HARRY POTTER PLOTHOLES

Or, why I am never reading the Cosmo Magazine Snapchat stories again. (See tags for that story I guess.)

1. Dumbledore says that Voldemort knows more about magic than possibly any other wizard who has ever lived, including himself. So why does it take Voldemort and Quirrell a full year to get past the protections guarding the stone and it only takes three eleven year olds about twenty minutes to do the same thing? How is a three headed dog (Voldemort has experience with acromantulas and basilisks, Quirrell is good with mountain trolls and meets Voldemort because he’s adventuring to some forest in a far off dangerous place, and, as we see from Lupin’s lessons in third year, DADA is a position that deals heavily with dark/dangerous magical creatures - and both Voldemort and Quirrell attempt to hold or hold a teaching position at Hogwarts in that subject), a plant that a first year can easily recognize, a game of chess, a room full of flying keys, and a potions riddle too much for Voldemort and Quirrell to get past? Also, isn’t Harry getting the stone out of the mirror the worst possible thing he could do in that situation, considering that he figures out that the mirror won’t give up the stone unless you don’t actually want it - making it impossible for either of them to ever get it? Why would he take the stone out and basically just hand it to them? Wouldn’t it have been better if Harry hadn’t gone down there to begin with, because Quirrell and Voldemort would’ve been stuck and eventually forced to flee before being discovered?

2. Voldemort isn’t affected by Nagini’s death when Neville kills her, so we must assume that (since Voldemort isn’t even aware that his horcruxes have been destroyed, to our knowledge) the destruction of a horcrux doesn’t affect him. However, when Voldemort kills Harry at the end of Deathly Hallows, Voldemort passes out at the same time Harry does, and wakes up at the same time Harry does. Dumbledore tells Harry that he can choose to go back and fight, or he can stay dead and move on. If Harry had decided to move on, would Voldemort (at least in his physical form) also die? Dumbledore also tells Harry that, by using Harry’s blood to regain his corporeal form, Voldemort takes Lily’s protection into himself and that helps to anchor Harry’s soul, thereby allowing him to survive the curse (if he chooses to). Does this mean that, as long as Voldemort retains that body, Harry cannot die? Or, if Voldemort can kill Harry and kills Harry, doesn’t that mean he would also kill himself, since they are connected? And, if Neville (or Ron or Hermione) had been able to kill Nagini, wouldn’t Voldemort then die completely - with no chance of returning? (Because Dumbledore implies to Harry that Voldemort’s horcrux took the brunt of the killing curse, giving Harry the choice to live or die, wouldn’t Harry just die then if Voldemort tried to kill him again? If Voldemort and Harry are tied together, how could Voldemort kill Harry then and be unaffected? Does it only work once?)

3. If Voldemort hadn’t chosen to use Harry’s blood to regain his powers, Harry wouldn’t have been able to survive the Killing Curse (according to Dumbledore, who is literally speaking to him from the afterlife). So doesn’t that mean then that it’s Voldemort’s choice that determines the outcome of the entire series - considering that (1) Harry knows Voldemort will never stop hunting him down so he’ll have to face him whether he wants to or not, and (2) if Harry and Voldemort are the only ones who can kill one another according to the prophecy, and Harry has to be hit with the Killing Curse in order to kill Voldemort’s final horcrux, then Harry would’ve been literally unable to kill Voldemort because he’d have to die to do it, and he is the only one who can kill Voldemort? (Unless he managed to destroy Voldemort’s horcruxes and kill his physical body, and then commit suicide to destroy the last piece of Voldemort’s soul. But then wouldn’t Dumbledore have been able to kill Voldemort earlier by just destroying the remaining horcruxes while he was still too weak to have a physical form?) 

4. Why doesn’t Dumbledore ever try to destroy the horcruxes when Voldemort is unable to stop him and his supporters are either locked up or have renounced him? Dumbledore attempts to destroy at least one horcrux on his own (the ring), and travels with Harry to destroy the locket, so we know that he is willing to do it himself. Dumbledore is also the one to collect all of the information on the horcruxes, and it’s his idea that Voldemort is using them to stay alive. He tells Minerva McGonagall in the first book that Voldemort is going to return someday as well, and he begins to suspect, at the end of Harry’s second year at the very latest (though it seems more like the diary is just confirmation of his prior suspicions), that he’s using horcruxes to do it. Harry is only responsible for two pieces of information in regards to the horcruxes: (1) the Room of Requirement and (2) Slughorn’s memory. But why wouldn’t Dumbledore approach Slughorn sooner, when Voldemort is no longer in power (Slughorn wouldn’t feel as guilty/defensive since he’d been defeated and wouldn’t be on the run from him so would be more likely to open up about the memory)? Why doesn’t Dumbledore ever try to convince him or use some other means to get the information (e.g. drinking Felix Felicis or dosing Slughorn with Veritaserum - when the fate of the world is hanging in the balance you’d think he’d give it a shot, at least)? I mean he is the greatest living wizard. Why does Dumbledore wait until Harry’s sixth year - when Voldemort is already in power - to try and destroy the ring? Why wouldn’t he try to help Harry in any way that he could, knowing that Voldemort could come back at any time and that Harry - in the worst case scenario - could be as much as a decade away from being able to face him? (If Voldemort had found a loyal Death Eater and had performed the ritual sooner using someone else’s blood, he could’ve conceivably returned immediately after being killed - and Dumbledore had no way of knowing when this would happen.) Plus, hunting down the horcruxes is dangerous work - why run the risk of Harry getting hurt or dying before he can face Voldemort? How could three teenagers possibly be more equipped to destroy dangerous, unpredictable magical objects in a few months (in the middle of a war while being hunted down by Voldemort) than the greatest living wizard could in thirteen years (in peace time with nothing better to do)? Especially considering Dumbledore is the one who has figured it all out and compiled all of the research on it? The prophecy only says that Harry has to kill Voldemort - but Dumbledore has no compunctions about destroying horcruxes himself and other people also destroy them, so clearly that’s not a task that Harry is required to do to fulfil the prophecy. Why doesn’t he even try sooner?

5. Why didn’t Sirius protest his innocence after being arrested for a crime he didn’t commit? Even if he was overwhelmed by grief, he had the presence of mind to evade capture for days after the murders. Why wouldn’t he do everything he could to ensure that James and Lily’s murderer was brought to justice - and kept as far away from Harry as possible? Why wouldn’t he explain that he and Peter were animagi, that Peter transformed and escaped, and that Remus could corroborate that part of the story? And then couldn’t he have just insisted they interview him (and Remus) using Veritaserum? If he could assert that one of Voldemort’s most prominent supporters might still be on the loose (and might come after Harry), wouldn’t that be enough to at least warrant an investigation? Plus, if Sirius couldn’t lie under Veritaserum and he told them that he was not the Potters’ secret keeper at the time of their murder, wouldn’t he be acquitted? Why would he just go quietly to Azkaban when Peter was still out there and there is literally a potion that could exonerate him beyond question?

6. Dumbledore tells Harry after the Triwizard Tournament that Voldemort’s plan was to kill Harry in the graveyard after he returned to keep Harry from telling anyone about it because he wanted to operate in secret and rebuild his strength. If Voldemort doesn’t want people to find out that he’s back, why does he try to kill Harry in the most high-profile way possible - by illegally entering Harry into the tournament (immediately arousing Dumbledore’s suspicions, with the Minister of Magic present no less) and forcing Harry to win the tournament before he abducts and kills him? And then why would he leave a Death Eater in disguise at Hogwarts afterwards? If Harry had disappeared and died, it would’ve started a huge manhunt (before they managed to find him) at Hogwarts. Crouch is pretending to be one of Dumbledore’s oldest friends, has to steal supplies from Snape in order to keep making the Polyjuice Potion (so he will eventually run out - and/or Snape will find out), is pretending to be one of Dumbledore’s old friends, is the only new staff member at Hogwarts that year, and has taken an obvious interest in Harry. He also performs an Unforgivable Curse in front of his class and turns a student into an animal and abuses him in broad daylight - in front of another teacher. He also murders his father and buries him on the castle grounds, where a house elf who knows everything is currently working. Wouldn’t it just be a matter of time before he was discovered? Why wouldn’t he escape with Harry? What reason could he possibly have to stay at Hogwarts?

7. Why doesn’t Crouch abduct Harry sooner, in a quieter way, if they want to keep Voldemort’s return a secret and cause maximum confusion and distress among the light side? Why risk keeping Crouch at Hogwarts longer than he needs to be when he could be detected any day? And why delay Voldemort’s return by 9 months when they could abduct Harry any time? What’s the point in waiting until the final challenge to abduct him? If you can portkey inside of the castle, why doesn’t Crouch just get Harry alone (keep him after class, bump into him in the hallway, give him detention, etc.) and either stun him when he isn’t suspecting it, or just trick him into grabbing the portkey? Or, if he needs to be outside of the castle for a portkey to work (and portkeys must work on the grounds because the final challenge takes place on the grounds), why not just give Harry detention in the forest to lure him out? Or, catch him while he’s on his way back from Hagrid’s one day? (Reminder: Moody can see through his Invisibility Cloak). Crouch already manages to trick Harry into going out to see the dragons in advance of the first challenge, plus it couldn’t be any harder than getting him into the tournament and making sure he made it through all three challenges intact without anyone finding out. Or, if you can’t work a portkey on the castle or grounds under normal circumstances, but security is lifted during the challenges for spectators to attend them, why not just steal a Puking Pastil, dose Harry with it so he won’t attend the challenge, and then take him while everyone else is out of the castle (especially considering Dumbledore wouldn’t be suspicious since no one had entered Harry into the tournament illegally)? Plus, Crouch’s entire plan is foiled if Harry just refuses to compete (or competes badly, by accident or to throw the tournament). Voldemort and Crouch have nothing to gain by arousing Dumbledore’s suspicion, waiting for Harry to finish the tournament before abducting him, abducting him publicly, keeping Crouch in the castle for a long period of time, and keeping Crouch back at Hogwarts after Harry is abducted. So why do they do all of those things?

8. Fred and George have the Marauders’ Map in Harry’s first year, so how do they never notice Voldemort on it? Or, if he comes up under Tom Riddle, why do they never notice that Professor Quirrell is actually two people? And why don’t they ever notice that a man called Peter Pettigrew has been sleeping with their brother for three years? And how are they able to throw snowballs at Voldemort’s face for over an hour without Quirrell freaking out?