16 Ways The 'Harry Potter' Universe Is More Messed Up Than It Seems

Sirius Black is wrongfully accused by Peter Pettigrew of revealing James and Lily Potter's location to Voldemort, and Pettigrew fakes his demise to make it appear as if Sirius has felled him. Sirius is sentenced to Azkaban without a trial - he isn't given a lawyer, nor do authorities even investigate the scene of the wrongdoing. Instead, they pin the blame entirely on an innocent man, who is pardoned 15 years later only after his demise. 

In the Wizarding World, for Sirius at least, there doesn't seem to be any concept of due process or considering someone innocent until proven guilty, suggesting a wizard can be sent to the Dementors based on an accusation.

Enslavement is seen as a heinous act in the Muggle world and is against the law in most countries. In the Wizarding World, however, enslaving other creatures (House-elves) is considered a sign of status symbol, with Ron noting that Mrs. Weasley would like to have a House-elf but can't because the Weasley's aren't rich.

On the other hand, Lucius Malfoy openly abuses his House-elf, Dobby, such as smacking him with his cane and kicking him down a flight of stairs. When Hermione points out how horrifying enslavement is, she's mocked by her peers for being a social justice warrior. 

Some wizards have little respect for animals, treating them as disposable creatures rather than living beings. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Draco Malfoy provokes the Hippogriff Buckbeak to go after him, yet it is Buckbeak who is sentenced to have his head chopped off while Malfoy has a laugh about it.

Gringotts bank keeps a dragon under the building to guard the vaults, but the creature is constantly physically maltreated, to the point where it is terrified by the sound of clankers because it expects to be harmed upon hearing them. 

At one point, Severus Snape intends to poison Neville Longbottom's pet toad in front of the whole class simply because Neville doesn't prepare the right potion. After Hermione discreetly helps Neville fix his mistake, Snape is angered that the toad doesn't perish and punishes Hermione instead.

In school, 11-year-olds are taught in Transfiguration class to test their spells on their pets and turn them into inanimate objects.

Overall, some wizards don't seem to see anything wrong with doling out pain and even death to animals.

The Ministry has such a scary hold on the public that it can influence their opinions however it wants. In Order of the Phoenix, for example, the Ministry uses the Daily Prophet newspaper to discredit Harry through a smear campaign.

Harry is emotionally maltreated to the point where he experiences extreme depression, as the 15-year-old boy is branded a "nutcase" by everyone around him. It also exposes the Wizarding World's lopsided sense of justice. 

What's sadder is that Harry doesn't even consider the possibility of legal action because he knows there's nothing he can do about it. Instead, the Ministry encourages everyone to antagonize an underage boy and hopes this will drive him away from the magical world altogether.

The matter of consent in relationships is of the utmost importance and is generally against the law if not given in the Muggle world. However, the Wizarding World ignores this principle, because witches and wizards can freely purchase love potions.

These concoctions make the target completely obsessed with the person who has given them the potion. In one instance, Ron falls madly in love with Romilda Vane, even though he's never met her. The worst use of this flaw in the legal system is Merope Gaunt's control of Tom Riddle Sr. Voldemort's father was kept under a love potion's influence for over a year and ended up marrying Merope, as well as impregnating her.

The legality of love potions is even considered humorous: Fred and George Weasley sell it at their joke shop. 

The very mention of Azkaban sends shivers up every character's spine in the Harry Potter series. That's because they know the Ministry seals convicted prisoners into a place where they're tormented every single second.

With the Dementors around all the time and feeding on their misery, nearly every inmate goes insane in Azkaban through prolonged exposure. Worse still is that all of this is commonly known, with the Ministry essentially feeding humans to creatures of horrifying proportions. 

Before Kingsley Shacklebolt reforms Azkaban in 1998 by removing all the Dementors, no one thinks to question the ethics of sending a human being to a place that is basically hell on Earth. Overall, it makes the Ministry out to be cold and ruthless to subject people to this treatment. 

At least the Muggle world (in most countries) has laws preventing such transgressions against humanity in prison.