The Harry Potter universe may be fictional and full of magic but that doesn’t excuse the inconsistencies in both the books and the films. As these Redditors show, not even diehard Potterheads can justify some of J.K. Rowling's, er, less magical choices.
1. Nurture Over Nature
Hagrid says there wasn’t a bad wizard that didn’t come out of Slytherin, so didn’t anyone think that maybe the problem was that they were putting all the problem children with other problem children and locking them in a dungeon during their formative years? Of course they turned out evil. If your only options for friends are Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy, and everyone looks at you like you're a criminal, and you live in a dungeon, maybe you'll become a criminal.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Warner Bros.
2. Oblivious Spell
That none of the kids in Harry's first year knew about the sorting hat. Literally not one. Not even Malfoy, and not even Ron who had five brothers go there before him, as well as his parents. Yet in the end of the last book, Harry is openly discussing the event with his son.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
3. It’s a British Thing
At Slughorn’s Slug Club meetings, Hermione brings up her father being a dentist, which gets confused stares from the students and Slughorn. Yet, in the Chamber of Secrets, a clock in the Weasley house can be seen with each hand having a family members’ face, as well as places they might be at any given moment. One of those places is a dentist.
4. Late to the Game
Accio being a fourth year spell. You can tell that this is only because JK Rowling didn't think of it until Goblet of Fire, because this incredibly simple yet useful spell appears exactly zero times in previous books.
5. Easy As 1-2-3
Locking the third floor corridor when anyone that knows Alohomora can get in.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
6. Not the Best Track Record
Dumbledore was a great man. I got massive respect for the dude. But when it comes to his role as the headmaster, I would say he is pretty incompetent. He had no control over the school's administration and had no idea what was going on around there.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Warner Bros. Pictures
7. Making Matters Worse
“Attacked first by an illegal animagus fugitive and then by the werewolf I hired as your teacher, you say? Stunned the professor who tried to save you and were quickly stormed by a couple hundred dementors? Barely made it out alive from all that? All while you were out on the grounds past curfew? I daresay, you should use that ministry-loaned time travel necklace for its explicitly prohibited purpose and do that one more time.”
If Dumbledore got convicted on 5% of his child endangerment offences, he'd be in jail for 500 plus years.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Warner Bros
8. Wizard Day Care
Where do the pure blood kids go before Hogwarts/secondary school? Do they have a wizarding primary school? Are they homeschooled? They don’t go to muggle schools because they know jack all about the muggle world. I need answers!
Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, Warner Bros.
9. Some Would Call That Negligence
I don't understand why Dumbledore tolerated the way the Dursleys treated Harry. Even if he didn't want Harry to know that he was a wizarding world rock star, he still could have had Hagrid drop by one day when Harry wasn't around to have a word with Vernon.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
10. All Roads Lead to Gryffindor
To be perfectly honest, a lot of things in the Harry Potter stories make a lot more sense when you apply the “grey Dumbledore” lens to them. He was perfectly aware of how to manipulate Harry to be the perfect tool against Voldemort and did in fact do so.
One may also question why Hagrid came to pick Harry up instead of an official teacher, especially one that is essentially Dumbledore's second in command—McGonagall. My personal theory to this is that Dumbledore needed Harry to be in Gryffindor and tried to ensure that everything leading up to the sorting was in favor of that.
If McGonagall went, she could have possibly scared Harry, since she's stern and not as friendly as Hagrid, thus giving Harry a more negative view of Gryffindor. Also, if asked about Hogwarts, she would have been more diplomatic and less candid than Hagrid about his parents dying, good versus evil, and—most importantly—the four houses. Dumbledore needed Harry to be in Gryffindor.
Also, following this, did Dumbledore secretly ask the Weasleys to keep an eye out for him? Why the heck would Molly Weasley not know where Platform 9 and 3/4 is when Ron is the sixth child to get dropped off there for school? That definitely could have been staged!
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
11. Can’t See the Solution in Front of Them
Wizards are able to literally grow bones back from nothing but can't fix Harry's eyesight so he doesn't have to wear glasses.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows ,Warner Bros. Pictures
12. Stealing Their Style
The Malfoys—purebloods who want nothing to do with the muggle world and muggleborns—are depicted wearing muggle clothing in the films. Draco walks around in his black suit outfit for most of the later films, yet his family is supposed to hate everything muggle?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2,Warner Bros.
13. A Lesson in Geography
Kids from across the UK have to get to London to get on the Hogwarts Express, which takes them up to Scotland. Surely, a kid from Scotland or even Manchester doesn't have to spend hours getting down to London to then go back up to Scotland.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
14. Missing Out on Some Good Tunes
They don't listen to any muggle music, yet some of them grew up with muggles so they should be into it. And the same goes for TV shows.
15. Like Snail Mail but With an Owl
That the most efficient means of communication is sending a letter by owl or flu powder. I like to imagine the wizard version of a cell phone is carrying around a large, portable fireplace on a shoulder strap like the earliest cell phones.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
16. The Signs Are Everywhere
I never understood how the wizarding community didn't realize Voldemort was back sooner. I mean, messed up stuff was going down, people were getting killed, but the community was like, “just another Tuesday.”
17. Playing the Long Game
Why was Dumbledore chess mastering the whole thing? Did Dumbledore specifically setup the whole series of events in a giant decade long trap? Why did he train Harry as a magical child soldier? Why did he do everything at arms length?
Dumbledore had the magical equivalent of a nuke with the Elder Wand and invisibility cloak. He very well could have beaten every death eater individually, picking away at them one by one. The Death Eaters still have families and day jobs and go to the bathroom. They’re not in a huge magical army so they could face off against a superior opponent.
There wasn't a reason to go all cloak and dagger. Dumbledore is hideously powerful, had access to immortality and had two-thirds of the most powerful magical items—and all of the useful ones—from death itself. So why go through so much trouble?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros.
18. Who Wouldn’t Want to Teleport
If you can use portkeys to teleport to anywhere in an instant, what's the point of any other form of transport? A lot of people have been pointing out other, better forms of teleporting. My point still stands. If you can teleport, why do the children need to take a train to school, or hijack their dad’s flying car?
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,Warner Bros.
19. In the Wrong Hands
Time turners. Everyone acknowledges the massive potential ramifications of using a time turner improperly to the extent that they're not allowed to be used by anyone. But an exception is made for teenagers, arguably the most irrational users conceivable with raging hormones and not yet fully developed brains. Probably not a good policy.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,Warner Bros.
20. Easy Way Out of This
Why couldn’t Harry just refuse to compete in the Triwizard tournament? It's clearly against the rules, it's clearly not supposed to happen, and it’s probably a trap since Harry has had three years of magical assassination attempts against him. Why not just let him forfeit every round and everyone can move on?
People are saying that it was a contract and he had no choice but to go through with it, so here’s a new thing that doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t the government just make up some magical contract that said Voldemort wasn’t allowed to be evil? It's not like he has to sign it, Harry didn’t submit his own name into the Goblet or anything. Wizard crime is solved.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,Warner Bros.
21. Talk About a Ghost Writer
How does Binns teaching a class even work when it comes to homework? They consistently have to write essays for him, but ghosts are specifically stated to not be able to interact with physical objects very much, if at all. It’s poltergeists that can move stuff. So how does Binns collect, much less grade, homework? And given his memory issues when it comes to names, how would he even manage to assign the correct marks to each student? Wizard History could be awesome if taught by someone even vaguely interesting.
22. Invest in a Calculator
Rowling admits she's bad at math, but like, how many people go to Hogwarts? If there really are only 10 students per house per year, that's only 280 people. But she describes hundreds, sometimes thousands of kids. The only compelling argument I can think of is that there was a huge demographic shift after Voldemort was “defeated” and a lot more people had babies so the years right after Harry have a lot more students. I honestly think she just didn’t figure out how many students there were.
Also, it's wild in the fifth book when Harry clearly has PTSD but every adult—except maybe Sirius and Molly—is like, “let's let his two teenage friends take care of him.” Now that I'm an adult, Hagrid is my favorite and Dumbledore does not come off looking good.
23. The Coolest School
The general disdain for education is nuts as well. What better way to get an 11-year-old's attention than by telling them, “Today we're going to practice levitating objects, and later I'll show you how to set fire to things from across the room.” Especially magical kids who grew up watching their parents and siblings doing cool stuff every day. Hermione's enthusiasm for school is the only realistic attitude in the books.
24. Not a Fan
They have the ability to control minds but no one sends a cab driver to slam his car into Potter when he's walking to the park. Or, getting extravagant, why not just coerce a commercial jet liner pilot to slam a plane into Potter’s uncle and aunt's house.
25. Laws Can Change
In Goblet of Fire, Molly Weasley makes cheese sauce out of nothing with magic. Then in Deathly Hallows, it's suddenly a violation of some fundamental law of magic to conjure food.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,Warner Bros.
26. Missing a Few Fundamentals
They teach magic at Hogwarts but not math, English, languages, IT, or PE.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, Warner Bros. Pictures
27. There Are No Jobs Out There
What exactly are the careers for wizards and witches anyway? I mean there can't be that many job openings out there.
28. It’s the Thought That Counts
The wizarding world is full of wonderfully creative words for magic spells. Yet Ron randomly blurts out “eat slugs” and it actually works?
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,Warner Bros.
29. Not the First Time
The fact that self-sacrifice stopping an Avada Kedavra spell is somehow a brand new discovery in 1981. You can't expect me to believe that not once in all of European wizarding history has that situation ever come up, especially when "dark wizards" are common enough to have their own term.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,Warner Bros.
30. A Magical Diet
Nobody at Hogwarts ever exercises—heck, their only sport consists of sitting practically still—and the Great Hall has unlimited fattening food, but everyone is super skinny. Especially Harry, who grew up underfed, as he would probably gorge himself and gain at least a few pounds. But no, everyone is super thin.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
31. What’s the Point of School?
Maybe how the education system works. They come in at 11 years old and stay until they are 18 and there's no hint of further education after that. To me it seems like there's not a lot of specialization, they just graduate and go into any field.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher
32. Play for Fun
Quidditch. It makes zero sense as a competitive sport. Cut the snitch and the seeker and boom, it's perfect—basically magic rugby on brooms. The whole 150 points for catching the snitch idea is a plot device to make Harry special. Quidditch with the canon rules is basically two sports smushed together, but in the end only one of them matters for the win.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Warner Bros.
33. Here or Nowhere
There's only one wizarding school in Great Britain. Imagine you don't like the place or are being bullied? Well, you better learn French or live overseas in America where meeting your family might prove difficult. Also, the sorting hat placing all Weasleys in Gryffindor? I don't buy that.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros.
34. No Money Mo Problems
Their economic system. I remember seeing a video on YouTube a while back breaking down how messed up their economy would be given that they can just conjure anything from thin air.
35. Power Nap
The Knight bus. It's set up with beds instead of seats, but it pops around the country by magic. If it is clearly moving far faster than a regular bus why would it have the longer-term piece of furniture?
Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban Warner Bros. Pictures
36. Flaw in the System
Unbeatable truth serum exists. Magical justice system—We throw innocent dudes in prison without a trial and let obvious terrorists go free. There is no solution to this.
37. Get Your Priorities in Check
“A wizard has turned evil and is going around killing everybody!”
“Better take this time travel device and hide it for years until a student wants to take some extra classes.”
38. It’s All in the Wand
I could never get past the fact that these people are wizards, they have magical capabilities, and yet if they don't have a wand on them, there's not much they can do. It would make much, much more sense that if, without a wand, they could do the same stuff, but it would be less active/powerful than with a wand. Basically, the wand would act as a catalyst for their magic powers.
But no, when they lose their wands they just stand there, looking like helpless idiots.
39. Just a Few Issues…
It feels like the name Tom Marvolo Riddle was thought up as an anagram for “I Am Lord Voldemort” because no other name fit an anagram of just “Lord Voldemort.” I mean, I can't imagine Tom Riddle going, “awww, shucks, Lord Voldemort is such a cool name, but I'm left with an I, an A and an M—Hey, wait a minute.”
The tri-wizard tournament. I get that this is a magical school, but child-endangerment has got to be something frowned upon even within the magical world.
It feels like a lot more kids should have been able to see the Thestrals than just Harry and Luna.
The whole Magical world and Human world partition. I understand that there are present day groups of people like the Roma—Romani—in Europe that don't socialize much out of their immediate circle to keep their traditions as untouched as possible. But they do know how the rest of the world works, they communicate, and they trade and exchange stuff.
But the Harry Potter books portray the magical citizens as being almost completely disconnected from the ways of the average humans. So much so as for the Weasleys to be in awe of the use of a car, a television set, or a telephone.
And this one is a pet peeve of mine—If Voldemort is so powerful, and his actions affect all wizards, how come no other nation of wizards came by and helped to defeat him—either in the 80s when Harry was a baby, or in the 90s when Harry was a teenager at the final battle? Could you imagine the final confrontation at Hogwarts, with wizards and witches from the Middle East, Asia or the Americas joining Harry and friends to battle Voldermort? Like, warlocks using Native American magic, and wizards on flying carpets. It felt like Voldemort was a real, worldly threat, enough to warrant the alarm of other magical nations.
Sources: Reddit, ,
