Too bad defeating Lord Voldemort requires playing a minigame first.
I've realized games that are released a day or two before the movie tend to be awful, especially for handhelds. (Sorry PSP). Harry Potter 5 DS tends to focus around the enormous Hogwarts castle, which takes forever to get anywhere. Most of the time you will be hurrying to classes, helping different students with the same face solve their ridiculous problems, and dueling Malfoy, again. Classes are pathetic minigames, apparently preparation for Harry's OWL's (tests for wizards). Dueling is time consuming, and it would be nicer if you could just say mean things about Malfoy's mom into the mic.
There are various students around Hogwarts who will need your help retrieving their camera, Gobstones, textbooks, etc. Around every corner is Malfoy and his buddies, who'll challenge you to a magic duel. Turn the DS like a book and draw symbols to shoot stuff at Malfoy. Performing magic spells requires drawing a shape quickly. This was a good idea, but there is always a boring minigames that follows. What would be great (for me, maybe) is if after a spell is "drawn" you'll hear Harry's voice say the spell, or you can simply say the spell into the mic. This would be a good experience for die-hard Harry-fans.
There's not much of a climatic ending to the game. You duel a couple of "Death Eaters" and finally, evil Lord Voldemort. Defeating Voldemort is easier than defeating Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. I sort of wondered if the game was really over at the end.
Overall, this game is hardly worth playing. Story is told by screens from the console game, and the environments around Harry are hardly worth calling "3-D." The environments are well detailed, but nothing changes, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione look out of place among environments. Seriously, watch the movie or something, or buy the game for the Wii if you love Harry Potter that much. But unless you like free, crappy PC-like games, avoid Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for DS.