I've just thought of a massive HP plot hole

[mayaknew]

We know that Harry can summon Kreacher. Why doesn't he use Kreacher more when they are in the run?

Particularly to send messages to the DA at Hogwarts? Since Kreacher lives there, surely Harry could send messages, get info and use him more?

I must be missing something as to why he just forgets about him.

On Sirius not breaking into the Weasley house - there wasn't time. He found out about Pettigrew from the newspaper article when they went to Egypt. He spent some time muttering 'he's at Hogwarts.' Then he had to plan his escape and journey to the UK. By that time I think Ron was at Diagon Alley/back at Hogwarts.

Possibly in the film (which I haven't seen), that doesn't happen in the book. In the book, Lupin confiscates the map from Harry just after Snape finds him with it, and Lupin then uses it to track the Golden Trio on the night of Buckbeak's execution, and sees that Pettigrew is there with them. Harry never sees him on it.

The Marauders Map in the film annoys me big time.

In the books, it shows everyone at Hogwarts! It would be really hard to pick out individuals most of the time.

Film versions only show a couple of names at a time.

On Crouch jr not giving harry a port-key at any time of the year: they wanted harry's death to look like it happened as a result of the tournament.

@Fink Ah, that would make sense. It has been a couple of decades since I read the book but the films are on all the time. I shall have to have a re-read!

Sirius escapes earlier than that, because he was able to see Harry just before he caught the Knight Bus, and his escape is already in the news the day before Harry's birthday. Harry then spends 3 weeks at the Leaky Cauldron (after the blowing up of Aunt Marge) before the Weasleys come on the penultimate day of the holidays, they all travel to King's Cross the next day. We don't know exactly when the Weasleys get back from Egypt, but they were there by the time Fudge visits Azkaban before Sirius's escape and they stayed a month, so they must have returned roughly a week before the start of the school year.

Argh you're right. Well, did the Weasleys go home at all after their trip or did they go straight to Diagon Alley?

Did Sirius even know where they lived?

I think Veritaserum was expensive and difficult to make, but also, the aurors of that time were quite corrupt weren't they? They got status from catching death eaters and forcing confessions, so they probably weren't too bothered about whether it was a real confession or not.

And yes, he didn't know where they lived. He saw the photo in the newspaper, and just read that the children would be going back to Hogwarts. (Of course because there isn't another wizard school). He was also half crazy/depressed from 12 years of isolation and being surrounded by the dementors all the time and consumed by thoughts of proving his innocence, so probably didn't stop to think about how to go about something sensibly, it was more "WTF, Peter is alive?? Get me to the fucker"

Harry isn't sneaky enough to steal things from Filch's office at random. He only steals things when he really needs to. The twins on the other hand, faced with a drawer of highly forbidden confiscated items, well, that would have been like catnip to them.

I have this understanding that the map talks to anybody who tries to read it, like it insulted Snape, it was semi-sentient, and probably had a sense of who Snape was (judging by the specific insults, and the fact it was enchanted by Snape's schoolday enemies) so it probably recognised Fred and George as mischief-makers and gave them clues and hints until they got the right combination of words. It might also be that there were multiple passwords and that was the only one they ever discovered.

I can't remember where that came from, but I think it might have been in an interview with Jo. There was something else either in one of the books or something about how anything that is enchanted to be sentient will retain some of the personality of the enchanter, I think it was related to the sorting hat, which was originally Godric Gryffindor's and was enchanted by all the house founders, that's why it's still used because it's the only way that you could continue the original selection process in the exact way the founders would have chosen.

They reference this in the book after they try to return to grimauld place but accidentally take a death eater from the ministry with them. It says they decided against trying to summon Kreacher in case a death eater accidentally came as well.

Not sure how likely that would be, but that's how it's explained.

I've seen fan theories that Peeves might have helped the twins to find the right phrase for the map, which makes about as much sense as anything else, he definitely liked making mischief after all.

The biggest plot hole is Quirrell. He's worked at hogwarts for at least two years as everyone knew him, and yet according to the curse no DADA teacher lasts more than one year

He taught Maggie Studies

@PuttingDownRoots but that was JK's post publishing idea to fill the plot hole!

This is making me want to reread them! Such a big part of my childhood.

That bit confused me. It only seems to be a big deal while Harry's there, like suddenly people notice that they can't keep DADA teachers, and it's later revealed that Dumbledore suspected about the curse all along. But the curse was placed in 1967, so they haven't been able to keep DADA teachers for more than a year all through the Marauders' era and onwards. Surely by the early 1990s the fact that you had to have a new teacher every year for one post for getting on for a quarter of a century would have been remarked upon by literally everyone, and they would have tried to get to the bottom of it.

I don't mind the idea that Quirrell had been there in another post, but why wasn't it announced at the beginning of the 1991 school year as new appointments always are in the other books? And if Professor Burbage is new that year, she should also have been introduced, then Draco wouldn't have been able to claim not to know her.

This - it's literally the FIRST thing they think of when they end up on the run.

Harry even has a moment worrying about the death eaters torturing Kreacher.

The books are plot holey as hell, but that isn't one of them.

Rowling maths.

A "big number" is fifty.

Years since Voldemort was at school, Harry falling from broomstick.

A "really big number" is 1000.

Years since Hogwarts was established, number of students etc.

Rowling is both brilliant at whimsical inventions, but absolutely dire at whole plot logic. The two are both possible, but she wasn't shooting for logic.

Me too!

and I want to know what happens once they leave hogwarts. Do all magic jobs involve their own training scheme? (Which I guess makes sense!) or is there uni?

Thatcher was a witch? Plausible.

and I want to know what happens once they leave hogwarts. Do all magic jobs involve their own training scheme? (Which I guess makes sense!) or is there uni?

They seem to let literally anyone be a teacher - no qualifications needed.

Will the Minister of Magic attend the Queens funeral? Do they recognise the Queen as Head of State?

When they get the careers leaflets, each one explains what the training is for that particular job. Some of them, like healer, require a lot of extra training, although we don't know where that takes place (i.e. in St. Mungo's or in an academic setting). There's a fair bit of detail about the auror training. There don't seem to be any universities.