The original members of the Order of the Phoenix include Sirius Black, Emmeline Vance, Benjy Fenwick, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Edgar Bones, Lily Potter, James Potter, Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Dorcas Meadowes, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Hestia Jones, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Aberforth Dumbledore, Dedalus Diggle, Minerva McGonagall and Marlene McKinnon.

During this period, before the events of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Order sustained heavy losses, including the murders of minor characters such as the Prewetts, the Bones and the McKinnons.

The Order established their headquarters at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, Sirius Black's family home, during the interval between the fourth and fifth books in the series.

In the series finale, attention turns to escorting the Death Eaters' main target, Harry Potter, from his summer home with the Dursleys to the Weasleys' Burrow.

The following characters were members of the Order of the Phoenix during Voldemort's initial rise to power and several years prior to the events of the Harry Potter series.

Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Fred and George Weasley have their own pages, and Peter Pettigrew is listed under Death Eater.

Aberforth allows the resistance fighters to use a secure passageway from the Hog's Head to the Room of Requirement through Ariana's portrait, it being the only unguarded entrance into Hogwarts.

She is a Chekhov gun, first mentioned as a seemingly insignificant neighbour in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and not revealed as a member of the magical community until Order of the Phoenix.

Mundungus Fletcher is mentioned in passing in some of the earlier books in the series, but it is not until the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that he makes his first appearance.

The text describes Mundungus as a "squat, unshaven man" with "short, bandy legs", "long, straggly ginger hair", and "bloodshot, baggy eyes that gave him the doleful look of a basset hound".

His connections enable him to hear rumours and information circulating in the shadier segments of the Wizarding population - data with the potential to prove instrumental in the fight against Voldemort.

He is confunded by Snape, and gives the idea of using the Polyjuice Potion and six Potter decoys to the Order and helps with the escort of Harry from Privet Drive.

He has replaced his missing eye with a magical one that can rotate 360 degrees and see through almost everything (including walls, doors, Invisibility Cloaks, and the back of his own head).

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Moody is appointed as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, coming out of retirement as a favour to Dumbledore.

Shortly before the school year begins, however, Moody is attacked by Barty Crouch, Jr., who subdues him with the Imperius Curse and takes Polyjuice Potion to assume his appearance.

Moody's well-known habit of carrying around his own drinks in a private hip flask allows Crouch to take the Polyjuice Potion as needed to sustain the masquerade without raising suspicion.

[19] In an interview, Rowling revealed that James and Lily were asked by Voldemort to join the Death Eaters, but refused, making it "one strike against them before they were even out of their teens".

She is one of the "all-time favorite students" of star collector Horace Slughorn, who describes her as "vivacious", "charming", "cheeky", and "very funny" and recalls that he "often told her she should have been in Slytherin".

[28] Their relationship ends in their fifth year at Hogwarts, when Snape, in his anger and humiliation at being jinxed by James and Sirius, unthinkingly calls Lily a "Mudblood" after she defended him.

It is revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that Kingsley is one of the few wizards that the Dursleys seem to like, due to his skill at blending in well with Muggles and his calm, collected demeanour.

Later in the book, he manages to send a timely warning to Bill and Fleur's wedding using his Patronus, a lynx, when Voldemort overthrows the Ministry of Magic, giving the guests a chance to escape.

He leaves her for a brief period, believing that he, through their marriage, has caused her to become an outcast and their unborn child would be better off without him, but changes his mind and returns to her side after a heated argument with Harry.

[5] In an interview shortly after the release of Deathly Hallows, Rowling confessed that she had originally intended for Tonks and Lupin to survive the series ending, but felt that she had to kill them after she spared Arthur Weasley in Order of the Phoenix.

In this book, Lucius Malfoy tries to discredit Arthur when Harry and Ron are seen flying his enchanted car and by placing Tom Riddle's diary in Ginny's cauldron so that she can open the Chamber of Secrets and take the blame for the attacks on Muggle-borns.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Arthur appears in the Battle of Hogwarts, in which he loses his son Fred, and is joined by Percy Weasley in defeating Pius Thicknesse.

He makes his first full appearance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where he is described as being a good-looking young man, sporting long red hair tied back in a ponytail and a single fang earring.

As Greyback was in human form at the time of the attack, Bill suffers only partial lycanthropy contamination—permanent scarring of his face, and an acquired liking for very rare beef.

At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Molly and Arthur offer the Burrow as Order headquarters when Grimmauld Place is no longer safe.

[43] The Chicago Tribune's Courtney Crowder lists Molly Weasley as her favourite literary mother, describing her as the "original Mama Grizzly", citing her many touching moments with Harry as well as the final book in the series, where "her feelings jumped off the page" as testament to her strong personality.

[45] Bob Smietana of Christianity Today links Molly's defence of Ginny in the final book into a wider theme in the series about the strength of parental love, which he feels to carry considerable emotional weight.