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andromakhe said yesterday about inconsistencies in Harry Potter reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for a while now.
I swiped the idea from the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, in a way. They have a section on "unanswered questions" for each episode in the episode guide. So I started a list for HP. Stuff that she doesn't explain, or hasn't yet, that I wonder about, and stuff that just flat out doesn't make sense.
I have this oddly obsessive desire to make my list comprehensive, and I know I'm missing tons of stuff. I keep thinking of stuff and then forgetting it, and that's not getting me anywhere. So I'm posting the list here, and if anyone can think of anything else, leave a comment.
I was also thinking of doing a fic challenge of some kind where people try to "answer" a question or explain and apparent inconsistency. I don't know if there's any interest in that, so I thought I'd start with the list and see how it goes.
I sorted the list by book, and for random stuff I wonder about for various characters (like Sirius's job) I just filed it under the book where said character first showed up (PoA for Sirius). General series stuff (like the moving portraits question) gets filed under Sorcerer's Stone.
Stuff withstrikethrough is stuff I think has been answered. Please feel free to argue with me if you'd like.
Sorcerer's Stone:
Why did Voldemort want to kill Harry?
How did Harry survive?
Why did V. want to kill James but not Lily?
What did the letter Dumbledore left with the Dursleys say?
Did they read it, or burn it?
What's the Bloody Baron's story?
Why did Snape already suspect Quirrell even before Halloween?
What did the centaurs read in the sky the night Harry and co served detention in the forest?
If Voldemort was on the back of Quirrell's head, how does he not know Snape is working against him?
Who gave Harry his Nimbus Two Thousand?
How was it Dumbledore was talked into bending the 'no brooms for first years' rule? And how fair was that, really?
What did Lily and James do for a living before they were killed?
What's Mr. Ollivander's story, and is there a reason he gives Harry the creeps?
Why does Minerva tell Draco Malfoy it's not safe to be wandering around on his own, "especially these days"?
What is the significance, if any, of Godric's Hollow?
Why did James Potter leave his invisibility cloak with Dumbledore?
What 'old school friends' of Harry's parents did Hagrid send owls to asking for pictures, if most of said friends are dead/in prison/ect? (Remus Lupin is probably one, but Hagrid said "friends", plural.)
Are the moving portraits really sentiant, or do they just mimic it really well?
What position did James Potter play on the Quidditch team?
Why is Snape so horrible to Neville in particular? (We know why he hates Harry; perhaps he hated Neville's dad, too?)
Is there some particular reason McGonagall always wears green? (Because it's mentioned a lot, and one wonders.)
Is there some meaning in the forms animagi take?
How about Patronuses? (Patroni?)
What house was Dumbledore really in? (Star makes a good case for Slytherin, and I'm starting to agree with her.)
The Hogwarts letters say specifically that students may bring a cat, an owl, or a toad. How does Ron get away with bringing a rat?
If the wand chooses the wizard, and you never get as good of results with another wizard's wand, shouldn't Ron have had his own wand all along, rather than one of his brothers' old ones?
Why, when Dumbledore Apparated to Privet Drive the night Harry was left with the Dursleys, was there no loud crack, as with normal Apparations?
JKR says we ought to ask this, so...why didn't Voldemort die when the Avada Kedavra backfired as he attempted to kill Harry?
Does it mean anything that when Harry gets his wand, red and gold sparks shoot from it? (Gryffindor colors...)
Can ordinary stuff like car crashes kill wizards?
Shouldn't Hermione have gotten into trouble for doing those 'few simple practice spells' outside of Hogwarts?
Why does Neville have such a poor memory? (strangemuses has a theory that makes a lot of sense...)
How does magic work in the HP universe?
Do you need a wand to Apparate? (Dumbledore never seems to...)
Chamber of Secrets:
Does Hagrid know Tom Riddle is Voldemort?
If he does, why didn't he tell Harry when the Chamber of Secrets was opened?
Or is that what he was going to say when Fudge & Dumbledore showed up?
Who replaced Lucius Malfoy as a school governor after he was fired?
Does Voldemort remember Ginny?
How was Nearly Headless Nick un-Petrified if he can't eat or drink?
For that matter, how were the others, when they couldn't swallow?
What happened to Lockhart after CoS?
Did he ever get his memory back? (Doesn't look like it so far, does it?)
Did it come out that Lockhart was a fraud?
Will Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue play any future role?
If Lucius' plan to bring Voldemort-as-Tom back in the diary had succeeded, would there have then been two Voldemorts, Tom and creepySnakeDude!Voldemort?
If Lockheart ever gets his mind back, will he be tried for stealing all those people's memories?
Couldn't Ginny just have used Ron's old first year books, instead of the Weasleys having to buy her her own copies of the ones Ron already had?
Are we going to see Gryffindor's sword again?
Now that Hagrid was cleared, can't he finish his training and become a full wizard?
How exactly did Gryffindor's sword get into the Sorting Hat in the first place?
Prisoner of Azkaban:
What did Sirius do for a living, before?
How did Snape not know the Death Eater spy was Peter Pettigrew?
Alternately, shouldn't he have known that Peter was the spy?
Would he have bothered to do anything with this information if he'd had it, not being a huge fan of the Marauders and all? (Good point fromscottiegirlc here)
How did Filch end up confiscating the Marauders' Map?
If predicting Voldemort's return was Trelawney's second real vision, what was her first?
Why was Sirius laughing when the Ministry "caught" him after Pettigrew killed those Muggles?
How did the Muggles "not see what they think they saw"?
Is Peter the 'heir apparent' to Voldemort, the way everyone thought Sirius was? (Seems hard to believe somehow, but you never know.)
Why was Lupin watching the Marauders' Map the night Harry and co went down to visit Hagrid? (Looking out for Sirius in case he attacked, maybe?)
How did Peter as Scabbers end up as Percy's pet?
Why didn't Peter show up on the map before?
How are they so sure the map doesn't lie?
Why did Peter turn traitor in the first place?
Did Lily know Remus was a werewolf? Did she ever learn?
Did she know, or ever learn, the others were animagi?
Was Lucius Malfoy at school with them?
How did Crookshanks "talk" to Sirius?
Will the connection Harry has to Peter play any future role?
Do the Weasleys ever wonder where Ron got Pigwidgeon?
Do they ever wonder what happened to Scabbers?
Why has Voldemort been in hiding 15 years, and Peter only 12?
Why does Lupin keep it a secret that he knew Harry's parents, until Harry himself brings it up?
Harry does some serious wandless magic in this book- inflating Aunt Marge, ect. Is this an indication of how powerful he is as a wizard?
Does it mean anything that Sirius' animagus form resembles a death omen (the Grim)?
How (and why) did the Ministry ever make the arrangement with the dementors for the guarding of Azkaban?
Not sure I really want to know the answer to this one, but people keep mentioning talking to the dementors- how do the creepy things communicate?
Why did Arthur Weasley have to go out to Azkaban once?
Goblet of Fire:
Is Narcissa Malfoy a DE?
How did the Death Eaters get started?
Why are they called DEs?
Why did Snape join them?
Why did he turn back?
How did Crouch Sr. get away with sending Sirius to Azkaban without trial?
How did Mad-Eye Moody lose his leg?
Were his injuries really so bad that they couldn't be healed, or is he just stubborn? (We've seen magical medicine, for lack of a better term, do stuff modern real world medicine sure can't do...)
Who was the one more person Voldemort & Wormtail had to kill at the beginning of GoF, to clear the way to Harry?
What did Dumbledore ask Snape to do the night Voldemort came back?
How did he prove himself in the past? i.e., why does D. trust him?
What happened to Wormtail's wand?
What happened to Voldemort's wand? Did Wormtail keep it for him all those years? (Uh, as a rat? Maybe not.)
Why did Crouch Jr. and company think the Longbottoms knew where Voldemort was?
Did Dumbledore in fact look 'triumphant' when Harry said Voldemort could now touch him?
If so, what the hell for?
Do the purebloods among the Death Eaters know Voldemort is a half-blood? Or do they think this is just propoganda?
If they do, why do they support him?
Which is Moody's magical eye, left or right? (Careful examination of the OotP cover art seems to suggest the magical eye is the right one...and you really don't want to know how long it took me to figure out that I might find the answer that easily...)
What school did fake Moody (Crouch Jr.) enter Harry in the Triwizard Tournament under?
Not that I really want to know (not that any of us do) but what did Dumbledore's brother do to that goat?
Who was the Death Eater "too cowardly to return", and who was the one who had "Left [Voldemort's] service forever"? (Debates rage on as to if one is Karkaroff and the other Snape, but clear answers or speculation are encouraged here.)
How is it that both of the Creevey brothers are wizards, when their parents are Muggles? (I thought Muggle-born wizards were a bit of a genetic fluke.)
Does Harry have some kind of connection to Fawkes because his wand's feather came from him?
For that matter, does Voldemort?
Is it in any way significant that Penelope Clearwater was still at Hogwarts that year, and that Percy was there fairly often, and they aren't shown interacting at all? (There is if you're me, but...)
Order of the Phoenix:
What was the meaning of Dumbledore's Howler to Petunia? ('Remember my last' is a fragmented sentence, and cryptic besides. Maybe he's channeling Kosh from B5?)
What is the purpose of the tank full of brains in the Department of Mysteries? (Do we even want to know?)
What is the power Harry has, that is the same 'great and terrible' power locked up in the DoM? (Re-reading OotP, I'm convinced that it's love or some related 'power of the heart' type thing, but, you know, details would be good.)
What is the veil, exactly?
Was Snape part of the original Order of the Phoenix?
Was Minerva?
How could Harry give orders to the Hogwarts house elves- ie, Dobby?
Was there ever any real fear that Hermione might free Kreacher?
Did she, for that matter, ever have a chance of freeing the Hogwarts house elves?
Can everyone who went to the DoM, who had never seen death before, now see thestrals?
Why couldn't Harry see them before, if he remembers his parents' deaths?
Who taught Snape Occulmency? (Dumbledore?)
Is Sirius really all the way dead? (Yes, damnit. He is.)
Can he come back?
Did Mrs. Figg lie about seeing the dementor?
Did the other Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban go crazy in there like Bellatrix? (Is she, then, only the most crazy, not the only crazy one?)
Which Death Eater got his head stuck in the bell jar?
Which Death Eaters were captured in the Department of Mysteries and which, if any, got away?
What horrible memories does Dudley relive when the dementors attack? (Or is he jut so spoiled and so used to the normal world that he can't deal? I really think there's something deeper here, though.)
How trustworthy is Mundungus Fletcher, really? (He tried to hex Arthur Weasley, a fellow member of the Order, in Chamber of Secrets.)
Is the prophecy really about Harry?
Will Harry survive the final battle with Voldemort?
What happened to Umbridge after OotP?
Did she ever get into trouble for sending the dementors after Harry?
Are the dementors stll in control of Azkaban, or did they join Voldemort when he (presumably) helped break out the Lestrange gang?
What death did Hagrid see to allow him to see thestrals?
And was it his idea for them to pull the carriages, or have they been doing it for ages?
Also, does the "seeing death" thing count as seeing an animal die, or does it have to be a person? What about a magical creature like a centaur (who would probably kill you if you called him an animal) or a house elf?
How did Dumbledore rescue Umbridge from the centaurs?
How does Trelawney feel about sharing her job with Firenze?
Will Percy ever reconcile with the rest of the Weasleys?
Is there more to the story of the last time the Sorting Hat gave a warning in its song?
How do death and the afterlife work in the wizarding world? Nearly Headless Nick implies some interesting stuff...
Why can only wizards return as ghosts?
Is it in any way significant that Harry's Lumos spell worked when the wand was out of his hand?
Why is Dumbledore so sure that the parents of the boy in the prophecy had to be in the Order?
Who overheard the first bit of the prophecy at the Hog's Head?
Who threw that guy out?
Why have we never heard before now that the barman was Dumbledore's brother?
Corrections and additions from (so far)jenavira, muffinmonster, scottiegirlc, g_shadowslayer, and notthatjaded, who contributed the most recent theastrals questions.
I thought of a bunch of other ones, mostly for GoF and OotP, and like an idiot I didn't write them down. I keep flipping through random notebooks, hoping to find them, but I think it's hopeless.
Help?
andromakhe said yesterday about inconsistencies in Harry Potter reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for a while now.I swiped the idea from the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, in a way. They have a section on "unanswered questions" for each episode in the episode guide. So I started a list for HP. Stuff that she doesn't explain, or hasn't yet, that I wonder about, and stuff that just flat out doesn't make sense.
I have this oddly obsessive desire to make my list comprehensive, and I know I'm missing tons of stuff. I keep thinking of stuff and then forgetting it, and that's not getting me anywhere. So I'm posting the list here, and if anyone can think of anything else, leave a comment.
I was also thinking of doing a fic challenge of some kind where people try to "answer" a question or explain and apparent inconsistency. I don't know if there's any interest in that, so I thought I'd start with the list and see how it goes.
I sorted the list by book, and for random stuff I wonder about for various characters (like Sirius's job) I just filed it under the book where said character first showed up (PoA for Sirius). General series stuff (like the moving portraits question) gets filed under Sorcerer's Stone.
Stuff with
Sorcerer's Stone:
What's the Bloody Baron's story?
Why did Snape already suspect Quirrell even before Halloween?
What did the centaurs read in the sky the night Harry and co served detention in the forest?
How was it Dumbledore was talked into bending the 'no brooms for first years' rule? And how fair was that, really?
What did Lily and James do for a living before they were killed?
What's Mr. Ollivander's story, and is there a reason he gives Harry the creeps?
Why does Minerva tell Draco Malfoy it's not safe to be wandering around on his own, "especially these days"?
What is the significance, if any, of Godric's Hollow?
Why did James Potter leave his invisibility cloak with Dumbledore?
What 'old school friends' of Harry's parents did Hagrid send owls to asking for pictures, if most of said friends are dead/in prison/ect? (Remus Lupin is probably one, but Hagrid said "friends", plural.)
Are the moving portraits really sentiant, or do they just mimic it really well?
What position did James Potter play on the Quidditch team?
Why is Snape so horrible to Neville in particular? (We know why he hates Harry; perhaps he hated Neville's dad, too?)
Is there some particular reason McGonagall always wears green? (Because it's mentioned a lot, and one wonders.)
Is there some meaning in the forms animagi take?
How about Patronuses? (Patroni?)
What house was Dumbledore really in? (Star makes a good case for Slytherin, and I'm starting to agree with her.)
The Hogwarts letters say specifically that students may bring a cat, an owl, or a toad. How does Ron get away with bringing a rat?
If the wand chooses the wizard, and you never get as good of results with another wizard's wand, shouldn't Ron have had his own wand all along, rather than one of his brothers' old ones?
Why, when Dumbledore Apparated to Privet Drive the night Harry was left with the Dursleys, was there no loud crack, as with normal Apparations?
JKR says we ought to ask this, so...why didn't Voldemort die when the Avada Kedavra backfired as he attempted to kill Harry?
Does it mean anything that when Harry gets his wand, red and gold sparks shoot from it? (Gryffindor colors...)
Can ordinary stuff like car crashes kill wizards?
Shouldn't Hermione have gotten into trouble for doing those 'few simple practice spells' outside of Hogwarts?
Why does Neville have such a poor memory? (
strangemuses has a theory that makes a lot of sense...)How does magic work in the HP universe?
Do you need a wand to Apparate? (Dumbledore never seems to...)
Chamber of Secrets:
Does Hagrid know Tom Riddle is Voldemort?
If he does, why didn't he tell Harry when the Chamber of Secrets was opened?
Or is that what he was going to say when Fudge & Dumbledore showed up?
Who replaced Lucius Malfoy as a school governor after he was fired?
Does Voldemort remember Ginny?
How was Nearly Headless Nick un-Petrified if he can't eat or drink?
For that matter, how were the others, when they couldn't swallow?
Did he ever get his memory back? (Doesn't look like it so far, does it?)
Did it come out that Lockhart was a fraud?
Will Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue play any future role?
If Lucius' plan to bring Voldemort-as-Tom back in the diary had succeeded, would there have then been two Voldemorts, Tom and creepySnakeDude!Voldemort?
If Lockheart ever gets his mind back, will he be tried for stealing all those people's memories?
Couldn't Ginny just have used Ron's old first year books, instead of the Weasleys having to buy her her own copies of the ones Ron already had?
Are we going to see Gryffindor's sword again?
Now that Hagrid was cleared, can't he finish his training and become a full wizard?
How exactly did Gryffindor's sword get into the Sorting Hat in the first place?
Prisoner of Azkaban:
What did Sirius do for a living, before?
How did Snape not know the Death Eater spy was Peter Pettigrew?
Alternately, shouldn't he have known that Peter was the spy?
Would he have bothered to do anything with this information if he'd had it, not being a huge fan of the Marauders and all? (Good point from
scottiegirlc here)How did Filch end up confiscating the Marauders' Map?
How did the Muggles "not see what they think they saw"?
Is Peter the 'heir apparent' to Voldemort, the way everyone thought Sirius was? (Seems hard to believe somehow, but you never know.)
Why was Lupin watching the Marauders' Map the night Harry and co went down to visit Hagrid? (Looking out for Sirius in case he attacked, maybe?)
How did Peter as Scabbers end up as Percy's pet?
Why didn't Peter show up on the map before?
How are they so sure the map doesn't lie?
Why did Peter turn traitor in the first place?
Did Lily know Remus was a werewolf? Did she ever learn?
Did she know, or ever learn, the others were animagi?
Was Lucius Malfoy at school with them?
How did Crookshanks "talk" to Sirius?
Will the connection Harry has to Peter play any future role?
Do the Weasleys ever wonder where Ron got Pigwidgeon?
Do they ever wonder what happened to Scabbers?
Why has Voldemort been in hiding 15 years, and Peter only 12?
Why does Lupin keep it a secret that he knew Harry's parents, until Harry himself brings it up?
Harry does some serious wandless magic in this book- inflating Aunt Marge, ect. Is this an indication of how powerful he is as a wizard?
Does it mean anything that Sirius' animagus form resembles a death omen (the Grim)?
How (and why) did the Ministry ever make the arrangement with the dementors for the guarding of Azkaban?
Not sure I really want to know the answer to this one, but people keep mentioning talking to the dementors- how do the creepy things communicate?
Why did Arthur Weasley have to go out to Azkaban once?
Goblet of Fire:
Is Narcissa Malfoy a DE?
How did the Death Eaters get started?
Why are they called DEs?
Why did Snape join them?
Why did he turn back?
How did Mad-Eye Moody lose his leg?
Were his injuries really so bad that they couldn't be healed, or is he just stubborn? (We've seen magical medicine, for lack of a better term, do stuff modern real world medicine sure can't do...)
Who was the one more person Voldemort & Wormtail had to kill at the beginning of GoF, to clear the way to Harry?
How did he prove himself in the past? i.e., why does D. trust him?
What happened to Wormtail's wand?
What happened to Voldemort's wand? Did Wormtail keep it for him all those years? (Uh, as a rat? Maybe not.)
Why did Crouch Jr. and company think the Longbottoms knew where Voldemort was?
Did Dumbledore in fact look 'triumphant' when Harry said Voldemort could now touch him?
If so, what the hell for?
Do the purebloods among the Death Eaters know Voldemort is a half-blood? Or do they think this is just propoganda?
If they do, why do they support him?
What school did fake Moody (Crouch Jr.) enter Harry in the Triwizard Tournament under?
Not that I really want to know (not that any of us do) but what did Dumbledore's brother do to that goat?
Who was the Death Eater "too cowardly to return", and who was the one who had "Left [Voldemort's] service forever"? (Debates rage on as to if one is Karkaroff and the other Snape, but clear answers or speculation are encouraged here.)
How is it that both of the Creevey brothers are wizards, when their parents are Muggles? (I thought Muggle-born wizards were a bit of a genetic fluke.)
Does Harry have some kind of connection to Fawkes because his wand's feather came from him?
For that matter, does Voldemort?
Is it in any way significant that Penelope Clearwater was still at Hogwarts that year, and that Percy was there fairly often, and they aren't shown interacting at all? (There is if you're me, but...)
Order of the Phoenix:
What was the meaning of Dumbledore's Howler to Petunia? ('Remember my last' is a fragmented sentence, and cryptic besides. Maybe he's channeling Kosh from B5?)
What is the purpose of the tank full of brains in the Department of Mysteries? (Do we even want to know?)
What is the power Harry has, that is the same 'great and terrible' power locked up in the DoM? (Re-reading OotP, I'm convinced that it's love or some related 'power of the heart' type thing, but, you know, details would be good.)
What is the veil, exactly?
Was Snape part of the original Order of the Phoenix?
Was Minerva?
How could Harry give orders to the Hogwarts house elves- ie, Dobby?
Was there ever any real fear that Hermione might free Kreacher?
Did she, for that matter, ever have a chance of freeing the Hogwarts house elves?
Can everyone who went to the DoM, who had never seen death before, now see thestrals?
Why couldn't Harry see them before, if he remembers his parents' deaths?
Who taught Snape Occulmency? (Dumbledore?)
Did Mrs. Figg lie about seeing the dementor?
Did the other Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban go crazy in there like Bellatrix? (Is she, then, only the most crazy, not the only crazy one?)
Which Death Eater got his head stuck in the bell jar?
Which Death Eaters were captured in the Department of Mysteries and which, if any, got away?
What horrible memories does Dudley relive when the dementors attack? (Or is he jut so spoiled and so used to the normal world that he can't deal? I really think there's something deeper here, though.)
How trustworthy is Mundungus Fletcher, really? (He tried to hex Arthur Weasley, a fellow member of the Order, in Chamber of Secrets.)
Is the prophecy really about Harry?
Will Harry survive the final battle with Voldemort?
What happened to Umbridge after OotP?
Did she ever get into trouble for sending the dementors after Harry?
What death did Hagrid see to allow him to see thestrals?
And was it his idea for them to pull the carriages, or have they been doing it for ages?
Also, does the "seeing death" thing count as seeing an animal die, or does it have to be a person? What about a magical creature like a centaur (who would probably kill you if you called him an animal) or a house elf?
How did Dumbledore rescue Umbridge from the centaurs?
How does Trelawney feel about sharing her job with Firenze?
Will Percy ever reconcile with the rest of the Weasleys?
Is there more to the story of the last time the Sorting Hat gave a warning in its song?
How do death and the afterlife work in the wizarding world? Nearly Headless Nick implies some interesting stuff...
Why can only wizards return as ghosts?
Is it in any way significant that Harry's Lumos spell worked when the wand was out of his hand?
Why is Dumbledore so sure that the parents of the boy in the prophecy had to be in the Order?
Who overheard the first bit of the prophecy at the Hog's Head?
Who threw that guy out?
Why have we never heard before now that the barman was Dumbledore's brother?
Corrections and additions from (so far)
jenavira, muffinmonster, scottiegirlc, g_shadowslayer, and notthatjaded, who contributed the most recent theastrals questions.I thought of a bunch of other ones, mostly for GoF and OotP, and like an idiot I didn't write them down. I keep flipping through random notebooks, hoping to find them, but I think it's hopeless.
Help?
Re: Not really an answer, but I need help...
Date: 2004-06-20 02:10 pm (UTC)Re: Not really an answer, but I need help...
Date: 2004-06-29 01:16 pm (UTC)I flipped over my copy of Order of the Phoenix, and I have determined by looking at the cover art that the magical eye is most likely the right.
*faceplams* I'm such a dork.
Re: Not really an answer, but I need help...
Date: 2004-06-29 01:18 pm (UTC)Re: Not really an answer, but I need help...
Date: 2004-06-29 01:20 pm (UTC)I actually thought of it a couple days ago, but it's taken me that long to walk across the room and pick up the book. I'm terminally lazy.
You're welcome. :)