Guarding the Department of Mysteries

[dj_bagshaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 86024

I just recently reread OoP, and something has been bothering me about 
it since.  Maybe somebody could send me to earlier posts (I searched, 
but didn't find anything) or help me with some canon to figure out 
what happened...

My question is, if the Order was guarding the Department of 
Mysteries, where was the guard the night Harry et al broke in?  Why 
was there no guard stationed at the door that night?  If there were, 
the entire disaster never would have happened. 

As far as I know, there had been no mention of the Order giving up 
guarding the DoM; in fact, it seems to me that it would be more 
important to guard after it was discovered that Voldemort could get 
in Harry's head and (as Dumbledore surely anticipated) possibly 
persuade him to collect the *weapon*.

Any thoughts?

~Kate