by Adelle Holmes

Created on: May 24, 2007   Last Updated: June 30, 2011

When one is given the decision to choose their favorite “Harry Potter” book, it is not as easy as it sounds. A “Harry Potter” fan for many years, I can say that I equally love all seven books in the series because each has something new and different to add to the story. However, if I did have to choose, my choice would be “Order of the Phoenix.”

It is understood that when this book came out, fans were not happy. To them, this was not the Harry they remembered reading about in “Goblet of Fire,” but instead an irritable and angry teenager. Before, Harry found Voldemort at many different points in his life, and now it seems he’s changed entirely. So, why is this my favorite of the series, you might ask?

This book marks an important time in Harry’s life. He meets future friends that will help him through his journey, and this includes Luna Lovegood. A girl with a sing-song voice and a dreamy look in her eyes, she is often picked on at school, but proves, in this book and in the last two of the series, that she is a worthwhile friend.

In this book many people are introduced that will later become influential in Harry’s search for horcruxes and hallows; they include: Dolores Umbridge, Dumbledore’s Army, Tonks, The Order of the Phoenix, and—what fans take away from this book at the end—the Prophecy.

At the end of “Order of the Phoenix,” Harry is told of the Prophecy that set many things in motion. Severus Snape overhearing it and telling Voldemort; Wormtail mentioning to Voldemort that James and Lily have a son born around that time; Voldemort setting out to destroy the being who might bring his down; and the rest, they say, is history. Without this Prophecy, without hearing it, Harry would not have ever understood how immensely important it was that he be the one to kill Voldemort.

A connection between Harry’s and the Dark Lord’s mind is also made in this book. Harry is tortured in his dreams because he tunes into Voldemort’s thoughts, and this gives Dumbledore something else to ponder. Why is this connection here? How? For those of you who haven’t read the final book in the series, I shall not reveal the answer here.

It is for those reasons, and countless others, that I say “Order of the Phoenix” is my favorite of the “Harry Potter” series. Without it, we, and Harry, wouldn’t know many things that lead us down the pathway to “Deathly Hallows.” With this book, the mystery of the series deepens further.

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