Harry Potter and the First Time Readers

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Ch 1-4

Episode Summary

Jon and Lizzy talk about the beginning of The Order of the Phoenix and how Lizzy likes the start of it.

Episode Notes

Chapter 1 - Dudley Demented

• The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive . . . The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.

Q1 - What do you think of Mrs Figg?

• Every day this summer had been the same: the tension, the expectation, the temporary relief, and then mounting tension again … and always, growing more insistent all the time, the question of why nothing had happened yet.

Q2 - Why hasn't anything happened yet?

• He had moved about two inches when several things happened in very quick succession. A loud, echoing crack broke the sleepy silence like a gunshot; a cat streaked out from under a parked car and flew out of sight; a shriek, a bellowed oath and the sound of breaking china came from the Dursleys' living room, and as though this was the signal Harry had been waiting for he jumped to his feet, at the same time pulling from the waistband of his jeans a thin wooden wand as if he were unsheathing a sword – but before he could draw himself up to full height, the top of his head collided with the Dursleys' open window. The resultant crash made Aunt Petunia scream even louder.

Q3 - What is everything that's happening here?

Q4 - What do you think of Harry here? What about Ron and Hermione?

Q5 - What are Ron and Hermione busy doing?

• In the meantime, he had nothing to look forward to but another restless, disturbed night, because even when he escaped the nightmares about Cedric he had unsettling dreams about long dark corridors, all finishing in dead ends and locked doors, which he supposed had something to do with the trapped feeling he had when he was awake.

Q6 - What is Harry dreaming about here?

• Harry watched the dark figures crossing the grass and wondered who they had been beating up tonight. Look round, Harry found himself thinking as he watched them. Come on … look round … I'm sitting here all alone … come and have a go …

Q7 - Why is Harry thinking this? And what's with his goading of Dudley?

Q8 - How did the Dementors get to Harry?

Q9 - Why wasn't Harry able to cast the Patronus?

Chapter 2 - A Peck of Owls

Q1 - Did you expect Mrs Figg was involved in the wizarding world?

Q2 - What are your thoughts on Mundungus Fletcher?

• 'I'll take you to the door,' said Mrs Figg, as they turned into Privet Drive. 'Just in case there are more of them around… oh my word, what a catastrophe… and you had to fight them off yourself… and Dumbledore said we were to keep you from doing magic at all costs… well, it's no good crying over spilt potion, I suppose… but the cat's among the pixies now.' 

Q3 - Why does Dumbledore want to keep Harry from doing magic at all costs?

Q4 - What's a time in your life when your stomach just dropped out of your body?

• 'How many times do I have to tell you?' said Harry, temper and voice both rising. 'It wasn't me! It was a couple of Dementors!' 'A couple of - what's this codswallop?' 'De - men - tors,' said Harry slowly and clearly. 'Two of them.' 'And what the ruddy hell are Dementors?' 'They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban,' said Aunt Petunia. Two seconds of ringing silence followed these words before Aunt Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth as though she had let slip a disgusting swear word. Uncle Vernon was goggling at her. Harrys brain reeled. Mrs Figg was one thing - but Aunt Petunia'? 

Q5 - How does Petunia know this?

Q6 - Why were there Dementors in Little Whinging?

Q7 - Does Harry have a right to be this angry?

• 'Back?' whispered Aunt Petunia. She was looking at Harry as she had never looked at him before. And all of a sudden, for the very first time in his life, Harry fully appreciated that Aunt Petunia was his mother's sister. He could not have said why this hit him so very powerfully at this moment. All he knew was that he was not the only person in the room who had an inkling of what Lord Voldemort being back might mean. Aunt Petunia had never in her life looked at him like that before. Her large, pale eyes (so unlike her sister's) were not narrowed in dislike or anger, they were wide and fearful. The furious pretence that Aunt Petunia had maintained all Harry's life - that there was no magic and no world other than the world she inhabited with Uncle Vernon - seemed to have fallen away. 'Yes,' Harry said, talking directly to Aunt Petunia now. 'He came back a month ago. I saw him.' 

Q8 - What do you think of Aunt Petunia this chapter?

Q9 - What do the words “Remember my last, Petunia” mean? Who sent it?

Chapter 3 - The Advance Guard

Q1 - Is Harry justified to be this angry?

• So it went on for three whole days. Harry was alternately filled with restless energy that made him unable to settle to anything, during which time he paced his bedroom, furious at the whole lot of them for leaving him to stew in this mess; and with a lethargy so complete that he could lie on his bed for an hour at a time, staring dazedly into space, aching with dread at the thought of the Ministry hearing. 

Q2 - Do you have more or less sympathy for the Dursleys?

Q3 - What do you think of Tonks?

Q4 - Do you think Moody is serious about dying trying to fly Harry to safety?

Q5 - Why is Harry in such dire danger?

• Harry looked down at the piece of paper. The narrow handwriting was vaguely familiar. It said: The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London

Q6 - So what is the Order of the Phoenix?

Chapter 4 - Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

• The othersʹ hushed voices were giving Harry an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person.

Q1 - What do you think of this house?

• The warm glow that had flared inside him at the sight of his two best friends was extinguished as something icy flooded the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden —  after yearning to see them for a solid month — he felt he would rather Ron and Hermione left him alone. 

Q2 - Is Harry and extravert or an introvert?

Q3 - Should Ron and Hermione have informed Harry anyway?

• ʹSome of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order said Hermione. ʹAnd some of them are standing guard over something,ʹ said Ron. Theyʹre always talking about guard duty.ʹ ʹCouldnʹt have been me, could it?ʹ said Harry sarcastically. ʹOh, yeah,ʹ said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension.

Q4 - Is Harry what they were guarding?

• ʹYou donʹt want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out,ʹ said Fred, also beaming. There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didnʹt hear you.ʹ 

Q5 - Is joking the best way to stop anger?

Q6 - What do you think of Percy abandoning the family?

• ʹWell, theyʹre writing about you as though youʹre this deluded, attention seeking person who thinks heʹs a great tragic hero or something,ʹ said Hermione, very fast, as though it would be less unpleasant for Harry to hear these facts quickly. ʹThey keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far fetched story appears, they say something like, ʺA tale worthy of Harry Potterʺ, and if anyone has a funny accident or anything itʹs, ʺLetʹs hope he hasnʹt got a scar on his forehead or weʹll be asked to worship him nextʺ ‐ʹ  

Q7 - What do you think about the Ministry doing this?

Q8 - Have you ever been in the paper?