Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Chapter Two: A Peck of Owls

1. Mrs. Figg could not have helped Harry against Dementors because she’s a what?
2. What was the name of the cat Mrs. Figg had set to watch as Harry’s erstwhile bodyguard?
3. Who is Mrs. Figg furious at for leaving Harry completely unguarded?
4. Mrs. Figg tries her best to kill the unrepentant guard with a string bag full of what?
5. True or False? While Harry was trying to explaining to the Dursleys about Dementors, Aunt Petunia supplied that they guard the wizard prison Azkaban.
6. The two letters Harry received from the Ministry of Magic were sent from which office?
7. What words did the Howler sent to Aunt Petunia scream?
8. True or False? After hearing Voldemort is after Harry, Uncle Vernon tries to force him out until Aunt Petunia stops him.
9. Uncle Vernon thought Dudley had fought off the dementors by doing what?
10. How many owls flew into the Dursley’s kitchen overall that night?

For Your Reflection: As Joyce Odell was the first to point out, Order of the Phoenix largely mirrors the action of Philosopher’s Stone, the first Harry Potter novel. Every Potter novel has its ‘Wizarding World makes Contact with Muggledom Moment at Privet Drive,’ though, when Harry leaves for school or comes into conflict with the Dursleys. Sometimes those world-meeting instances are comic — see Dobby and the pudding in Chamber and the ‘Blowing Up’ of Aunt Marge in Prisoner — and sometimes the Dursleys’ home is really invaded and turned upside-down — see the first, fourth, and seventh books, the ‘axis’ novels, for those. What makes the revelations of ‘A Peck of Owls’ (side question: isn’t the collective for these animals a parliament of owls? What is Rowling saying here by using the word ‘peck’?) significantly different than those Magic-Muggle meetings in Harry’s safe-house? What makes it resonant with the Hogwarts Letter invasion of Philosopher’s Stone?

Answers: 1. A Squib (20); 2. Mr. Tibbles (20); 3. Mundungus Fletcher (20); 4. Cat food cans (23); 5. True (31); 6. Improper Use of Magic Office (27-33); 7. ‘REMEMBER MY LAST, PETUNIA.’ (40); 8. True (38-41); 9. Giving them ‘the old one-two.’ (34); 10. Five (26-28-32-34-39)

A myth has arisen on social media that J. K. Rowling chose the name Robert Galbraith in honour of Robert Galbraith Heath, further, the myth states that she did this because Robert Galbraith Heath is known as “the father of conversion therapy” because of his experiments into electrical stimulation of the brain to “cure” homosexuality. The argument goes that Rowling, or her people, must have searched the name, and so must have known about so famous a man as “the father of conversion therapy”.

The Cuckoo’s Calling was first published in April 2013, so by late 2012 the name Robert Galbraith must have been decided on. If we look at the list of ‘Robert Galbraiths” on Wikipedia before our author joined the list in July 2013 it looks like this:

A photojournalist, a soldier a politician and a judge. Our Dr Heath is listed as “see also” because of course his name is Heath rather than Galbraith. The article on Heath at this time looks like this:

No mention of conversion therapy, but there is a link to a paper he co-authored that would be considered conversion therapy today.

The truth is Dr R. G. Heath or Bob Heath to his friends and colleagues was almost completely unknown before an article published by Robert Colevile in 2016. It was part of a series called “Great Forgotten Stories of Neuroscience” because as Colevile says “because everyone had forgotten it”. 

If there is one critical moment, say ‘a year,’ in Rowling’s life as a writer, a credible argument can be made that it was not 1990-1991, the so-called “year of misery” that featured the inspiration for the Hogwarts novels and the demise of her mother, but 2012 when Casual Vacancy was published and Rowling began her career in post-Potter publishing.

This interview is one of many she gave that year, every one of which has several gems of ‘Lake and Shed’ material, especially, I think, for Serious Strikers, those novels having already been plotted by this point. Enjoy!

It’s the end of the first week of a tumultuous month — and our friends at The Rowling Library have posted their latest issue! Founder and Chief Wizard at TRL, Patricio Tarantino, wrote this about the current issue:

Welcome to Issue #95 of The Rowling Library Magazine! As we do every November, we’re celebrating another anniversary. We’re  now entering our 9th year—way back in November 2016, we began a magazine about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, not knowing  how far we’d go. After all this time, here we are, still creating new content, analysis, news, and more. Here’s hoping we’ll keep  going for many more years to come!

In this particular issue, Oliver Horton returns with his Scene Autopsy, and he’s chosen a scene from Mike Newell’s Goblet of Fire. From Italy, A. Dalla Palma closes out his piece ‘Solve et Coagula‘ with the second part.

We also have a review of the new book Christmas at Hogwarts, and we take a look at five lesser-known editions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone published by Scholastic.

Mona Morsy (a former contributor to our magazine) shares details about her new project: a physical magazine on the Harry  Potter Trading Card Game. And, as always, we have the Wizard of the Month!

Thank you for continuing to support and choose us.

You can download the pdf copy of Issue #95 here, read it online via your web browser via this link, and support all that TRL does by making a contribution on this secure page.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Today marks a not infrequent coincidence of the first Tuesday in November, the American election day, and ‘Guy Fawkes Night‘ or ‘Bonfire Night’ in the UK.

This year’s simultaneous observation of civic duty to vote in one country with the public observance of fidelity to the Crown (and derision of treason) in another, though, seems laden with meaning, a trope I suspect that many others have written about ‘Over There’ (as few here in the States know about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot).

Those that do know about it here may have first heard about it in the opening chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in which a teevee weatherman assumes that the fireworks the Wizarding World are setting off to celebrate the disappearance and seeming death of the Dark Lord are actually Muggles who have confused the date of Bonfire Night. My bet is that those who know about Guy Fawkes and the Fifth of November remember it from the 2005 dystopian film V is for Vendetta.

An anonymous writer, ‘A Midwestern Doctor,’ who posts his (or her) thoughts on ‘The Forgotten Side of Medicine,’ connected the three dots of the Presidential election, Guy Fawkes Night, and V is for Vendetta today in a post titled, ‘I Would Like to Take This Day to Honor a Masterpiece.’ Her (or his) understanding of the film as a kind of prophetic warning about the Covid years and the totalitarian over-reach we are experiencing today under the present oligarchy, not to mention the idea that Donald Trump’s campaign and his ardent followers represent the last best hope to subvert this oligarchy, make the piece well worth your time.

Enjoy this Fifth of November, be it in the UK or US, and let us hope that those committing treason or who are guilty of that crime for a generation will be held accountable to a popular revolt at the ballot boxes rather than fire in the capital and violence elsewhere. Lord, have mercy.