I hope everyone's keeping up with the reread! I know it's going fast! We're on to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! It's going to be the most challenging read so far as far as timing goes! Just hang in there and do your best!

Here's your forum for discussing anything you'd like about the rereading of this book! See if you can pick up any clues about what's coming in the next two. There should be quite a few good ones in this book!

It seems once I started rereading these books I just couldn't put the books down. I finished Order of the Phoenix a couple of weeks ago I believe maybe a little less though. I started Half Blood Prince a few days later and finished a few days ago so I am done with the reread until I see the Half Blood Prince movie July 14 at midnight. Then I will read Deathly Hallows. As far as OotP is concerned, I was rather disappointed they left out so much stuff from the book in the movie. One thing I noticed is that the whole Department of Mysteries could and should have been done much much better.

I was disappointed with the OoTP movie there were too many details from the book that were left out in the movie. Too many key elements that would have made the movie that much better. The book itself was extremely well written, but I felt empty after watching the movie. The scene in the book where McGonagall gets injured and ends up in the wheelchair, why did they omit that from the movie, I thought that was a really key point to the story.

Wait a minute, McGonagall ends up in a wheelchair? Ok. I don't understand. If Madam Pomfrey can regrow bones, seal cuts, and un-Petrify people, why couldn't she restore McGonagall to good health? I know people get old, but if they can do all this other health stuff with magic, why not help old people be a little more...mobile?

I didn't get that far in my re-read to know for sure, but I know there are some curses that have no countercurse. I'm going to have to remember that question while I'm re-reading it. As far as the movie leaving out a lot, I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who noticed that! I can't believe how much more detail was needed in the movie, until my husband (who has never read the books) asked me questions. Once I explained certain events, he said "Well that would have been more helpful to know while watching the movie!" I really think they make the movies for those of us who've read the books, which kind of bugs me!

I found the page(s) that led to McGonagall's demise. It is Chapter 31 starting on page 721 this is what the passage reads:









The part about McGonagall in the wheelchair was originally suppossed to be in the movie OoTP but that scene was cut out...

Thank you, DracosLady. I guess somethings you just can't fix at a certain age. I didn't know that they were going to have McGonagall in a wheel chair in the fifth movie though. I think that would have been a bit weird.

Order of the Phoenix is my favorite book. Don't really know why.

You're quite welcome Just The Droobles Yeah that would have seemed weird if McGonagall had been in a wheelchair. I mean whoever heard of Witches and Wizards in a muggle contraption like a wheelchair? Lol. I have always said OoTP was my favorite book as well, there was something about it that captured me more than the others. HBP was my second fave.

I have to confess something... I thought OotP was my favorite book in the series until this re-read, and now I feel it is my least favorite. I don't know why, either. I think I got tired of listening to Harry complain and being self-suffering or self-righteous or the martyr or SOMETHING. It ticked me off at the end when he found the two-way mirror in the bottom of his trunk. If he had just bothered to open it when he first got it, a lot of his pain and heartache in his 2nd semester could have been avoided. Granted, JKR had her reasons for doing things certain ways, so we can't blame it all on Harry .

Another thing that bugged me was when Hermione took Umbridge to the forbidden forest in hopes that the centaurs would help them. With all her book reading and support of rights for other magical creatures you think she would have known not to say something stupid like

Didn't she know that Centaurs set themselves apart from wizards? I just thought it was quite foolish of her to admit it, even if it was what she was doing.

The lack of communication between The Trio and the Adults bothered me, too. Neither side was willing to give too much information to the other, the thinking being they were protecting each other. Oh, well.

I did start to like Luna, though. I think it's because, despite being a bit daft she was the voice of reason!

I can honestly say that OOTP was my favorite when I first read the series and still is. The reason for this is simple. I loved it for the fact that a secondary character showed the most growth.

I am speaking of course about Neville Longbottom. Neville was the character I latched on to from the beginning and it was so refreshing to see that at least with this one, JKR got the progression right. It started in OOTP. No one practiced harder then Neville during the DA meetings, his loyalty to Harry was already becoming evident: almost like he looked up to Harry's ability to stand up for what was right and under the pressure of being famous. Neville was the only one left standing during the battle at the Ministry, something movie neglected to film and that really irked me. He was brave and bleeding and wandless and wouldn't leave Harry's side.

I can't explain to you how much pride I felt reading about Neville growing into a confident and brave young man.

The other reason I love this particular book was Umbridge. Oh I loathed her character! I hissed at her, cussed at her, I think I even verbally threatened her. But she was written so deliciously evil that I couldn't help but like the way JKR wrote her.

These are two things in the books that never change, no matter how many times I read it. Somehow with the trio or Ginny or Molly, I can always find something with what I re-read that just irks me more and more but with Neville and Umbride in this book, I just really enjoy the way they were written and for me that is where I find my peace with OOTP

I think OotP is one of my favourites because of the fact that the books seem to continue more like sequels to each other after OOTP, if that makes sense. I know it helps to have read the whole series, but if you just started from the OotP, you can get along with the rest of the series alright.

I have to agree with nevillesgirl, on this point, that Umbridge is by far my favourtie character in OotP, because she is just so vile. As far as twisted characters go, she is the best.

I also have to agree with ChannelingGinny that lisenting to Harry complain about everything really annoyed me. What also annoyed me is the fact that he doesn't seem to trust anyone except for Ron and Hermione, and that just annoyed me. I'm not sure why, and it might be the fact that I always thought Harry was a very trusting character, and in OotP he's not. Another thing that annoyed me about him was that at the beginning, when he arrives at Grimmauld Place and he shouted about how he had gone all summer without a scrap of news, I was kind of like, well, you've gone summers before without any news, why is it bothering you so much this time.

I also think that they missed out a lot in the film, and could have done the film better, but personnally, the death eater scene at the ministry is one of my favourite scenes. The thing that really annoys me in that scene is the fact that when Harry and Sirius are fighting Lucius, Harry can do non-verbal spells, when a) he's not meant to know what non-verbal spells are yet and in HBP there the thing that he really struggles with. Another thing that annoys me, throughout the whole film, really, is that they're not meant to know Levicorpus yet, but they do, and, they don't do it right, because in Levicorpus, your meant to be hoisted into the air by your ankle, like Snape is in his memory, but when they do it in the DA, they kind of float, and I'm like, if your going to do the spell they don't know yet, at least do it proparly. Sorry, I get quite het up about things, sometimes.

Lottie
xxx