Harry Potter plot hole?

[HettySunshine]

I'm just at the end of reading The Goblet of Fire to dd and have noticed that when the carriages come to collect them to take them back to the Hogwarts Express they are referred to as 'horseless carriages' and there's no mention of Harry being able to see the thestrals.

I haven't read The Order of the Phoenix for a couple of years but doesn't Luna tell Harry he can see the thestrals because he witnessed Cedric being killed?

I'm sure I read somewhere that the impact of what happens needs to have sunk in - Harry is still in shock and can't believe it and so cannot see them until later.

Yeah, he's not processed it yet.

I've just finished listening to POA again and at the end, before they leave school it says that Percy passed all his NEWTS and Fred and George got a handful of OWLs each. When Harry & co sat their OWLs, they got their results by owl in the holidays! I've read these books so many times and have never noticed it before.

Love HP!

Kind of is. It was deliberate by Rowling - she said she didn't want to introduce the concept of seeing the thestrals at the end of a book so she decided that to see thestrals a person had to witness a death and it sunk in.

Ah good. I'm glad she had it covered. Good old JKR, she never lets me down!

I think she hadn't thought of them until after finishing book 4, but that they were a good enough idea for me to forgive that. The 'It hadn't sunk in yet' stuff doesn't really work, because he'd also seen his mum die and that had certainly sunk in.

I think he had to have seen a death at an age older than one. He saw his mum die but had no idea what was going on. He saw Cedric die when he was 14 and obviously knew full well what had happened. Luna explains in book 5 that she'd seen her mum die when she was 9.

Rowling explained that even though he was in the room he didn't witnessed his mum die.

The point is that it probably IS a bit of a plot hole, and then she had to dig herself out of it. I still forgive her though.

Haha definitely a plot hole she dug herself out of :P