Harry is a 15-year-old wizard in his fifth year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry experiences grief, trauma, and anger over the events during that school year; he was involved in the Triwizard Tournament through the intervention of Voldemort’s servants and witnessed his schoolmate Cedric Diggory being murdered. To compound his anger, the majority of the wizarding world believes that Harry is an attention-seeking liar due to the attempts of the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet to discredit him. Harry’s trauma is compounded when his godfather, Sirius, is killed.

While Harry is brave and principled, he is also a conflicted teenager. Embarking on his first romantic relationship, he stumbles to find the right words and doesn’t understand Cho’s reactions. He experiences jealousy that Ron was chosen to be a prefect and he wasn’t, and he’s angry that Dumbledore is avoiding him. He also has to come to terms with the unflattering vision of his father that he sees in Snape’s Pensieve. Seeing that James was an arrogant bully causes Harry consternation, although he eventually realizes that he cannot judge his father solely based on his actions as a 15-year-old, a mature response to his disappointment.