25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Harry Potter Left Hanging
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Harry Potter might be a loved series by many, but there’s lots of things in it that just plain don’t make sense. Here’s what the series left hanging.
You Are Reading :25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Harry Potter Left Hanging
The world of Harry Potter is without a doubt one of the best fictional universes to be created. It feels fresh and different from other fantasy settings we have read before, and it accomplishes this by taking many elements we are familiar with and adding several new ingredients to the mix. J. K. Rowling should be lauded everywhere she goes for what she did when she wrote Harry Potter. She gave the world Hogwarts, wands, and Quidditch. Admit it, there is no universe quite like Harry Potter’s.
When the movies came out, they gave us a chance to actually see the world we had read about so fondly in the books. (They also gave us the chance to finally learn how to pronounce Hermione’s name. Anyone else pronounce it Hermy-won?) Helped along by John Williams’ fantastic score to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we felt Harry’s amazement every time he encountered something new from the wizarding world. You couldn’t help smiling when Hagrid took Harry into Diagon Alley for the first time.
Of course, any story with complex rules about magic and convoluted plot lines is bound to have its fair share of mistakes. The Harry Potter series is no exception. Whether the books themselves left us with unanswered questions or the film adaptations created their own plot holes, the story of Harry Potter is chock-full of mysteries. Do I count this against the series? Not at all. The books are pure magic. However, read on if you want to hear of some of the more mind-boggling unresolved mysteries of the Harry Potter universe.
25 An Odd Bedmate
The Marauder’s Map was the ingenious creation of James Potter and his gang of friends, and we can’t think of better owners than the Weasley twins. With their penchant for mischief, the Map must have come in handy. The Marauder’s Map was a map of Hogwarts, and it labelled every person within the school grounds. One big mystery surrounding the map is how no one ever noticed that a man named Peter Pettigrew was sleeping next to Ron Weasley. Pettigrew had hidden himself as Scabbers, Ron’s pet rat, but the Map still has the ability to label the rat as Pettigrew despite his changed form. So during their years of ownership, the twins never noticed the strange name next to their brother’s in his dormitory? And when they gave Harry ownership of the Map, did he not notice that either? (For more strange occurrences in the Harry Potter check out this list!)
24 Super Penetration VS True Invisibility
We find out in the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, that the Invisibility Cloak that Harry’s father gave him was not just an Invisibility Cloak. It was the Invisibility Cloak. The Cloak was one of three legendary items, including the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone. The Cloak is supposed to give “true invisibility” to its wearer. In the tale by which we learn of the Cloak’s making, we find out that the Invisibility Cloak was meant to hide its owner from Death itself. So, how in the world is Mad-Eye Moody (not even Mad-Eye Moody, since it is Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise) able to see through the Cloak’s power with his magical eye? Is his eye that powerful? Did Death make another Hallow that we were all unaware of?
23 Innocent Until Proven Guilty
The wizarding world is full of wonderful magical shortcuts that all of us Muggles would love to get our hands on. Numerous spells and potions make me green with envy that I am, sadly, not a wizard. Other bits of magic can be downright terrifying. The Unforgivable Curses are a veritable nightmare. And when Snape threatens Harry with Veritaserum, a potion that forces you to tell the truth, when he thinks that Harry has been stealing from his potion stores, it’s yet another example of how powerful magic can be. One thing that occurs to me when I think of the uses of Veritaserum is why don’t innocent witches and wizards ask for it when they are accused of crimes they didn’t commit? It’s like a more reliable lie detector test. If Sirius Black had just asked to be questioned under Veritaserum, wouldn’t he have been proven innocent?
22 Rules Of Travel
Portkeys are yet another example of how awesome magical items are. Imagine if all you had to do to travel long distances was touch an old shoe, and it automatically transported you to wherever you were planning to go. Vacations would be so much easier to plan. The way portkeys work is that they are assigned a location, and if you are touching the portkey at the assigned time, it will take you where you need to go. Strangely, that’s not how the portkey at the end of The Goblet of Fire works. I understand that the Triwizard Cup could have been bewitched to take Harry and Cedric to the graveyard at any time, but how could it have been bewitched to take them back? That’s bad planning on the part of Voldemort and his followers. Why this happens is never explained.
21 Tracing The Younger Wizards
Harry trying to do his homework under cover of darkness at the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban was a great way to start the movie, but it kind of presents a bit of a plot hole, especially given what happens shortly afterwards with Harry’s Aunt Marge. Underage wizards are not allowed to practice magic when they are out of school. So when Aunt Marge is blown up, it’s an unsanctioned use of magic on Harry’s part. But what about when he was trying to light up his room with Lumos Maxima? Did the Trace not pick that up? And what about all those times Hagrid, Moody, or Tonks performed magic around Harry? The Trace picks up magic around underage wizards. It doesn’t necessarily pick up exactly who cast the spell. Wouldn’t Harry have gotten in trouble for those times as well?
20 A Question Of Love
Not to put too fine a point on it, but size matters. I’m not talking in terms of preference, but in terms of logistics. Hagrid is known to be half-giant. His father was human, but his mother was a giant. The one giant we get a really good look at is Grawp, Hagrid’s half-brother. He’s considered a runt of a giant, but he still towers over Harry, Ron, and Hermione. So knowing that Grawp is small for his kind, that must mean that his mother was even larger. That leads us to the big mystery of how Hagrid’s dad and mom consummated their relationship. As Harry Potter started out as an adolescent’s book, Hagrid’s parentage is clearly never explored. But still, in purely physical terms, there is no way that this union could have occurred.
19 A Nice View Of Nothing
A lot of action went on during the Triwizard Tournament. Harry had to dodge a dragon in the First Task, dive into a lake for the Second Task, and navigate a treacherous maze in the Final Task. These challenges all make for a fun viewing experience, and we as book-readers or movie-watchers were thrilled to our cores when we witnessed these events. However, we never really consider what the actual spectators get to see. Sure, they get a show during the first task, but what are they really watching during the last two? They have a good view of the lake’s surface during the second task and the outside of a maze during the third. You would think that the people behind the Tournament would have come up with some more entertaining/observable tasks.
18 Eternal Loyalty
If you’re going to be a Dark Lord, tradition says that you have to have some followers to obey your every command. Voldemort does just that and gathers about himself a cohort of sycophants, whom he affectionately calls Death Eaters. His followers are terrified of him, and as most of them are cowards, when Voldemort fell, they abandoned his cause and pretended that they had no choice in obeying his orders. When Voldemort returned, he was obviously displeased at their desertion and punished each accordingly. If you really think about it though, all Voldemort needed to do to ensure their loyalty for good was to force each of them to make an Unbreakable Vow to him. For someone as fond of power and security as Voldemort is, you would think he would have thought of that himself.
17 Outsourcing Your Secrets
The betrayal and subsequent end of Harry’s parents is a tragic story that becomes more tragic as the books progress. By the final book, the aching in your heart over their decision to trust Peter Pettigrew with the location of their home reaches critical emotional levels. But was that really necessary? Why couldn’t they have made one of themselves the Secret Keeper to their home? Bill Weasley made himself the Secret Keeper of his beach-side home with Fleur, so it is possible to be the Secret Keeper of your own home. Why couldn’t James or Lily have taken on that responsibility for themselves? The two of them would have been the most invested people in keeping their home safe.
16 Where Did You Get That Troll?
The moment that glued Harry, Ron, and Hermione together as friends was when Harry and Ron saved Hermione from the troll running rampant in the girls’ bathroom. Before that moment, the three kids hadn’t gotten along well at all. But when they were united against that troll, the bond of friendship was born. It was even further strengthened when Hermione took the blame for bringing the troll into the castle, therefore diverting attention from the fact that the boys had not returned to their dormitories. But did she really need to do that? For one thing, if Harry and Ron had just said that they were checking to make sure she was okay, wouldn’t that have excused them somewhat for not listening to directions? Their bravery would have been clear notwithstanding.
15 Home No More
The Dursleys may have been loathsome, but the fact that they gave Harry a home for so long is what protected him from Voldemort. As long as Harry could call his blood-relatives’ house a home, he would be protected there until he turned eighteen. The ending to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone kind of throws a wrench in that charm, unintentionally perhaps. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione are boarding the Hogwarts Express after an adventure-filled school year, Hermione comments on how strange it is to be returning home. Harry then replies that he isn’t returning home, not really. This is meant to imply that Hogwarts is Harry’s real home. If Harry is calling Hogwarts his real home and not the Dursley’s, then wouldn’t the charm be broken right then?
14 Gotta Eat Fast
A large problem facing Harry, Ron, and Hermione when they were on the run and in pursuit of Horcruxes was a shortage of food. The rules of spell-casting prevented them from creating food out of thin air, so they had to make do with scavenging what they could in the wild and in Muggle grocery stores. In reality, food should not have been as big a problem for them as it was. As stated by Hermione herself, while they could not magically create food, if they did have food in front of them, they could have increased the amount. So at least one of the times they managed to get their hands on food, they should have used magic to increase how much they got. Alas, they did not do that, and it is never explained why they didn’t.
13 Dungeon Danger
When Professor Quirrell sneakily let a troll into Hogwarts, he plays the part of a panicked teacher to perfection. He bursts into the Great Hall, yelping about a troll that is loose in the dungeons. After he faints, the mass of students start screaming, only stopping when Dumbledore asks for silence and calmly instructs them to head back to their dormitories. Just one problem there, Dumbledore old sport. The Slytherins’ dormitories are in the dungeons, where the troll reportedly is lumbering around. You just sent an entire house of students to their doom. Of course, I’m aware Hogwarts is a huge castle and might have many dungeons. Still, Quirrell wasn’t specific about which dungeon the troll was in, so it could have been the Slytherin dormitories.
12 And Along Came A Spider
For those Potter fans who went beyond the movies and the core books, you know that Aragog, Hagrid’s “pet,” is not just a giant spider. Aragog is an acromantula, a giant spider that likes to eat human flesh. They are native to Southeast Asia, and their eggs are Class A Non-Tradeable Goods. Now, I know Hagrid is always getting his hands on rare animals “down at the pub,” but when he got Aragog, he was a third-year student at Hogwarts. So explain to me how he managed to get an acromantula egg then.
Hagrid doesn’t strike me as the kind of student who was extremely rich or in possession of valuable items he could trade. And I don’t think he was making trips to the pub at the ripe age of thirteen. This is never explained or talked about besides when Aragog himself says that a “stranger” gave him to Hagrid.
11 Stealing Is Winning
The way ownership of the Elder Wand is passed from person to person sounds straightforward, but in practice, it can be quite complex. In order to gain possession of the wand, someone has to defeat the current owner. But apparently “defeat” has many meanings. Gellert Grindelwald stole the wand from the wandmaker Gregorovitch, and apparently that counts as a defeat for Gregorovitch because Grindelwald gained ownership. Then Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in a duel and obtained the Elder Wand, who then lost it to Draco Malfoy, who then lost it to Harry. But is theft really a form of triumph? If it isn’t, that would mean that Dumbledore could never have won the Elder Wand from Grindelwald because Grindelwald would not have won it from Gregorovitch. Straightforward, right?
10 A Tragic Upbringing
Harry felt embarrassed that the Dementors affected him so strongly compared to everyone else at the school in the third installment of the Harry Potter series. Lupin was quick to reassure him that the only reason the Dementors preyed on him so much was because there was a lot of sadness in Harry’s past that the Dementors could feast on. Both of Harry’s parents were Avada Kedavra-ed when he was a baby, and his mother was taken out trying to protect him. That is horribly tragic. But what about Neville? Why don’t the Dementors affect Neville just as strongly as they affect Harry? Neville’s parents were tortured until they went insane. And Neville has to face that fact every time he visits them at the hospital.
9 The Voices Of Change
It would be pretty nifty to be able to take some Polyjuice Potion and turn into another person, but I’m not overly fond of the idea of having to slip into the drink some hair or fingernails of the person I’m trying to become. That is a whole other form of nasty right there. But if I got to completely turn into the person, maybe it would be worth it. In The Chamber of Secrets movie, when Harry and Ron turn into Crabbe and Goyle, their voices remain their own. However, in The Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch Jr. disguised himself as Mad-Eye Moody with Polyjuice Potion for the whole film, but his voice was altered with the change. That’s a bit of inconsistency from movie to movie.
8 Sticky Fingers
In The Goblet of Fire, in both the book and the film, Harry uses Gillyweed to participate in the Second Task. Upon swallowing the small, goopy bundle of herbs, Harry grows gills and his feet and hands become webbed (the better to breathe and swim underwater). However, his method of obtaining the Gillyweed changes from the book to the film. In the book, Dobby sneaks into Snape’s private stores to get the Gillyweed using his innate magic as a house elf. In the film, Neville somehow has Gillyweed on hand to give Harry. The mystery of how Neville got the Gillyweed is never answered, and I kind of don’t want it to be. I want Neville to be this cool, secret agent-type who nicked it from Snape’s private stores too. But knowing Neville, he probably just got it from his Herbology professor.
7 A Messy Eater
I doubt Harry had ever received a birthday cake from his aunt and uncle while he was growing up with him. That’s why I actually felt outraged when I was watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and saw that Dudley was stuffing his face with Harry’s first birthday cake in eleven years. What a pig, I thought viciously. And when Hagrid noticed that Dudley was eating Harry’s cake, he made my enraged declaration a reality by giving Dudley a pig’s tail. It was quite hilarious and satisfying to see Dudley whirl around clutching his buttocks in alarm. Served him right. There was just one small thing missing from Dudley’s theatrics. Where was the mess of icing and cake on Dudley’s hands and face? He had been digging into Harry’s cake with his bare hands. Don’t tell me he didn’t get crumbs and frosting all over his greedy, fat fingers.
6 A Wink, A Nod, And A Fact Check
When Harry speaks Parseltongue in The Chamber of Secrets, his voice turns all whisper-y and hiss-y and basically unintelligible. I much prefer the conversational way that Harry spoke to the snake in the first movie. We didn’t know he was speaking Parseltongue at the time. We just thought he was displaying his newfound wizard powers. Anywaysies, when Harry is speaking to that first snake, the snake nods its head and blinks to let Harry know that it understands him. That is a big no-no for snakes. Snakes do not blink. In point of fact, snakes have no eyelids. They sleep with their eyes wide open. So, unfortunately, the movie either made a mistake or that snake is not a snake at all. It’s a weird mutant snake-hybrid creature that has grown eyelids.
Amanda Hurych loves to read, write, and play video games…and that’s about all there is to her.
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