Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Chapters 32–38

by J.K. Rowling
In his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry must contend with terrifying dreams, malicious gossip, and a nasty new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He continues his struggle against Lord Voldemort in this fifth installment of J.K. Rowling's popular series.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–16, Chapters 17–24, Chapters 25–31, Chapters 32–38

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. irascible
    quickly aroused to anger
    There was nobody left to tell. Dumbledore had gone, Hagrid had gone, but he had always expected Professor McGonagall to be there, irascible and inflexible, perhaps, but always dependably, solidly present.
  2. lure
    provoke someone to do something through persuasion
    Voldemort knows you, Harry! He took Ginny down into the Chamber of Secrets to lure you there, it’s the kind of thing he does, he knows you’re the—the sort of person who’d go to Sirius’s aid!
  3. solidarity
    a union of interests or purposes among members of a group
    Even through his anger and impatience Harry recognized Hermione’s offer to accompany him into Umbridge’s office as a sign of solidarity and loyalty.
  4. garish
    tastelessly showy
    The garish kittens were basking in the late afternoon sunshine warming their plates, but otherwise the office was as still and empty as last time.
  5. pallid
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    He inhaled a lot of ash and, choking, found himself being dragged backward through the flames until, with a horrible abruptness, he was staring up into the wide, pallid face of Professor Umbridge, who had dragged him backward out of the fire by the hair and was now bending his neck back as far as it would go as though she was going to slit his throat.
  6. pinion
    restrain or bind
    Now he could see Hermione pinioned against the wall by Millicent Bulstrode.
  7. sycophantic
    attempting to win favor by flattery
    Malfoy laughed loudly and sycophantically. Umbridge gave her wide, complacent smile and settled herself into a chintz-covered armchair, blinking up at her captives like a toad in a flowerbed.
  8. inclination
    a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition
    “Well, it doesn’t surprise me. Potter has never shown much inclination to follow school rules.”
  9. inscrutable
    difficult or impossible to understand
    Snape looked around at Harry. His face was inscrutable. Harry could not tell whether he had understood or not, but he did not dare speak more plainly in front of Umbridge.
  10. insurmountable
    not capable of being overcome
    They all fell silent, looking rather scared. The problem facing them seemed insurmountable.
  11. jubilation
    a feeling of extreme joy
    All Harry knew for sure was that Sirius had neither done as Voldemort wanted, nor died, for he was convinced that either outcome would cause him to feel Voldemort’s jubilation or fury course through his own body, making his scar sear as painfully as it had on the night Mr. Weasley was attacked.
  12. sinuous
    curved or curving in and out
    There were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but he saw as the lift slid smoothly to a halt that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling.
  13. dread
    fearful expectation or anticipation
    “You’ve got him,” said Harry, ignoring the rising panic in his chest, the dread he had been fighting since they had first entered the ninety-seventh row.
  14. sphere
    a round three-dimensional closed surface
    The Death Eaters wanted this dusty spun-glass sphere. He had no interest in it. He just wanted to get them all out of this alive, make sure that none of his friends paid a terrible price for his stupidity.
  15. besmirch
    smear so as to make dirty or stained
    “Shut your mouth!” Bellatrix shrieked. “You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood’s tongue, you dare—”
  16. prophecy
    knowledge of the future, as from a divine source
    “Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him.”
  17. appalled
    struck with dread, shock, or dismay
    As both of them stared at the place where it had broken, appalled at what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by any but them.
  18. dissolve
    stop functioning or cohering as a unit
    Harry could see its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and yells surrounding them, not one word of the prophecy could he hear. The figure stopped speaking and dissolved into nothingness.
  19. righteous
    morally justified
    “Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?” she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. “You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain—to enjoy it—righteous anger won’t hurt me for long—I’ll show you how it is done, shall I?
  20. pathetic
    inspiring mixed contempt and pity
    “I was and am the Dark Lord’s most loyal servant, I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete—”
  21. incense
    make furious
    Harry laughed again because he knew it would incense her, the pain building in his head so badly he thought his skull might burst.
  22. pitiless
    deficient in humane and kindly feelings
    “So you smashed my prophecy?” said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes.
  23. irk
    irritate or vex
    “I have nothing more to say to you, Potter,” he said quietly. “You have irked me too often, for too long.
  24. thrust
    push forcefully
    The headless statue thrust Harry backward, away from the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.
  25. emanate
    proceed or issue forth, as from a source
    Dumbledore flicked his own wand. The force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, though shielded by his stone guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed, and this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it.
  26. molten
    reduced to liquid form by heating
    At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one long, fluid movement—the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass
  27. suffocate
    deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
    For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass
  28. fuse
    mix together different elements
    He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creature’s began. They were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape
  29. agony
    intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain
    And when the creature spoke, it used Harry’s mouth, so that in his agony he felt his jaw move.
  30. unbearable
    incapable of being put up with
    It was unbearable, he would not think about it, he could not stand it...There was a terrible hollow inside him he did not want to feel or examine, a dark hole where Sirius had been, where Sirius had vanished.
  31. irretrievable
    impossible to recover or recoup or overcome
    Phineas Nigellus did not know that Sirius was dead, but Harry could not tell him. To say it aloud would be to make it final, absolute, irretrievable.
  32. corpulent
    excessively large
    “I hope this means,” said the corpulent, red-nosed wizard who hung on the wall behind Dumbledore’s desk, “that Dumbledore will soon be back with us?”
  33. parasite
    an animal or plant that lives in or on a host
    The guilt filling the whole of Harry’s chest like some monstrous, weighty parasite now writhed and squirmed. Harry could not stand this, he could not stand being Harry anymore...He had never felt more trapped inside his own head and body, never wished so intensely that he could be somebody—anybody—else.
  34. demolish
    destroy completely
    He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office.
  35. detached
    showing lack of emotional involvement
    His expression was calm, almost detached. “You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.”
  36. rouse
    cause to be agitated or excited
    “And this ability of yours—to detect Voldemort’s presence, even when he is disguised, and to know what he is feeling when his emotions are roused—has become more and more pronounced since Voldemort returned to his own body and his full powers.”
  37. indifference
    the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things
    “Sirius did not hate Kreacher,” said Dumbledore. “He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.
  38. underestimate
    make too low an approximation of
    You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated—to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day.
  39. dwell
    inhabit or live in
    While you can still call home the place where your mother’s blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge. You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can still call it home, there he cannot hurt you.
  40. assiduously
    with care and persistence
    And so, since his return to his body, and particularly since your extraordinary escape from him last year, he has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you.
  41. vigilant
    carefully observant or attentive
    We urge the magical population to remain vigilant. The Ministry is currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defense that will be delivered free to all Wizarding homes within the coming month.
  42. slander
    an abusive attack on a person's character or good name
    “Yes, they’re very complimentary about you now, Harry,” said Hermione, now scanning down the article. “A lone voice of truth...perceived as unbalanced...yet never wavered in his story...forced to bear ridicule and slander..."
  43. isolated
    remote and separate physically or socially
    Perhaps the reason he wanted to be alone was because he had felt isolated from everybody since his talk with Dumbledore. An invisible barrier separated him from the rest of the world. He was—he had always been—a marked man.
  44. disconsolate
    sad beyond comforting; incapable of being soothed
    Outside his Charms classroom he came to a halt, panting and thinking disconsolately that he would have to wait until later, until after the end of the feast . . .
  45. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    There was Mad-Eye Moody, looking quite as sinister with his bowler hat pulled low over his magical eye as he would have done without it, his gnarled hands clutching a long staff, his body wrapped in a voluminous traveling cloak.
Created on Fri Aug 04 11:25:36 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Aug 01 14:44:18 EDT 2023)

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