Harry Potter plotholes/ goofs that really annoy you

[Aproductofmyera80s]

I absolutely love Harry Potter, I watch it twice a year, would watch it more if I had the time. One plothole that gets me every time, so Fred and George had the marauders map all that time and didn’t notice that Ron’s rat was Peter pettigrew?
every time I watch it, it grinds my gears.
any one else notice anything?

Dumbledore thought that Harry would have to die in order for Voldemort to be defeated. That's why he never told Harry exactly what he was going to have to do. The ownership of the Elder wand was a lucky occurrence that saved Harry's life.

It's many years since I read the books or saw the films, but I remember the one change that really pissed me off - the moment in CoS when Harry and Ron are watching the Sorting Ceremony (I think?). In the book it's

“Hang on . . .” Harry muttered to Ron. “There’s an empty chair at the staff table. . . . Where’s Snape?”
"Maybe he's ill!" said Ron hopefully.
“Maybe he’s left,” said Harry, “because he missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again!”
“Or he might have been sacked!” said Ron enthusiastically. “I mean, everyone hates him —”
“Or maybe,” said a very cold voice right behind them, “he’s waiting to hear why you two didn’t arrive on the school train.”
Harry spun around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze, stood Severus Snape.”

I laughed so much at that, and so looked forward to hearing Alan Rickman say it - but the idiots change it to Filch! Why??? It took away the whole joke!

My Harry Potter-obsessed son says that Harry Potter's grandfather invented the Sleekeazy Hair Potion and made a lot of money so that's why James and Lily were rich at such a young age. That's not in the books though; it was retconned by JK Rowling on Pottermore.

I'm very grateful to the poster @GwenogJones who explained the time travel/closed loop thing. This has always troubled me in the film of Prisoner of Azkaban (which is otherwise my favourite) because it didn't make sense that Harry has to go back in time to cast the patronus because he's already done it - he saw it the first time around but assumed it was the spirit of his father. So he didn't have to actually change any end result - because he couldn't, but he did have the opportunity to see things from a different perspective and realise/understand something about his own powers. Is that right? I think I am going to re-read the book because it probably explains it properly whereas the film doesn't.

Also, this is a random point from the books not films, I was absolutely sure that there were loads of hints in DH building up to a reveal that Aunt Petunia was also actually a witch. I waited and waited and nothing! Did anyone think the same? Do you think JKR was teasing us or that she was going there and then abandoned the idea as unnecessary?

Agreed. And why bother cancelling quidditch when quite literally 2 students were taking part in the TWC. She did it because she hated writing quidditch. But honestly, it would have been easier to say 'if you are in the TWC, you can't be in the quidditch team'. And explained it that way.

And as for TWC entrants not having to do end of year exams? No NEWTS? What was the plan for that candidate? Why do they even have to bother with lessons? Again, maybe they could have said they had a reduce timetable, or take fewer NEWTS eg, 3 instead of 4 or whatever... But no.

Barty Crouch jr as Mad Eye Moody makes no sense, none of it. Dumbledore knew Mad Eye well, but apparently had no idea that his impostor was living and working under the same roof as him. Even if we ignore that, he's the greatest wizard in the world and still has no idea?

Also Dumbledore puts an age charm around the boundary so underage students can't put their names into the goblet. But Mad Eye/Crouch puts Harry's name in. Either the age line can be bypassed by someone simply asking someone older to do it for them, or Mad Eye/Crouch did some serious meddling with the goblet to make it choose Harry, which surely renders the "contract" invalid? Either way the age line is pointless, because Dumbledore insists that Harry must compete because the goblet says so.

I love the books and the films, a huge fan of both. I can ignore the little things like the maths and money stuff, but that one is my biggest bugbear!

They weren't real wizards. It turns out that many of them are just actors. I've seen some of them on the telly, e.g. Molly Weasley was actually played by Mrs. Overall, who works in an antique shop in real life.

I think the whole thing was probably made up.

They'd probably seen evidence of her powers, and someone from Hogwarts would have visited them to explain.

I just hate the films overall. They butchered the characters so much. They made Ron just the dumb comic relief, Hermione too sassy and Ginny boring as toast. Can't bear watching them.

Here's a big one. It's not believable that no one else has ever tried to save someone who was about to be killed other than Lily for Harry. He is meant to have protection because she tried to die instead of him and so doing her life was cast as a protection for him. He is the only person ever to have been known to survive the killing curse. There must be other people who have done the same thing.

Maybe Voldemort was right?

(Probably not about all the killing and racial purity...)

But why should Witches and wizards have to live in hiding as an underclass?

Witches and wizards have to stay in hiding because of the whole history of persecution of witches.

But Witches and wizards are vastly more powerful and live a great deal longer than muggles, (and as any 3rd year Wizard can tell you, "Witch burning in the fourteenth century was completely pointless.")

It's poor organisation and weak leadership that has kept Witches and Wizards from rising up and becoming equal citizens with muggles.

How is the minister for magic elected? There doesn't seem to be a democratic process here? "They" offer the job to Dumbledore (repeatedly) but who is "they" and why do "they" get to decide?

(I do realise that the books would be very dull different if they spent chapters explaining the political structure of the ministry of magic)

And as for TWC entrants not having to do end of year exams? No NEWTS? What was the plan for that candidate? Why do they even have to bother with lessons? Again, maybe they could have said they had a reduce timetable, or take fewer NEWTS eg, 3 instead of 4 or whatever... But no.

And I think exams get cancelled as a school treat in another book - maybe the second? You'd be furious leaving school with no qualifications because the headteacher cancelled exams on a whim 😂

He did some serious meddling to convince the goblet of fire that it should pick a fourth student. He submitted Harry as the only student from a fourth school.

But yes, an older person just having a bit of paper with someone else's name on it is a ridiculous way round an age line

As the Goblet chose the student it deemed most worthy... maybe it could detect cheating and deem that student unworthy? But since Harry was the only name, it didn't matter he cheated by having someone else put the name in?
Otherwise good way to get revenge on an enemy... enter them into the contest

I know loads of redheads with blue eyes, although most are more the strawberry blonde end of the spectrum than the auburn. Admittedly I'm in Scotland so there's more redheads around generally .

Yes, this has always really annoyed me.

Also, this is a random point from the books not films, I was absolutely sure that there were loads of hints in DH building up to a reveal that Aunt Petunia was also actually a witch. I waited and waited and nothing! Did anyone think the same? Do you think JKR was teasing us or that she was going there and then abandoned the idea as unnecessary?

From soon after the point at which the concept of squibs was introduced I was waiting to discover that Aunt Petunia was a squib rather than a muggle.

No the plan was for Snape to kill Dumbledore. As a kindness and on his orders so in that situation the extreme power the wand held would have died. Its master Dumbledore would have been dead and the power of the wand would have died too.
But Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore. Which transfered ownership of the wand to him. So when Snape killed him the power didn't die as it had already transferred to Malfoy.

By luck Harry then disarms Draco this transferring the power to himself.

It was a mistake on Dumbledore part not a plan.

It is explained somewhere, Muggle born children get visited by a teacher, rather than just get a letter (in fact, that's what happened to Tom Riddle).

Yep my cousin & her first three children have red hair & blue eyes, as does she it's so common even in school I see that combination all the time

Yes my husband and daughter are redheads with bright blue eyes (husband has Scottish ancestry on both sides). Both his brothers had the same. Though their shade of red is more of a golden (titian?) red than full on auburn. But definitely red!

I would agree with others that Goblet of Fire plot has a lot of holes.. Dumbledore not realising that 'Moody' was an imposter for a whole school year... all that faffing around just to make sure Harry touched the triwizard cup first?

But I bloody love that book!

This has just reminded me! If Fred & George pinched the map from Filch’s office in their first year, Filch must have confiscated it from James, Sirius etc. Firstly, if Harry managed to conceal it from Snape when he was searching for Peter Pettigrew, do we seriously need to believe that the four boys could be caught out by Argus Filch before they could say ‘mischief managed’ when they would have seen him coming even if their attention had been distracted by the map? Or that Filch managed to identify it as a dangerous item rather than a spare piece of parchment? Or that James etc couldn’t sneak in and retrieve the map as older students but Fred & George managed to do it in their first year? Or that Fred & George managed to work out how to get the map to appear, as well as how to shut it off again?

Also, Fred & George are nosy little sods and their family had lots of contact with Sirius and Lupin. Is it really possible that they never would have eavesdropped and heard Peter’s name at any point? Or noticed that Ron was sharing his bed with a bloke named Peter, rather than a rat named Scabbers? They shared the same Common Room so it’s not entirely unreasonable that they would have looked at who was in it, every now and then, especially as they had to walk through it to get out into the castle.

And if there was a bloody big snake wandering about the castle threatening to kill people, why did they stay so bloody quiet about the map? Especially when everyone was talking about the chamber? I’m guessing it didn’t show up on the map (like the room of requirement) but would they really not kept an eye on Ginny, just for Molly’s sake? Would they not have noticed that every time a warning was written on the wall in blood, Ginny had been in the vicinity? And talking of Ginny, who puts an entire book down the toilet and expects it to flush away without being torn up first? Has she got no understanding of basic plumbing?