The Attack on Arthur Weasley

A significant event during the Second Wizarding War, the attack on Arthur Weasley was a venomous assault carried out by Lord Voldemort's snake, Nagini, at the Ministry of Magic in December 1995. Arthur Weasley was on guard duty for the Order of the Phoenix, protecting the Hall of Prophecy. The attack was inadvertently witnessed by Harry Potter through a vision, a result of his mental connection to Voldemort. Harry's ability to see the event from the snake's perspective allowed him to raise the alarm, which led to Arthur's timely rescue and ultimately saved his life. The incident served as definitive proof of the dangerous link between Harry's mind and Voldemort's, prompting Albus Dumbledore to arrange for Harry to study Occlumency.

Following Lord Voldemort's return, the reconstituted Order of the Phoenix began operating in secrecy to counter his plans. One of their primary duties was to guard a specific weapon Voldemort sought from the Department of Mysteries. This “weapon” was later revealed to be the prophecy concerning Harry Potter and Voldemort. Members of the Order, including Arthur Weasley, took shifts standing guard in the corridor leading to the Hall of Prophecy inside the Ministry of Magic. Simultaneously, Harry Potter had been experiencing increasingly disturbing dreams and visions connected to Voldemort. A recurring dream involved a dark corridor with a locked door at the end, the very same corridor Arthur was assigned to guard. Harry's scar would often burn during these episodes, indicating a strong connection to Voldemort's thoughts and emotions.

On the night before the final day of the autumn term at Hogwarts, Harry Potter fell asleep while finishing homework in the Gryffindor Tower common room. He was plunged into an extraordinarily vivid vision where his perspective was that of a large snake. As the snake, he slithered down the familiar dark corridor of the Ministry of Magic and encountered Arthur Weasley, who was dozing in a chair by the door to the Department of Mysteries. From this first-person viewpoint, Harry experienced himself, as the snake, lunging at Arthur. He felt his fangs sink into the man's flesh multiple times as Arthur fought back weakly. The vision was so powerful and real that Harry awoke with a scream, his entire body trembling and his scar searing with pain. He immediately alerted Ron Weasley, and they rushed to find Professor McGonagall, who escorted them to Professor Dumbledore's office. Upon hearing Harry's frantic account, Dumbledore acted without hesitation. Understanding the vision's reality, he used portraits in his office, including that of Phineas Nigellus Black, to raise the alarm and dispatch help to the Ministry. He swiftly confirmed that Arthur had been found and was being taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

• Rescue and Recovery: Thanks to Harry's warning, Arthur Weasley was rescued before he could bleed to death. He was admitted to the Dai Llewellyn ward for Serious Bites at St. Mungo's. His recovery was complicated by the unusual, magically-potent venom of Nagini, which was designed to prevent wounds from closing. While recovering, he expressed great fascination when a trainee Healer attempted to use Muggle stitches on his wounds. He eventually made a full recovery after an antidote was administered.
• Harry's Guilt and Isolation: The attack had a profound psychological effect on Harry. He was terrified that he had been possessed by Voldemort and had been the one to attack Arthur. This fear caused him to isolate himself from the Weasley family and Sirius Black upon his arrival at 12 Grimmauld Place for the Christmas holidays. It was Ginny Weasley, drawing from her own experience of being possessed by Tom Riddle's Diary, who comforted Harry and helped him understand the distinction between being possessed and having a window into Voldemort's mind.
• Occlumency Lessons: The event forced Dumbledore to acknowledge the severity of the mental link between Harry and Voldemort. Fearing Voldemort could exploit this connection not just to harm others but to infiltrate Harry's mind, Dumbledore arranged for Severus Snape to teach Harry the magical art of Occlumency in an effort to close his mind to the Dark Lord's influence.

• Confirmation of the Mental Link: The attack was the first time Harry's connection to Voldemort was used to actively influence the war, saving the life of an Order of the Phoenix member. It proved the link was not just a source of pain and random visions but a tangible connection that could be a double-edged sword.
• Revealing Voldemort's Goal: It confirmed Voldemort's intense focus on retrieving the prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. The fact that he used Nagini, a priceless Horcrux, for the task underscored its immense importance to his plans.
• Catalyst for Future Events: The subsequent Occlumency lessons were a failure, creating further animosity between Harry and Snape. This failure left Harry's mind vulnerable, which Voldemort later exploited by planting a false vision of Sirius Black being tortured, luring Harry and his friends into the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

In the film adaptation, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the attack is depicted more cinematically. The film cuts between Harry's vision from the snake's perspective and an external, third-person view of Nagini physically attacking Arthur Weasley in the corridor. The book's narrative strictly maintains the first-person perspective of the snake until Harry awakens. (film)