Day-by-Day Calendar of Order of the Phoenix

NOTE: This calendar is NOT formatted for smaller screens. We are working to create a version which will work on any size device, but that’s a bit trickier than you might think with the calendar layout. Since this is a direct port from an outdated system, some of the formatting might be a bit wonky and some links might not work. 

Editors: Amy Z. and Joywitch M. Curmudgeon

The numbers following some descriptions are chapter/page references: OP29/651 means chapter 29, page 651 of the first hardcover US edition (like all good purists, we embrace the UK edition as the standard, but we’re working from the first hardcover US edition at the moment, so bear with us).

Ron’s schedule, as far as we know, is the same as Harry’s.

Hermione’s differs in that she has Ancient Runes on Monday (OP26) and Arithmancy first thing on Wednesday, and of course no longer takes Divination (OP15).

Fred and George have Herbology first thing Monday morning (OP12) and Charms right before lunch on Monday (OP15).

Other information:

Lucius Malfoy is 41 as of September 1995(OP15), so he was born in 1953 or 1954. Of course, he could be lying about his age. And dyeing his hair.

Dinner is served before 5 p.m.: “As Harry was starving, and he had his first detention with Umbridge at five o’clock, he headed straight for dinner … (OP13)

Inconsistencies and Unknowns

Although we know from CS8 that Harry’s fifth year of school would be 1995-96, the days of the week once again do not correspond to the actual calendar of those years.

There must be a spell that saves Rowling from inconsistency by turning every first day of the fall lessons into a Monday . . . see the Goblet of Fire calendar. Here, August 12 is a Thursday, making it quite impossible for September 2 (the first day of lessons) to be a Monday. Nevertheless, Rowling says it lessons begin on a Monday so a Monday it shall be.

In OP13, Astronomy is established as taking place on a Wednesday, sometime before dinner: “He had to give up his lunch hour to complete the picture of the Bowtruckle and, meanwhile, Professors McGonagall, Grubbly-Plank and Sinistra gave them yet more homework, which he had no prospect of finishing that evening because of his second detention with Umbridge.” Barbara Werschkun suggests: “Maybe they only have theory lessons on Wednesday afternoon and do the actual star watching some other time? But when? Because Harry is in detention every evening that week, plus the following, and there is no mention of him missing Astronomy because of it…” And when does the theory class take place? Wednesdays are jammed full.

First day of the winter term is a Monday some days after Christmas; previous years suggest January 6, but due to Harry’s description of Christmas as a “three-week break” (OP21), we’ve placed it at January 13.

Things get kind of vague from April on; there are about six weeks between “Snape’s Worst Memory” and the beginning of O.W.L.s, but I haven’t found a date to anchor either one.

Ditto on the very end of term. The chronology goes like this:

Three days before the end of term (earliest possible date is Monday after the climactic Thursday), Ron and Hermione leave hospital wing.
Two days later: Umbridge leaves Hogwarts
Last day of term: Harry discovers Sirius’s mirror, talks to Nick; end-of-term feast.
Day after: return home on the Hogwarts Express.
Events in blue are approximate dates. The lettered items in the calendar have corresponding notes below.

1. This Divination lesson takes place “a few days after the sacking of Prof Trelawney” (OP27/599); I’m guessing it’s Wednesday, because they have Divination on Mondays and Wednesdays and it seems unlikely that they’d have it a third time each week.
2. We have a relatively firm date for the Quidditch final (“the last weekend of May”), and some time, more than two days, seems to have elapsed between then and the first day of O.W.L.s. [At least a week, since at least one if not two weeks’ classes are held after Gryffindor/Ravenclaw conducting final reviews, accompanied by Ernie’s questions about everyone’s study habits before Herbology, Draco’s scare tactics outside Potions, and McGonagall’s anti-cheating lecture and presentation of the exam schedule to her students. Not to mention the black market in brain stimulants. – MLW] I would place the first day of exams at June 8 or 15, making the date of Dumbledore’s firing (seven weeks earlier, according to (OP29/651) April 20 or 27.

Thanks to sharp-eyed readers Barbara Werschkun*, Lauren, Cecilia Rotella, Ryann, Tracy, Alyce Gilson, Jonas Klaiber-Lodewigs, Sue Upton, Jenni, Alex Wallis, Sarah Munch, Maggie Manterola, Loobyloo, Gunilla Kåårefjäärd, Sheila, B4neone, and Danila Szabo, who contributed details and corrections to this page.  You warm our nitpicking little hearts.

*LOON (League of Obsessed Nitpickers) Member of the Month goes to Barbara for sending several pages and over a dozen carefully documented and argued points of calendar detail.