Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Snape's Worst Memory

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

U.S. hardcover edition: pages 624 - 650
U.K. hardcover edition: pages aaa - bbb
U.K. paperback edition: pages aaa - 715
Timeframe: a Tuesday and Wednesday in April, 1996 [Y16]

In which Umbridge replaces Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts, the students (with the help of Fred's and George's inventions) rebel while the staff sit back and watch, and Umbridge tries to get Harry to tell her where Dumbledore is hiding.  Harry confronts Cho about her friend Marietta, continues his Occlumency lessons with Snape, and while poking around in Snape's Pensieve discovers that his father may have been every bit as arrogant as Snape had previously told him.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

Characters introduced in this chapter:

• (unnamed) girl in Pensieve eyeing Sirius

• (unnamed) students in Pensieve watching James and Snape

Characters returning in this chapter:

• Black, Sirius (as Padfoot, in Pensieve)

• Chang, Cho

• Crabbe, Vincent

• Filch, Argus

• Finnigan, Seamus

• Flitwick, Filius (also in Pensieve)

• Goyle, Gregory

• Granger, Hermione

• Lupin, Remus (as Moony, in Pensieve)

• Macmillan, Ernie

• Malfoy, Draco

• McGonagall, Minerva

• Pettigrew, Peter (as Wormtail, in Pensieve)

• Potter, Harry

• Potter, James (in Pensieve)

• Potter, Lily Evans (in Pensieve)

• Snape, Severus (as Snivellus, in Pensieve)

• Weasley, Fred

• Weasley, George

• Weasley, Ron

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

• Brown, Lavender

• Dumbledore, Albus

• Edgecombe, Marietta

• Fat Friar, the

• Filibuster, Dr.

• Fudge, Cornelius

• Giant Squid

• Longbottom, Neville

• Montague

• Moody, Alastor (Mad-Eye)

• Peeves

• Stebbins

• Thomas, Dean

• Umbridge, Dolores

• (unnamed) second year girls whom Harry overhears discussing Fudge's pumpkin head

Settings and locations introduced or returning in this chapter:

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Entrance Hall

  • Great Hall (in the Pensieve)

  • Gryffindor Tower:

    • common room

    • Harry's dormitory

  • lake, the (in Pensieve)

  • Snape's Office

  • Umbridge's Office

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

  • Dumbledore's Office

  • Hospital Wing

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

Exceptional character moments:

• Still to come....

Spells:

• Accio

• Expelliarmus

• Impedimenta

• Locomotor Mortis and countercurse

• Scourgify

• Stupefy

• Vanishing Spell

Links and Resources:

• Aurors

• blood status

• D.A., the

• Educational Decrees

• food and drink

• Harry's dreams

• house points, OP

• Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

• Pensieve

• Vanishing Cabinet

• Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Memorable lines:

• Harry overheard one second-year girl assuring another that Fudge was now lying in St. Mungo's with a pumpkin for a head.

• "Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame.  "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"

• "Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether I had the authority...." Beaming, he closed the classroom door in her snarling face.

• Harry could still hear the distant bangs of escaped firecrackers when he and Ron went up to bed an hour later, and as he got undressed a sparkler floated past the tower, still resolutely spelling out the word POO.

• "Did you like question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall. "Loved it," said Lupin briskly. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.' Excellent question." "D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" said James in tones of mock concern. "Think I did," said Lupin seriously,k as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds. "One: He's sitting on my chair. Two: He's wearing my clothes. Three: His name's Remus Lupin...."

• What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him - it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him.

Strictly British:

• Catherine wheel

• oy

• toerag

Timelines/Calendar:

All we know is that, since the previous chapter took place on a Monday in April, this chapter must take place Tuesday and Wednesday of the same week. Hermione also says that the Easter holiday begins Friday, but since the calendar doesn't align to a real-world calendar, it still doesn't help determine exact dates.