Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (novel)/Awesome


 * Peeves is at his finest chasing off Umbridge and it is definitely one of the highlights of the book, especially for standing apart from the rest of the book.
 * After a Quidditch match against Slytherin, Malfoy is being a poor sport and throwing his usual insults at the Weasleys and Harry. Harry is ushering the twins (Fred and George) away when Malfoy drops the bombshell: he insults Harry's deceased mother. A 3-on-1 brawl begins. Needless to say, it ended awesomely for the twins and Harry, despite the fact that Umbridge punished them.
 * Two-on-one: Fred was being restrained by three people and later regrets not having been able to contribute.
 * The Ironic Echo of "Weasley is our King."
 * The twins leaving Hogwarts.
 * Peeves trying to invoke Falling Chandelier of Doom on Umbridge. Granted, it didn't work, but hey, it's the thought that counts.

"Umbridge: Anything you'd like to say, Minerva? McGonagall: There are several things I would like to say to you!"
 * One of Neville's better crowning moments of awesome is in "Order of the Phoenix", when he's crippled, unable to cast spells, and still sticks a Death Eater in the eye with Hermione's wand.
 * The fact that Harry and his friends, a bunch of fifth-years and fourth-years, managed to was pretty amazing.
 * As is the fact that Harry initially buys time by taunting them about Voldemort being half-blood.
 * Fred and George Weasley get their moment when they leave the school.
 * "Give her hell from us, Peeves."
 * It gets even better: not only does Peeves do as he was told, he saluted Fred and George as they left. Earning that amount of respect from Peeves, of all people...
 * As well as everything that the mass of unnamed students who took up after the twins left did. Hexing Umbridge's minions, making themselves sick to get out of class, putting Nifflers in her room, the list goes on.
 * And before that, the speech they give to Hermione declaring that they don't care about getting thrown out anymore; in fact, they're only staying at all to do their bit for Dumbledore.
 * One of the Slytherins tries to use his Umbridge-given powers to bully Fred and George. He ends up stuck in Vanishing Cabinet limbo for weeks.
 * Bellatrix overdid her share of amazing things during the series, but her crowning moment of awesome occurred in the end of The Order of the Phoenix, where she . None of this was shown during the movie, but Helena Bonham Carter's acting made up for that flaw. Of course, she was later owned by Dumbledore's enchanted statue, but still.
 * "You have to admit, Minister, Dumbledore's got style."
 * "You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to -- what is the phrase? 'Come quietly.' I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all, Cornelius. I have absolutely no intention of being sent to Azkaban. I could break out, of course -- but what a waste of time, and frankly, I can think of a whole host of things I would rather be doing."
 * Dumbledore destroying the Ministry's trumped-up charges against Harry and calling them out for their corruption, all while being completely calm and extremely polite.
 * Damn near everything McGonagall does, period. Especially her response to being inspected by Umbridge in Order of the Phoenix.
 * "It unscrews the other way." That is all.
 * On a similar note, her inability to join Peeves in chasing Umbridge from the school because she had allowed him to borrow her walking stick, which he used to whack Umbridge repeatedly upside the head.
 * McGonagall railing all over Umbridge's attempts to crush Harry, saying she'll do everything she can to get him made an Auror even if she has to die in the process, all the while giving Umbridge the hate glare. Awesome.
 * '"You are raving," said McGonagall, superbly disdainful.' Superbly disdainful. I mean, right?
 * "Professor Umbridge stood up. Since she was so short, this didn't make much of a difference... Professor McGonagall stood up. In her case, the effect was much more impressive."
 * McGonagall's answer to Umbridge about Harry getting poor grades in her subject: "I should have made myself plainer: he has achieved high scores on exams applied by a competent teacher." which, at that point, pretty much meant Lupin. Umbridge must have loved that.
 * It may not have achieved anything, but she ran into battle against four Aurors to stop them arresting Hagrid.
 * And taking four Stunners in the chest in the process.
 * Madam Pomfrey assures Harry that none of those four Aurors, whom McGonagall herself earlier described as exceptionally talented elites who underwent three years of harsh training, would have stood a chance against McGonagall in a fair fight. They had to resort to suddenly whirling round to attack her without warning.
 * McGonagall protecting Trelawney from Umbridge. She may disdain the woman's profession, but NO ONE is throwing one of her teachers out but her. Her moment goes to Dumbledore in the movie, but Maggie Smith's ice-glare to Umbridge while standing in front of a sobbing Trelawney deserves a mention of its own.

"Umbridge: "You applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post?" Snape: "Yes." Umbridge: "And you were unsuccessful?" Snape (in a 'what the hell do you think' voice): "Obviously.""
 * Also, Snape's response to Umbridge.

""Get away from my godson.""
 * Perfect delivery by Alan Rickman.
 * Dumbledore vs. Voldemort, which is somehow made more awesome in the film. And while we're at it, Dumbledore's Big Damn Heroes moment.
 * Harry and Neville are cornered and facing half a dozen Death Eaters. The Order of the Phoenix arrive, and things even out, until another few Death Eaters arrive. Things are now looking very bad for the heroes, and then Dumbledore arrives. Before the end of the page, all but two Death Eaters are disarmed and bound in the middle of the room - and about half of that is Harry thinking, "awesome, Dumbledore's here! We're saved!"
 * As a prefect at Hogwarts, and especially in her house, it was only a matter of time before Hermione had her authority challenged by the red-headed twins of chaos Fred and George. When she stands up to them, and they stand up to her, they taunt her with challenges to give them detention. But Hermione utterly terrifies them with the promise, "I'm going to write a letter to your mother."
 * "You wouldn't!"
 * Made even better, because the twins immediately complied, an act which was never seen before, or since.
 * After Umbridge grabs one of the students in Dumbledore's office, shaking her very hard, before anyone can see him, Dumbledore pulls out his wand and says that he will not allow her to harm one of his students; it even mentions that it was one of the few times that anyone has ever seen Dumbledore angry.
 * May also double as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming to see how much Dumbledore cares for his students.
 * During that scene, Kingsley
 * Dumbledore assures Fudge that he won't be taking on him, 2 Aurors and both his Senior and Junior Undersecretaries alone.... "unless [they were] foolish enough to force [him]".
 * In the Forbidden Forest: "I'm sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies."
 * Hermione showing just how much she owned Rita in the Three Broomsticks. Also (while pretty cruel) that she had the foresight to see that one of DA might betray them and came up with a jinx that even Pomfrey couldn't remove to mark them—and her spell incapacitated Marietta enough that she was prevented from spilling too much about the DA. NOT TO MENTION that she came up with a pretty good lie to keep Umbridge from torturing Harry.
 * In the movie, right when all of Harry's friends are captured by Death Eaters, out pops Sirius, who proceeds to sock Lucius Malfoy in the face.


 * Snape, showing nothing but contempt to Umbridge when she catches Harry and the DA. Especially awesome when he's telling her to suck it using lame excuses when asked for Veritaserum, and you realize later on that he was the first to inform the Order of the situation.
 * Hermione Granger vs. the Ministry of Magic's propaganda campaign. Hermione wins.
 * "None of them had seen Hagrid in a real temper before..."
 * This one needs elaborating. Professor Umbridge has two teachers dismissed from Hogwarts during her reign as High Inquisitor: Professor Trelawney (Divination teacher) and Professor Hagrid (Care of Magical Creatures teacher), the former because she wasn't actually a prophet, the latter because he was a half-giant. When Professor Trelawney is dismissed, she cries like a baby, begging Umbridge to let her stay, saying "Hogwarts is my home!" and generally being really pathetic, even though it was a sad scene nonetheless. When Hagrid is dismissed, does he cry? No. Does he beg to be allowed to stay? No. What does he do? He delivers an epic Curb Stomp Battle to the four Aurors (read: exceptionally powerful wizards) that came to take him away, with his bare hands, while holding his unconscious dog under his arm, while the whole time Stunning Spells are bouncing uselessly off him (which Hermione later explains is due to his giant's blood, giants being notoriously hard to Stun). Umbridge is freaking terrified, two of the Aurors get knocked out cold by Hagrid (who as mentioned before, is not using any magic, and is facing a team of the most highly-skilled wizards there are), and it ends with Hagrid fleeing into the Forbidden Forest, still being bombarded with spells that are doing absolutely nothing to him.
 * Neville in the Ministry of Magic standing up to Bellatrix. Keep in mind, this isn't some rent-a-cop Death Eater. This is Bellatrix freaking Lestrange, arguably the most dangerous witch in the world, the one who tortured his parents into insanity. And not only does he meet her taunt ("Why, I've had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!") with pure, unadulterated rage as opposed to fear, he charged in to save Harry. Without a wand that didn't work properly for him. Unable to pronounce spells. His line "HE'S DOT ALONE! HE'S STILL GOD BE!" (Translation: "He's not alone! He's still got me!") qualifies as his first huge CMOA in the series. It was just a taste of the awesome to come.
 * The YMMV part of the above line is that it definitely was NOT a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Harry at that time (who actually Face Palms upon hearing it). At the time, Neville showing up was the worst possible thing that could have happened to Harry, given that for one, he couldn't use his wand properly (his nose was broken and it affected his speech, so he couldn't pronounce the incantations properly) and for two, he was, well, Neville, and they were fighting a massive group of Death Eaters.
 * He was, in the DA, improving so rapidly that near the end of their lessons with Harry he was the second person after Hermione to master the spell they were learning. And even though he was injured, inarticulate and unable to perform magic, he still charged an armed Death Eater who could've killed him and stuck a wand in his eye to save Harry. Gryffindor, indeed.
 * "Weasley Is Our King." That is all.
 * The title of the 36th chapter (yes, a chapter title is a MoA) says everything you need to know about Voldemort's true view of Dumbledore: "The Only One He Ever Feared"