, but not Hagrid. The trio quietly wonders if he is still on his mission. They suddenly spy Umbridge and Harry recalls seeing her face in shadow at his hearing. Ron scoffs at her pink cardigan. She looks like a pink nightmare. Hg is shocked that she works for Fudge. Everyone gets quiet when the sorting hat begins to sing.