Errors in the Harry Potter books

The **errors in the Harry Potter books** will be noted chapter to chapter if they have or had a mistake.

## Philosopher's Stone

### The Boy Who Lived

* Voldemort was defeated on the night of 31 October. The next day, the wizarding world celebrated and that evening, near midnight, Harry Potter was brought to Privet Drive by Rubeus Hagrid. However, Hagrid says he only just picked Harry up from the ruins of Godric's Hollow in time when the Muggle neighbours arrived. One day is missing for Hagrid and Harry.
* Dumbledore says he travelled through twelve parties on the way to Privet Drive, but then he just Apparates when he leaves Privet Drive. It's unknown why Dumbledore never just Apparated to Privet Drive in the first place.
	+ He could be worried about Death Eaters now on the run following him to Privet Drive, and thought the best thing to do was shake them off was by going from place to place.

### The Vanishing Glass

* The Boa constrictor at the zoo that Harry spoke to winked at him, but snakes do not have eyelids meaning it's impossible for them to wink.

### The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

* Petunia, Vernon and Dudley Dursley looked shocked when they found out that Harry needed to be at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, a place only in the wizarding world. However, Petunia should know about it because she went with Lily once in *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, unless she was feigning her lack of knowledge to Vernon.

### The Midnight Duel

* The book says that the Gryffindor Quidditch team had failed to win a championship "since Charlie left". However, that would imply that the school had played at least one championship since he graduated. Charlie would need to have graduated two years earlier in order for a year to pass in which Gryffindor never won. However, Charlie only graduated about two months ago.

### Hallowe'en

* It made no sense why the Headteacher would send the students back to their common room when he found out a troll was in school. The whole school was in the Great Hall and it would be safer for them to stay and have the teachers doing a roll-call instead of them wandering around. And, he was told that the troll was in the dungeons which was the exact location of the Slytherin common room, which meant the Slytherins would be sent to the same exact place of troll and be put in danger.

## Chamber of Secrets

### Cover

* The original Bloomsbury cover of the book portrays Hedwig as a barn owl, but Hedwig was a snowy owl.

### Dobby's Warning

* Petunia should have known that underage witches and wizards should not be using magic when away from school because she would have known Lily couldn't when she attended Hogwarts.

### The Writing on the Wall

* Hermione says Myrtle Warren's bathroom was on the first floor but when Harry found the writing on the wall next to it, he was on the second floor. It's also unknown why Myrtle would never have noticed Ginny in the room, or the pipe door opening or the Basilisk at any point in the school year.

### The Duelling Club

* Whenever anyone speaks Parseltongue, the people who cannot speak it will hear hissing instead. However, whenever Harry hears the Basilisk loud enough to make out what it's saying, Gilderoy Lockhart, Hermione and Ron never hear any hissing and neither does anyone else in the school ever.

### Cornelius Fudge

* When the whole school was at the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, the teachers tell them another student was Petrified by the Basilisk and they needed to head back to their common rooms for their own safety, while the teachers checked the school was now safe. However, since Basilisk cannot get to them if they stay outside, it would have been better to keep them outside while they check the school. By sending them back to the school, they could be in danger until they find the common room.

## Prisoner of Azkaban

### Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

* The sacrificial protection will be broken if Harry leaves the home of the person who willingly took him in, and had no intention of ever coming back. Harry leaves Privet Drive having decided he was never going back and didn't accept going back until June next year (and even then he held out hope of going to live with Sirius Black). Technically the bond of blood should have broken when he left.

### The Leaky Cauldron

* One minute, Harry was being served by the manager at Flourish and Blotts who climbed up the ladder to get the book he needed. However, then he's suddenly being served by the assistant without any explanation to why the server changed.

### The Dementor

* Harry, Ron and Hermione found an empty compartment to put their luggage in, which they do. They then go to say goodbye their families, get back on the train and then went looking for a second empty compartment at the end of the train. Then suddenly, Harry went to get a sneakoscope out of the luggage even though that should be in the other compartment.

### Cat, Rat and Dog

* Ron collapsed onto a bed but when Professor Lupin enters the room, Ron was on the floor and Crookshanks on the bed. The only explanation was that Ron was edging closer to Harry in order to protect him from Sirius Black, and moments later he was trying to cling on to Harry, but the book does not imply that Ron was moving and edging closer to Harry.

### The Servant of Lord Voldemort

* It's unknown how the Fidelius Charm actually worked, but it was Dumbledore who performed the spell for James and Lily Potter. He should of perhaps known then, that he made Peter the Secret Keeper and not Sirius, and that Sirius was innocent and he could have advocated for him.

### Owl Post Again

* Fred and George Weasley found out what they achieved in their O.W.L. exams in June, while they were still at Hogwarts. However, in *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Harry's year do not find out their O.W.L. grades until August, unless they changed the way they it worked by then.

## Goblet of Fire

### The Riddle House

* In the American version, Barty Crouch Jnr., Peter and Voldemort speak of one final death (a murder) that needed to be carried out in order to clear the "path to Harry Potter". However, they don't set out to kill anyone by the time they get Harry. Bertha Jorkins had been killed prior to that. Frank Bryce was only killed because he accidentally found them. They had no intention of killing Barty Crouch Snr. until he escaped their control, or of killing Cedric Diggory who was not supposed to be in the graveyard.

### The Scar

* The book says Harry found out he had a godfather only two months ago (meaning June). However, he actually found out about nine months ago in December. It should say that he found out Sirius was innocent two months ago. The same page says he found out Peter was guilty last year, when it was only two months ago.
* Dudley Dursley owned a playstation by the summer of 1994, but the playstation wouldn't be out until December 1994 in Japan and it wouldn't be available in Europe until September 1995. Vernon and Petunia needed to be very rich in order to buy him a prototype, which was very unlikely.

### Back to the Burrow

* Mr Weasley used a pinch of Floo Powder in order for a big group to head back to The Burrow, and it stayed open for long enough for each of them to simply jump in. However, in *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, it says each person needed to put their own pinch down, say the name of the location they want and it would only open for that one person.
* The Ministry of Magic do not know which witch or wizard performs a spell, only the location the spell was performed. They deduced who the witch or wizard was by who lived in the location, their age and whether Muggles saw it. Mr Weasley used magic in front of the Dursley family, but unless the Ministry knew he was going, it would have looked as though it was Harry and he would have been sent a letter telling him off for being underage.
	+ But even if they knew Mr Weasley was going, they would have known Privet Drive had no access for people travelling by Floo Powder.

### Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

* According to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, magic cannot make food, but Mrs Weasley used her wand to make a sauce, with no mention of her summoning the sauce from another object.

### Bagman and Crouch

* Fred and George Weasley made a bet with Ludo Bagman and put the paper with their wages on in a pocket of their robes. However, they couldn't be wearing robes because they had to wear Muggle clothing.
* Bill, Percy and Charlie apparated to the Weasley tent, when everyone else had to find it on a map and wander around until they found it. Bill, Percy and Charlie needed to think of the exact place they wanted to apparate in order to do that. It's unknown how they knew.

### The Quidditch World Cup

* The Quidditch World Cup happened every four years since being invented in 1473. It's now 1994, which the book says was the 422nd one. It's only 521 years since 1437 making it impossible (given the four year gap) for 422 World Cups to have happened every four years in that time.

### Mayhem at the Ministry

* Ron's room was above the attic door, but that implies that Ron's room was in the attic. However, in *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, it was one floor above Ron's room.

### The Four Champions

* The book says Harry was facing champions who were three years above him in wizarding education, but Cedric was only two years above him.

### The Madness of Mr Crouch

* Barty Crouch Snr. says that Barty Crouch Jnr. achieved twelve O.W.L. grades. However, Hermione only managed to take twelve subjects in the third-year with the help of the Time-Turner and even then she was unsuccessful. However, Barty was very confused at the time and was probably wrong.

### Priori Incantatem

* Priori Incantatem was meant to echo the latest spells that a wand had performed in order of newest to oldest. However, it showed Bertha Jorkins and then Lily Potter. The wand never shows two of the spells that Voldemort used in between killing the two women: a Memory Charm on Bertha and a spell needed to turn Hufflepuff's Cup to a Horcrux.

## Order of the Phoenix

### A Peck of Owls

* Underage witches and wizards cannot use their powers at home. Due to the Trace and not being able to know who performed a spell, the Ministry of Magic would know if a spell was performed at 4 Privet Drive and think Harry did it. However, they don't do anything when the Order of the Phoenix performed spells in the house.
	+ The whole point of the Order of the Phoenix collecting Harry by broomstick and not Floo Powder was to stop the Ministry finding out they went to the house. Tonks and Moody both used magic even though Harry was in trouble for using the Patronus Charm earlier, which meant the Ministry would in fact know about it. Fudge was trying to browbeat Harry and he would have brought it up.

### The Hearing

* Cornelius Fudge says the incident with Marjorie Dursley happened three years ago, but it was in fact two years ago.
* At the hearing, Harry was called "the witness" when he should in fact be "the accused".

### The Woes of Mrs Weasley

* Harry says Lupin was sacked from being the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, but he actually willingly gave up the job unless Harry considers it a sacking because people wanted him to leave.
* Mad-Eye Moody knew that a desk contained a Boggart without even looking in the desk.

### In the Hog's Head

* Dennis managed to attend the meeting at the Hog's Head even though he was only in the second year, and should not be allowed in Hogsmeade. The passageway Harry once used was now guarded and Dennis would have no knowledge of them anyway. He could only have went unless he snuck out and took the normal path unnoticed, perhaps with help.

### Dumbledore's Army

* Cho Chang says she and Harry's first game of Quidditch with each other was "in the third year". However, Cho was in the year above him in the fourth year. It was an odd way to put it - Cho should have said in *your* third year.

## Half-Blood Prince

### The Half-Blood Prince

* Katie Bell tells Harry he shouldn't pick the same old faces at the trials for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, even though the same people had been playing every year since Harry began if they still attended Hogwarts.
	+ The only explanations would be that Katie thought it was a wrong approach anyway, she wanted new players or Harry had no knowledge of any objections because he was not Captain and he was kept out of the loop.

### The Secret Riddle

* Tom Riddle's room was described to have only a bed and wardrobe, but then Albus draws up a chair.

### The White Tomb

* Rufus Scrimgeour says one of the Death Eaters was defeated with the Stunning Spell, but he was defeated with the Full Body-Bind Curse by Harry.

## Deathly Hallows

### In Memorium

* Harry says on 27 July that he will be unable to use magic for another four days because of the Trace and underage magic law. But then later that day in chapter four, he used magic to hold up the side-car he was in when it separated from a bike. Then, in the sixth chapter, he says again that the Trace would be broken in four days when days have passed since the Battle of Little Whinging on 27 July (implying two days at least passed), meaning he had only one day until then.

### Seven Potters

* The Ministry of Magic only placed limitations on the use of Floo Powder, Apparition and Portkey on 4 Privet Drive, meaning outside of that boundary, they could have used any one of them to get Harry to the Burrow. It would be a lot easier than the elaborate plan Moody had of making seven people look like Harry and then flying to the Burrow. His plan is very unnecessary when they could have simply taken Harry out of the boundary and simply apparated him to the Burrow (a skills that Harry had gained by then).

### Xenophilius Lovegood

* When they arrived at the Lovegood house, Harry gave Hermione the Cloak of Invisibility and she put it in her bag. However, when they have to run away from Death Eaters, she tells Harry to give her the cloak even though he technically gave it her earlier. He simply hands it to her as if he never gave it to her.

### Shell Cottage

* Shell Cottage had the Fidelius Charm placed on it and Bill Weasley was the Secret Keeper. Due to that, only Bill should have the ability to tell people about the cottage. However, Ron was able to tell Dobby the location of the cottage. Technically Ron (whether he knew about it or not) would not be able to tell anyone the location even if he wanted to.
	+ In addition, if he is able to be the Secret Keeper of his own house/family, it is unknown why James and Lily Potter didn't do the same instead of using a friend.

### The Final Hiding Place

* Harry puts dittany on a wound in the hole of the pants he was wearing, but he had put other pants on by then which should not have a hole in it.
* In a memory, Petunia tugged her hand out of Lily's grasp but then moments later (as if that never happened), the same thing happened again with no implication that Lily grabbed her hand again.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 1