Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Spiritual Paralells

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Also if you're one of those kids not allowed to read Harry Potter (looking at you, siblings), please follow your parents' guidance and be patient. It is possible, I'm living proof. I'd recommend not reading this now as if you read it in the future it will have spoilers.

So, for some background information: in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the stakes are getting higher and higher. Hogwarts School is being twisted by the grip of power hungry authorities from the Ministry of Magic who should be on the same side as Dumbledore and the other teachers, however, the truth is so unbelievable that the Ministry refuses to see the light, or the dark, as it were.

Despite this book being the most chaotic, this is the one where I really started seeing parallels to spiritual warfare.
Harry Potter was the sole witness to Voldemort's horrible and really nasty return, yet those who trusted him were willing to act on this testimony and take it seriously.
Problem is, the media had been portraying Harry as an attention seeking hero wannabe, and the other good guys didn't even want to consider that the security they had felt for so many years might be a false one.
Strife was sown between two sides that should have been one, to the point where one side persecuted the other and shut down any of Harry and co.'s attempts to prepare and be ready.
HMMMMM. Kind of reminds me of the blindness of much of the world to spiritual matters. We, as Christians, are likely to be written off as crazies, as weirdos, because people don't want to believe that there really is a danger to their souls. Persecution does happen.
However, the truth does not change, and since Harry knew the truth, he knew they had to do something. Even though the Ministry sent a terrible, awful woman to "reform" the school and fill the children's' heads only with theories instead of concrete lessons, he and a small band of others subverted the authority to have secret meetings and learn REAL Defense Against the Dark Arts.
This reminded me of faith-into-action. As James (the author from the Bible, not Harry Potter's father) says, faith without works is dead. We can stuff our heads full of knowledge, but practical practice is essential. Harry and Hermione and Ron realized this: that there IS a real threat, and acting like it doesn't exist will only get you killed when you're not prepared for it.
Their threat was Voldemort.
Our threat is the devil.
Because there IS spiritual warfare going on all around us. (And it's much more real and powerful than fictional wizards.)
Are you gonna be ready for it? Are you practicing your Defense Against the Dark Arts (aka prayer)?