Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Nine
I’ve talked a couple of times recently about chapters where the books grow up; this is one of the chapters in which I think Harry really starts to grow up. He’s coming to terms with the corruption in the Ministry; Dumbledore is mysteriously ignoring him; Ron is made a prefect; and then between Moody’s picture of the old Order and Mrs. Weasley’s boggart, he’s beginning to realize the magnitude of the threats he’s facing in a new way. And I love the way the last line encapsulates his emotions: “He felt older than he had ever felt in his life, and it seemed extraordinary to him that barely an hour ago he had been worried about a joke shop and who had got a prefects badge.”
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter nine: ‘The Woes of Mrs. Weasley’
