Word: phoenix
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Rowling knows better than to fix what ain't broke, and Phoenix begins as the previous books have: the long, hot summer, the hopelessly unmagical, unforgivably bourgeois Dursleys, the longed-for magical summons, the hasty packing and finally--bliss--Platform 9 3/4 and on to another year at Hogwarts. But a lot has changed. Death, which was always part of the subtext of Rowling's story, burst out into the open in the previous novel, and the atmosphere in Phoenix has darkened accordingly. Voldemort is back, and Hogwarts' sage headmaster Aldus Dumbledore has organized some of the wizarding world...
...what really makes the Harry Potter series great is its dual nature. It's a fantasy wrapped around a nightmare, an unreal, escapist fiction with an icy core of emotional pain that is very real. In Phoenix, Rowling even kills off a major character, one of the people Harry needs most...
...Harry Potter we meet in Phoenix is a darker, more volatile Harry, and it's not just adolescent petulance. Harry is showing the mental scars of having been hunted and harried for four straight years, and the rage and fear he feels will strike a chord with any reader, adult or child. "You don't know what it's like!" he shrieks at Ron and Hermione. "You--neither of you--you've never had to face him, have you?" No, they don't know what it's like...
RESIGNED. THOMAS O'BRIEN, 67, bishop of Phoenix, Ariz.; after being charged with leaving the scene of an accident in which his car struck and killed a 43-year-old carpenter. The accident followed a year of turmoil over O'Brien's alleged role in protecting priests accused of sexual abuse, which culminated in his striking a deal earlier this month with prosecutors to avoid possible obstruction-of-justice charges. If convicted, the prelate, who led Arizona's 480,000 Catholics for 22 years, could face more than three years in prison...
...Price of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the latest in the series...