Imagine you’re THE Chosen One! You survived the killing curse as a BABY, a feat no one else has ever achieved before or after you. You prevented the return of The Dark Wizard in your first year of school at 11 years of age. You were the champion of the Triwizard Tournament. You’re a popular Quidditch player. By all accounts, you’re trustworthy, if a little rebellious at times.

And you still get called a liar!

This is the book where everything goes to hell. I don’t think a single character comes across as likeable in this book. Everyone is going through it. Even the previously idolised father figures reveal themselves to have been jerks. The Minister for Magic reveals himself to be an absolute joke. Even friends turn their back on friends.

And in the midst of all of this, poor sweet Harry, a boy that only recently escaped a graveyard with the body of his friend. A boy who blamed himself for said friend’s death. HE, of all people, is accused of being a liar. He’s told he’s mentally unstable and must’ve been imagining things or is intentionally telling tales for attention. As though the very fact he rocked up with the corpse of his schoolmate shouldn’t immediately let everyone know just how serious the situation is.

But no, people would rather deny what is right in front of them if it’ll allow them to keep their heads buried in the sand.

Why Does No One Address Harry’s Obvious PTSD?

The most annoying part about The Order of the Phoenix is how absolutely powerless the book leaves you feeling. Harry returned from the maze, crying inconsolably, with a corpse at the end of the last book. And for the first part of this book, he’s ignored by everyone. Not a single person offers him any comfort during his summer. And then when he saves his cousin from losing his soul to a dementor, he’s yelled at and threatened with expulsion and homelessness.

This is a how to guide on what NOT to do with a teenager suffering from PTSD.

I understand that Dumbledore had misgivings about Harry’s connection to Voldemort. But this absolutely wasn’t the right call. In fact, it was such a wrong call, it almost ruined Dumbledore’s plans of having Harry as the perfect little pawn. This poor boy is physically abused at school by his OWN TEACHER and called a liar by most of his peers. I’m surprised he didn’t crack more.

People keep reprimanding him for losing his temper but I’d argue his reactions are relatively tame given the context of what he’s been through. Maybe therapy wasn’t as encouraged during his time but I refuse to believe that people back then were so stupid they thought ignoring a grieving teenager during his time of need is the right call. And Harry isn’t even the only one whose feelings are ignored.

Cho Chang spends most of this book either crying or having meltdowns. I know that we were probably viewing her through Harry’s adoration in the last book, but even with that, this is absolutely not the same girl. Goblet of Fire Cho Chang was cool and collected. She had so many friends, it was a challenge to get time alone with her. And we never got the impression that she was overly territorial in the last book.

Her reactions in this book are clearly a result of PTSD. Lets not forget the fact that she was in the crowd when her boyfriend’s corpse appeared out of nowhere. And not only is she not taken seriously in her grief, not only is she actively mocked for said grief but she’s also denied the right to learn how to defend herself. I don’t think she truly liked Harry. I think she gravitated towards him because he was the only other person who could kind of relate to her. He was also the one who survived.

Cedric Diggory was a school champion and he was taken down by Voldemort. And then you have Harry, a boy who’s been surviving Voldemort’s attacks since he was a baby. He represents safety and security. She gravitates towards him because he seems to be the only one, not just aware of the danger they’re all in, but seemingly also prepared to face it.

But no! She’s mocked for having actual emotions over the murder of her boyfriend. And Harry is treated like a ticking time bomb. He’s either avoided or yelled at. And he leaves this book with permanent scars: both physical and mental. He’s going to spend the rest of his life knowing that had he been believed, maybe the lives that were lost could’ve been saved. And he’ll do this while the words “I must not tell lies” are engraved onto his skin by his own hands.

Every adult in this book sucks.

Fudge Fumbled So Bad, I’d Feel Sorry For Him If He Wasn’t So Awful

I never really liked Fudge but this is the book where I truly hate him. Not only is the man incompetent, he’s actively endangering his own citizens. Previously, he always wore a fatherly persona around Harry. Sure, you could see his true colours in the way he treated people who he considered beneath him. But he didn’t seem the worst considering the Ministry of Magic is a vehicle for injustice.

He comes from a system of power that, routinely, denies people the right to fair trials. A system that sabotages criminals’ ability to reintegrate into the world by giving them depression. And it punishes the worst of the worst by robbing them of their souls. As the leader of such a system, he was never going to be a good person.

But previously, you might’ve been okay just assuming he’s incompetent. Now, you can see where his actions are malicious. He hires someone who abuses children to look after a school. He allows his jealousy of Dumbledore to cloud his reason. He cares more about optics than his own people. And he uses a newspaper to bully and discredit a traumatised teenage boy.

Even if Harry was truly disturbed, what kind of an adult would shame him publicly?

This was not an honest mistake. It’s not that he genuinely didn’t believe Voldemort was back. He CHOSE to bury his head in the sand. Because he didn’t want to go through the effort of protecting his own citizens. The man doesn’t even offer people fair trials before arresting them. In fact, when he believed he had the chance to arrest Dumbledore, his first instinct was to contact the Daily Prophet.

And that’s not surprising. He’s a representation of just how corrupt the Ministry is.

Umbridge: The Only Character We All Hate More Than Voldemort

Harry has faced a lot of abuse in his life. But Umbridge, she’s special. Her, I’d like to see kicked in the face until she stopped moving. Every other character, as bad as they are, have some sort of tragic backstory or redeeming quality. Even Voldemort, I can recognise that it must’ve been hard growing up as an orphan deprived of his family and heritage. He’s awful but I can see HOW he became this way.

But Umbridge? I don’t think we even got a backstory for her. She’s just a vindictive witch who takes pleasure in hurting children.

And the worst part is: she’s never punished for it. Not really. Sure, there was that whole thing with the centaurs. But I don’t care what people say. We don’t know what truly happened. It was never in the books. It was never in the movies. For all we know, they just scared her a little. But that cannot compare to the pain she’s inflicted on countless people. Forget how she’s abused children and forced them to mutilate themselves. She’s also responsible for passing legislation that prevents people like Remus from being functional members of society. She’s a racist who uses “half-breed” as an insult. She’s the worst kind of person and she doesn’t even have to be a death eater.

In fact, she’s so awful that when Voldemort takes over the ministry, it doesn’t affect her position in any way. In fact, she takes joy in accusing muggle borns of being thieves and arresting them. This is AFTER her little stint in the forbidden forest with the centaurs. It doesn’t look like she learned any lessons. And once again, we don’t truly know what happened in that forest. And considering that Umbridge was fully on board with sucking out the souls of muggle borns for resisting injustice, I can’t even say she hasn’t done worse than whatever was done to her. She’s been maiming children for most of this book, I hope no one expects me to feel sorry for her over a head canon that may or may not be true.

So yes, I hate her. She never gets the punishment she deserves. Which is ironic considering that was her entire shtick as a teacher: punishing people.

Final Thoughts

Reading through this book isn’t for the faint of heart. Especially considering it doesn’t really even get better, for a long while. Although I have no professional training, I feel I would’ve handled the childrens’ PTSD a lot better. I would’ve had the sense to at the very least talk to them. Sure, maybe they couldn’t send over sensitive information via post. But they could send reassurance. They could’ve at least tried to ensure Harry had at least one friendly face over the summer.

But no!

Once again, Dumbledore is creating his little sacrificial lamb by isolating him. Maybe Dumbledore assumed that by ignoring Harry, he would come back to school eternally grateful and ready to do anything. Maybe he assumed that Harry was so mistreated he wouldn’t even recognise the further neglect forced on him by denying him contact with his loved ones.

But Dumbledore was wrong and he had to backpedal. HARD!