Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 26 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Seen and Unforeseen

  • Luna doesn't know when Harry's interview will appear, but it'll be soon.
  • Neville admires Harry's bravery. He knows that it's important for people to understand what Voldemort is capable of – "and his Death Eaters, too ... people should know" (26.6).
  • Hermione asks about Harry's date with Cho.
  • She scolds Harry for telling Cho about Hermione's meeting so tactlessly and so early in their date.
  • Harry does not get girls at all.
  • Ron and Ginny come back from a nightmarish Quidditch practice.
  • Fred and George both confirm that it was the worst.
  • Fred rolls his eyes: "Well, [Ron] can do it if he doesn't think anyone's watching him [...] So, all we have to do is ask the crowd to turn their backs and talk among themselves every time the Quaffle goes up his end on Saturday" (26.37).
  • Fred and George are talking seriously about leaving school before exams, now that they don't even have Quidditch to look forward to.
  • The Quidditch match on Saturday is indeed dire: "It was hard to say what the worst thing was: Harry thought it was a close-run contest between Ron's fourteen failed saves, Sloper missing the bludger but hitting Angelina in the mouth with his bat, and Kirke shrieking and falling backwards off his broom when Zacharias Smith zoomed at him carrying the Quaffle" (26.52).
  • After the match, Ron is obviously miserable.
  • Harry dreams again of the corridor with the door at the end of it. This time, the door is partly open, and Harry almost goes through it before a snore from Ron wakes him.
  • The next morning at breakfast, Harry receives loads of letters.
  • The reason becomes clear soon: Harry's interview has appeared in the Quibbler.
  • Luna's father has sent Harry a free copy, so he shows it to all of his friends.
  • A lot of the letters say that Harry is crazy, but some of them are statements of support.
  • Professor Umbridge sees the commotion and demands that Harry explain.
  • Harry shows her the Quibbler with his interview on the front page.
  • Professor Umbridge forbids Harry from going to Hogsmeade again. She also takes fifty points from Gryffindor and gives him another week of detention.
  • The next Educational Decree says, "Any student found in possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be expelled" (26.102).
  • Of course, this just makes the students even more curious about Harry's interview.
  • Soon, it seems that everyone has read it.
  • Finally, Seamus approaches Harry and says, "I just wanted to say [...] I believe you. And I've sent a copy of that magazine to me mam" (26.111).
  • Harry feels on top of the world.
  • He goes off to nap in his dorm, and he dreams of a man kneeling in front of him.
  • The man is Rookwood, and he is apologizing desperately for a mistake.
  • Harry speaks in a high cold voice: "Avery told me Bode would be able to remove it" (26.126).
  • Rookwood protests, "Bode could never have taken it, Master ... Bode would have known he could not ... undoubtedly, that is why he fought so hard against Malfoy's Imperius Curse" (26.127).
  • Harry tells him, "You have done well to tell me this [...] Very well ... I have wasted months on fruitless schemes, it seems ... but no matter ... we begin again, from now. You have Lord Voldemort's gratitude, Rookwood" (26.130).
  • Once again, Ron wakes Harry from his nightmare.
  • Harry tells Ron that he was Voldemort in the dream, and that Rookwood has put Voldemort on the right track to get something.
  • Ron wants Harry to tell someone, but Harry refuses.
  • Hermione figures out that that's why Bode was murdered: he resisted the Imperius Curse and it messed with his mind, but he was getting better.
  • If he had recovered, he could have accused Lucius Malfoy of casting an Unforgivable Curse. The Death Eaters had to shut him up.
  • Hermione and Harry also realize that it must have been Lucius Malfoy who put Sturgis Podmore under the Imperius Curse to steal the weapon.

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  • Then, abruptly, Hermione scolds Harry for seeing all of this in the first place – obviously, he's not working hard enough on Occlumency.
  • During one of Harry's Occlumency sessions with Professor Snape, Snape sees the dream Harry had of Rookwood kneeling before him.
  • Professor Snape reminds Harry, "you are neither special nor important, and it is not up to you to find out what the Dark Lord is saying to his Death Eaters" (26.193).
  • At last, Harry manages to push Professor Snape out of his mind and enter into Snape's own.
  • Harry feels on edge: "It was unnerving to think that the little boy who had been crying as he watched his parents shouting was actually standing in front of him with such loathing in his eyes" (26.206).
  • But what makes Professor Snape really angry is that he sees Harry in his dreams trying to go down the hallway in the Department of Mysteries.
  • They start fighting yet again, but they are interrupted by a woman screaming.
  • Upstairs, students and teachers are surrounding the scene.
  • In the Entrance Hall stands Professor Trelawney with her two trunks.
  • Professor Umbridge mocks Professor Trelawney for not having foreseen that this day was coming.
  • Professor Umbridge gloats as she tells Professor Trelawney that she has been dismissed.
  • Professor McGonagall goes over to Professor Trelawney and tries to comfort her.
  • Dumbledore tells Professor Trelawney she must not leave.
  • After all, while Professor Umbridge may have the right to fire Hogwarts instructors, she has no right to have people removed from the castle.
  • He, Dumbledore, is still Headmaster, and he wants Professor Trelawney to keep living at the castle.
  • What is more, Dumbledore has already found a suitable replacement for Professor Trelawney.
  • That replacement is Firenze, a centaur from the Forbidden Forest.