Harry Potter Plot Holes You Don't Need A Pensieve To See

The opening scene of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is unforgivable. In the scene, Harry is in his room at 4 Privet Drive using the Lumos charm to read at night. There's just one problem – he's an underage wizard using magic outside of school, an act that's explicitly forbidden. What's more, he's using magic in a Muggle house. The Ministry of Magic would be on him like young Neville on a chocolate frog.

Characters in the Harry Potter movies use Polyjuice potion numerous times. Whenever they do, they physically transform into someone else, but their voice remains their own. Except for one huge instance: Barty Crouch, Jr.

Given the rules established in the films (and only the films) about voices remaining the same, Mad Eye Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire should have, at the very least, a slightly different voice than the real Mad Eye.

At no point in the books does J. K. Rowling write, "and then they flew on their broomsticks past countless Muggles, skimming boats for funsies, despite the fact that they're all Ministry employees and it's highly illegal." In the beginning of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry and his Auror rescuers do precisely that. There's nothing quite like sacrificing the integrity of a franchise's reality for a pretty shot.

Many fans think Richard Harris was an amazing Dumbledore who captured the character perfectly. Michael Gambon, on the other hand... not so much.

The writing of this scene in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is probably the real culprit, but nothing Dumbledore says is consistent with the book. First, after they learn that a young Tom Riddle was indeed seeking guidance on making multiple horcruxes, Dumbledore says, "This beyond anything I ever imagined." Uh, no it isn't. In the novel, it's precisely what Dumbledore imagines. He had actually suspected Riddle's diary was a horcrux all along, and that there might be more given how careless he was with it.

Then Dumbledore goes on to say the horcruxes "could be anything. The most commonplace of objects." Wrong again. They are only objects Voldemort viewed as extremely significant or important, another thing book Dumbledore understood about him.

The entire plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince centers around Malfoy fixing the Vanishing Cabinet so the Death Eaters can break into Hogwarts. He succeeds and a battle ensues, with students and teachers fighting Death Eaters in the halls of the school.

Except in the movie, this doesn't happen. Yes, the Death Eaters are brought in, but they're literally allowed to walk through the school blowing everything up. Instead, the violence happens at the Weasleys' house, which makes no sense. It's not like Voldemort's whole plan was to commit arson against one wizarding family.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspect Snape of trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, but they're told explicitly by Hagrid that he's one of the teachers tasked with guarding it. This heavily implies that he has a magical defense of the stone in place, like the other teachers.

In the book, Snape's defense is a logic test, in which Harry and Hermione have to figure out which potions will kill them, and which will let them move on and back, respectively. This, however, isn't in the film at all. But... Hagrid said Snape's protecting the stone. How?