Character Analysis
Fawkes is Dumbledore's pet phoenix. He lives in Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts, and he has often been called into battle in the past and has helped to save the day. In Book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Fawkes helps Harry defeat the Slytherin Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets by blinding the Basilisk. Fawkes also served as a means of communication between Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix in Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In Book 5 he also drank a killing potion meant for Dumbledore, thus saving his master's life. Fawkes is pretty much the bomb diggity. And, so, when he leaves Hogwarts after singing a mourning song following Dumbledore's death, we feel like we're losing another good friend. Harry thinks so, too: "And he knew, without knowing how he knew it, that the phoenix had gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the school, had left the world…had left Harry" (29.235).