Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter Thirty-One:
O.W.L.s

Synopsis by Maureen Knight
Notes and links by Steve Vander Ark and Michele L. Worley

US hardcover edition: pages 703-728
UK paperback edition: pages aaa-bbb
Timeframe: 31 May - 18 June (?), 1996 [Y16]

In which Harry and Hermione tell Ron about Grawp, the fifth years take their O.W.L.s, Hagrid is sacked, McGonagall is stunned, and Harry dreams that Sirius is being tortured.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

Still to come....

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• Dawlish
• Marchbanks, Griselda
• Tofty, Professor
• (unnamed) Plump little witch who examines Harry in Care of Magical Creatures

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Bell, Katie

• Black, Sirius (in Harry's vision)

• Brown, Lavender

• Creevey, Colin

• Fang

• Flitwick, Filius

• Granger, Hermione

• Hagrid, Rubeus

• Johnson, Angelina

• Jordan, Lee

• Longbottom, Neville

• Macmillan, Ernie

• Malfoy, Draco

• McGonagall, Minerva

• Potter, Harry

• Riddle, Tom Marvolo (as Voldemort, in Harry's vision)

• Spinnet, Alicia

• Thomas, Dean

• Umbridge, Dolores

• Weasley, Ron

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• Abbott, Hannah

• Aragog

• Bonaccord, Pierre

• Bradley

• Carmichael, Eddie

• Chang, Cho

• Crabbe, Vincent

• Davies, Roger

• Dingle, Harold

• Dumbledore, Albus

• Dursley, Petunia

• Finnigan, Seamus

• Goldstein, Anthony

• Goyle, Gregory

• Grawp

• Greengrass, Daphne

• Longbottom, Frank

• Longbottom, Gran

• Lupin, Remus

• Norbert

• Ogden, Tiberius

• Parkinson, Pansy

• Patil, Padma

• Patil, Parvati

• Pomfrey, Poppy

• Potter, James

• Snape, Severus

• Sprout, Professor

• Trelawney, Sybill

• Weasley, Ginny

• (unnamed) gossiping third-year Hufflepuffs

• (unnamed) students Hagrid was teaching about unicorns

• (unnamed) first-years Hermione tells off for giggling too loudly in the common room

Settings and locations introduced or returning in this chapter:

• Forbidden Forest

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Astronomy Tower

  • Entrance Hall

  • Great Hall

  • Gryffindor Tower Common Room

  • Lake, the

  • Transfiguration Classroom

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

• Azkaban

• France

• Hagrid's cabin

• staffroom

• Lichstenstein

• Department of Mysteries

• number four, Privet Drive

• St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

Exceptional character moments:

• Still to come....

Spells and Potions:

• Anti-Cheating Charms

• Cheering Charms

• Color-change Charm

• Countercharm for hiccups

• Crucio

• Expecto Patronum

• Growth Charm

• Levitation Charm

• Locomotion Charms

• Polyjuice Potion

• Riddikulus

• Stunning Spell

• Substantive Charm

• Switching Spell

• Vanishing Spell

• Wingardium Leviosa

• (unnamed) Spell Ron used to mutate a dinner plate into a large mushroom

• (unnamed) Spell Hannah Abbott used to multiply her ferret into a flock of flamingos

Links and Resources:

• Aurors

• Bestiary

  • blast-ended skrewt

  • boggart

  • bowtruckle

  • fire-crab

  • goblin

  • knarl

  • niffler

  • troll

  • unicorn

• classes

  • Ancient Runes

  • Arithmancy

  • Astronomy

  • Care of Magical Creatures

  • Charms

  • Defense Against the Dark Arts

  • Divination

  • Herbology

  • History of Magic

  • Potions

  • Transfiguration

• essay: NEWTs and OWLs

• Wizard Chess

Memorable lines:

• He might as well have tried to see moving pictures in the desktop as the stubbornly blank crystal ball; he lost his head completely during tea-leaf reading, saying it looked to him as though Professor Marchbanks would shortly be meeting a round, dark, soggy stranger, and rounded off the whole fiasco by mixing up the life and head lines on her palm and informing her that she ought to have died the previous Tuesday.

• [Ron] made Harry feel rather better by telling him how he told the examiner in detail about the ugly man with a wart on his nose in his crystal ball, only to look up and realize he had been describing his examiner's reflection.

Strictly British:

• sacked

Timelines/Calendar:

The chapter starts from the day after Gryffindor's Quidditch Victory (Sunday, May 31), then goes through probably a week of studying for O.W.L.s and then almost two weeks of exams.  We do know that Harry's last exam day, on which the next few chapters take place, is Thursday of his second week of exams - probably June 18.