20 Things in the Harry Potter Books That Make No Sense

Harry Potter has become one of the most popular franchises in the world since its inception in 1997. However, many things in the books are head scratching.

From the events during Book 1’s opening chapters to Portkeys, we’re counting down the top 20 things in the Harry Potter books that make no sense.

1 – Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone’s Opening Chapter

The opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone captivated millions of readers around the world. But the chapter itself makes zero sense.

For one, why would a 100-year-old man in Albus Dumbledore leave a one-year-old baby in Harry Potter on their aunt and uncle’s doorstep in plummeting temperatures on November 1st?

Further, if Harry’s parents had died on October 31st, why did it take 24 hours to deliver Harry? Lots of questionable events took place in this opening chapter.

You would think Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid would have acted faster considering the number of parties taking place all over England following Lord Voldemort’s defeat.

2 – Dates

There are issues with dates and times in the books. For example, in Chamber of Secrets, students attended class on February 14th, 1993. But that date was a Sunday, so class should not have been held.

We see a few issues with dates in Goblet of Fire. September 1st and 2nd are said to be Mondays. Further, the Goblet of Fire chose the champions on Halloween, 1994, which was said to be a Saturday.

But Halloween occurred on a Monday that year. This mistake could be due to artistic licenses for Rowling, allowing her to tweak the days of the week and their respective dates. The problem, however, is that November 22nd occurred on a Tuesday in the book instead of a Sunday.

3 – Hogwarts Express

It is presumed that Hogwarts is located in the Scottish Highlands, yet each student is required to board the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross Station in London.

Even if a Hogwarts student lives nowhere near London or if they live in Scotland, they have no other means of transportation to Hogwarts.

Further, there are even students from Ireland (like Seamus Finnigan) who attend Hogwarts. Yet, instead of boarding a train from a major city like Dublin, which could be more convenient for Irish students, they must also travel to London.

4 – Quidditch 

Quidditch is a sport that makes zero sense in more ways than one.

There are two ways to score in Quidditch. The first way involves the three chasers who try to put the Quaffle through one of the golden hoops at the end of the pitch, which is worth 10 points apiece.

The major issue? The seekers are responsible for locating and catching the golden snitch, worth 150 points.

Not only does the team whose seeker catches the snitch almost always win the game (though exceptions exist, like during the Quidditch World Cup), but the game also ends. This renders the chasers’ efforts futile.

5 – House Points

The House Points system made hardly any sense in Sorcerer’s Stone when Gryffindor won with 482 points. With over 1,000 kids at Hogwarts, and teachers handing out and taking away points across a 10-month school year, that number seems low.

While teachers can take points away for rule breaking, either Hogwarts students break more rules than we’re led to believe in the books, or J.K. Rowling just wasn’t paying much attention when she devised the points system.

We’ve also seen some teachers favor their own Houses. Severus Snape was notorious for this, often awarding Slytherin House points. He also took away points from Gryffindor for dubious reasons, like when Neville concocted a perfect potion in Prisoner of Azkaban.

Further, in the first two books, Headmaster Professor Dumbledore basically gave Gryffindor the House Cup by awarding Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville a combined 570 House points combined (170 in Sorcerer’s Stone, while Harry and Ron received 400 in Chamber of Secrets).

6 – Quidditch Season

In Sorcerer’s Stone, we discovered the Quidditch season began in November. But each of the four Houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin) only play three games apiece from November until the Quidditch Cup is awarded between May and June.

Each House plays one another just once over the following seven to eight months, leading to three games for each of the four Houses.

Students also tryout for their House teams and begin training in September, which also makes the season too long.

7 – Peter Pettigrew

In their first year at Hogwarts, Fred and George Weasley nicked the Marauder’s Map from caretaker Argus Filch’s office. The map shows the names of everyone, and where they are in the school at all times.

So, shouldn’t the Weasley twins have known the supposedly deceased Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail) was living in Ron’s dormitory the entire time? They didn’t pass the map to Harry until his third year, so they had plenty of time to have spotted Pettigrew’s name.

8 – Size of Harry’s Year

Harry Potter’s class is notoriously small for a school said to contain roughly 1,000 students. In Harry’s Year, there are only five boys and five girls. And from what we know about the other Houses in Harry’s Year, their class size seems small, too.

This could be because of the Wizarding War that took place during the 1970s when Lord Voldemort’s power was peaking. But then again, shouldn’t the years leading up to Harry’s Year also contain small class sizes?

9 – No Core Classes at Hogwarts

Although Muggle Born students attended grade school before they found out they were witches and wizards, students begin their magical education at age 11, basically middle school age.

This raises the question of how witches and wizards are taught language arts, math, and other core classes.

Since witches and wizards can’t control their magic at young ages, they probably aren’t attending primary schools. They could be homeschooled. But as mentioned earlier, when they attend Hogwarts at age 11, they are middle-school aged.

This implies they only know basic math, reading, and other language arts skills.

10 – Harry’s Attitude Toward His Father

If there ever was a Draco Malfoy-like character to attend Hogwarts between 1971 and 1977, it was James Potter. We saw how horrible James was toward Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

While Harry at least questioned his father’s character after witnessing James bullying Snape in the Pensieve, it didn’t take long for him to recover and once again look at his dad as a hero.

But given how much Harry despised bullies like Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, you’d think he’d have more reservations about idolizing his father.

11 – Slytherin vs. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff

Slytherin House’s reputation was so bad, that it seemed as though none of the other Houses got along with them. Sure, Slytherin turned out more dark witches and wizards than the other three Houses mainly because it was obsessed with blood status and ambition.

But it’s also important to remember that the greatest wizard of all time, Merlin, was in Slytherin.

Further, Isolt Sayre, a descendent of Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin, founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in America’s Colonial period. And she was portrayed as a protagonist.

While there were good Slytherins out there, the books paid them zero tribute and painted them collectively as an evil House.

12 – Sirius Black’s antics in Order of the Phoenix

In the movies, Sirius Black acted like the father figure Harry always wanted. But in the books, Sirius’ character did not align with the prudent father figure we saw in Goblet of Fire.

During Order of the Phoenix, even with Lord Voldemort back in power, Sirius acted recklessly. For example, he told Harry he’d “Welcomed a Dementor attack,” a complete 180 from the Sirius we saw in Goblet of Fire.

Sure, he grew depressed from being stuck in his parent’s old home, a place he despised. But Black argued with Harry on multiple occasions, had a borderline shouting match with Molly Weasley, and even tried to pick a fight with Snape.

13 – Wizards Misunderstanding Muggle Fashion

Grown wizards always wear robes. But as kids, they often wore Muggle clothing, as we saw Harry and his friends do on several occasions.

But Arthur Weasley had no idea how to dress like a Muggle. We also saw several wizards doing a poor job of dressing in Muggle clothing at the Quidditch World Cup.

So, if they wore Muggle clothes as kids, why would they forget Muggle fashion after they graduate from Hogwarts? Or in Arthur’s case, if his seven children wore Muggle clothes during the summer, why wasn’t he up-to-date with Muggle fashion?

14 – Ron Lacking Knowledge of the Sorting Ceremony

Ron Weasley grew up in a wizarding family, yet he had no idea what the Sorting Ceremony comprised in Sorcerer’s Stone. He was also the sixth Weasley to attend Hogwarts, so you’d think one of his older brothers would have mentioned the Sorting Hat.

While Fred and George did lead Ron to believe the Sorting Ceremony “hurts a lot,” Ron also had three other (and more honest) brothers that could have fact-checked Fred and George’s claims. Or, he could’ve just asked his parents.

15 – Harry’s Extended Family

While Harry’s parents, Lily and James Potter, are depicted much older in the films, they were only 21 when they died in the books. So, if Lily and James died at such young ages, how were the Dursleys his only living relatives?

We know James’ parents were older, even by wizarding standards, and wizards outlive Muggles by a substantial number of years, on average. The same could be true for Lily’s parents, but were all four of his grandparents only children? And, did he have no other family members other than the Dursleys?

Seems to be a bit of a stretch.

16 – Triwizard Tournament

While the Triwizard Tournament gave students four breathtaking battles to watch during the First Task, the Second Task took place underwater and the Third Task in a tall maze.

Have you ever wondered why the entire school would bother to watch the Second and Third Tasks if they couldn’t see what was going on? And how could Ludo Bagman commentate on these tasks?

17 – Third Floor Corridor

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was lauded as the wisest and most powerful wizard in the world. Yet, why would he hide the Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone in an accessible corridor in a school full of 11 to 17-year-olds containing a three-headed dog?

Since Dumbledore was so powerful, it would have made more sense for him to hide the Stone in his office (accessible only via password). Or better yet, he could have carried it around with him.

18 – Wizarding World’s Contradicting Technology

Some technology in the Wizarding World is archaic. In the books, Harry and his classmates used parchment, quills, and ink. They also didn’t have electricity, nor were they proficient with modern amenities, like telephones.

However, the Ministry of Magic, as shown in Prisoner of Azkaban, has cars. The Hogwarts Express is a train. And wizards also listen to wireless radios.

19 – Claims Hogwarts Was Safe From Voldemort

During Voldemort’s reign of terror in the 1970s, Hogwarts was supposedly a safe place that the Dark Lord could not penetrate.

But Voldemort breached security several times. The first instance occurred in a Pensieve scene in Half-Blood Prince, when, after Dumbledore turned him down for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, Voldemort cursed the position.

He snuck into Hogwarts through Professor Quirius Quirrell in Sorcerer’s Stone, and by hiding a memory of himself in a diary that Lucius Malfoy handed Ginny Weasley in Chamber of Secrets.

Voldemort also masterminded a plan for his servant, Barty Crouch Jr., to ensure Harry would be transported to the Little Hangleton Cemetery in Goblet of Fire.

20 – Portkeys

In Goblet of Fire, Harry and the others had to locate a Portkey set to transport them to the Quidditch World Cup at seven minutes past five.

Yet during the Third Task, Harry and Cedric, not knowing the Triwizard Cup was a Portkey, grabbed onto it, and the Cup immediately transported them to the Little Hangleton Cemetery.

The Portkey also took Harry back to Hogwarts the second he latched onto it after escaping Voldemort and the Death Eaters.