Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Major Events/Battle at the Department of Mysteries

Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Major Event
Battle at the Department of Mysteries
Location	Ministry of Magic
Time Period	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Important Characters	Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange

Overview

After seeing a vision of Sirius being tortured, Harry and five members of Dumbledore's Army go to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, where they are trapped by twelve Death Eaters. They are later helped by a few members of the Order of the Phoenix, although Sirius is killed. When the Order is strengthened by the arrival of Dumbledore, Harry chases Sirius's killer, Bellatrix Lestrange, and duels her. Lord Voldemort appears on the scene, but Dumbledore comes to Harry's rescue. They duel, and Voldemort apparates away with Bellatrix, but not before being seen by the Minister for Magic.

Event Details

Harry has a vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. Harry tries to find a member of the Order of the Phoenix to confirm Sirius' whereabouts, but the only one he can remember at the school is Professor McGonagall, who he discovers has been sent to St. Mungo's Hospital. In order to attempt direct communications with Sirius via the Floo network, Harry arranges a distraction with the help of Ron and Hermione, and accepts assistance from Ginny and Luna Lovegood to block student access to the hall outside Professor Umbridge's office. Then, with Hermione, he enters Umbridge's office to use the fireplace, which is the only one not being monitored. When he contacts Sirius's home, Kreacher, the house elf, tells Harry that Sirius "will never return from the Department of Mysteries".

Umbridge pulls Harry out of the fireplace, and Harry sees that between herself and her Inquisitorial Squad, she has captured all of the conspirators plus Neville. Umbridge summons Professor Snape, demanding Veritaserum to allow her to discover who Harry was talking to, but Snape says that he had already given her all his Veritaserum and it would take months to make more. As Snape is leaving, Harry, suddenly remembering that Snape is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, tries to tell Snape what he has perceived, but Snape appears to take no notice.

Umbridge then decides to use cruder methods to extract the truth from Harry. To prevent Umbridge from casting the Cruciatus curse, Hermione makes up a story about a "weapon" in the forest, and says that they were trying to contact Professor Dumbledore to let him know it was ready. Umbridge believes her, and follows Hermione as she leads them into the part of the Forbidden Forest where Centaurs roam. Surprised by Centaurs, Umbridge insults them to the point where they capture her and take her away, in the process, possibly accidentally, breaking her wand. The centaurs now try to determine what to do with Harry and Hermione, who had apparently deliberately brought the irritating Umbridge into their midst. The debate is interrupted by Grawp, Hagrid's half brother, who arrives and creates a diversion.

The two, managing to get away from Grawp and the Centaurs, are then joined by Ginny, Neville, Ron, and Luna, who have overpowered the Inquisitorial Squad members and retrieved Hermione's and Harry's wands. Luna points out that they can fly to the Ministry on Thestrals. Arriving at the Ministry, they enter through the visitor's entrance, and proceed down to the Department of Mysteries. On their way to the place Harry saw in his vision, they step into a room featuring a black veil, behind which Harry, Luna, and apparently Ron can hear voices.

The place of Harry's vision turns out to be a vast hall, filled with shelves full of glass phials. Though they are in the place that Harry had seen, there is no sign of Sirius or Voldemort. Looking around, Ron notices a phial that has Harry's name on it, and Harry, curious, lifts it off the shelf. Suddenly, the six students are surrounded by a group of Death Eaters. The Death Eaters, led by Lucius Malfoy, identify the phial as a Prophecy and demand that Harry turn it over.

The students use the Reductor Curse on some of the shelves on Harry's command, and manage to escape the room and scatter in the confusion. A Death Eater grabs Harry, but is stunned by Hermione. Later, Lucius Malfoy reveals that there was an injured Death Eater, who was named as Nott. The text says that Harry, Hermione, and Neville turn right after losing Ginny, Luna, and Ron.

Lucius Malfoy gives these instructions:

• The Lestranges, Bellatrix and Rodolphus go left
• Crabbe (Vincent Crabbe's father) and Rabastan go right
• Jugson and Dolohov go forward
• Macnair and Avery go "through here"
• Rookwood goes "over there"
• Muciber goes with Lucius, but it doesn't say where

Harry, Hermione, and Neville end up in the Hall of Time, while Ginny, Luna, and Ron apparently end up in a different hall. Harry, Neville, and Hermione are cornered by a pair of Death Eaters. Based on Lucius' instructions, these Death Eaters are named Mr. Crabbe and Rabastan. One of them is stunned by Harry, but the other tries to hit Hermione with Avada Kedavra. Harry grabs him, causing him to miss. Neville uses Expelliarmus, but disarms both Harry and the Death Eater. The remaining Death Eater tries to grab his wand, but is hit with Stupefy by Hermione. One of the Death Eaters' heads fall into a jar, and he becomes mentally unstable, possibly forever. It is impossible to determine who was Mr. Crabbe and who was Rabastan, as neither of them appear later in the series.

Harry, Hermione, and Neville enter a different room, but two Death Eaters use Impedimenta before Hermione can seal the door. One of them is revealed to be Dolohov, and the other is Jugson, based on Lucius' orders. Harry uses Petrificus Totalus on Jugson, as Hermione uses Silencio on Dolohov, preventing him from giving out their location. However, Dolohov knocks out Hermione with a near-fatal curse, and Neville's wand and nose are broken from a kick to the face. Harry uses Petrificus Totalus on Dolohov as well. Unfortunately, even with Hermione's wand, Neville's broken nose prevents him from articulating incantations, rendering him useless in combat.

Harry manages to bring the unconscious Hermione and the wounded Neville to the entrance hall, where they meet up with Ginny's group. Before they can find their way into the hallway outside, a second door into the room opens and three Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange, enter and resume the attack, firing spells that miss. Bellatrix was assigned to be with Rodolphus, but there are three. The Death Eater that went alone was Rookwood, who probably joined up with them.

Dumbledore's Army retreats through a doorway, finding themselves in the Brain Roon; Ron, who seems to be Confounded by a spell attack and is disoriented and confused, summons one of the brains and is incapacitated by the "tentacles" of thought emanating painfully from it. Retreating again into a study room, Harry and Luna as the only uninjured members of the group start trying to seal the doors, but five Death Eaters enter through an as-yet unsealed door, and knock out Luna. With Stupefy, Luna would simply fall backwards and collapse. But Luna flies through the air, says "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh," and hits the floor across the room, meaning that the cause of unconsciousness is hitting the floor. This suggests that the spell was Impedimenta. Ginny is also hit by a Stunning Spell.

Harry, knowing that the Death Eaters are only after him, tries to draw them away by running through a different doorway, and promptly falls down the stone steps of the amphitheater of the room of the Veil, the Death Chamber.

It says the five Death Eaters from the Brain Room approach, along with others. Dolohov is revived, so Jugson, also hit with Petrificus Totalus, and was in the same room, is probably revived as well. The Death Eaters that are mentioned in this part of the battle (other than Jugson, who is deduced to be present) are: Bellatrix, Malfoy, Macnair, Rookwood, Rodolphus, and Dolohov. The injured Death Eaters are Crabbe, Rabastan, and Nott. Mulciber and Avery are not mentioned at all, meaning that they were either lost, out of action from Ron, Ginny, and Neville, or attacked by the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Neville tries to save Harry, but is grabbed by a Death Eater. Bellatrix uses Crucio on him, to persuade Harry to hand over the prophecy, but they are distracted by the appearance of the Order. Sirius, Moody, Tonks, Kingley, and Lupin appear, and begin to fight the Death Eaters. Macnair tries to grab Harry in the chaos, but Neville stabs him with Hermione's wand and Harry stuns him, leaving six Death Eaters.

We know that Dolohov was dueling Moody, until Moody was hit and injured. We also know that Bellatrix was dueling her niece, Tonks. And we also know that Kingsley is dueling two, one of them Rookwood. Sirius and Lupin are fighting two others. So the possible opponents for Sirius, Lupin, and Kingsley's second Death Eater are: Jugson, Rodolphus, and Lucius.

It is possible to deduce that Sirius defeats his Death Eater because he aids Harry in taking on Dolohov. His opponent was either Jugson or Rodolphus because they don't appear later. The book says that Kingsley is only dueling one opponent now, Rookwood, so the other person either ran away or was hit and downed. Here are the scenarios:

1) Kingsley's opponent ran away. Lucius Malfoy jumps out to attack Harry later, so he is the Death Eater that fled. Jugson and Rodolphus were busy with Lupin and Sirius, while Bellatrix is still fighting Tonks, Macnair was knocked out, and Dolohov was dueling Harry and Neville.

2) Kingsley's opponent was hit. This means that Kingsley dueled either Jugson or Rodolphus, as well as Rookwood. Sirius dueled the one out of Jugson and Rodolphus that Kingsley did not hit, Lupin dueled Lucius in that case.

Scenario one is more likely, as Lucius wouldn't just break out of a duel with Lupin to grab Harry, or he would have been hit. This also means that Lupin had knocked out his opponent before moving on. Jugson and Rodolphus Lestrange were disabled within the first minute of the Death Chamber battle, leaving Remus Lupin free to duel Lucius Malfoy later, and Sirius Black to help Harry with fighting Dolohov and then Bellatrix when Dolohov is Petrified once again.

Bellatrix manages to hit Tonks, causing her to fall down the stone steps. Moody is bleeding, injured, and unable to fight, so he works on healing and attempting to revive Tonks. After Dolohov is downed by Harry, Sirius takes up the fight against Bellatrix. Malfoy tries to grab the Prophecy, but Harry blasts him away with Impedimenta and Lupin takes up the fight with him, telling Harry to bring his friends to safety.

As of now, most of the fighters are knocked out or disabled. On the Death Eater side: Bellatrix, Malfoy, and Rookwood. On the side of the Order and Dumbledore's army: Harry, Neville, Sirius, Lupin, and Kingsley.

Dumbledore arrives from the Brain Room and magically binds Malfoy and Rookwood, who attempt to flee at the sight of Albus Dumbledore. However, he does not arrive in time to save Sirius, who is hit in the chest by a spell, and falls backwards through the Veil, leading to his death. Bellatrix manages to defeat Kingsley before Dumbledore turns on her.

Bellatrix now runs up the amphitheater steps and out through the Brain Room, where the tanks of brains are. Enraged, Harry chases after her, catching up to her in the Atrium, where they duel. Suddenly, Dumbledore and Voldemort arrive, and duel each other, with Harry and Lestrange restrained by moving statues charmed out of the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Voldemort then tries to possess Harry, and flees when Harry's love for Sirius chases him out of Harry's mind. As Voldemort returns physically to free Bellatrix, Cornelius Fudge and a number of Aurors, summoned by Dumbledore, arrive and see him. Reluctantly, Fudge must now accept that Harry and Dumbledore were telling the truth all year. While Fudge is still stuttering over these revelations, Dumbledore creates a Portkey, and hands it to Harry; it promptly takes Harry to Dumbledore's office.

Notable Consequences

The death of Sirius will make Harry very sad and angry over the summer, and also deprive him of one of his greatest friends and his godfather. However, Sirius will leave the house at Grimmauld Place to Harry in his will; if Harry is actually able to take possession, a point which we won't have cleared up until the next book, he may be able to use the house as a refuge, it being so well concealed.

The remaining Death Eaters, trapped in the amphitheater by Dumbledore, will be sent to Azkaban. With the Dementors having departed to enter Voldemort's service, this may prove a pointless exercise; however, it does clearly show the Wizarding World where the loyalties of the captured Death Eaters lie. In particular, this will prove an issue for Lucius Malfoy, who is now clearly a criminal. This will significantly change Draco's status as well, as he is now the child of a convicted felon. Draco will end up taking his anger out on Harry, with the mistaken, but all too human, idea that it was Harry's fault that Lucius got caught, rather than Lucius' fault for breaking the law.

The chain of events that culminates with Harry's mission to the Ministry will demonstrate to Dumbledore the risks of being secretive; it is a lack of information that misled Harry into believing the images Voldemort was sending him. This realization will trigger a much more complete statement from Dumbledore regarding the situation with Voldemort and the Wizarding world. Dumbledore will explain the reason for his unwillingness to meet with Harry over the course of this year, and the reason for his setting Snape to teach Harry Occlumency. He will explain why Harry is able to see Voldemort's thoughts, and his worries about what Voldemort would do if he perceived that the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore was anything more than headmaster to student. Finally, and most importantly, he will reveal the text of the prophecy that Voldemort had been seeking, that it states that either Voldemort or Harry must die, "one must die at the hand of the other," and go into some detail as to how this is interpreted.

Dumbledore's comments on the loyalty of house-elves and the need to treat them honorably, which he makes in his office after the battle, may have some effect on Harry in later books.

Finally, the Wizarding world is now aware that Voldemort is back, which signals the start of the Second Wizarding War. This also will likely mark the end of the campaign against both Harry and Dumbledore, and may result in the restoration of Dumbledore's various official positions. Dumbledore requests also that the Aurors stop chasing his groundskeeper, which means that Hagrid will no longer be a fugitive.

Analysis

We have been told many times that the purpose of Harry's being taught Occlumency is to prevent Voldemort having access to Harry's mind. It is after the attack on Arthur Weasley that Dumbledore realizes there may be a mental connection between Harry and Voldemort, and it is at that time that he charges Professor Snape with teaching Harry Occlumency. This actually may be one of Dumbledore's few mistakes. The obvious mistake, and one that Dumbledore later admits himself, lies in Dumbledore's selection of teacher; Harry and Snape hate each other, and Harry is unable to learn anything useful from Snape. This is not the first time Dumbledore has made this mistake; in the closing chapters of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he apparently assumed that Snape and Sirius would be able to set aside their mutual hatred and work with each other, and while they have managed to work together, we have seen that their mutual friction has still gotten to the point of wands drawn. Less obviously to the reader, Dumbledore apparently assumes that Voldemort's intent is to read Harry's mind, when it becomes apparent to the reader that the intent is rather to insert images into Harry's mind. Our story does not indicate whether Occlumency will prevent this effect. In any event, it is the placement of images into Harry's mind that leads him to the Ministry.

In this battle, we see that Mad-eye Moody, the reason why half the cells in Azkaban are full, is defeated by Dolohov. To the reader, it's like seeing the undefeated champion knocked out. Following this, the Order of the Phoenix will realize what it means to be fighting Death Eaters in the real world, if Moody can be knocked out, they can too.

This particular episode is a remarkably good example of the art of the story-teller, as well. The author hurries us along the path that Harry is following, and does not leave us time to consider several large discrepancies. For instance, when Harry sees Voldemort and Sirius in the Ministry of Magic, it does not occur to him, or to us, to wonder how Voldemort could possibly have gotten into the Ministry undetected at three in the afternoon on a weekday. Hermione does bring this point up, but Harry runs over it so quickly that we, as readers, pay little attention to it. Neither we nor Harry think of the magic mirror Sirius had given Harry at Christmas. In Harry's disappointment at finding Professor McGonagall gone, it does not occur to us that Snape is a member of the Order. The author does an excellent job of not only showing us Harry's sense of urgency, but of making us share it.

Questions

1. Why would the Ministry of Magic have been entirely empty on a weekday?
2. How would Voldemort and twelve Death Eaters have gotten into the Ministry of Magic undetected on a weekday?

Greater Picture

One of the major things that this particular escapade taught Harry was that it was possible for Voldemort to generate false mental images and plant them into Harry's mind. Knowing that this is possible, it is significantly less likely that Harry will be taken in later by false scenarios that Voldemort generates. Hermione, of course, is less certain. Knowing that Harry has been taken in by mistaken perceptions of Voldemort's thoughts, Hermione is always suspicious of the perceptions Harry receives from him, until almost the end of the seventh book. It is only during the battle at Hogwarts in the seventh book that Hermione actively asks Harry to look into Voldemort's mind, to see where Voldemort is.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the book immediately following this event, Dumbledore will ask if Harry has had any pains in his scar; on being told no, he will say that he is not surprised that Harry's scar has stopped hurting. Voldemort will have found Harry's mind, with its love for Sirius, a very uncomfortable place to inhabit. After this episode, Voldemort never tries to re-enter Harry's mind, with its deep emotions that he cannot understand. However, Harry is able to perceive what Voldemort is thinking at times of great emotional stress for Voldemort. Harry's own emotional stress seems to dampen these perceptions.

As mentioned above, Dumbledore had intended Occlumency to be a means of breaking this mental bond between Harry and Voldemort. It is entirely possible that, even with a more suitable teacher, it would not have worked. Indications are that Dumbledore, as early as the end of Harry's second year at Hogwarts, suspected that Voldemort's already tattered soul ripped again, either at the death of Harry's mother or, more likely, at the attempt to kill Harry himself, and the detached fragment attached itself to Harry; we can see that Dumbledore becomes certain of this by fairly late in Harry's sixth year. It is uncertain whether that link between Harry's soul and Voldemort's can be broken by means of Occlumency, as there does not seem to be any similar event in magical history.

One must wonder when Dumbledore came to this conclusion about the soul shard having adhered to Harry. The reader may suspect that this was a conclusion Dumbledore had reached when he had heard Voldemort's plan to create multiple Horcruxes, but this is uncertain. The first time we hear of this belief is in Snape's memory, from an occasion which we believe to be the same night as Ron's poisoning. Harry's successful retrieval of the memory from Slughorn which seems to confirm the creation of multiple Horcruxes, however, happens significantly after the date of Ron's birthday and poisoning, which means that Dumbledore will not have had confirmation of the number of Horcruxes at that time. As we cannot be absolutely certain of the dates of Snape's memory, however, this is inconclusive. One thing we do know is that Dumbledore had been concerned about the possibility of there being multiple Horcruxes since the discovery of the diary in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He would have been certain that there were multiple Horcruxes by the beginning of the sixth book, as he had then found and destroyed the ring Horcrux; but we will learn that he had suspected the existence of multiple Horcruxes on hearing of the diary, which he says was crafted as a weapon, rather than as a road to immortality. Believing that at least two Horcruxes had been created, he could easily guess that there would be more, and that as a result Voldemort's soul would be less cohesive than it should be. Learning of Harry's ability to speak with snakes, Dumbledore likely guessed the existence and possibly the nature of the soul shard during the summer between Harry's second and third years. There is more speculation on this matter at Harry — Voldemort Shared Thoughts.