The battle at the Department of Mysteries hits its breaking point in Chapter 35 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, “Beyond the Veil,” and middle school teacher Shelby joins Andrew, Eric, Micah, and Laura to relive one of the most painful chapters in the series.
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Give the episode a listen above, and keep scrolling for a recap of what we talked about.
Harry Walks Into a Trap Without a Clue
Sirius isn’t at the Ministry. Voldemort planted the vision to lure Harry there, and now Lucius Malfoy and a group of Death Eaters want the prophecy Harry is holding. The problem is that Harry has no idea what it actually is. Micah put it bluntly: Harry is “once again informationless in a very compromising situation.”
It’s yet another moment where Dumbledore’s secrecy has real consequences. Harry is improvising in a life or death standoff while the adults around him know far more than he does.
Harry Stalls Lucius Malfoy
Harry figures out quickly that the Death Eaters can’t just take the prophecy by force without risking it breaking. So he keeps them talking while his friends get ready to fight. Eric was impressed by Harry’s “survival instinct” and the way he keeps them occupied.
Harry also throws a very uncomfortable truth in their faces: Voldemort is a half-blood. His mother was a witch, but his father was a Muggle. Eric said Harry is “telling them the truth, and they are way too blind to hear it.” Shelby compared it to how followers will often excuse a leader’s background if they think he’s helping their cause, and Laura joked that they probably see Voldemort as “one of the good ones.” It raises a fun question: how much do the Death Eaters actually know about where their master came from, and how much have they just decided not to think about?
Six Teenagers Against the Death Eaters
When the fighting starts, the kids get creative. They smash shelves of prophecies and use the strange rooms of the Department to their advantage. Shelby liked that “they started with something that was physical” instead of the violent curses the Death Eaters would expect.
Laura thinks the Death Eaters made the same mistake Umbridge did a few chapters earlier. “The bad guys are underestimating children,” she said. That, plus a year of DA lessons, might be the only reason these kids survive until help arrives.
Neville Longbottom Refuses to Quit
Neville gets kicked, jinxed, and loses the ability to speak properly after a broken nose, and he still keeps fighting. Eric admired that Neville isn’t precious about his wand at all, even though it belonged to his father, Frank. Eric even floated a fun idea: go back and figure out which Death Eaters got hit with Frank Longbottom’s wand before it snapped.
Shelby teaches middle school, and Neville reminds her of students she sees every day. Some kids know a skill doesn’t come easily to them and decide to work even harder anyway. As she described that mindset, “I’m going to have to work extra hard, because I’m not going to let that prevent me from doing what needs to get done.”
The hosts also noticed that Harry and Neville end up as the last two standing. The prophecy could have been about either of them, and Andrew wondered if something about it pushes both boys “somewhere deep down within them.”
The Order Arrives, Then Dumbledore
Just when things look completely hopeless, members of the Order burst into the Death Chamber. Then Dumbledore shows up, and the Death Eaters panic. Micah called the book’s version of Dumbledore’s entrance “very cool,” since you get to see the Death Eaters react to him.
Andrew pointed out how much tension is in that room once it’s adults fighting adults. The Order members are furious that the Death Eaters have been attacking children, and they’re angry about the trick Voldemort pulled on Harry. Eric added that they’ve probably all been waiting for a confrontation like this for a long time. The catch is that Voldemort picked the time and the place, so the Order is fighting on his terms.
Andrew appreciated that the movie builds toward Dumbledore facing Voldemort, but wished it had included more of the battle before that.
Sirius and the Veil
Then comes the moment nobody wanted. Sirius is dueling Bellatrix, taunting her, and her spell sends him falling through the veil. Micah thinks the real recklessness was Sirius goading her. Bellatrix is deranged, and Sirius has been stuck inside Grimmauld Place for a year. He’s out of practice, and challenging her was a risky move. Andrew thinks Sirius had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to fight “like it’s the good old days.” He even gave the movie credit for having Sirius say “Nice one, James,” which isn’t in the book.
Shelby admitted that when the book first came out, she was convinced Sirius was still alive. There was no Killing Curse, and nobody knew what the veil actually did. The movie changes that by showing a Killing Curse, and Laura thinks it lost something. She hopes the TV series offers “a different interpretation of the veil scene,” since the film version felt “too smooth, too sanitized.” In the book, it’s abrupt and unsettling, and it’s supposed to be.
Bellatrix Becomes the Villain We Love to Hate
From this chapter on, Bellatrix is one of the most feared villains in the series. She’s the Death Eater who tortured Neville’s parents, and now she has killed Harry’s godfather. Meanwhile, the prophecy lies shattered on the floor, which means Lucius Malfoy has some serious explaining to do.
“Beyond the Veil” is brutal, but it’s also one of the best showcases for Neville and the DA. A group of teenagers held their own against Voldemort’s inner circle, and the cost of that night will stay with Harry for the rest of the series.