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

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Fridge Brilliance

  • The chapter called "Snape's Worst Memory" is entirely accurate, but not for reasons you'd initially expect. After reading Deathly Hallows, you may realize that it's not his worst memory because he was bullied beyond humiliation by James and Sirius (in fact, it's implied that said bullying was a regular occurrence- though also that James and Snape were sworn enemies and therefore always at each others' throats), but because in his rage, he called Lily (who he was in love with) a Mudblood, which totally and completely destroyed his chances of getting together with her.
  • It may seem odd that Umbridge is so indulgent to the Slytherins right from the start as compared to every one else. But then you realize that her entire life is based around petty ambition. Ambition is the defining trait of Slytherin House; she would have been a Slytherin in school.
    • Not to mention that while this book doesn't tell us that she shares the "pure wizarding blood" obsession characteristic of most pure-blood Slytherins, her contempt for part-humans is a rather nasty likeness. And based on the last book she may indeed have had contempt for "Mudbloods," though YMMV - her enthusiasm might have simply been because of her desire for power in "the Establishment" regardless of what form "the Establishment" takes, or even just out of pure nonspecific sadism.
  • After Harry's actions accidentally lead to Sirius's death, Dumbledore tells Harry that he knows how Harry feels. In Deathly Hallows, we find out that Dumbledore also accidentally got someone he loved killed.
  • Rowling's Leaning on the Fourth Wall in this exchange:

"I am not aware that it is any of your business what goes on in my house--"
"I expect what you're not aware of would fill several books, [Vernon] Dursley," growled Moody.

    • Just think about Moody's wording for a second. Then laugh to yourself and wonder if it was intentional.

Fridge Horror

  • Possibly a Wham Chapter Ending: Boggarts were previously only a problem for Harry because he was scared of Dementors as opposed to spiders, mummies, or clowns like the other students. Then Molly tries to get rid of the boggart in Grimmauld Place, and she is so cripplingly devastated when it takes the forms of her family's dead bodies that she can't even speak coherently enough to make the charm work. How could anything make the sight of your dead family funny?
    • Change it to them sleeping and snoring in a comically loud fashion? The other half of this is that unlike Harry and co, Molly wasn't attempting to get rid of the boggart in a safe, classroom environment. She's in a big creepy house and is doubtless on edge already (she even says so herself after Lupin gets rid of the boggart). There's a theory I've seen floating around that boggarts don't necessarily take your very worst fear, just whatever is currently lurking closest to your consciousness. Granted, in Molly's case, it's probably both of those at the same time, her greatest fear and something that's been on her mind lately.
  • You don't realize it until Half-Blood Prince, but the nonverbal spell Snape uses on James during the flashback to cause a gash to appear on his cheek is likely Sectumsempra. The spell that, if cast correctly, causes deep, painful and profusely-bleeding blade wounds, irreparable severing of body parts and is overall very tricky to use in any way that DOESN'T kill your target if you get a clear shot. He was aiming that at James' head. One mistake on his part or a slower reaction time on James' could have resulted in the later getting decapitated right there. True, James' bullying was certainly despicable, but still, you know, MURDER.
  • Dolores Umbridge's eventual comeuppance. She is abducted by the centaurs after Harry and Hermione lead her into the Forbidden Forest. Anyone who knows the mythology of centaurs knows that they RAPE human women. This totally explains her mood when she is in the infirmary later on in what can only be described as a traumatized state. It also lets you know that you should never fuck with Hermione or her friends, as it was HER idea.
  • Minor Fridge Horror compared to those above, but: Nobody in the wizarding world receives much education about mundane matters, basic human physiology included. Fred and George repeatedly tested their Skiving Snackbox treats, both on one another and on ill-informed volunteers. We know there was at least one accident with Katie's unstoppable nosebleed; how easily might the twins have put themselves or others in the infirmary, or even St. Mungo's critical-care ward, if they kept making people bleed, puke, or suffer fevers in complete ignorance of the very real dangers of anemia, dehydration or hyperthermia?
  • I didn't care much for Nymphadora Tonks, but then I realized she was Rowling's answer to Mary Sues! Think about it! Her hair and eye color literally changes according to her mood, she ends up with one of the most wanted characters in the series, and in the end, she becomes a martyr!
    • Ironically, she's often accused of being a Mary Sue largely because she intruded on one of the biggest Slashfic ships in the series (Lupin/Sirius). -
    • Honestly, she's clumsy as all hell, shown to be likable and capable but not brilliant, and is barely present for most of the books. I don't see the Mary Sue-dom.
      • It's actually fairly common for Mary Sues to be clumsy - usually endearingly so. Also, like Tonks, Potter Sues frequently wear Muggle clothing. Basically, Tonks is what a character who would be a Mary Sue in the hands of a n00b writer looks like in the hands of a competent writer.
    • I don't recall it ever being said that Tonks's hair and eye color changed with her mood, aside from her hair turning red once, which was SPECIFICALLY in the film version, and therefore isn't exactly canon. And I don't remember her eyes ever changing in either version.
  • I had a moment of fridge brilliance while reading the Crowning Moments of Awesome page about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was basically around the part where I realized how the entire school basically rallied against Umbridge... then I realized, by rallying against Umbridge, they were rallying against the Ministry. If Umbridge hadn't been the DADA teacher, there would have been no reason for Dumbledore's Army to form. Dumbledore's Army was kind of its own family, and Umbridge helped form an allegiance between the entire student body and the teachers, as well as the ghosts. Without the family of DA or the entire schoolwide allegiance already established, nobody besides a few teachers would have been so willing to take up arms against Voldemort, both at the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, or the Second Wizarding War. Harry's support system would have been severely diminished, especially at the end of the seventh book. Harry would probably have not so eagerly led a group in rebellion, if it hadn't been for Dumbledore's Army. Basically, the whole reason anything in the sixth or seventh book worked at all, not to mention with as relatively few casualties as there were, was because of Umbridge, and her Ripple Effect over the entire school in the fifth book. Jo, you are one clever bastard. katzgoboo
  • I just realized the Brilliance in making the character Tonks so clumsy. Being a Metamorphmagus, her center of gravity must be constantly changing as she changes shapes, thus leaving her continuously unable to find her balance. -Transfan33
  • I realized that there was more to Harry's angst in Order of the Pheonix than just being a broody teenager. In Deathly Hallows, while taking turns wearing the locket Horcrux, whoever is wearing it feels miserable, and their situation seems even worse than it is (and it's pretty bad to begin with). Near the end of Deathly Hallows, we learn that part of Voldemort's soul is attached to Harry's soul. So imagine having the locket Horcrux inside you at all times with no way to remove it. And this was coupled with the fact that Voldemort had come back to full power, which strengthened the connection between his soul and the piece of it in Harry. So it wasn't just Harry wangsting and whining, it was being so close to Voldemort that it made everything seem worse to him. This also opens up more Fridge Brilliance about why Harry was more upset over Cedric's death than Sirius's. Because of Harry's connection with Voldemort, it made Cedric's death more tragic to him than to anyone else, except probably Cho. Harry was very upset after Sirius died at the end of Order of the Phoenix, but didn't seem to be afterwards. Voldemort started using Occlumency against Harry sometime between the fifth and sixth books. When Harry took off the locket in Deathly Hallows, he immediately felt much less miserable. After being directly connected to Voldemort's soul for an entire year, having Voldemort blocking himself from it was enough of a relief that he was able to get over Sirius's death faster than he could have with Cedric's.
  • The reason for Harry's unusual Jerkass behaviour this whole year? Say it with me- Harry is having PTSD from seeing Cedric get killed!
  • When Snape reads Harry's mind during an occlumency lesson, he looks back to the time when Harry was an infant and Voldemort is attacking their house. Why? Snape wanted to see the last time Lily, the woman he loved, was alive!
  • At the end of the book, Harry is in Dumbledore's office and yells that "People don't like being locked up!" in reference to Sirius. But at his words, Dumbledore immediately shows his first sign of emotion: "Dumbledore closed his eyes and buried his face in his longfingered hands." Why did he react so strongly? He was thinking of his younger sister, Arianna, who we learn in Deathly Hallows spent her life locked up. At this point, now two of the people Dumbledore tried to keep locked up for their own good had died because of him.
    • And what about Harry himself? He was left with the Dursley's, by Dumbledore, presumably for his own good as well. For the bulk of his time with them, he was kept in the cupboard under the stairs, as well as being briefly locked up by Vernon in the second book.
  • Order of the Phoenix came out three years after Goblet of Fire—the longest gap between any of the two books, which was especially frustrating because Goblet of Fire ended on a cliffhanger. In the first few chapters of Order of the Phoenix, Harry spends a lot of time angsting about being kept in the dark and not knowing what's going on in the wizarding world. This wasn't just to set up Harry as a character that was going to do a lot of angsting, but a way for JK to acknowledge the audience's frustration -- "Yes, I know, writing this did take longer than expected, and yes, I'm sorry, and see? Harry is frustrated too!"
  • Regulus Black's name hints at his redeeming actions directly before his death. Regulus is a star in the constellation Leo, the lion. Specifically, it's a red star that represents the lion's heart. HE HAS A LION'S HEART.
    • It gets even better: what House does that represent?
      • "I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more." Regulus sacrificed himself hoping, not knowing that it would work. Unlike Dumbledore, he probably wasn't even reasonably sure. That takes a whole new brand of Brass Balls.
  • Remember that spell that James used to humiliate Snape? Well, in "Half-Blood Prince", this very spell is in the Half-Blood Prince's text book as one of the jinxes that the Prince had invented. And, since Snape is the Half-Blood Prince, James must've learned it because Snape had been casting this spell himself! Hell, he'd most likely have used it on James himself. Suddenly, the whole incident doesn't seem quite as unprovoked as Harry had believed.

Fridge Horror

  • Dolores Umbridge's punishment in Order of the Phoenix? Terrifying. Look up the mythology of centaurs. They have a history of not-so-kind treatment of women. Children may not catch the implications of her being dragged into the forest with them and turning up in a dazed, traumatized state later on, but it should not have gone over an adult's head. But the truly horrifying thing about this is that it was HERMIONE'S idea. Sure, it may have partially backfired on them, but what was done was still done. Beware the Nice Ones indeed.
    • There are so many things wrong with this picture...including the fact that, well, if centaurs are essentially all horse below the waist, then presumably they're...hung like horses, too. GAH.
    • To those who are too lazy to look it up, DOLORES UMBRIDGE WAS GANG-RAPED BY SEVERAL DOZEN CENTAURS.
    • Several feminists actually caught on to this implication, and, needless to say, they were outraged.
      • Which of course bears the question of 'what exactly are they so pissed off about?' The book was written by a woman, so they can't exactly say that the author is a woman-hater, can they? Not to mention that Umbridge is a smugly-superior evil racist bitch that practically begs you to hate her, so she kinda deserves it.
      • Wait, what? Women aren't automatically excluded from misogyny just because they're women, and NO ONE deserves rape.
    • To be fair, whatever is implied (or inferred, in the minds of readers), the actual post-rescue description of Dolores is that there's apparently nothing wrong with her except some twigs in her hair. I'm assuming Madam Pomfrey has some kind of magical rape-kit, if centaurs are "known" for that sort of thing (ahem). And, honestly, would Dumbledore have allowed the centaurs to stay in the forest after that? Doubtful. He may not have liked Dolores, but he wouldn't have allowed a violent assault on a teacher any more than he'd allow one on a student.
      • To offer an alternative that doesn't require Brain Bleach afterwards - the centaurs found Umbridge too repulsive to even WANT to touch, left her tied up in a corner and argued over what to do with her until Dumbledore came and got her. If you think about it, Umbridge has such a hatred for "half-breeds" that even the kidnapping itself would probably be fairly traumatic. Add that to the hostility Bane and the others would have shown her, her state of mind after doesn't necessarily have to stem from rape. Hopefully.
      • Another alternative. In classical mythology, pretty much the only centaur who wasn't a rapist was Chiron, who, among other scholarly pursuits, was a noted astronomer. Astronomy (or at least astrology) is sort of the Hat of centaurs in the Potterverse. This could be taken to mean that JK's centaurs were all more like Chiron and were not, in fact, a species of rapists. I'm inclined to believe this, as the other interpretation has people like Dumbledore and Hagrid being perfectly fine with a herd of quadrupedal, equinely endowed rape-monsters chilling out next to a school full of adolescents, many of whom are female.
        • Or they tied Dolores to a tree and used her head as a stand to practice their archery - William Tell style. I imagine they practiced firing at targets while on the move, which is why Umbridge panicked whenever she heard a sound like centaur hooves. That's equal parts horrifying and hilarious.
        • I think we can assume it's called the "Forbidden Forest" for a damn good reason.
  • Consider this one. In the fifth book, Harry sees a vision of Sirius being attacked, then proceeds to freak out and do everything in his power to go save him. When Hermoine tells him that he needs to verify that Sirius is actually missing first, he hatches a plot to sneak into Umbridge's office and use her fire to check if Sirius is at headquarters. This leads to the entire climax, and ultimately Sirius' death. Then you remember that this entire thing could have been avoided if he had simply remembered the mirror Sirius had given him, that would allow Harry to contact his godfather at any time.
    • Harry didn't know what it was at the time, he only unwrapped the gift afterwards. Given his state of mind, it's not implausible that he'd forget about that lump of paper that Sirius had given him several months prior.
  • In Order of the Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge is not shown to be a particularly talented witch, being utterly unable to combat Fred and George's wild array of spells, but she has complete confidence in her ability to cast the Cruciatus Curse (described as a very hard curse to bring off) on Harry. The most likely explanation? She's had plenty of practice using it before.
  • The listing of floors at St. Mungo's suggests that the hospital is equipped to deal with every possible kind of magical malady, but not to deal with common mundane ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. Going by Ron's reaction to the word, wizards don't have any faith in Muggle doctors' capabilities, and none of them know any mundane biology beyond what a ten-year-old Muggle would've been taught, so if a wizard or witch comes down with a non-magical illness, they're going to be stuck with whatever crude home remedy their medically-ignorant families can whip up. Mrs. Crouch's terminal illness might well have been averted if she'd ever thought to go to a Muggle hospital.

Fridge Logic

  • It took the DA several hours to fly to London -- why didn't Snape 'n' pals get there earlier?
    • It took longer. Harry's takeoff time is at sunset; when Dumbledore portkeys Harry back to his office, dawn is breaking. The kids must have been in the air all night and well into the early AM. Now has a Just Bugs Me entry.
  • Why is there no-one guarding the Ministry of Magic overnight?
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