History Headscratchers / HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban

** "Snape's Worst Memory" from OotP showed that after the werewolf prank Lupin continued to be friends with Sirius which probably convinced Snape that Lupin was if not in on the prank from the start, then he certainly didn’t disapprove of it, otherwise Lupin wouldn‘t have continued to hang out with Sirius and broken off their friendship in digust.

Following issues have their {{Headscratchers}}:

[[folder:Keeping the Time Turner]]
* Why didn't Hermione keep her Time Turner after the events in this book? Yes, she promised to take care of it and was responsible for it and all, but given how insanely useful Time Travel is to resolve ANY problem, wouldn't it be a good thing to have in case, you know, the Dark Wizard in service to Lord Voldemort succeeds in resurrecting him and he begins a campaign of terror over Britain and kills the Minister of Magic and institutes a rule of evil pureblood supremacists? I know the possibility of that happening are [[SarcasmMode virtually nil]] but it seems to me like it might have been a useful ace in the hole to keep. And they even have a convenient magical felon to blame on the "missing" or "destroyed" Turner. And if the Ministry DOES happen to have a spell or charm that can let them track each Turner...I will remind you that Hermoine Granger has a time machine.
** She probably realized that it was more trouble than it was worth.
** At this point none of the kids think there's a war on the horizon. They don't learn that until the next book. Hermione probably didn't think she'd be in a situation where it would come in useful. And she did register to have one solely for taking extra classes - so if she's not doing that any more, she'd probably have to hand it back.
** Indeed, why would Hermie think she's likely to be in a situation where a time rewriting device would come in useful? She only had been attacked by a ravaging troll. And then an evil wizard tried to steal a powerful artifact. And then another evil wizard sicked a monster on people, including her, resulting in her spending half a year in a coma. And another evil wizard, and also one of the most powerful people in the country, got royally pissed at her friend. And then an innocent man nearly got executed, except she saved him using a Time Turner, which happened just a day before she realized "that it was more trouble than it was worth". Oh, and another evil wizard escaped justice and was then at large. And holy crap, I didn't even think that she could've said Sirius destroyed it! That's brilliant and instantly eliminates all the problems with the Ministry! Now this is even more glaring than before.
** Well Hermione is a stickler for the rules. And she was only given the Time Turner so she could do the extra classes. She dropped Divination and Muggle Studies because the workload was getting too much for her. So she'd have to tell the teachers she's dropping the classes, which means [=McGonagall=] will know she won't need the Time Turner - and will ask for it back. Hermione probably doesn't have a choice about keeping the Time Turner.
** No, she's not. Should've brought that up much sooner - that excuse holds no water at all and needs to die as much as those stupid pumpkins[[[note]]the ones Macnair smashed with an axe, which somehow proves time travelers cannot change the past, despite that happening because of them changing the past[[/note]] do. She's as much a rule breaker as the others, she's just the only one who feels bad and complains about it. She lies, she disrupts lessons, she steals, she lets her friends cheat on her, she cooks illegal potions, she partakes in after-curfew activities. You cannot tell me that after all that she would've suddenly hit a mind block regarding a device that had just let her save an innocent man from execution. Is everyone just ignoring that last part? Same goes for [=McGonagall=]. The potential usefulness of the Time Turner completely offsets any trickery she'd have to undertake to keep the thing in Hermie's hands, up to doing her homework for her. It's simply a matter of priorities.
** You're missing the point. Hermione didn't want the Time-Turner anymore because time travel was ruining her life. She doesn't want to use time travel anymore because she spent a whole year doing it and it made her miserable. She doesn't want to have to even think about the potential uses of time travel, even if it's not a daily basis for class anymore, because the whole thing has been an enormous headache for her. Saving Sirius was great but going forward she would like to live life like a normal person. Is this a character flaw? Maybe, maybe not. Is it a plothole or a headscratcher? Not really, because this is the explanation Hermione gave us herself.
*** But she didn't have to keep using it for attending extra classes. In fact, she wouldn't be able to. Because the legend would've been that Sirius Black destroyed it. So, obviously they would've kept it safely in DD's office in case of emergency, and she would live life like a normal person but with the knowledge of the massive ace in the sleeve they have.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Time-travel and multiple Harrys]]
* During their little time-traveling escapade, Harry wants to strike preemptively and confront his past self and his friends, in order to keep Pettigrew-as-Scabbers from escaping before he even has a chance to. Hermione stops him by asking what ''he'' would think if an identical copy of himself burst into Hagrid's cabin, and Harry says that he'd think he'd gone mad. But why would ''that'' be his first reaction? He just drank a potion his previous year that let him flawlessly assume the form of someone else, and the Hermione in Hargid's cabin still has the Time-Tuner, too, so it would occur to her that time travel was a possibility...so why would Harry's first reaction to seeing himself saying things about the future be "I've gone mad, and I'd better kill this identical copy of myself who says he's from the future."?
** And who is most likely to use Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Harry and Hermione? Enemies of course. Harry's first assumption is likely to be that this is an enemy - and he's impulsive enough that he could attack them. If he does then it alters the flow of time so that they never discover Sirius was innocent (as this is before they've gone to the Shrieking Shack).
[[/folder]]

Because of an overabundance of questions revolving around Time-Turners, they have been placed in their own page [[Headscratchers/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkabanTimeTurners here.]]

[[folder:Lupin - richest poor guy ever?]]
* In the first scene with Lupin, we see his battered briefcase which says 'Professor R. J. Lupin' in peeling letters. If he's never been a professor before, the letters of 'Professor' shouldn't be peeling, even if the case and the original name were worn out. How did no one notice that?
** Maybe it was a gift from James and Lily. "Here, mate, you're exceptionally clever, you should go profess things." Or perhaps he was a professor at Muggle schools -- the prejudice against werewolves in Wizarding culture presumably wouldn't extend to Muggle culture. Or maybe his father was a professor and had the same initials.
** I'm pretty sure Lupin says in a later book that he's been tutoring Muggle students, perhaps that was still the case.
** Maybe it was an old briefcase and just the letters were new, but they were the cheap stick-on kind so they were already peeling off.
** Or maybe it just was a new but poor-quality briefcase?
** Or a poor-quality, secondhand ''magic'' briefcase, which changes its lettering to match its owner's name.
** This is my theory. He could have had it for a while, too, and the "Professor" part only appeared now he's a professor, but came in peeling because that's how the magical briefcase thing works.
** [[WildMassGuessing Maybe he possesses a Murphyonic field that eventually causes a state of tidy shabbiness in all the objects around him.]]
** [[WildMassGuessing Or maybe he stole it from some other Professor R. J. Lupin.]]
** Maybe he knows enough transfiguration to change the lettering on an old briefcase.
** More seriously though, he might have been named after a relative, or simply shared the same initials. Maybe the case belonged to a relative.

[[folder:Walking Stick]]

* In the scene where Harry and Lupin are walking in the woods, Lupin suddenly has a walking stick. So is it like a hiking-in-the-woods walking stick, or a lycanthropy-induced-leg-pain walking stick? He might have been limping a bit, but I can't remember. And it seems fairly consistent with the fact his face was all scratched up for about half the movie and then got a bit better: he keeps getting himself injured quite badly and it just goes away without much comment... yeah, I just want to know so I can be sure of how much of a [[TheWoobie woobie]] to consider him.
** In the book, Lupin says that when he became a werewolf without other humans around to attack, he was forced to scratch and bite ''himself'', and he couldn't afford the Wolfsbane potion before Snape started making it for him. Once he has access to the potion as a professor, he has some time for his scratches and other injuries to heal, his injured leg possibly being one of them.

[[folder:Shapeshifting vs. laws of physics... FIGHT!]]
* Just one question about the shapeshifting: where does all the extra flesh go? Law of conservation of mass, after all.
** You're expecting magic to conform to the laws of physics?
** Looking for logic in a man transforming into a rat, or any element in a fantasy novel for that matter, is kind of a moot point. Hell, in this universe the common thirteen year-old can turn teacups into turtles, i.e. give life to inanimate objects.
** Yeah, InAWorld of flying broomsticks, teleporting people, and all that, a person shrinking down to a rat didn't fuss me that much. The only thing that bothered me was that in the movie, Peter Pettigrew came back in clothing, and when he turned back into a rat, the clothes didn't go with him. If they're gonna do something like that, they can at least be consistent about it.
** No, I'm fairly sure he had clothes in the book.[[note]]It is a children's book, and you don't generally offer kiddies the mental image of a middle-aged man running around nude.[[/note]]
** A theory in book 2 or 3 of the ''Literature/StarTrekMillennium'' posits that shape-shifter shifts the extra mass into another dimension via using it to create four dimensional shapes.
** If it's any use, in the Literature/{{Animorphs}} books, when the kids shapeshift, their extra mass goes into something called "Z-Space" [=IIRC=], and this becomes a minor plot point in one of the books.
** Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality dealt with this before. ** Easy one. AWizardDidIt ([[{{Pun}} literally]])!
** The mass goes where Vanished objects go; into Nothingness, which is to say, everything.
** And the one who deciphered that riddle is the ''Transfiguration professor''. [[FridgeBrilliance Brilliant.]]
* A better question is how Peter Pettigrew was fully clothed (in the movie) when Sirius and Lupin changed him back into a human in the Shrieking Shack. Later when he escapes, he transfigures right out of his clothes and into a rat. So....where did his clothes come from? We don't see Sirius transfigure so we don't know what happens to his clothes, but he, too, is fully clothed when he changes back into a human. It is especially frustrating with Peter Pettigrew, because his clothes are clearly shown to not be attached to him anymore in any way shape or form, but he will presumably have them again when he returns to human form.
** "We don't see Sirius transfigure": this has been bothering me for years. Why?
** Seeing how Prof. [=McGonagall=] also transformed together with her clothes, it appears that Pettigrews turning into a rat and leaving clothes behind was just a movie blunder.
** I'd rather think that when a wizard animagi transform into an animal, the clothes they're wearing transform along with the rest of his/her body.
** Especially since both [=McGonagall=]'s and Rita Skeeter's animal forms directly incorporate the look of their eyeglasses into their facial markings.
** Possibly the Animagus effect gives you the option to bring clothes along into your animal form, but Pettigrew opted not to do so in that instance because his wrists were chained to two other characters. Leaving the clothes behind him meant he also left the shackles behind.

[[folder:The psychic shopkeeper]]
* In the book, when Harry went into Flourish and Blotts for his school books, why did the manager assume he needed a "Monster Book of Monsters"? He never even said that he was taking Care of Magical Creatures.
** First, Harry was… not a bit small for his age. He was a bit scrawny. It's just that Creator/DanielRadcliffe happened to be small, but that's one of the small ways in which he differs from Book!Harry's physical appearance. Either way, Flourish (or was it Blotts?), being a wizard, presumably knows Harry Potter by sight, and remembers press-articles the year prior referring to him as a Second-Year, or perhaps even a small article in First-Year about Harry Potter finally coming to Hogwarts; so it wouldn't be hard to figure out Harry was in Third-Year. Not sure about how he knew Harry took [=CoMC=]; perhaps he just guessed ([[WildMassGuessing he may know Harry is friends with Hagrid through word-of-mouth]], in which case it's a pretty good educated guess to make).
** Maybe, just maybe, because the shopkeeper recognized Harry "The Vanquisher of Voldemort" Potter? But I might be wrong there.
** Care of Magical Creatures is one the core classes, like all the other classes started 1st year. Students can't drop core classes like Charms and Magical Creatures until after [=OWLs=]. It's the electives they start taking in 3rd year, like Divination, that they can drop early. (Because they don't have to take them in the first place.)
** No, Care of Magical Creatures was an elective, and they only started it in 3rd year. Harry and Ron picked Care of Magical Creatures and Divination because Ron heard they were the easiest to get good marks in.
** Possibly he's thinking, "I've seen that kid in here buying schoolbooks a couple years before, he must be here for the ''Monster Book of Monsters'' and so I will hate him with all my might." I don't think it's meant to be, "Oh, this clerk must be psychic!", it's just that he's having a bad day.
** Yeah, after all the crap he's been going through with those books, a pessimistic attitude is unsurprising. Probably everyone of student age who walked in the door made him think "I bet they want that book, too."
** While it was an elective, Care of Magical Creatures seems to attract most of the students who attend Hogwarts. As mentioned above, the manager of Flourish and Blotts seemed to just reluctantly accept that he would need the book and got ready to get it. However, if he was psychic, he would have known Harry already had the book.

[[folder:Different Books]]

* Why are people assuming that different years have different books? Perhaps 1st-4th years all use that book.
** Care of Magical Creatures is an elective and 1st/2nd year students only take core classes. However I would guess that anyone taking Hagrids class would need that book and he teaches 3rd-7th years so probably way to many students needed that book.
** I have a better question: why weren't the books strapped right after printing?
** [[IncompetenceInc The same reason]] copies of the ''Invisible Book of Invisibility'' didn't have ID stickers and [[MoneyDearBoy Lockhart's books]] were classified as nonfiction: [[RuleOfFunny Because it's cheaper to not strap them, and any decent mythozoologist will know to stroke the book's spine on the first instant of seeing the book]]. Also, [[WildMassGuessing Flourish and Blott's is a third-party distributor, and the more copies get destroyed after delivery to the shop, the more copies F&B must buy to keep up with student demand]].
** That, or the writer of the book had a mindset similar to [[AdmiringTheAbomination Hagrid]].
** Care of Magical Creatures is not a core class, though. It's started in the third year when students sign up for it. That's why we don't actually meet Professor Kettleburn before Hagrid replaces him in book 3.

[[folder:Drinks]]

* How does Rosmerta, the barmaid from the Three Broomsticks, know what drinks the teachers and Fudge were waiting for in the book? They never order any; they just walk in and sit down, whereupon she starts asking which of the drinks are for which customer.
** Probably, it's not the first time they drink there and she knows their tastes. Besides, is there even a choice? The only beverages ever mentioned are butterbeer and firewhiskey.
** I've just read the section in question, and the teachers don't just walk in and sit down -- it's described from Harry's POV, that from his hiding place under the table, he "watched the teachers' and Fudge's feet move toward the bar, pause, then turn and walk right toward him." In other words, they went up to the bar before they went to sit down -- and during the "pause" described, they must have placed their orders. The actual orders aren't mentioned in so many words because Harry can't hear them from where he's hiding, but that doesn't mean they don't take place.
** Rosmerta might just be one of those bartenders who remembers all of her customers, especially regulars like the teachers probably are.
** If you recall, Rosmerta comes over with a tray and names the drinks first so that whoever ordered it can claim it; she says "small gillywater" and [=McGonagall=] replies "mine". So Rosmerta doesn't know who ordered what or else she wouldn't be asking. So either someone else took the orders and Rosmerta brought them over, or else she just didn't remember who ordered what.

[[folder:BURN THE WITCH!]]
* Right on the first page of the first chapter, we see the topic of Harry's history essay, 'Witch-Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless - discuss', and an extract from his textbook 'A History of Magic'. There are so many things wrong with section this that I'll go point-by-point:
** There were no witch hunts of note in the British Isles in the 14th century [nothing significant, until the 16th]. I could understand the assignment covering continental Europe, but I would somehow expect that part to be mentioned.
** Not if all the Muggle witnesses got their memories erased after seeing someone giggling, unharmed, in the middle of a Flame-Freezing Charmed bonfire, you wouldn't expect it to be.
** When there were witch hunts in the British Isles, witches were seldom burnt [burning being a punishment for treason] - they were hung, or executed by other means; but burning was far more common in Germany, France, Italy, and so forth. Furthermore, in England, it was not uncommon for a condemned witch to be hung and then burned - so bad luck with your Flame-Freezing Charm, there.
** If a person was being executed via burning at the stake, they were burned to death. To a crispy, charocoal-y death. How exactly would protecting oneself from the flames fool the watching crowd when, oh, the victim a) failed to suffocate from the woodsmoke, and b) wasn't getting even a little charred? The only solution that comes to mind is Apparation, which is... hardly subtle.
** I agree with all of these points, and have one more to add. This type of mentality reflects the latent anti-Muggle bias in wizard society as a whole (the kind that doesn't actually end in attempted genocide). The witch-burnings were 'pointless' because the witches themselves were supposedly able to escape being burnt to death. The whole way these attacks are presented in RealLife is as cruel, ultimately hysterical and panic induced murders on other people who were not witches. They are presented in RealLife as being 'tragic' and 'misguided', but the fact that wizards consider them 'pointless' because the witches themselves were able to escape harm detracts from the actual results of the witch-hunt hysteria, which resulted in numerous people being tortured and executed in a variety of horrible ways. [[SarcasmMode But the wizards weren't hurt by it, so it was all pointless]].
** Well, technically, it was. They were trying to kill witches and apparently never succeeded. While also being tragic, misguided, ect. there was no reason for it. Innocents weren't killed along with witches because it wasn't an effective way to kill the witches themselves. The fact that their anti-Muggle slant possibly is why they don't sound sympathetic to the Muggle victims doesn't change the fact that it did not serve its purpose and so was a pointless attempt to wipe out magic.
** There was no reason for it, huh? In real life maybe, but in the Potterverse, seeing how at the end of the XX-th century the few open-minded wizards are struggling to introduce a freaking bill to protect non-wizards (like an endangered species), and also seeing all the nice little pranks wizards play on them, it's not hard to imagine the state of affairs in the Middle Ages. In a nutshell, I wouldn't be surprised if the Black Death and other maladies were, in fact, the work of Dark Wizards. So yeah, I'd say non-wizes had all the reasons they needed to hunt witches.
** On top of everything else, it must be noted that the real-life victims of witch hunts were mainly accused of [[DealWithTheDevil consorting with Satan]] to gain their powers. This is rather different from Potterverse witches, who are born with magic powers and don't seem to interact with deities of any sort. Within the Potterverse, the witch hunts might easily have been misunderstood by wizards as an attempt to eliminate wizardry from the gene pool rather than to punish initially-non-magical individuals for the "crime" of becoming magical. Come to think of it, that very accusation is made against people in Book 7!
** Seeing how dim-witted the wizards of the present are, I wouldn't be surprised if some Middle Age witches did partake in satanic rituals, either expecting a boost of power, or just for the blood orgies.
** It's not like it'd be the worst thing that was going on back then.
** I have a response to the 'there were no witch burnings or hunts in England.' It's been a while since I read the book but does it specify anywhere that the Witch burnings he's writing about are English? I don't know about American schools but UK students learn about history from other cultures all the time, primarily German and French, so it doesn't seem that out of place that he might well be writing about the burning of European witches. Of course, if it specifies English witches then my argument doesn't work...
** For that matter, how can we know there were never any burnings in Britain, if the wizards whom it was tried on survived to cast Obliviate on the perpetrators?
** Witch hunting is a pretty big topic that it's not unreasonable to assume Hogwarts students learn something about it in History of Magic, even if it happened outside Britain. In medieval Europe, especially Germany, witches were burned. The homework could have been about those areas.
** “Seeing how at the end of the XX-th century the very few open-minded wizards are struggling to introduce a freaking bill to protect non-wizards (like an endangered species), and also seeing all the nice little pranks wizards play on them, it's not hard to imagine the state of affairs in the Middle Ages.” It’s interesting how different people may have different interpretations of the same text. I take exactly the opposite from reading the books: hateful anti-muggle wizards were the exception, not the rule, and they were seen negatively by the average wizard in a similar way how we currently see racist people with most wizards been in worst case scenario condescending toward muggles.
** "Pointless" is not mutually exclusive with "tragic", "horrible", etc. It just means that something has no sense, use, or purpose. Someone can die a "pointless death" if they're killed in a freak accident or through their own or others' carelessness, and it's no less a tragedy; "completely pointless", in this context, means more along the lines of the WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife trope, not What Measure Is A Non-Magic?

[[folder:Is the Weasleys' poverty their own fault?]]
* The Weasleys are depicted as lacking money, to the point that they originally sent their youngest son to school with an unsuited wand (that is, possibly defective, as it is said that the unicorn hair is nearly sticking out). So why is it that when they win money, they spend it on a trip instead of something practical? Yeah, it's nice that they got to see one of the older brothers, but he could have easily visited them, since there's only one of him.
** This is part of the reason behind the whole "Weasleys are evil and stealing Harry's money" thing in Fanon. If you have easy access to a large sum of cash, when you get a unexpected windfall, you don't mind spending it on luxuries. But, it was kinda dumb of them.
** Why on earth would they steal what they could freely have? Harry mentions in one book that he'd give them half of the contents of his vault if they'd let him. Fanon is ridiculous sometimes.
** There's no evidence that they didn't use it on things more useful, because just that year, they bought Ron a new wand, which is a necessity. Just because they suddenly got a lot of gold doesn't mean they're going to use it all on brand new products (case in point: Ron's dress robes). And why ''not'' go visit their brother? They needed a break. They're so poor, they probably don't even go out all that often. And that fanon theory about the Weasleys stealing Harry's money is stupid. Harry is always shown wanting to help the Weasleys out, but he knows they'd feel like they're depriving him of his rights.
** This is fairly realistic; a big reason many people remain in poverty after having been born in it is because they are bad at managing their money. Witness all the people in real life who win the lottery and blow it in a blaze of spending glory within a few years at most. In particular, seeing money as something to spend on frivolous luxuries rather than something to save and invest for monetary returns is a common and serious failing.
** As I said above, fanon is using this as evidence for the "Evil Weasleys" things. Little facts like that aren't gonna stop them. Their minds are made up. I never said that it was bad that they visited their brother. Just that given their lack of money, there are smarter things they could have done with it.
** Alternate theory: The Weasleys are good at managing money, they just don't have a lot of it. Molly is a stay at home mother and Arthur's job is not the best paying, yet somehow they are able to raise seven children in what seems to be a fairly nice environment. Yes the children go without luxuries and they make their pennies count by having things like hand-me downs, but the number of times they are described as eating well, and obviously having enough to get by, suggests they are good with their money. They get a windfall and buy their son a new wand, who's to say they don't replenish other much needed items at the same time, and the trip to Egypt is entirely done once they are sure they have enough to get by. The Weasleys aren't poor because of their own choices, they continue to get by because they know exactly how far you can stretch the value of a galleon. When you don't have many galleons coming in, why waste them on robes when you have perfectly good hand-me-down robes, and food is obviously a better purchase for a large family?
** Remember, this was a few months after Ginny was taken to the Chamber of Secrets. That would be traumatizing. I remember hearing somewhere that Bill was her favourite brother, so maybe the Weasleys went on the trip for Ginny's sake.\\
The Weasleys own their own home, managed to keep nine members clothed, fed and schooled, buying supplies for each child each year, had pets, have recreational brooms and did it all with only one person bringing in an income and at a moderately paid job at that. I'd say that's impressive myself.
** Just how expensive is a trip from Britain to Egypt, anyway? Especially if you can go part of the way on broomsticks or via Apparition?
** Pretty expensive, yes even for Wizards. You can't take the risk of Apparating long distances (e.g. continents) unless potentially country by country (and even that might be too dangerous)... all the way over Europe, the Middle East and over the Suez to Egypt? Not a chance. Not even if you crossed the Mediterranean Sea, and especially not with four junior wizards that you'd need to side-along Apparate with. They probably wouldn't get clearance to fly all that way on broomsticks either for fear of being spotted. No, they either used Portkeys or the Floo Network. And either way, whether you make one big jump, or a series of smaller inter-country jumps, that kind of return journey has to cost a pretty penny to set up. Combine that with food, accommodation (Bill can't put all of them up surely?) and Egyptian wizarding tourist activities, and you can see that this trip is financially a big deal.
** A possible idea? Maybe they flew to Egypt? Like on a plane. Arthur loves Muggle things. He might have converted some of the money to pounds so they could get a flight there. That's fanfic potential right there.
** Or maybe the trip didn't take as much as is implied. The Weasley parents went to Romania during Ron’s first year at Hogwarts. I imagine that taking the kids along would cost more but maybe the rest of the money went elsewhere. After all, their daughter did spend a year of being mindraped that she is still recovering from. They announced the trip so that no one would ask about the money since Ginny would probably prefer that the news about it wasn't spread around. Or they could have gone to Egypt simply because it is where the Curse-breaker Weasley is, the one who is the most likely to know something useful out of most people they know that can help her.
** To answer the title question: They had seven children (apparently because Molly was obsessed with having a daughter) when there was only one earner with a low-paying job (mostly due to wizard prejudice), so yes, they are responsible for being poor. That being said, they definitely don't live in poverty - they have a home, regular meals, etc - they are poor in comparison to other wizarding families. In regards to the Egypt trip, it's been pretty well covered above, but just because the trip and Ron's new wand (anything else? I don't remember) were the things mentioned, doesn't mean they didn't have any left over for other stuff, such as savings.
** I read somewhere that one theory as why people tend to blow large winnings after they get them is somewhat logically sound. The theory is as such: poor people are so used to their finances fluctuating around a certain level (i.e. their finances may jump or dip as they get paid/spend money but they stay around a common balance of say 5 galleons). When a big win happens, and someone poor gets a lot of money as disposable income, they view the big win as impermanent, because they're not used to having so much money. So then, they use the money before it disappears on things that they've been meaning to get done but haven't had the money for (such as buying their youngest son a new wand or going to see their oldest son). It may just be an unfortunate reality of living in poverty, and overcoming this mentality may help to get people out of poverty. Who knows?
** There have been actual studies done on the question of "Can money buy you happiness?" The conclusions come down to, once you get past the level of having your basic needs met, stuff can't make you happy, but experiences can. The Weasleys are already well-fed, sheltered, and able to go to school and have a bit of pocket change for candy and jokes. Moving to a fancier home, or buying all their children brand-new wands, robes, and brooms, wouldn't make them happier than having second-hand stuff would. The experience of traveling to Egypt, of seeing the pyramids and eating the food and mixing with the natives, of getting to see their brother and shadow him at work, of spending a holiday all together as a family -- that's one of the wisest choices the Weasleys could have made with their money!

[[folder:That Maddening Marauder's Map]]
* If Hogwarts has 1000+ people in it, how is the Marauders' Map even readable, with all those names floating around on it at once?
** Harry does mention being unable to spot a name once or twice (Draco's in HBP). Besides, the castle is big and Harry usually uses the map to look for teachers at places he's not supposed to be and all that, so it's plausible.
** Harry only doesn't see Draco's name because Draco is in the Room of Requirement, which has magically concealed him.
** Yeah, that's true, but he makes mention of it being hard to be sure because he can't make his name out from the crowds near the Entrance Hall, etc.
** The map works like maps in most computer games. You can zoom in and out and move it around to focus on the part you need to focus on.
** That can't be, because if it could do that, then Harry would have had no doubt at all when he couldn't find Malfoy on the map. Also, bear in mind that when Harry's using the map to get around and avoid people, it's mostly at night, or other times when the corridors are mostly deserted.
** The way I read it was that at first Harry wasn't sure if he was just missing Malfoy on the map because Hogwarts has so many students. And the map is magic. It's never said how big it is when it's unfolded. The film does show there being several levels to represent the different floors of Hogwarts.

[[folder:Operating the Map]]

* How did Fred and George know how to operate the Marauders Map? If you need the specific phrase "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" to turn it on and "Mischief Managed" to switch it off, how did they find out what the phrases were? The only theories I can come up with are 1) They tried as many different passwords as possible until they got the right ones, or 2) The map realised that the twins were mischief makers on par with its creators, and that they were deserving of knowing the passwords.
** In fact, those are both WordOfGod (more or less), from [[http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-3.htm this interview]]. So there you go!
** Basically, they spent a long period of time trying different phrases at random, and the closer they got to being correct, the more the map would reveal itself.
** It could also be that "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" isn't the exact phrase needed, but it's close enough to use the map. It's unrelated, but it reminds me of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', when the Gizmoduck suit was activated by shouting "Blathering Blatherskite!" The actual password was just the second word, but the guy who wore the suit didn't know that.
** Also, Snape was able to make the map appear by simply saying "Reveal your secrets," so it may respond to several different phrases.
*** No, Snape said "Professor Severus Snape commands you to reveal your secrets" and it proceeded to insult him, not show the map. Knowing the Marauders, they probably put a charm on there to insult Snape if he ever got ahold of it.
** Once the twins started playing with it, trying to figure out what it did and how it worked, the spirits of the Marauders probably realized that they were worthy wielders of the map and helped them along. Then once they were in, the Marauders could share their tips, like "Mischief managed!"
** Even if you accept that the Map saw kindred spirits in the persons of Fred and George and revealed itself to them, that does not explain why Filch was holding on to a blank piece of parchment for who knows how many years (17 years or so since the Marauders graduated, but maybe the Map passed through other hands) or why Fred and George stole a blank piece of parchment in the first place.
*** Filch confiscated the map from the Marauders in their final year, and neither of them were able to steal it back because Filch was, at the time, well-prepared and extremely suspiscious. Over time, Filch just left the map where it was, and most likely forgot about it. Since ''Hogwarts Mystery'' states that, at some point by 1988, the map had been stolen, but was later returned either in the 1988-1989 or 1989-1990 school year, it is possible the map had, prior to Fred and George, been repeatedly stolen from and later reconfiscated by Filch. Then, during Fred and George's first year, they were dragged into Filch's office, saw the drawer where the map was kept, and stole it for what is, evidently, the final time.
*** None of this explains why Filch confiscated a blank piece of parchment, or why he had it sitting on his desk for years.

[[folder:The Worst Protection Plan Ever?]]
* Let's recap the Marauders' plan for Potters' protection, shall we? They announce that Sirius is going to be the Keeper, but then secretly swap him for Pettigrew with the reasoning that the cowardly Wormtail is the last person the Death Eaters would suspect of being the Keeper. Thus V's conjectural spy in their midst will be misinformed, the DE'll waste time chasing the wrong guy, and if they get him, they can't make him break the Charm. A sound plan, isn't it? No, it's downright stupid, because SIRIUS STILL KNOWS WHO THE REAL KEEPER IS. Their master plan's only gain was that instead of two stages: "capture Sirius - kill Potters", V'd have to complete three: "capture Sirius - capture Pettigrew - kill Potters". The plan would make sense if, for example, somebody erased knowledge of Pete's involvement from Sirius' mind, ''Franchise/CodeGeass''-style, or if Sirius scrammed to Australia.
** Maybe he WAS planning to scram abroad, but the Potters were killed too soon after the event. Also, Sirius has said he would rather die than betray his friends; presumably, even if tortured, or threatened with death, he would not have given up the location of Pettigrew, or the fact that he was the real Secret Keeper. So it was supposed to be at least as safe as the original plan - they still had to find and break Sirius, but then they had to do the same with Wormtail.
** As they say: "The only safe way to preserve the secret - is not to know it." Information extraction techniques are not limited to torture and death threats - there are also Veretaserum, Legilimency (which V is VERY potent in), and the Imperius Curse, and even though they can be resisted in theory, you can't guarantee that you'll manage to. And let's not forget about the "nauseatingly endless possibilities" of [[ForcedToWatch torture by proxy]]. My point is that there was a gaping flaw in the plan which could be easily avoided if they'd just erased the information from Sirius's mind.
** According to [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Fidelius_Charm#Revealing_the_secret this]], those methods wouldn't work: "Additionally, it appears as if the disclosure must be voluntary (as evidenced by the fact that no dark wizard is ever seen attempting to coerce the disclosure by means of Veritaserum, Legilimency or the Imperius Curse)."
** Going with the whole Secret Keeper train of thought. It says in the book that at one point, Dumbledore offered to be the Potters' Secret Keeper. Why in the world did they not take him up on it?!?!?! Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and it was well-known that Voldemort wouldn't dare to cross him. Sounds like an ideal Secret Keeper to me.
** [[WildMassGuessing Evil Dumbledore...?]]
** Somewhere at that point, Sirius had a major break out with his mother and was disowned. Perhaps James wanted to cheer him up by showing such deep trust.
** They may have thought that Sirius and Wormtail, being unknown Animagi, would be easier to hide in plain sight.
** Also, Dumbledore was probably second only to Harry on Voldemort's "People To Kill" list. He may have feared him, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't trying to get rid of him. While Dumbledore's plan ultimately won out in the end, Voldemort did legitimately [[OutGambitted Out Gambit]] him a few times over the course of the series and they seemed to be pretty evenly matched during their duel in ''Order of the Phoenix''. It wouldn't be unreasonable for the Potters to think Dumbledore could be captured or killed and that they would be safer going with someone (they thought) Voldemort wasn't likely to know about or suspect like Pettigrew.
** It was mentioned in the Three Broomsticks that Sirius planned to go into hiding himself. Maybe he was going to do whatever it was he was planning to do on November 1, figuring that Voldemort wouldn't have caught up with him yet. Didn't he imply that Peter ran straight to Voldemort, meaning that the charm hadn't been in place for long?
** Hiding from somebody who can irreversibly curse a frigging school position, expose and strip of wards anyone who mentions his name, and track his quarry across several countries, seems a rather shaky idea to me. Unless it is possible to provide the same level of security as the Fidelius Charm does, but without third person involvement (otherwise it's just TurtlesAllTheWayDown). But in that case, they should've just used that method for the Potters themselves.
** He only gained the power to remove protections any time his name was spoken after he took over the Ministry in DH.
** He only ''used'' that power afterwards. It doesn't mean he didn't have it, maybe he just didn't see the point of using it - he already knew where Harry was, but the wards in his home and in Hogwarts could've been impervious to the spell.
** They wouldn't exactly be planning on having either of their friends get caught. But even so, it still adds protection in the form of time if nothing else, as well as giving them more warning. If Sirius was the SK, and was in hiding, they might not know he'd been captured till Voldy came knocking. This way, if they suspect something may have happened to Sirius, they can double down the protection on Peter, and if he vanishes too, they know to get the hell out of Dodge ASAP.
** It seems that a lot of the topics on this page come from people expecting others to think and behave rationally in dire situations. "James, Lily, guess what? The most dangerous, evil, murderous wizard in the world has just decided that [[WouldHurtAChild your infant son has to die]]. Alright, now, if you'll just stop screaming and crying for a couple seconds, we can come up with a plan to make sure [[NightmareFuel your baby boy isn't horribly murdered among your own fresh corpses]]."
** Yeah, something like that. That is if you firmly insist that two brilliant wizards and relatively battle-hardened veterans, who'd already escaped death by V's hands thrice, would pee their pants at the news that he might, *gasp*, try it for the fourth time.
** Voldemort wasn't out to kill them a fourth time, he was aiming for their baby. That'll panic quite a few parents, I'd guess.
** If dropped upon them unexpectedly, yes. But they knew Voldemort would be coming, they just didn't know when. This is a situation in which experienced fighters would come up with something called a 'contingency plan' and rehearse it. "OK, if Voldemort somehow breaks the Fidelius and boots the front door, I'll chokepoint here while you grab Harry and the escape portkey there, and..."
** Dumbledore is Headmaster of Hogwarts. Meaning that Voldemort automatically knows where he always is - except during the summer holidays. Sirius and Peter - both unregistered Animagi at that - could be anywhere and can go into hiding much easier.

[[folder:Hiding in Hogwarts]]

* Why the hell didn't they just hide Harry in Hogwarts? You know, the only place that Voldemort didn't have access to even on the brink of his victory? And before you start saying about how it's unfair to other kids, other kids are not explicitly on V's "to kill" list, and neither they are prophesied to defeat him.
** It's unfair to the other kids because it makes them targets for collateral damage or hostage situations.
** Care to elaborate?
** Not the troper who originally answered, but if Voldemort's after Harry, he obviously wouldn't mind gathering all of his followers (keep in mind, he had quite an army back in the day) and [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs storming the castle]]. Which puts everyone in Hogwarts in danger. Particularly students who can't duel.
** Seeing how Hogwarts is the domain of his arch-nemesis Dumbledore, not to mention a place of great magical power, I guess he'd want to do it anyway at some point. On the other hand, it was said that even on top of his power V feared Dumbledore. So no, I don't think it'd make much difference.
** Basic strategy, "If you can see it, you can kill it." If an opposing force has sufficient power (which Voldy did back then) and knows where your assets are, it can destroy them. Your best chance is to make sure the enemy can't find your assets.
** And y'all seem to forget that the Fidelius Charm ''worked''. Their plan was working fine up until Peter made an unknown FaceHeelTurn.

[[folder:Fidelius Charm, Peter]]

* Consider the Fidelius charm: It hides a secret (in this case, a location) to all except those who know the secret. Only the Secret Keeper can tell others the secret. How on earth did Dumbledore (and possibly others, including Hagrid) not know Peter was the Secret Keeper? Peter had to, at some point, tell them where the Potters lived, or else they wouldn't have been able to show up immediately and pick up baby Harry.
** My only guess is that the Fidelius Charm can be prepared beforehand. Like, Dumbledore does the spell and then he tells the Potters that they can indicate the Secret Keeper by pointing at him with their wands or something. That's the only way he wouldn't have been present when Sirius convinced the Potters to make Wormtail the keeper.
** Maybe because two of the spell casters had just died?
** Or Peter (very sensibly) dismissed the charm altogether after his run-in with Sirius, to prevent Sirius from proving his innocence by saying "The Potters' house is right there! Whoops, it didn't appear, did it?" and spoiling Pettigrew's frame-up.
** It was stated that Peter was not always the Secret Keeper, as Sirius noted he suggested the "switch". Rather, Sirius was at first, and most likely gave the location to those who knew in order to enforce the lie (remember, it was implied that they knew there was a spy in the Order). Then Peter was swapped in as the "real" Secret Keeper while Sirius was made a decoy. This does not excuse, however, making the real deal the cowardly Peter instead of the powerful and well protected Dumbledore.
*** This is what makes the most sense, since it’s the only explanation that accounts for the year+ delay in setting up the Fidelius Charm in the first place. Trelawney’s prophecy happened in early summer 1980. Harry and Neville were born that same year, at the end of July. The Potters died on Halloween 1981 and it’s stated that Peter ran to Voldemort as soon as he was made Secret Keeper. That means that either the Potters chose to risk it for over a year, before setting the Charm up, or they set it up as soon as Dumbledore told them about the prophecy and Sirius was Secret Keeper for over a year before proposing the switch.
*** You know, if Peter hadn't been a {{dirty coward}}, making him the Secret Keeper would have been a sweet, SugarWiki/{{heartwarming moment|s}}. Can't you just hear James giving his friend encouragement? "Listen, Peter, I know we've never been really close. I know everyone says you're a coward. But you've always been behind my back, all throughout Hogwarts. We wouldn't be the Marauders without you. I want to make you the Secret Keeper. I believe you can be brave enough, and I trust you." Like I said, sucks that he was a traitor.
** Regarding how people couldn't have known Peter was the Keeper, remember how Harry found Grimmauld Place? He just had to read a note from Dumbledore telling the location. So if anyone found out about the location after Peter was made Keeper, they didn't have to be told in person. And the charm itself works to conceal something as long as the Secret Keeper keeps their mouth shut. Lily and James themselves (and presumably Harry too) were being concealed. In the case of Grimmauld Place, the house itself was what was being concealed. Logically Peter or Sirius could have stayed in the house. BUT - they were both still Order members (as were Lily and James) and were taking part in the war. It's also suspicious if Sirius goes into hiding as well. The Secret Keeper could have been any one of the Order members. Turning Sirius into a definite RedHerring still risks his cover being blown.

[[folder:Fidelius Charm, Harry]]

* Why not make Harry the Secret Keeper? If they manage to get a hold of him the charm's already failed, also it's not like he's going to be leaving the house. Why doesn't James just make his wife the Secret Keeper or vice-versa? I never understood why the secret isn't kept within the soul of the person you're trying to protect.
** I always thought that the Fidelius Charm required one to put ''trust'' (hence the name) in a person outside of the place one dwells. That is, a person can't become Secret Keeper of a place they live in. Why? I don't know, maybe that's just the way the charm works. [[AWizardDidIt It's magic after all.]]
** Well, that would make a perfect and rather poetic sense, but for the fact, that ''it's exactly what they did in Book 7''. No excuses, no explanations, just an off-handed remark, that yeah, a resident of the house under FF is the Keeper, and no stunned realization and the following "Well, why the hell didn't my parents do the same?!!!" from Harry.
** You're mistaken, can you tell me where in DH it says that?
** The house where they stayed after escaping from the Malfoy Manor. Bill Weasley was the Keeper, and he lived there. The same with the house of aunt Muriel and Arthur as the Keeper.
** I could be wrong but I thought Bill was the Secret Keeper for Arthur and vice versa.
** Nope.
** It would be incredibly stupid to make Harry the Secret Keeper as a baby would be unable to tell anyone anything. He wouldn't even be able to tell his parents so, assuming they were even inside the building at the time, if they ever went out for any reason they wouldn't be able to get back in. Plus, it's likely that the Secret Keeper has to understand the secret to be able to keep it.
** Which is why in the following sentence it was suggested that Lily or James could be a Keeper.
** But the charm was placed on Lily and James, not the house they lived in. You can't be Secret Keeper for yourself, because you'd tell everyone about yourself by simply ''being'' somewhere. That doesn't forgive the fact that James could have been Keeper for Lily and Lily for James, then One of them be keeper for Harry.
** So you mean that since James and Lily are the subject of the secret, they will not be sensed in anyway by those not in the secret; and they could be walking around the town without being found by the Death Eaters? Then that brings the question why Sirius didn't get the Order to put Fidelius Charm on himself to escape the Ministry rather than hiding in foreign places?
** Harry couldn't be the Secret Keeper because he wouldn't be able to give anyone the secret - as he couldn't speak or write yet. And it looks like the Secret Keeper themselves has to cast the spell - which again a baby can't do. And Lily or James being the Secret Keeper for themselves is an oxymoron; they can't tell anyone about the secret because people can't see them unless they've been given the secret.
** The charm was placed on the house. They wanted to prevent Voldy from finding the Potter house, not the Potters themselves. It was even stated in Lily's letter that James couldn't leave his house because Dumbledore had his invisibility cloak.
** In Deathly Hallows, where The Trio wound up being Secret Keepers for Grimmauld Place due to Dumbledore's death, they had to precisely apparate onto the top step outside or they would reveal its existence to the Death Eaters stationed outside, and then Hermione accidentally takes Yaxley along and they have to flee. Since the Potters presumably intended to go out from time to time, they didn't want to risk that. (And sure, Peter could be followed too, but he's not going to the Potters' house as often as they are.) But Bill wasn't going anywhere except other magically protected houses like The Burrow, since he had to go into hiding after Ron was spotted by the Snatchers. Same with the other Weasleys. If one of them were spotted outside by Death Eaters, they'd be captured or killed on the spot, not followed home.

[[folder:Surprises at the Shrieking Shack]]
* Apologies if this has already been discussed, but towards the end of the third book, Sirius, Lupin, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Pettigrew, and (unconscious) Snape leave the Shrieking Shack. It is well past nightfall -- we see this both when they leave and later, when Harry and Hermione revisit the scene. Moonrise has come and the night is upon them. And yet Lupin has not transformed! He only does so when the moon comes out from behind a cloud. We've seen on other occasions that he transforms during the full moon regardless of whether or not he is directly in the moonlight -- otherwise, how would he transform in the Shack when he was a kid? Being a werewolf wouldn't even matter if he could just stick it out indoors. So... why does the position of a few clouds suddenly matter? (Other than [[{{RuleofDrama}} the obvious answer]].)
** Perhaps he would've transformed anyway later, and the direct moonlight only accelerated the process.
** I've always said that if I ever get bitten by a werewolf, then I'm going to invest in a wide-brimmed hat and wear it every night. This book is by no means the first (or last) time that looking at the full moon as it passed from behind a cloud is when the transformation hits. I'm starting to think that's the real trigger, and the only thing that causes werewolves to transform is a lack of proper planning and foresight.
** Did J.K.R. ever say "naked"?
** Uhm, hello? ''He transformed inside the Shack''.
** He'd have transformed that night, no matter where he was. The moon peeking out from the clouds was just a visual aid for the audience, to remind everyone of his lycanthropy and give the fans an OhCrap moment, just before the fangs and fur start sprouting ... that, and a ShoutOut to classic horror movies that used the same gimmick.
** Unless I'm mistaken, these events happen in June. At some parts of Britain and Ireland, it can still be light close to eleven o'clock in the evening during the summer. So the moon could only just have properly risen. And they go down to visit Hagrid at around seven, and wake up in the Hospital Wing close to ten (three turns sends Hermione and Harry back to seven). So plausibly the moon could only be just rising.
** The moon rises and sets at the same times, regardless of whether it's still light out or not. Don't tell me you've ''never'' seen the moon in the sky during the day? It seems to require both a full moon ''and'' nighttime in order for most werewolves to transform. So what are the definitions of "full moon" and "night"? There is some exact moment when the moon is the most full, and then there's time on either side when it's practically full. Is it "full" when it's 99% illuminated? 99.9%? 98%? Or is the transformation triggered at the moment of brightest illumination, and then it lasts until sunrise? At what point is it "night" enough for transformation? At what point is it "morning" enough for the transformation to end? Astronomical twilight? Nautical twilight? Civil twilight? There are enough fudge factors and potential wrinkles for the author or director to put the transformation at whatever moment suits the story best. As long as she sticks to the same rules from then on, or at least doesn't directly contradict precedent, she's good. The clouds were just a coincidence.
*** Just to point out, it's not possible for a full moon to happen at any time except after nightfall. If the sun and Moon are in the sky at the same time, that means some of the sunlight being reflected off the moon won't be visible from Earth, since the two bodies are adjacent to each other when compared to the sun in this instance.

[[folder:Stunning Lupin]]

* Couldn't they just, you know, stun or petrify Lupin? I don't recall anybody saying werewolves were invincible to magic. Grayback was hexed quite a lot in the later books. Didn't it occur to somebody to petrify Lupin every time he was about to transform?
** I would assume they were resistant to most spells when transformed, if not completely immune. They probably wouldn't be considered so dangerous otherwise.
** Who said they were considered especially dangerous, other than the viral part? They were shunned by the society, sure, but then the magical society consists mostly of clueless and/or racist assholes, so it's not surprising. Also, there are indirect spells, like the ones that conjure ropes or manacles, like the one they'd used a few seconds ago on Pettegrew.
** That'd be rather painful, wouldn't it, being Stunned/petrified again and again?
** First, "again and again" was just once a month; second, where did it say that either of those was painful at all; third, being locked in a room in wolf morph was already extremely painful; finally, we're talking juvenile security here. And anyway, my prime question is, why didn't the Trio and/or Sirius stun him after they left the Shack.
** The trio didn't learn to stun until the next book; it's my belief that JKR didn't even ''invent'' Stupefy until the next book. As for Sirius, he and the other Marauders never stunned Remus before, they always transformed to keep him company. That was the point of them becoming Animagi in the first place. And when describing his past, Remus says that when they had adventures exploring Hogsmeade during the full moon, "there were near misses, many of them." This implies that Padfoot and Prongs had to hold Moony back from attacking people before. Sirius probably figured that doing what he had always done would still work. The only problem was that he hadn't had a decent meal in twelve years and James wasn't around to help him out this time.
** The kids did learn Petrificus Totalus in their first year.
** Casting Petrificus Totalus on a stubborn 11-year-old is a different story from casting it on a slavering werewolf who's gunning for you.
** Let's see: you point the wand at it, you say the words, it's petrified. Frankly, I don't see the difference. Especially if you do it while it's busy transforming.
** He means that the kids might have gotten flustered in the face of transforming werewolf and thus not been able to concentrate on casting effectively. While this is true, it overlooks that Sirius is also there, and he is a combat-experienced certified badass who spent years mixing it up with Death Eaters back at the height of the first war against Voldemort and also has spent years and years of time helping Remus with his transformations and so shouldn't be remotely panicking at 'werewolf!' at all, because he's used to this. Which means he's clutching an IdiotBall in trying to wrestle Remus in wolf form (when the werewolf is larger and stronger than his grim form) instead of just taking that wand and going 'stupefy stupefy stupefy incarcerous ok let's run before he gets back up'.
** Are you sure that making someone unable to move while their body is deforming and growing in size is a good idea? I always assumed that Petrificus Totalus worked by paralyzing the target's muscles, and if those muscles are trying to deform into an entirely different creature... it just sounds liable to cause serious injury. I don't think that Sirius or the Trio would be willing to risk it. The point for stunning him AFTER the transformation still stands, though.
** Conjure shackles, like the ones Lupin put on Pettigrew earlier, or a sturdy net, just to keep Remus from lunging at them immediately after morphing. When he's done, petrify him. And before somebody starts crying "hindsight" or "[[BuffySpeak you-want-the-characters-to-be-perfect-fallacy]]", please consider, that this is by no means the first time they encounter such situation, and what I suggest is NOT rocket science, but something that took me five minutes to come up with. They had ''years'' to think of the solution.
** Maybe at first they forgot he hadn't taken the potion. He still transforms but he's harmless. So when he starts they assume there's nothing to worry about, then they go OhCrap.
** Snape had told them about the potion just a few minutes prior.

[[folder:Reviving Snape]]

* At the Shrieking Shack, before the group leaves, Lupin comments that it would be best to revive Snape later. But there's no reason for this. They could have revived Snape right then. He would have been angry, but he wouldn't have had a wand and would immediately see Pettigrew and would know immediately that Sirius and Lupin were telling the truth. The only counter to this argument is that they didn't expect Lupin to transform and Pettigrew to escape, but it still seems like a good idea to have a witness who isn't a convicted murderer or a werewolf.
** It's called "bounded rationality". People are not always able (or willing) to think straight. When you meet your old friend who escaped from prison and turned out to be innocent, you kind of forget about other things.
** No, it's called "contrived plot device", aka IdiotBall. For the whole duration of the scene in the Shack, Lupin seems cool-headed and composed, he doesn't look agitated or absent-minded AT ALL. I can buy that he forgot all about the potion, when he saw Pettigrew's name and it became irrelevant, but his decision to keep Snape unconscious (remember, he didn't just forget - he ''said'' that they shouldn't wake him up) indeed makes no sense.
** They knocked him out for a reason: He was holding them at wand point raving about how cool it would be to feed Sirius to the Dementors and how everyone else should just shut the hell up. In other words, he was being dangerous and unreasonable. If they'd woken him up there, then he would have been on them immediately doing the same thing again. If they'd have gotten to the castle and woken him up there, then they would be able to safely explain the situation to him after Sirius had his name cleared.
** How exactly would he have been able to do "the same thing again", when he was tied up and wandless?
** All he needs to do is shout for help once they're on the school grounds and bring people (maybe even Dementors) running. Just use a silencing charm, you say? So he's immobile AND silenced by magic now... which is different from being unconscious how? Looking at the situation WITHOUT hindsight (in other words, not knowing for a fact that things go to hell in a handbasket), why WOULD they care if he sees Peter an hour earlier than he would once they all reached the castle?
** He wouldn't need to shout because having seen Pettigrew he'd have no choice but to admit that Sirius was innocent. Thus they'd only need to keep him tied up only until that. As for why they'd want to do this, please consider this. A convicted mass murderer is entering Hogwarts with an unconscious tied up Potion master in his tow...I'd give him about ten meters in until the first staff member they encounter casts something nasty (up to AK) on him or just calls the Dementors.
** Not necessarily. With Snape as convinced of Sirius' guilt as everyone else (plus thinking the worst of him regardless), seeing Pettigrew alive would prove nothing to him. He'd likely assume something like that Pettigrew survived on a fluke and subsequently fucked off to the Cayman Islands after realizing all his friends were dead, and only came back to Britain after Sirius' breakout to get revenge.
** 1) Survived what, being vaporized with a naught but a finger remaining?! 2) You forgot the part where after his return he obtained a Time Turner, went back several years and came to live with the Weasleys as a pet rat for some inexplicable reason. 3) Pete ''confessed'' being a traitor.
** Lupin has just found his old friend who he had thought betrayed his best friends but who he now discovers is innocent. Harry is getting to know his godfather, a man who can take him away from his horrible aunt and uncle. He doesn't want Snape ruining it all by being at first accusatory and then snarky.
** Right. On one hand we risk the newly innocent Sirius being killed or fed to Dementors by the first person who sees him strolling into Hogwarts with unconscious Snape in tow. On another we risk Snape being snarky. What a poignant and biting dilemma[[spoiler: this is not!]]
** It's not logical, and 'snarky' is probably the wrong word, more like abusive, possible violent and vicious. And they aren't expecting things to go badly, they are too happy at how everything would work out. In hindsight, I bet they all regret not waking him, but people who have been through a lot of stress, and then suddenly get happy, are not at their most logical.
** Snape was clearly in a position where he was out of his mind with rage and revenge. He wasn't going to listen to anyone else's opinions, regardless of any evidence offered, he'd still stand by his position, regardless of how many logical hoops he had to jump through to ignore anyone else's opinion. Why does this sound familiar....
** Probably because you're describing Harry Potter, not Severus Snape. Petter Pettegrew in the flesh is not an opinion - it's a fact. Besides, (alltogether now) it's not about whether or not it would've worked - it's about heroes not bothering to try when it would've cost them so little.
** Whether it would have worked is directly linked to whether or not they should have tried it. And I was indeed describing Professor Snape, if in addition to Harry, though I'd like to hear a certain scene where Harry acted in such a fashion. There is a tendency among people like Snape, namely, incredibly petty people, (and there's no denying Snape is pretty petty, insofar as he took out his grudge for a man who'd been dead for several years on his son who just happened to look like him,) that they are right and everyone else is wrong, all the time, as evidenced by several of the Headscratchers on these pages themselves, who seem bent on proving that the books are entirely crud, with no leeway for them to be even somewhat decent books that happen to have flaws. To these people, their opinion is correct and nothing, no other evidence or facts will dissuade them. Thus, even if Snape ''had'' seen Wormtail, nothing would have changed- he'd still insist that Sirius was guilty, there would be some reason or another, maybe he'd say Wormtail was fake, maybe he would have followed Wormtail's line of logic that he went into hiding because Sirius would be out to get him- to someone like him, especially in his aforementioned state of being out of his mind with rage and revenge, no logical hoop is too ridiculous to jump through in order to make him right. Bottom line, it's pretty clear that reviving Snape would do them no favors, and it wouldn't take a genius, much less ones like Sirius and Lupin that knew Snape for several years at Hogwarts and (admittedly) are slightly prejudiced against him from the get-go to come to the same conclusion- waking Snape up is bad news. He would immediately jump right back into his 'rage against Sirius' mode and have to be subdued all over again. Why bother when you can just skip that step and have him already subdued? Again, they had no idea what was about to happen.
** Whether or not Snape would have been as rage-crazed as you think (although he did appear fairly controlled in that scene), a) he hated Pettigrew too: it's not unlikely that he could have transferred his "you got Lily killed" hatred onto him, and b) we know that Dumbledore was able to convince him of the truth offscreen: surely seeing Pettigrew would have served as something of a wake-up call.
** Snape had suffered a concussion and fallen unconscious from being disarmed by three people at once. They may not have been able to revive him by magic as they would if he had been Stupefied. Also, Sirius and Lupin didn't care much about Snape's welfare, as evidenced by Sirius letting Snape's head bump repeatedly on the low ceiling without doing anything to prevent it. Snape was upset even before being knocked out, having been stewing for over a decade in the belief that Sirius had turned on his school friends and killed them, reinforced by the fact that Sirius had endangered Snape's own life while they were in school, but there's no reason to believe that Snape wouldn't have accepted hard evidence of Sirius's innocence and Pettigrew's treachery.
*** I feel that first thing you said is quite important; the book makes clear that Snape is ''bleeding'' as a result of being disarmed by three wands at once. You probably wouldn't want to revive someone if there's some injury that has them unconscious for a reason. It's possible they did consider it. Lupin even says that he's not going to try healing Ron's leg when Madame Pomfrey could do a better job of it; I doubt he'd feel comfortable trying to rouse Snape from unconsciousness when he doesn't even know the damage that's been inflicted on him.
** Among the people participating in the little nighttime trek there’s (a) two 12 years olds who despise Snape and believe him to be horribly prejudiced against them and everyone else in the group, (b) a reckless man-child whose long imprisonment did nothing to cure his recklessness and allow him to grow out of his schooldays persona, meaning he still hates Snape’s guts just as much as Snape hates his, (c) a sensible 12 years old and a sensible adult who might have developed a modicum of respect for Snape as a teacher and potion maker, who might in different circumstances consider the benefits of reviving him early, but don’t like him enough to bother thinking about it when the friends they care so much about would presumably oppose the idea. None of them was expecting any more problems in reaching the castle and among the staff the only one who would have attacked the group on sight just because Sirius was within them was Snape himself. Everyone else was either old enough to recognize Peter and work out something major was afoot or sensible enough that Lupin and the kids could reason with them at least as far as summoning Dumbledore.
*** For the record, Hermione and Ron were 14 while Harry was 13.

[[folder:Knowing the traitor]]

* When Sirius confronts Lupin, Wormtail, and the Trio at the Shrieking Shack at the end, he says that the other Death Eaters at Azkaban knew that Wormtail was the traitor. While they obviously wouldn't tell the good guys that, why wouldn't Snape know? And if Snape knew, the rest of the Order would presumably know too.
** In the next book, Karkaroff says that "we never knew the names of every one of our fellows", so apparently not all the Death Eaters knew that Wormtail was the spy. It seems Voldemort didn't trust Snape and apparently Lucius Malfoy (since Draco also thought Sirius was the spy) enough during the first war to let them in on it. I'd imagine that the Death Eaters in Azkaban who knew it was Wormtail were the Lestranges. The fact that Sirius knew the Death Eaters hated Wormtail implies that the prisoners can communicate with each other, so maybe the Lestranges spread the word of Wormtail's betrayal around until all the Death Eaters in Azkaban knew it.
** Is it said how late Wormtail's betrayal was? How long had he been passing information? If he betrayed them right before the night he went after Harry, there might not have been time for anyone else to know about it. The shoot out between Sirius and Wormtail happened not long after that.
** Remus and Sirius state that Peter had been passing information on to You-Know-Who for a year before the Potters' deaths.

[[folder:Empty Door]]

* In the Shrieking Shack, why is no one suspicious that there is a knock on the door, and no one is there when it is opened? The place is supposed to be haunted, but everyone in that room knows it isn't, and they don't care at all. Plus, they all know about the Invisibility Cloak (assuming Lupin and Sirius have already seen it) and it would be safe to assume someone stole it, but no one reacts in the slightest. It doesn't make any sense.
** They had other things on their minds at the time. And even in the wizarding world, old houses creak.
** Do the doors in the wizarding world also open and close without any reason? Ok, they do in general, but this particular one shouldn't, which both Sirius and Lupin knew.
** As a corollary to this, Snape enters, and then stands around listening to Sirius and Lupin reminisce about their schooldays and that time Sirius tried to get Snape killed before dramatically revealing himself. Why? Why not enter, take advantage of everyone's lack of curiosity, stun the escaped (believed to be) murderer and his accomplice, and get everyone back to the castle?
** Perhaps he wanted to find out if Lupin was an accomplice? If you stumble across a wanted criminal and someone who you'd assumed to be innocent - you don't get trigger happy before you've gathered enough information.
** It's possible that Snape waited so long because he assumed Sirius and Lupin would have expected an attack when the door opened by itself. His plan: Get through the door and wait for Sirius and Lupin to decide that the self-opening door was just an old creaky house misbehaving, or that whatever was there is gone, wait until they're not on guard, and then attack. So he enters, and Sirius and Lupin write it off, and either Snape's just astounded they're that stupid, or (more likely) he assumes that they're still on guard, but are playing it off until something happens. So he waits a little longer to wait until there guard is down, at which point, Sirius and Remus mention the time they almost killed him, and he gets mad and attacks then.

[[folder:Harry using magic outside of school]]
* From the beginning of the movie: why is Harry trying to practice the Light Charm while still at the Dursleys? He is well aware of the penalties for underage magic, and had even received a warning the previous year because of Dobby's Hover Charm. Granted, it probably wouldn't be noticeable until he had mastered it, but once he had, he should have received a prompt owl from the Ministry of Magic, congratulating him on a well-mastered spell and inviting him for a brief chat with the Wizengamot disciplinary review board to tell them all about it.
** This has been debated to death. I believe the favored explanation is that the spell wasn't powerful enough to show up on the Ministry's "radar".
** Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it mentioned in the book that Harry is using a Muggle Torchlight to do his homework?
** My guess is that he was allowed to practice this particular spell as homework for the summer. Lumos is a pretty low-key spell that wouldn't lead most muggles to assume "magic" and can easily be done in the safety of one's house without people noticing. That doesn't mean Vernon would approve, though.
** Ditto this. While the Lumos spell IS movie-only in this instance, book 5 has Harry using the Patronus charm, Lumos and Accio at the beginning, yet Harry only gets in trouble for the Patronus charm. Lumos and Accio are weak spells and probably not considered a horrible offense.
** In the first movie, Hermione mentions on the Hogwarts Express that she’d been practicing a few basic spells at home before the start of term — and since she’s a Muggleborn and hasn’t ever been to Hogwarts before, she has no other excuse. We have to assume that certain basic spells are willing to be forgiven by the Ministry since they don’t run the risk of exposure.
** The other question I had is why it didn't work as it should have. Lumos Maxima should have lit up his wand continuously, not only for a second before going out. Nox is the spell used to turn off the Lumos spell.
*** The other films (more specifically, Half-Blood Prince) show that Lumos Maxima is more used to conjure a massive ball of light that hovers in an area to provide mass illumination, but does eventually die down on its own (Dumbledore cast it non-verbally first, but Harry had to cast it himself later, verbally, when the light vanished and the Inferi were attacking). As for why it goes out rather quickly here: he ''is'' practising. He can't be expected to master it instantly.
*** He was using the spell to read his book, not to practice. And he stopped as soon as Vernon came to his door, so it looked as if he was doing both. If he had gotten it right, he would have gotten in trouble with Vernon, which he was trying to avoid.
*** The page he was reading was for Lumos Maxima. He was definitely practising; otherwise, he might as well have been using a torch to read a "How to Turn On a Torch" manual.

[[folder:Dementor's Kiss]]

* I'm trying to follow Fudge's train of thought when he "lost his patience" and sentenced Sirius to a Dementor Kiss, and I just... can't.\\
\\
First of all, ''they haven't caught him yet''! Forget "caught" - they haven't got a single lead! Who the hell were they going to kiss? That's cooking a hare before catching him, and it's a sure way to become the universal laughing stock. Hell, Fudge should've been tiptoeing around this whole issue, afraid to mention it another time, and pray that people would somehow forget about it, and praise Sirius for keeping his head low (two appearances and zero casualties in a year that's pretty tame, even the journalists would get bored from the lack of juicy stuff), but instead he loudly reminds everyone that yes, his Ministry had screwed up, keeps screwing up, and he's apparently losing his crap in a painfully transparent and pitifully childish attempt to pretend he's in control. I'd understand if he "lost his patience" and, say, commited every single Auror to the searches or unleashed some heavy duty, maybe even controversial, magic to find Sirius, or set to burn the Forbidden Forest to the ground to flush him out. But this is just pointless. How was that supposed to appeal to the public or favour his image? Surely even Fudge couldn't be ''that'' ass-numbingly stupid?\\
\\
Second, what sense does it make to issue the death warrant so late? I'd understand if they issued it immediately after he escaped, logic being that it's no point in taking him alive, since their worst (and only) prison cannot contain him. A shaky logic, but logic nonetheless. Hell, it'd make sense if they had a standing "shoot on sight" (or kiss on sight) order in case of any escape, just to discourage them. Or if they didn't know what exactly Sirius was after, and then learned he was after Harry. But they knew it from the start! So what exactly caused Fudge to make this, rather detrimental to his image, decision? Hell, if I didn't know better, I would think that it was just an AssPull, used to create shock and drama, force a moral dilemma on Harry and induce a time constraint in the finale.
** For the first thing, you're thinking of this the wrong away around. I think the idea is that the Dementors will be ''much more motivated'' to actively look for Sirius if they're promised his soul for a snack in payment, rather than just being forced out there and told "bring him back unharmed". For the second thing, Fudge is an all-powerful idiot who can order whatever he feels like ordering.
** The way people are talking on here, it seems people think that Sirius went on trial. In ''Goblet of Fire'', Sirius states that Crouch sent him directly to jail without a trial. You can't be convicted on eyewitness testimony alone. So is an 'innocent' man who didn't get a chance to prove his innocence.
** First of all, Fudge wasn't minister when Sirius was convicted. Millicent Bagnold was. And everyone was expecting Barty Crouch Sr. to become her successor until he ruined his reputation by sending his own son to Azkaban in a KangarooCourt. And for all we know, the wizarding world doesn't have the death penalty (or didn't at the time). Life imprisonment in Azkaban seems to be how criminals are punished for their worse deeds. And Sirius is the first person to ever ''escape'' from the prison. So Fudge's logic seems to be that throwing Sirius back in prison will do nothing, as he can always escape again. So the kiss is something that will stop him from doing so. He does the same thing to Barty Crouch Jr (who also escaped Azkaban). And isn't the point of this that Fudge is an incompetent leader who is more concerned about keeping the masses happy?

[[folder:The Strange Case of the Vanishing Hippogriff]]
* Why was Fudge (and, by extension, Lucius) so lenient about the escapes of Buckbeak and Sirius, seeing how they were in custody of Hagrid and Dumbledore respectively when it happened? You'd think charges of criminal negligence would be much to the point, especially since Lucius would be eager to compromise D's authority in any way and Fudge would be desperate for a scapegoat in the wake of the vicious ass-pummeling he was bound to receive from the mass media.
** It's specifically noted that they waited until Fudge had seen Buckbeak tied up before releasing him so that Fudge wouldn't be able to think Buckbeak's escape was Hagrid's fault. If this wasn't good enough for Lucius, it's possible that, between the end of ''Azkaban'' and the start of ''Goblet'', he raised a stink about it which never went anywhere.
** And it changes... what exactly? The beast is still missing. If Buckbeak indeed broke free, as Hagrid suggests with completely inappropriate glee, it means that the tie was weak, which calls for accusation of criminal negligence at best and to immediate termination of his teaching duty (if you can't properly deal with one dangerous murderous animal, then what the hell are you doing teaching kids about them?) If the hippogriff was stolen, then it's Dumbledore who's in for some awkward questions, because the idea that somebody could sneak into the school grounds from outside just to steal the hippogriff, and moreover, choose the precise moment that ACCIDENTALLY happened to provide Hagrid with an alibi, is far-fetched beyond all limits.
** Except Fudge himself had seen how Buckbeak had been tied up, and he never noticed anything amiss with how the animal was secured or bothered to check that the rope was strong. He was the senior official on-site at the time the hippogriff escaped, and he and Macnair had technically taken custody of the creature once the necessary paperwork was completed. If Fudge were to rake Hagrid and Dumbledore over the coals about the matter, would the likes of Rita Skeeter miss a chance to shove the Minister's face in them as well?
** Oh, goodie! Meaning we can exclude the negligence and move straight to the malicious intent. Since the tie had no visible weaknesses, as was duly attested by the agents of the Ministry ("- Wasn't it, Mr. Macnair? - Indubitably it was, sir.") this means that either it was charmed to break or disappear after the inspection, or somebody freed the beast while DD distracted them with papers. And since, again, the idea that some independent party would accidentally choose that exact moment to steal it is ridiculous. Who the hell would want to steal it, this only leaves the conspiracy on the Groundkeeper's and, by extension, the Headmaster's part. They had both the resources and the motives.

** Fudge says outright that he can't afford to let the ''Daily Prophet'' find out that they'd lost both Black and a condemned beast on the same night, or his administration will become even more of a laughingstock than it already is. The implication is that he and the Disposal officials are going to keep quiet about the hippogriff and/or blame Buckbeak's escape on Sirius, not the Hogwarts staff.
** How could they keep quiet about BB, if Lucius was interested (and he clearly was) in pushing the case? And why blame Sirius, who would have no motive to do it, and whose timing would have to be improbably precise, when you have the perfectly good Hagrid to blame? And regardless, the original question concerned both BB and Sirius, and the latter was much more important. Who cares about that stupid bird-lion, when they've let Sirius Black escape? Yet, again, Fudge seems absurdly serene about it and not in the least interested in shifting the blame on the most glaringly obvious suspects: DD and Potter, both of whom tried to convince him of Black's innocence.
** Because he doesn't care, it is Lucius the one that wants BB dead, not Fudge. From his point of view, there is no difference if BB is dead or not. It's not that he thinks BB deserves it or not, he just doesn't care, he probably would not even be the one to go to BB's execution if it wasn't in Hogwarts. "Did BB escape by himself? did Dumbledore have something to do? was it a third party?" "''who cares!?'', the bird is gone, students are safe, the job is done. end of story." what is the worse that can come from BB's escape? Fudge's image is muddied a little. And really, what would he accomplish by saying that Dumbledore had something to do with it? it may seem unfair, but it is the truth, he may think Dumbledore had something to do with it, but he doesn't think BB's escape is that big of a deal.
** The original question concerned both BB and Sirius, and the latter was much more important. Yet, again, Fudge seems absurdly serene about it and not in the least interested in shifting the blame on the most glaringly obvious suspects: DD and Potter, both of whom tried to convince him of Black's innocence.
** If having Black escape from one's custody is declared to be grounds for accusations of incompetence and/or malfeasance on Dumbledore's part, then Fudge himself is equally susceptible to such accusations. He was the one who'd noticed that Sirius seemed far more coherent than an Azkaban inmate had any business being, after all, yet he didn't insist that Black be transferred to a move-secure cell or kept in restraints or anything like that.
** As to that, when Black was taken to the castle, [=MacNair=] came out shortly after to summon the dementors. It's logical to assume that the Ministry had taken custody of Black and so the blame would lie on him. As to the malicious intent point, Fudge calling Dumbledore a liar about this has a good chance of blowing up in his face. This is a time when everyone is still wishing that Dumbledore had accepted the position of Minister of Magic over Fudge. It's not until Voldy returns (when the public at large is willing to believe anything if it means that they don't have to deal with a second DE incursion) that Fudge successfully turns the public's opinion away from Dumbledore and Harry.

[[folder:Beheading]]

* Buckbeak was supposed to be executed through beheading. With an axe. An actual metal axe. [[FlatWhat What]]. Macnair, are you a freaking wizard or not?!
** I just assumed [[OffWithHisHead execution by decapitation]] had a ceremonial importance. The wizarding world is pretty into traditions.
** Perhaps, it'd just make more sense in respect to state traitors or something. But when putting down a troublesome beast? Really? Hell, how are you even supposed to behead it? It's not like you can tell it to put its head on a block and lay quiet. It would most likely go berserk and lash at you, so in the end you'd have to take out your wand anyway to stun or petrify it. So why not just AK it? Simply too many troubles (especially in the movie, where Macnair even wears a freaking executioner's hood, for Khorne's sake!) for what's essentially a rabid dog.
** Hippogriffs are magical creatures. Maybe they can't be killed by straightforward spells, or it takes a lot of effort to kill one with magic. So an ax, specially enchanted, is designed to do the job.
** Hedwig was also a magical creature, but it didn't save her from an AK blast in ''Deathly Hallows''. Also, if that was the case, you'd think Hippos would've been used more in battles (or at all for that matter). Why ''weren't'' they used in the battle of Hogwarts? After all, AFAIR, Thestrals did partake in the fun, so why not these guys?
** Hedwig wasn't a magical creature, she was an OWL. A particularly intelligent owl, sure (possibly from generations of exposure to magic) but not a magical creature in the same way a Hippogriff, Dragon, Centaur, Basilisk or Giant would be considered a magical creature.
** What about a phoenix? In the Battle at the Ministry in [=OotP=] Fawks [[TakeTheBullet takes the AK]] for DD and explodes. He survives, but only because he's immortal.
** Simple, semi-serious explanation: Macnair considers execution by magic to be too cold and impersonal. If he's going to kill, he's going to get up close and personal and finish the beast with his own physical strength and his trusty axe. It's not a proper execution if blood doesn't flow.
** That seems like a pretty good explanation. If memory serves, It's mentioned a few times through the series that the whole reason Macnair got the job destroying dangerous creatures for the Ministry after Voldemort's fall is because he's a pretty big fan of violence and bloodshed, the kind you generally don't get with wands.
** Most likely MacNair doesn't think that using an Unforgivable Curse and spending the rest of his life in Azkaban is the best way to perform an execution if he wants to keep his job.
** Lolwut? Unforgivables were explicitly stated to only be punishable when used on ''people''.
** Indeed. Hence why the next DADA teacher wasn't jailed for using Unforgivables on a spider.
** Second simple, semi-serious explanation: Hagrid chose beheading. I know in the US, if one is given the death sentence they'll be offered a choice of how to die (if the state/prison has more than one option). Since Hagrid owned Buckbeak, he got the option to choose how he was to die. DD suggested beheading because...well, no one knows why DD does half of what he does, and Hagrid took his advice.
** That's in the US. This is the wizarding world in the United Kingdom, two cultures apart.
** Combining explanations one and two: Hagrid knew [[AxCrazy Macnair]] would be the one to do the execution and chose the simplest and least painless method which was beheading.
** Third simple, semi-serious explanation: Avada Kedavra requires a lot of concentration and intent. Why waste time building yourself up to the point where you honestly and truly want some random creature you've never interacted with before to be dead when all it takes is a single swing of an axe?

[[folder:Fidelius Charm inconsistencies]]
* How is it that Hagrid is able to come and get Harry after James and Lily are killed? If Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper, no one else should be able to see the location unless he told them. At first I thought it made sense for the Fidelius Charm to break if its subjects died, but Harry was a subject of the Fidelius Charm just as much as James and Lily and he was still alive, so why would the Charm stop working? If the Charm broke every time one person under its protection died, that would mean that Grimmauld Place would have stopped being Fideliused when Dumbledore died, because he was a member of the Order and therefore under the protection of the spell too.
** The charm is cast on a dwelling rather than on its habitants. Perhaps after V's curse destroyed the house, the charm dissipated as well.
** But the house wasn't destroyed- in fact, it's still there nearly two decades later. It just had a hole in the roof.
** As James and Lily were in hiding it would be foolish for them to leave their house and do thing like shop or socialize so it would make sense for there to be a few people who would have been immediately told to facilitate such things. As the charm was Dumbledore's idea and Hagrid has his utmost confidence, not to mention being more than capable of defending himself against violent wizards, it would make sense for Hagrid to be told the secret. It would also explain why it was Hagrid who was sent to fetch Harry from the scene, Dumbledore was setting up the protection at the Dursley's, Sirius was tracking Peter and Peter was trying to run away so Hagrid may have been the only one available at the time.
** As mentioned elsewhere on the page, the inconsistency is that if Hagrid or Dumbledore had been told the secret, then they would have known who the real Secret Keeper was. Canonically, the ''only'' people who knew about the Sirius-Pettigrew swap-out were the Potters, Sirius, and Peter. Even Remus wasn't in on the loop.
** Harry was able to look at Dumbledore's handwriting to access Grimmauld Place. Maybe Hagrid saw Peter's writing and didn't bother asking who wrote it.
** Peter probably dismissed the Fidelius after he escaped from Sirius. If he hadn't, Sirius could've proven his innocence by telling his accusers "The Potters' house is in Godric's Hollow on _______ street.", and then pointing out that the place is ''still invisible''.
*** What would that prove? Sirius' accusers would have to know the real location of the house, or else for all they know Sirius is just pointing to a random patch and saying "There's the house - oh you can't see it, I'm innocent, see?". And the whole point of the charm is that said accusers ''don't'' know the location.
** This may be directly contradicted by canon, but perhaps the Fidelius charm works as a kind of magical contract? The Secret Keeper and the subjects have to magically agree to the keeping of the secret. Since Harry is a baby he cannot participate in the spell. He is covered by it, but is not part of the spell, so when James and Lilly die, the magic collapses? Magical agreement must be part of it, or the Fidelius Charm could be used as a horrifying weapon.
** This is more or less explained in Deathly Hallows when the trio are using Grimmauld Place. It is specifically stated that since Dumbledore died, everyone who already knew where the place was (including Snape) became the Secret Keeper. This means that the Secret Keeper is the official person who can tell other people, but other people who know cannot tell anyone else. So if only person A knows where the place is, he can tell person B so person B can go there, but person B cannot tell person C unless person A dies.
** ''Deathly Hallows'' also poses another explanation - Harry worries as they're on their way to visit the house in Godric's Hollow that the Fidelius Charm will keep them from seeing it, but once he realizes he's able to, his thoughts suggest that the charm lapsed and dissipated once James and Lily were killed.
** The latter would also explain how Snape was able to get into the house right after James and Lily were killed in the film's continuity.

[[folder:Is the Sorting Hat going senile?]]
* Wormtail is a coward, no doubt about it. He hides behind powerful people, only is with someone when he thinks it's going to be a benefit for him... all of that would automatically makes him a Slytherin. So then, why on earth did he wind up in Gryffindor, according to WordOfGod?
* He may have already lacked bravery at 11, but plenty of wimpy kids grow up to be brave and strong. Perhaps Wormtail ''wanted'' to become brave and heroic, and the Hat complied, hoping the positive influence of other Gryffindors would better him. Besides, he may lack the bravery, but he may have displayed other Gryffindor traits at the time to make up for it: we ''know'' he had the pranking-spirit, and he may well have ''wanted'' to improve the world and fight back evil even if he lacked the actual courage when put down on the spot.
** 1) Peter couldn't be put in Slytherin, possibly because he doesn't have enough ambition, and there's no one for him to hide behind if everyone's looking out for themselves.
** 2) He wasn't suited for Hufflepuff because he wasn't too loyal, as it turns out.
** 3) He was not smart nor talented enough for Ravenclaw.
** By default, he was put in Gryffindor, which also provided him a houseful of brave people for him to hide behind and mooch off of. Plus, it's possible he asked the Sorting Hat to be put in Gryffindor, as Harry did.
** It's also possible the Hat gave him the benefit of the doubt, like he did with Neville.
** Just because he possesses certain qualities doesn't mean he'll embrace them or won't ever change. Peter probably fancied himself brave and noble as an 11 year old but when theory was put into practice he found himself unable to sacrifice himself and sold out his friends instead. After that it was either be crushed by guilt or adopt a philosophy of doing whatever he needed to.
** Pettigrew wasn't completely devoid of courage. Infiltrating the household of someone who works for the Ministry must have required a certain amount of daring, and a ''complete'' coward would never have been able to go through with cutting off his own hand. Rather, he has nerve, but he never directs that nerve to anyone else's benefit.
** Alternately, he was probably courageous and good-hearted, but began turning bad over time. That or he was tortured.
** The Sorting Hat takes student's choices into account. Perhaps like Harry, Pettigrew may had been meant for Slytherin but was placed into Gryffindor because he asked.

[[folder:Ambition]]

* So the defining trait of Slytherin is ambition, right? They're ambitious, power-hungry, somewhat selfish, self-centred, interested only in what will get them to a better positions. So why is Percy Weasley, the absolute personification of arrogant ambition, in Gryffindor, when he is always described as being severely ambitious? I can only guess that he asked the hat to be put in Gryffindor so as not to shame his family, but still. Percy is the living incarnation of Slytherin House's traits, excluding the pure-blood mania. It makes a lot less sense than Peter, even, if the Hat gave him the benefit of the doubt. Percy would have HAD to beg for Gryffindor specifically, since he's got more traits from Slytherin and Hufflepuff than Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
** Gryffindor is thought of as being the 'best' house to be placed in. No doubt the Sorting Hat would suggest Percy be better suited for Slytherin but Percy asked for Gryffindor because he doesn't want to shame his family, and being in Gryffindor would get him some praise that being in Slytherin would not. This is probably the same reason Hermione was put in Gryffindor rather than Ravenclaw, not only did she ask, she knew Gryffindor was thought of as the best house.
** It's also because, despite having the academic prowess that usually lands you in Ravenclaw, she values courage as far more important than intelligence.
** These children are sorted at 11 YEARS OF AGE. This is too early, as even Dumbledore muses at one point. Personalities change over time, particularly through puberty. The expectations and environments of the House the wizards and witches are sorted into probably help to shape their developing personalities, but there are other factors as well. In Percy's case, determined ambition was how he coped with the Twins' constant teasing. The Twins likely started with the teasing the first time he came home with good results, because he was a bit of a nerd, lacking the 'coolness' of older brothers Bill and Charlie.
** All of the best Slytherins go into other houses so no one will suspect them.
** The end of The Chamber of Secrets establishes that the choices of an individual matter more than his or her aptitude when it comes to getting into a house. Maybe Wormtail wanted to possess the "daring, nerve, and chivalry" of Gryffindor House, and that was enough for the Sorting Hat.
** Wait, if Gryffindor is the "BEST" house, then why is it that Slytherin had been the House to win the House Cup every year until Harry's first year? Seems to me that Percy was being thrown into an underdog house. And before you say something like "Gryffindor looks best on a resume", remember that Slytherin housed the children of quite a few higher-ups in the Ministry, so it was probably the Harvard of British Wizards.
*** Slytherin winning the House Cup every year is implied to be the result of Snape's bias, as he is incredibly strict and often outright unfair with students from the other three houses, but never punishes the Slytherins at all. The other heads of houses all try to remain unbiased.
** Wouldn't Oxford be more appropriate? Anyway, one of the traits Salazar Slytherin valued was a willingness to bend or break rules to one's benefit. Now the Sorting Hat doesn't place in the exact same manner as the founders, as Salazar only wanted pure bloods but the hat will put half bloods into his house, but Percy, on top of being a goody goody rule follower, is also a blood traitor. Those two traits may be enough to cancel out his ambition. And hard working as he is, he's more pompous, or brazen, or bold than you'd expect from Hufflepuff, which combined with Gryffindor running in the family probably sealed it.
*** Eton or Harrow would be more appropriate, really.

[[folder: Just leave him, he'll be fine]]
* The scene with Lupin's transformation in the movie. Snape suddenly emerges from the Shack and...wait, does this mean those assholes just left him there, unconscious and probably injured? Why?
** Probably happened something like this:
--->'''Hermione''': Hey, shouldn't we get Snape?\\
'''Sirius''': Nah, he likes lying around in the dark. He'll feel right at home here.\\
'''Lupin''': And it's ''Professor'' Snape, Miss Granger.
** They didn't leave Snape behind. He was unconscious, and Lupin had levitated him to hover along at the back of the group. Presumably, in the process of getting Ron out of the tunnel with his broken leg, they left him inside out of the way. Once he woke up, he emerged ala Bat Out Of Hell.
* In the original script, it is shown that Hermione put him under a sleepwalking spell, which he comes out of in time to try to protect the trio.

[[folder:Boggling Boggarts]]
* The scene where the students practice how to defeat a Boggart. The only concern Lupin seems to have is that Harry would "summon" Voldemort. No worries about kids with AbusiveParents? And having your biggest fear exposed to all your classmates isn't a nice thing.
** They are supposed to fend off real-life monsters, dark wizards, and ''demons'', which takes some mental conditioning. If you can't step up to your jerkass parent, how can you be expected to step up to a Dementor? As for exposing their fears to the classmates, well, when everybody does it, it puts them on the same level, so it's fine.
** Then again, most of these so-called "greatest fears" were quite silly: a mummy? an eyeball? a disembodied hand? Ron's was probably the only one that made sense, considering his [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets history]] with spiders.
** This is a universe where mummies, floating eyeballs, and disembodied hands are all real and dangerous and they are little kids. They can get some Adult Fear when they get older, like Molly's worst fear.
** "I'm scared of mummies" is not on the same level as seeing drunken Dad unzipping his pants, dude.
** Would it not be quite hard to abuse a kid who could turn you into a frog?
** Had the Boggart turned into AbusiveParents, Lupin would have probably jump in front of the kid as he did with Harry in the film. He's a teacher, he probably considered the possibility of someone failing to perform the riddikulus charm. I mean, his concern ''wasn't even Harry'', he thought that if Harry made the boggart turn into Voldemort, it would have scared the rest of the class. An abusive parent would have scared the one who was in front of the boggart, and they probably had the option to reject to have their greatest fear exposed, anyway. Also, come on, at this point, Harry has seen Voldemort -the guy who murdered his parents- thrice (once as a deformed human being, once as BodyHorror and once as a life-sucking phantom), add to that all the challenges he had to face in The Philosopher's Stone, Aragog and the Basilisk, the Dementors and his own less than perfect childhood. AbusiveParents or not, Harry has the most backstory among those kids, and he's the only one whom Lupin knows about.
** Still doesn't quite explain away the 'exposed to your classmates' angle, and also the abusive parents fear. Even a little kid would conjure up that image. My only additional point was to wonder what a Boggart would do with a more abstract fear, like a fear of having your eyes put out or losing a limb. Would it just recreate an image of you, but missing the appropriate body parts? Molly's fear is of the death of people she cares about, but what about people with a fear of death as an abstract concept? JK's explanation that Voldie would see an image of his own dead body falls a little flat for me.
** It would probably be different for every person. Voldemort, with all of his ego and dramatics, would probably find the image of him being dead frightening. Other people, they might simply see the Boggart as something killing them. If someone is afraid of being buried alive, the Boggart might envelop them and turn into a coffin. Someone who's afraid of getting their eyes ripped out might see an image of them getting their eyes ripped out, or the boggart might turn into someone with a knife pointed at their eyes. It depends on what would scare the person the most, I suppose.
** If Lupin is to be taken literally, then Harry's worst fear is an abstract thing: fear itself. If that's the case, than it's been shown in the book how boggarts deal with an abstract fear.
** It is odd that everyone's "greatest fear" is a mere phobia? Molly's makes sense, and perhaps also Lupin's (although wouldn't he be conditioned to the full moon by now, and doesn't the wolfsbane potion make it far less scary?) But just because Ron is an arachnophobe doesn't make it plausibly his ''greatest fear''. If I had to take a stab at it, I would imagine that it would involve something like the inverse of the glory the Mirror of Erised showed him, some moment of unspeakable and terrifying shame, like publicly allowing Harry and/or Hermione to die. That's the thing people fear in the back of their minds. Ron doesn't faint or run from spiders, they just freak him out a lot. So [[WMG/HarryPotter maybe]] boggarts don't actually reveal a person's greatest fear so much as the scariest thing they've had to think about lately. Ergo, Dementors for Harry and the moon for Lupin, rather than the things that ''ultimately'' make those things scary for them: reliving the death of one's parents, becoming a monster that could slaughter innocent people. (And for Ron, spiders are a shameful reminder of his place in the family hierarchy.)
** This, mostly. The Boggart doesn't actually delve deeply into your mind to know what, exactly, would terrify you the absolute most, it just skims your brain a bit to find out what you're thinking about being afraid of. Or at least, that's how I always thought of it. Ron has a phobia of spiders, they were on his mind, ergo the Boggart turned into a spider for him. If the Boggart had turned into, say, both of Ron's parents with spiders pouring out of their eyes as they screamed at him he was a waste of a son and blood pouring from every orifice, that would probably scare Ron more than just one big spider the likes of which he'd already dealt with, but that wasn't what he was thinking of at the time.
** You're supposed to make it funny, which may have been a little difficult if it did turn into something of your description. Also, despite the name, arachnophobia is not technically a phobia.
** Also... What? Spiders are a reminder of his place in the family hierarchy? Why would you assume this? Considering that more people are scared of spiders than any other animal (Even more than snakes). As for personal encounters, well... I am not entirely sure how much it would help me get over my own arachnophobia if a GiantSpider leaped out of nowhere and began strangling me trying to eat me.
** No, being reminded of his insignificance is his greatest fear, as demonstrated by the Slytherin Locket in Deathly Hallows. Ron should've encountered the exact problem that the OP raised: the boggart in front of him should've turned into an image of his brothers sneering at him and telling everybody how worthless and stupid he is, Harry and Hermione calling him TheLoad, or, even worse, ''his parents'' denouncing him in favour of Harry. Thank goodness Rowling copped out on this one!
** Spiders remind of his place because it was his older brothers using a spider to bully him that brought about Ron's fear of spiders. If they ''had'' used, say, a horny toad, that might end up being it, or maybe not because as said, not as many people are afraid of them as spiders, but they still wouldn't scare Ron as much otherwise. Trauma works like that.
** Er, the fact that Ron himself was ''abducted and nearly eaten'' by spiders the size of panel vans just a few months earlier might've done a lot to upgrade his arachnophobia ''beyond'' his fear of insignificance, too...
** Face it: Boggarts just don't seem to have much imagination. They go for the ''obvious'' scare, not necessarily the one that's grounded deepest in an intended victim's psychological hang-ups. The fact that they're rather easily confused suggests that they aren't clever enough to come up with the sort of intricate, custom-fitted imagery people are suggesting here.
** Maybe Boggarts are just conscious of their own limitations. Seeing a spider or a disembodied hand may be more immediately frightening to someone than seeing one of their loved ones dead. The first kind of scare is threatening and provokes more of an immediate panic response. The second kind is upsetting. It might keep you up at night, and it would scare you more if it happened, but seeing a thing that's a spooky animal imitating it doesn't have the same sort of shock value. There might also be a parental fear element: adults like Molly Weasley have life experience that makes them vulnerable to a more personal, psychological Boggart form, because they know how they'd feel in that situation. For instance, Molly's brothers died, so she probably knows how she felt when that happened. Most thirteen-year-olds have never felt those sorts of emotions, so they won't experience them in a fake scenario. What would scare you the most in reality isn't always the same as what would scare you in a simulated situation, and maybe Boggarts are clever enough to know that.
** The last few points all come to one point: A Boggart is is a jump-scare incarnate. They don't show am image of your "deepest fear", they actually show an image of what will - upon a random and unexpected encounter - frighten you the most. The idea is that you open up a cupboard some time, and out leaps exactly what you would reply to the question "what is the worst thing that could be in that cupboard." Ultimately, the Boggart is taking a cheap-shot.
** If you think about it, it's a great defense mechanism, playing on your fight-or-flight responses. It's not about making you face your own shortcomings and insecurities, no matter what the fanfictions say- that's just stupid. Why don't they just use the Boggarts as shrinks in that case? No, the Boggarts scan your mind for the thing that will make you freeze up in terror- I, for one, freeze up at spiders. While the prey is frozen with terror, the Boggart gets lunch.

[[folder:Boggart Power]]

* Just how powerful is a boggart? A boggart impersonating a Dementor gains its power to suck the heat and happiness from a person and show them their worst memories; enough to knock out Harry like a real one. It doesn't turn Lupin into a werewolf, however. Does that mean that Ron would have been poisoned by the spider if it bit him? And what if it faced somebody who feared black holes above all else?
** The damage a Boggart does is completely psychological. Someone who fears Dementors would only imagine their happiness was being sucked away by a boggart taking the form of one. Just like a claustrophobe isn't suffocating in a small space; they just believe they are. Once the person being victimized by a boggart realizes this, s/he can say "Riddikulus!" and banish it with a flick of a wand.
** It's possible that they know full well that abusive parents may appear and are hoping for it. It gets said parents exposed and then the school can intervene as necessary. That may not be how it works in our world but wizard world has its own rules.
** Yeah. like they intervened when Dursleys abused Harry! Oh, wait...
** Nothing could be done in that specific situation. Harry HAD to stay with them for the magical protection and they weren't going to change who they were. Any attempt to force the subject would have required either a constant wizard or witch on guard in the house (unlikely and likely a violation of a few wizard laws at that) or the attempt of threats or even positive enforcement which would just make the Dursleys become even worse to Harry once they were gone for bringing more 'freaks' and their magic into their homes. It's a unique situation born of necessity. We can all agree the Weasley's would have taken him in as early as his second year if they'd been allowed.
** Not speaking from experience here, but I still would not want everyone in my class to know if my parents used to abuse me in any way, even if that means my teacher would go and kick their ass.
** One thing that [[AdaptationDecay the movie]] ''improved'' upon: Harry steps in-front of the boggart during DADA and is quickly overwhelmed by its Dementor form, which causes Lupin to quickly jump in-front of him. In the book, Lupin [[GoodIsDumb willfully approaches]] the boggart and it takes the form of the full moon, giving away a major clue that he's a werewolf, something that is in-fact frowned-upon by most of the wizarding world.
** In his defense, he was doing it in front of a bunch of dumb kids, most of whom cannot make a logical conclusion to save their life, unless it blows a trumpet and waves a banner with huge neon letters at them. Besides, in the book, the boggart didn't look so explicitly moony - it was just a "shining ball".
** Later in the movie, they retain the book's line that he did it because he worried it would become Voldemort. So even while the original change made a bit more sense, the overall result is much more convoluted.
** Hum, he may have talked to DD before to ensure no one with such abusive father/mother or such psychological problem even a disturbed childhood was to face the Boggart, but who knows?
** It could be that Lupin used a weaker Boggart that couldn't make a person's worst ever fear. I know this theory falls flat with Harry and Lupin, but as I recall most of the other things the Boggart did were significantly less than what the Boggart did with eh dead Weasley's being shown.
** The "weaker Boggart" theory makes a lot of sense- either that, or that it shows you your "greatest fear" is an exaggeration. Because honestly, who would be more scared of a spider or a snake than, say, a serial killer murdering your entire family, or getting burned alive, and other [[FridgeHorror Fridge Horrors]] for the entire family to enjoy? J.K. does, though, have a bit of a problem with downgrading the severity of different situations; kids being shown their worst fears? Played for laughs! The Crucio curse driving people insane? An abomination! Not saying they're equally awful in real life, just that she tends to flip-flop on what's supposed to be dark and emotionally taxing.
*** Maybe I have a dark sense of humor but, showing little kids their worst fears (as in simple phobias) is funny, and not at the same level as torturing someone to madness. Especially when the kids are more than capable to overcome their fears by facing them (which is an accepted type of therapy, by the way, it’s call Systematic desensitization therapy). Whether abused kids would see their parents (I guess a victim of sexual abuse would see the father saying something like “hey little girl, come here” or a victim of physical abuse see the mother with a belt ready to beat-them up or something like that) You’re confusing fears with traumas. As said before, the Boggart is not that intelligent life form, it seems not to have the basic understanding of such complex feelings, emotions and social interaction. It’s a basic creature, like an animal, that uses the most basic primal fear the person’s have, not Sigmund Freud.
*** What normal teenager has actually thought about a serial killer going after their family, let alone kept it as their deepest darkest fear? Your average 13-year old is not thinking of stuff that on this Wiki generally is labelled Adult Fear for a good reason.
** The boggart makes Harry see and hear ''more'' of what exactly happened to his parents, continuing what the real dementors started, in addition to the heat and darkness sapping. However, the boggart also isn't capable of flight/gliding, as it "stumbles" when trying to get away from a patronus. So, uh, boggarts are weaker than dementors? I'm guessing they specialize in duplicating the things something did or does to scare, so it can alter the environment and push out feelings like a dementor, but can't actually take a soul in the same way it happens to be ground bound. That the boggart looks like a silvery orb in front of Lupin shows that it's having trouble duplicating the sunlight reflection through atmosphere affect, otherwise it would look orange, yellow or white.
** Maybe it's just because I had a fairly alright childhood, but I always assumed that most of the 3rd years wouldn't have "worst fears" that would be particularly brutal. When I was 13, my worst fear was the dark. The only people who seem to have what we would consider "acceptable" worst fears are the ones who had significant trauma in their childhood (i.e. Harry or even Ron) or those who are old enough to have fears that we would deem "acceptable" (i.e. Mrs. Weasley or Professor Lupin).
** Re: the Boggart's powers as a Dementor, it's possible that Harry gives it the abilities. The sight of the dementor doesn't scare Harry but rather what the creature does to him. Harry's fear is that cold empty feeling the dementor gives him, so that's why the Boggart is able to do it to him.

[[folder:Ridikulus]]

* Ridikulus is shown as a "make things funny" spell, but the way it's shown in the books and movies, it seems that the spell allows you to impose your will on a living sentient creature, to change both it's form and it's actions. So is the spell like a combination of Imperius and transfiguration, or is the spell somehow limited to only funny things?
** Presumably, the Ridikulus spell is limited to Boggarts. The Boggart is reading your mind, trying to dig out your worst fear. The Ridikulus spell forces it to take the one that makes you laugh instead. It's not the first time that a spell was created just to deal with a single threat, after all. (Expecto Patronum for the Dementors)
** Expecto Patronum is a spell SPECIFICALLY created to deal with Dementors. It seemed to work on many Dark creatures like a Lethifold.
** Expecto Patronum WAS designed specifically with driving away Dementors in mind, as far as I know (Lupin says a Patronus is “an anti-Dementor spell”). Driving off Lethifolds simply happens to be a coincidental extra use. Dementors are more common than Lethifolds are anyway, and so it's much more likely that the spell was designed with the former in mind, rather than the latter.

[[folder:Boggart size]]

* On a related note, how does size impact a Boggart? My biggest phobia would probably be being stuck in a watertank with a giant whale (I know, it’s a weird one). Considering the giant size is part of the reason why I'm scared (unlike the moon for Lupin), it would have to imitate that or it'd be adorable. The fight is done in a relatively small classroom. What happens if one of the students in that situation had a similar phobia? Would everyone have been squashed against the wall due to a massive whale (Or similar giant creature) suddenly growing?
** Hm...maybe the boggart would cast a kind of illusion, making it ''seem'' to you as if you were trapped in a tank with a giant whale, but you wouldn't be trapped, because the boggart knows that it might bust through the walls if it tried to actually become a whale. (Heck, maybe all boggarts are doing is casting an illusion. Maybe it's not transforming; it looks like it to Harry, but is it really?)
** Well we know they can't become as big as the moon, so there is ''some'' size limit.
** Well it just becomes the size of the moon as Lupin sees it. When we're on the ground looking at it, it looks the size of a crystal ball.
** As for your whale issue, that might confuse it. Lupin says he knew of one that tried to scare two people at once and turned into a NightmareRetardant half of one thing. It might not have the power to make you think you're underwater, so maybe it could turn into a whale.

[[folder:Boggart Voldemort]]

* Furthermore, what if somebody ''else'' also happened to be deathly afraid of Voldemort? He ''is'' the most powerful dark wizard ever, and everything... Besides, who's to say that it wouldn't turn into anything else overly dangerous, like, oh, a basilisk or something?
** Lupin didn't know if anyone else would have a deathly fear of Voldemort, therefore he didn't prevent them from participating. All the kids there have never even seen Voldemort or remember his reign of terror, while Harry has personally encountered him just two years ago. As for other dangerous creatures, both a banshee, an acromantula, and, in the movie, a giant cobra (does that count as a basilisk?) were summoned and yet the kids could handle them fine.
*** Seeing how nearly everyone in the Wizard world, children included, are too afraid of Voldemort to even say his name, I would say it's a given that children are taught to fear him.
*** Note that the classmate who, after Harry, has the ''most'' grounds to fear Dark wizards due to past family tragedy is Neville. And Lupin specifically ''asks'' him what his fear is, before commencing the demonstration, presumably to make sure it ''wouldn't'' be the Longbottoms' torturers who stepped out of the wardrobe.
** Getting back to an earlier question: how powerful is a boggart? One of them was able to render Harry unconscious by taking the form of a dementor. Does this mean that a boggart taking the form of a cobra or basilisk assumes the abilities of said snake?
** Boggarts don't get ''all'' of the dementor powers, presumably spider and snake boggart get just enough traits to be scary to their target but might lack something like precises reflexes used in hunting.
** As for a boggart imitating a basilisk, either it or its intended victim would have to know what an actual, living basilisk ''looks like'' to pull that one off. Unless it's trying to scare Moaning Myrtle, it'd be hard put to achieve more than a crude, non-death-inducing facsimile of one.
** And none of Harry's classmates would be able to remember what it was like under Voldemort's rule. They're the same age as him and he was only a year old when it stopped.
*** [[EpilepticTrees Maybe]] this is one reason Lupin uses the Boggart with the Third Year class. Seventh and maybe Sixth years would be old enough to still remember Voldemort's first reign of terror clearly. Some would probably even know some of the people he'd had murdered. And since the Death Eaters still posed a problem for a few years afterwards (see: Neville's parents being tortured almost a year after Voldemort's disappearance), Fifth years might have more concrete reasons to fear them as well. By this theory, there'd be a much higher likelihood that the boggart ''would'' turn into Voldemort if an older class took a crack at him.

[[folder:Ron and to a degree Harry's treatment of Hermione.]]
* In the last book, she almost died. She was in, for lack of a better word, a coma for months. The two things that cause her friends to turn on her were that: She argued there was no absolute proof her cat ate Ron's rat, which was true but did disregard his feelings, and that she tried to protect Harry by getting his broom confiscated, which as someone else pointed out wouldn't have been so bad if she had, at least, tried to talk to him about her fears, first. The fact they were angry doesn't bother me. The fact they saw the person who they had once saved, who had helped them twice save the school, who had been turned into stone for months, mentally falling apart and still kept their grudge does. Harry forgives her but is at odds due to his loyalty towards Ron, and Ron forgives her after he receives the apology he wanted. Even when he told her that they'd help her with the appeal, that wasn't forgiveness; that was him caring about Hagrid and feeling righteous anger towards Draco Malfoy. When she hugged him and broke down, explicitly saying she was sorry, he, then, said something to the effect of it being alright. And I don't recall either ever apologising for their overreaction to her mistakes. Pointing out a logical fact and trying to protect a person in a misguided, though harmless, way is better than shunning a person who is obviously in an emotionally frail place, especially if there's such an intense history with that person.
** I have problems with that too. She was the most responsible and reasonable of the three in the books but more than half the time she's utterly disregarded, treated as "too fussy" and "worrisome" - there's also the scene where she's telling Harry not to sneak into Hogsmeade, and Harry and Ron yell at her. What the hell! She's reminding them that there's a sociopath on the loose and after Harry specifically (of course this isn't true but everyone thought so at the time) and they get mad at her for thinking things through and being thoughtful!
** Yes, heaven forbid a series have flawed protagonists. That just might lead to (gasp!) {{Conflict}}.
** I acknowledged they had a legitimate reason to be angry. I don't even have a real problem with their treatment of her, at first. But Harry, the POV character, never had so much of a paragraph where he remembers that his best friend was in turned to stone for several months and remembers how horrible that was and how relieved he was to have her back after the fights begin. He and Ron never had a true discussion about how Hermione is showing visible signs of mentally unravelling; perhaps they could've argued about whether they should forgive her, or perhaps they could have acknowledged that they both wanted to make things right with her but didn't know how to make the first move. There could still be conflict without it seeming as if they never almost lost their best friend to death and as if they didn't particularly care that she was close to a mental breakdown. The most the reader gets is Harry having a strained conversation where he asks her if she's still supporting him despite his lack of support for her and trying to get her to acknowledge that Ron is right, only blithely acknowledging how broken she comes across in that scene.
** I apologize if you thought my comment was about your legitimate original post. I was responding to the self-righteous, why-isn't-everyone-perfect whining of the first reply.
** They're 13 year old boys almost completely oblivious to emotions so it's not that crazy to think that they would react like they did.
** Maybe neither of them could tell the difference between over emotional and falling apart. It’s subtle, and someone who is falling apart would try to keep themselves composed. On top of that their fight never was meant to go on as long as it did and so neither Ron nor Harry thought it would do enough damage to her emotions that they would be in danger of losing her like before. It was a stupid fight that would end when she apologized, not a friendship-ending one. Surely if she had been hospitalized and real danger was perceived they would have forgotten about the fight for her sake.
** They're thirteen years old. At that age you think your parents are the most vile rotten people in the world simply for grounding you. Hermione started avoiding ''them''. They were still mad at her at the time and admittedly the way she went behind their backs was pretty uncool. She never thought of talking it out with them before going to tell [=McGonagall=]? It's Harry's property, so she should have at least respected him enough to give him some say. They felt she was in the wrong and wanted her to apologize to them. And she was too proud and stubborn to do so. Notice how when Harry gets the Firebolt back he goes up to her and he's giving her the opportunity to apologize. And again when it looks like Crookshanks ate Scabbers, Hermione initiates the separation. She loses her temper with Harry when he says his opinion that the evidence pointed to that. She jumps down his throat and yells at him for "siding with Ron". He could have been trying to patch things up but she didn't want to listen.
** It should also be noted, however, that Hermione isn't innocent. She is hiding the fact that she has a time travel device that she's using to be in all classes, which itself is taxing her, but she doesn't want to admit it. Crookshanks' first act in the story was chasing Scabbers, and when Ron finds his bed covered in fur and blood, the LOGIC explanation is that her cat (since she's the only one who has a cat in Gryffindor, and they never say anything of Ms. Norris hunting Scabbers or entering their common room) did it, and she blatantly refuses to accept it, not to mention she fact she doesn't once entertain the idea of maybe, just maybe, using her time turner to try and save Scabbers (and that would lead her to find him biting himself; maybe not discover he's Pettigrew, but certainly find there's something odd about Scabbers)! While she has a point at worrying about the Firebolt, she'd rather run to a teacher than first talk with Harry; if Harry had been a numbskull and ignored her advice, THEN she'd have an excuse to go running to Prof. [=McGonagall=], but as it stands, she simply didn't trust Harry the same way he trusts her with almost everything (if anything, that's what always pissed me off with Hermione on that part; seriously, Ron might be a bit of a ditz, but Harry is smart enough to listen to Hermione's advice, so her acting like she can't trust him is EXACTLY like the Order of the Phoenix', and is such FridgeLogic my brain hurts with Snarl). But Hermione, through the series, has a bad case of thinking she's the smartest cookie in the pot, that she's always right by default and that she has the responsibility or the right of making everyone act correctly; it's a trait that's been present ever since the first book (i.e. her trying to reprimand Harry for getting the Nimbus 2000 by breaking the rules). Hermione, funnily enough, can be a meta-example of Gryffindor's negative traits without making her TheBully or TheScrappy like Cormac [=McLaggen=] and Romilda Vane; arrogance, recklessness, short temper, self-righteousness (seriously, even if she's a BookWorm, she acts like she's a freaking prefect). So while Harry and Ron may have been Jerkish towards her, she is not TheWoobie being mistreated by her ungrateful friends, but is also the reason why they're being Jerks by being a Jerk herself.
** While I agree that Hermione was in the wrong sometimes (like with the Firebolt), it seems like you're being a bit unfair with the time-turner bit. First of all, Hermione DOES have an excuse for not telling Harry and Ron about the time-turner: She was specifically told by [=McGonagall=] not to tell anyone about it. She was just following the rules and that's pretty understandable. [=McGonagall=] was said to have had great difficulty in getting Hermione the device, so it makes sense as to why Hermione didn't want to break the rules. Also, as trustworthy as Ron and Harry can be, they are children and children tend to speak before they think. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that at some point, news about Hermione having a time-turner would slip, and soon there'd be students wanting it/one for themselves, like Draco, for example. (And maybe not just students! I mean, imagine if Pettigrew found out that a thirteen-year-old girl had a time-turner who lived in the same building as him? It'd be pretty tempting, even for him.) Also, another one of the rules, I'm pretty sure, is that she should only use it for her classes and no other reason unless she has specific permission. At the time, Ron's rat wasn't worth going back in time for, especially when she doesn't even know the exact time it happened. After all, messing with time can be pretty dangerous. (Plus, god forbid a thirteen-year-old girl have flaws and problems.)
** And the Aesop of this particular section was that all three of them were in the wrong. Harry and Ron were wrong to shun their friend completely, while Hermione was wrong to play the victim and rebuff them. Hence why it matters more when ''she'' swallows her pride after Buckbeak is sentenced to death, and the other two follow suit.
** As for Ron, he thinks his pet is dead, assuming Crookshanks did it wasn't outside the realm of possibility considering the cat had been out for him since they first met him. Sure, he shouldn't have turned on her, but he's never been the most... emotionally developed of the crew. As for Harry, it's possible that he's mad at Hermione specifically because he thinks her fears are valid and is just upset that he didn't consider that possibility or maybe that he's upset that she didn't consider that talking to him would get the same results.
* I'll start with the whole 'almost died last year' thing. [[AngstWhatAngst Rowling doesn't do a good job addressing the traumas of previous years]] until ''Order of the Phoenix'. Ron almost dies from being smashed in at the end of that chess match but it doesn't matter, Harry is almost outright murdered by someone he trusted but this has zero effect on his trust of people, both Harry and Ron are almost eaten by Aragog's kids because of Hagrid's advice but their anger wears off in no time, Harry has a prolonged, horror-ridden confrontation with the basilisk while it is intent on killing him instead of just petrifying him... yeah, Hermione getting petrified for a couple weeks is nothing.
** Now onto the 'treatment'. Harry is mostly angry at Hermione because she betrayed his trust and went behind his back. Ron is angry at Hermione because his pet (his severely sick pet, which has been there for years) is constantly being attacked by Hermione's pet (an incomer that has been shown from its first appearance to be aggressive and mean-spirited) and not only does she wave it away with "That's what cats do" and do nothing to rein her cat in, but she also deliberately brings the thing into Ron's bedroom and sits it right next to her friend's pet - that last part is utterly unjustifiable; imagine if every time Hedwig saw Crookshanks she tried to murder him, and Harry brought Hedwig up to the girls' dorm (I know Hogwarts doesn't allow it but still) and despite Hermione repeatedly begging Harry not to he just brushed her off. Hermione treats Ron in particular terribly throughout third year and while I can see both sides in the Firebolt conflict she is unequivocally in the wrong with Scabbers v Crookshanks regardless of whether the plot bends itself to side with her or not. Hermione had an obligation to take steps to make sure Crookshanks will not encounter Scabbers. Granted, it's a mystery series and an observant reader will have noted things that were peculiar about Scabbers in the first place, but that doesn't change the fact that Hermione is arguably callous towards Ron in regards to his pet.
** There's a trend in the books where whenever Hermione is in the wrong, Harry and Ron are made out to be bad friends who are treating her poorly. Her behavior with Crookshanks is horrendous. Hermione knew from day one that her cat was a threat to Ron's pet. She bought the cat that had just attacked her friend to try to get his pet, but dismisses it saying it's fine cause the pets will be in different dorms. But what does she do? She ignores Ron pleading with her to keep Crookshanks away and keeps letting him loose around Scabbers. She outright takes Crookshanks to the boy's dorm, knowing full well Scabbers was there, and when the cat inevitably attacked her friend again trying to catch his pet, she gets mad at Ron for trying to get Crookshanks away from him. She was a horrible pet owner. Then, for all appearances, all the evidence pointed to her cat having killed her best friend's pet, and she gets mad at him. She point blank refused to apologize to Ron. If you're going to own a pet, you have to be responsible for its actions. If it breaks something, you're responsible. If it makes a mess, you're responsible.
*** Moreover, her behavior towards Ron is just horrible. She refuses point blank to apologize to Ron and gets mad at Harry for suggesting Crookshanks did kill the rat. The book keeps trying to make Harry and Ron feel guilty, then in comes Hagrid and outright shames the two of them for being bad friends. Ron says he'll let go if only Hermione apologizes (which is completely fair in this situation), but Hagrid shames ''him'' and says Harry and Ron should care more about their friend than brooms and rats. But what about Hermione then? Shouldn't she care more about her friends than her cat? She was the one refusing to apologize. And she continues that way until after Ron himself decides to drop it and say he'll help her with the Buckbeak research; it's only ''after'' Ron lets go of the grudge first that she finally apologizes to him. That's always what happens with Hermione: if Harry or Ron make a mistake, it's drilled into them over and over, often by Hermione herself lecturing them; but when Hermione makes a mistake, Rowling softens the blow so the blame is always partially thrown at Harry and Ron for being bad friends to her. Ron gets criticized for everything, including Hermione's mistakes, and characters never let Harry forget his (hell, in ''Half-Blood Prince'', they continuously ignore Harry's correct assumptions that Draco Malfoy was up to no good, pointing out again and again that he was wrong about the Department of Mysteries, so he's probably wrong now. Harry is constantly treated like he's wrong throughout the series, and not just when he's being oppressed by the Ministry's smear campaign).

[[folder:Best friend ever, worst teacher ever.]]
* Okay, this is admittedly based on the film, but, what the hell was Dumbledore smoking when he made Hagrid a teacher? Hagrid is a nice bloke and loves magical creatures, but he is complete pants at teaching. If a competent teacher had been placed in charge of magical beasts, then Buckbeak would never have even been in danger (nor any of the kids; honestly, it was lucky it was just Draco that got hurt, due to his being the DesignatedMonkey).
** I don't see how this doesn't also apply to the book, but in either version, Malfoy only got attacked because he didn't follow Hagrid's instructions. Hagrid warned them to approach hippogriffs in just the right way and to not insult them.
** Well, it could apply to the book, but I have only seen the film. Anyways, a good, decent, or competent teacher would have gone over the theory [[ScareEmStraight at length]] and made it clear that Buckbeak was a dangerous creature, and taken measures to ensure that if the kids did something dumb (i.e. [[YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb being kids]]), then they wouldn't get hurt. Not just said it was dangerous, then proceeded to plonk a student on its back and sent them off for a nice little jaunt. That kinda undermined the whole "dangerous" thing and replaced it with "can do this really cool thing", so it's amazing that it was only the blond ponce that decided to go pet it after that. Dumbledore knows Hagrid has always had problems treating dangerous animals too casually, and yet he puts him in a position where he can encourage others [[ShmuckBait to be equally casual with deadly beasts]]. [[TemptingFate Accident waiting to happen]].
** Well, the "only Malfoy approaching" part was just the movie. In the book, there were a bunch of Hippogriffs, and after Harry approached Buckbeak and showed that hippogriffs are safe if approached carefully, the other students all gathered around the other Hippogriffs. Malfoy's was the only injury because he was too arrogant to pay attention to the lesson.
** That's just Hogwarts. It's a dangerous place full of eccentric professors because a series about a safe school with normal teachers wouldn't be as fun.
** Just remember, they are all wizards, and what may be a pretty serious injury to us may just be a scratch in the wizarding world. They do have blood replenishing potions, skeleton growth potions, etc., etc.
** Yeah, in the book they point out that Madam Pomfrey healed the wound instantly. Draco is just whining and making a huge deal out of it for attention and to get Hagrid fired.
** Hagrid isn't that bad a teacher. He said explicitly "do not disrespect Hippogriffs, they will kick your ass." The only time he effed up as the Magical Creatures professor was with the Skrewts, but if you remember his Thestral lesson, he seemed perfectly alright until Umbridge showed up.
** Exactly. Go into a chemistry class, listen to the teacher say, "OK, there's some nasty stuff in here, be careful", watch someone perform an experiment successfully, then stroll up to a vial of concentrated hydrochloric acid, say "You aren't dangerous at all, are you?", then drink it. Should the teacher be punished for your idiocy?
** He will be. He's responsible for you, while you're in his class. Why do you think is Snape so intolerant to klutzes?
** But realistically, what else could the teacher have done? Not let them work with [=HCl=]? It's the same logic here. In a lot of classes, things can get dangerous (and have in the past - Neville fainted during Herbology, it's a miracle no one got injured in the first year when they were all left alone with their broomsticks [and Neville DID get hurt], Dueling Club got out of hand fast even with Snape presiding), so I assume there's quite an emphasis made on following directions.
** With this particular case? Probably not so much. But chemistry classes don't start with unsupervised experiments with concentrated acids. If I recall correctly, we didn't touch anything worse than soda solutions for several months after we started lab practice. And that's what a ''good'' teacher, or a ''decent'' teacher, or even just a ''competent'' teacher does: he starts with safe stuff and does it in a controlled environment, where he can quickly intervene and prevent any mishap. That would allow him to get to know his students, and learn who can and who cannot be trusted with nastier stuff. In short, that's what Lupin did.
** There have been hints (such as an anecdote in ''Beedle The Bard'') that Hagrid's predecessor made Hagrid look tame and cautious by comparison. A good case can be argued that anyone willing to teach a subject like Care of Magical Creatures has to have a different definition of "dangerous" than most other people.
** Hagrid's predecessor, Kettleburn, had gotten into probation for, like, sixty times due to his reckless actions. Make that of what you will.
** I make of it that Hogwarts' HR department is staffed by monkeys.
** Hagrid has been at Hogwarts for about fifty or so years. He's been acting as game keeper and knows the forest inside and out (to an extent) so he's quite well versed in the various creatures. And being a half-giant he's well qualified to defend students against creatures that might get violent. Hagrid ''does'' know his stuff and it's unreasonable to not expect one or two hiccups in his first year as a teacher. People miss the point that Hagrid was clear with the class about what not to do: don't insult a hippogriff and be careful. They also have a matron on staff who can heal most wounds in an instant. Malfoy's arm was fixed in a minute and there's no mention of any serious injuries in class.
** Uhuh, so well versed in fact, that he was surprised when the swarm of huge man eating spiders he bred turned on him the moment Aragog died, and that was after they'd nearly devoured two kids he sent to them. And what exactly are you saying, that it's ok if children get hurt from their teacher's glaring incompetence (see the chemistry analogy above, "was very clear" my posterior), as long as they can be quickly restored? Well, I'm sure Madam Pomfry could've easily healed Harry's scars Umbridge caused him if he'd bothered to ask, so I guess her "punishment" wasn't that bad?
** And remember when Grubbly Plank subs for Hagrid? Their first lesson, she shows them unicorns. So Hagrid isn't the only [=CoMC=] teacher who has no problem with showing them a creature up front before they've read about it.
** Yes, a safe creature. Which is what a good (or just, you know, a sane) teacher does. They understand the difference.
** The Hippogriffs are potentially dangerous, yes, but as mentioned, Hagrid did clearly tell everyone NOT to insult a Hippogriff and how to approach them. He showed them all how to handle them with Harrys help and when it looked like Buckbeak would dislike Harry, he said Harry to go back carefully. The whole lesson was a success until Malfoy screwed up on purpose. And if you take into account which kind of creatures Hagrid normally likes (Norbert, Fluffy, Aragog), Hippogriffs as a start where outright harmless. And in case of emergency Hagrid would have been able to protect the students if a Hippogriff started to act strange.
** The fact that the Hippogriffs are potentially dangerous is what showcases how bad Hagrid is at his job as a teacher. As mentioned above, he could have started out with harmless creatures and moved up to dangerous ones as time went by, all the while checking his students out to see who are the more qualified ones to deal with dangerous creatures further on. The Hippogriffs can be friendly, and Malfoy got hurt because either he was too smug and stupid or it was his plan all along to get Hagrid in trouble, and it was less likely he could have gotten hurt with harmless creatures, plus there is nothing to say that less confident students, such as Neville, wouldn't have been afraid and panicked and in said panic offend the Hippogriffs. It was also stated that his substitute, Grubblyplank, gave more proper lessons and that all the students enjoyed her lessons, with the exception of Harry, Ron and Hermione, and they only disliked them due to loyalty to Hagrid. And from here and in following years, they even show that while Grubblyplank still gives proper lessons whenever she subs for Hagrid, Hagrid eventually also gives lessons with harmless creatures but he's going through the motions and is clearly not into them because he finds harmless creatures boring, just helping to further showcase how terrible he is as a teacher that he only wants to give classes with dangerous creatures that can and do harm the students.
** Exactly. The equivalent would've been a driving teacher "very thoroughly" explaining to his first-time students the details of extreme driving... and then shoving them into a live race track. Because you see, he's a speed maniac and he finds all that baby-step drudgery on the stage boring. Or, in the show's term, skipping all that Boggart nonsense and inviting an ''actual' Dementor to help train Harry cast the Patronus spell.
** I've always had the impression that Hagrid, being half-giant, is a bit more durable than the average third-year, hence why he has no problem with playing with monster spiders and dragons like puppies, and has a hard time understanding the danger we frail mortals are in. No one is saying that Hagrid doesn't know his stuff- on the contrary, he's perfectly qualified to tame hippogriffs and take care of dragons. ''Teaching'' others how to do it? Heck no. Bring it back to the Chemistry Teacher analogy: just because you can work in a lab setting and make marvelous scientific breakthroughs does not necessarily make you qualified to teach chemistry to High Schoolers; along with proper knowledge of chemistry, a proper teacher would need the skills to put together a curriculum, make sure the students are doing things safely, and knowing how to keep order in the classroom. Hagrid has essentially handed the strong acids to twelve-year-olds without much more safety instruction than "don't spill it".
** So you read the books or watch the movies? Snape’s Potions class have several students burn by explosions, Hooch’s class has first graders flying around in brooms over hundreds of meters, not to mention Quidditch is the school’s favorite game and is pretty dangerous even for the audience, Neville almost die during one of Sprout’s herbology classes, Lupin in DADA has the kids fighting a living shape-shifter monster. Hagrid seem to be one of the most responsible teachers in comparison and maybe the one that care for the student’s safety the most (especially compare with Snape). Is a magic school! dangerous in general, Hagrid’s class seem to be one of the least dangerous all things considered.
** The only time I recall anyone burned in Snape's class was when Harry blew up the potion as a diversion for Hermie to steal the ingredients (Our hero, everyone, throwing acid in his classmates' faces to pull a heist). Hooch's class and Quidditch are yet more examples of glaring idiocy and lack of proper safety technique. "Neville almost die..." When was that? If I remember correct, the worst he had was fainting. "Lupin has the kids fighting a shape-shifter monster" What? You mean boggart? You do know that, aside from scaring, it's completely harmless, right?
** Fine, but then again a hippogriff does not seems to be more dangerous than a regular horse or an ox, many schools in the world have classes involving large animals, here in my country we have especial schools that teach farming and have teens dealing with bulls and cows and the like (I'm pretty sure other countries must have that too), also I'm sure horse riding is a class in many British boarding schools. So what's the big deal? Even for real-world standards handling large mammals similar to hippogriffs in high schools is not unheard off, for such a dangerous school like a magical school [where the nurse can re-growth bones, mind you] it's probably even less of a worry.
** That's some pretty hardcore schools you have there)). I honestly have never seen or heard of anything like that, so I'll take your word for it. But tell me this. Would those schools have their 13-year old students handle an adult ox or horse ''on their first class''? Or would they maybe start with chickens, bunnies and like, then move to calves and ''only then'' to adult cattle? The same with riding lessons. Do they usually start with ponies or unbroken mustangs? The point is, nobody here has a problem with presence of dangerous animals per se - it goes with the subject, we get. But the ''handling'' was completely backwards and unprofessional. Nor was it Hagrid's only or worst failure, mind you. After the Hippogrif incident he instantly falls apart and wastes the rest of the year on some stupid worms. So, what, he didn't have a prepared and approved curriculum, and DD just gave him, a rookie teacher, a carte-blanche to teach whatever he wants however he wants? And the next year he drags students into his unholy ''monster breeding'' experiments. Still "no big deal"? And then there was Grawp. And before that there'd been Norbert. And before that - the Acromantula. All clear indications that Hagrid has serious issues, and he should not be allowed to bring children and animals together anymore then a pyromaniac should be allowed to arrange fireworks at a birthday party. In other words, Hagrid is [[WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers Bob Belcher]] of education. He's got passion and affinity, but sorely lacks everything else - discipline, pedagogic skills, academic knowledge and mental capacity. Hell, ''his own students'', including the clearly biased Trio, disown him as their teacher, do we need to say more?
** But again, things in context. We are talking of a school that has 13 year old been teach how to fly and how to make potions that can change the shape of your body or explode if they're not done right. It will be like asking if will be ok for a school to have kids learning how to use a jetpack to fly around isn't it?
* Snape once told the students they had to make an antidote because he was going to poison them soon, he's not a good teacher, which is shown when the average students who struggle in his class suddenly start getting average marks the moment they are under the instruction of someone else...but that doesn't necessarily make Hagrid good. The school has disappearing steps in its stair cases which could easily lead to broke arms or ankles, its inherently dangerous...but that still doesn't mean starting with Hipogryphs was the correct way to go about it. Hagrid was told what exactly what he had did wrong even though Draco Malfoy's injury was his own fault. The bewildering thing is that it should have ended at that. "You had a dumb kid in your class, this is how you organize a curriculum if you want to keep dumb kids from getting hurt, do this next time." There was no reason to execute the hippogriph once it was established it could still be safely handled when approached correctly.
* You could argue that Hooch is the worst teacher because she let first years unsupervised with access to flying brooms, but this is Hogwarts. Every subject is inherently dangerous - brewing the wrong potion (especially if Snape makes you drink it), Neville somehow switching his own ears with a cactus, every bone in Harry's arm disappearing, falling from great heights during Quidditch, a Mandrake's cry which at least leaves you unconscious; not to mention special events like a Basilisk which luckily only Petrifies people left and right but the school is open and Dementors checking the Express and the Triwizard Tournament (which had no age limit before ''[=GoF=]'') employing dragons and cockatrice (and none of the champions know beforehand) or even the disappearing stairs. Perhaps Hagrid should have started with something safer (though I understand wanting to draw in people on his first lesson with an interesting creature) but he is hardly the worst teacher - he did taught them the most important thing about Hippogriffs, everyone did as he told them and they didn't get hurt and only Malfoy's usual arrogance wrecked the lesson. If anything, Hagrid is among the better teachers, as unlike Snape or Lockhart or fake!Moody he's neither abusive or incompetent or willing to use an Unforgivable curse on students.

* By all accounts, Hagrid was an ideal choice for the subject. It was only because Malfoy deliberately ignored the warning that anything went wrong, and even then he reacted with more concern than Professor Sprout had with Neville.

[[folder:Wormtail - The TRUE Dark Lord!]]
* How did a nincompoop like Pettigrew manage such a powerful spell, and, more importantly, why don't we ever see this "magic hand grenade" used later, except maybe for the time [[spoiler: Fred]] got killed in DH? You'd think that in a massive battle, it would be even more effective than Avada Kedavra.
** I always figured that Pettigrew was rather more talented than he let on (after all, he ''did'' manage the animagus transformation, which is supposed to be insanely advanced magic and can't have been easy even with help from James and Sirius); being the quintessential DirtyCoward, though, he'd want to make himself look as harmless as possible unless backed into a corner. As for why nobody else used it, I'd imagine something like that would be a bit hard to ''aim'' and could just as easily take out your allies as your enemies.
** Well, Pettigrew managed to aim it precisely enough to make it look like he was blasted, yet not actually harm himself.
** If it was exploding outwards from behind him (how I always imagined the scene, what with the "wand behind his back" reference), there's no reason it would hit him, and it would also make it look like Sirius just indiscriminately blasted everything in front of him.
** Or perhaps he has strong reflexes and was relying on turning into a rat just before the blast, so the blast would hit where his head would have been if it weren't all of a sudden much smaller and lower to the ground. He was, after all, in a desperate situation -- if he didn't get away, it was virtually certain that either Sirius would kill him or he'd be taken to Azkaban for the rest of his life -- so it's conceivable that he'd be willing to take the risk.
** I just figured that he legitimately hit a gas main with his spell, causing it to explode. It would be ironic, at least -- that the fake story fed to the muggle press was the version of events closest to the truth.
** My impression was if Pettigrew could pull off a spell like that but be considered "talentless" by Black, that Pettigrew could commit manslaughter of that magnitude but opted to run from Black and spend nine years in hiding, then Black and everyone else he's hiding from must be hardcore (a little disappointing only a few Death Eaters lived up to the hype).

[[folder:Lawyers? Even the Ministry Has ''STANDARDS!'']]
* Why would the Trio have to help Hagrid with the trial of Buckbeak? They know nothing about the law -- couldn't Hogwarts spring for a lawyer? Why didn't Dumbledore or one of the other professors help? And why was Hagrid required to speak in the defense -- he doesn't own Buckbeak, Hogwarts does -- Dumbledore or one of the governors should have.
** Well, D does get Hagrid himself off the hook, doesn't he? Apparently, that's the best he could do.
** The Wizarding World doesn't seem too keen on defense attorneys. Harry doesn't get one in Book 5, DD has to force his way into the hearing. None of the Death Eaters shown in flashbacks seem to have them either.
*** Harry's trial in book 5 was an attempt at a kangaroo court. Dumbledore was Harry's lawyer, but Fudge decided to move the trial a few hours earlier in order to keep Dumbledore from being able to get there in time. However, Dumbledore predicted they would do something like this and got there even earlier.
** Yeah, the main problem is that we don't know how the Wizarding Justice System works, especially when it comes to magical creatures. Hagrid might have just been an advocate for Buckbeak, or a character witness. We also don't know that no one else tried to help Hagrid, or if he even asked anyone for help. One or more of the other teachers might have lent a hand when they had a free minute, but they probably weren't too terribly concerned about the fate of one hippogriff. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if Hagrid demanded to be the one to defend Buckbeak over Dumbledore or any of the Governors. Hell, the Governors probably would've said "It attacked a student? Let it hang."
** You'd think that, since the Wizarding Justice System became such a major point in the later books, J.K. would have at least attempted to explain how their laws and government work, you know, beyond, "There's a minister of magic, and he's a useless, power-hungry bureaucrat".
** [[SarcasmMode Yes, having a complex legal system explained in detail it’s a perfect idea for a children’s book]]
** Also, would it be unreasonable to assume that Hagrid isn't getting help from the teachers or a lawyer? We see everything from Harry's POV. There's no reason to think that Hagrid didn't have a lawyer or was getting help from the teachers but let the trio help anyway either because he wanted all the help he could get or because he knew that they'd kick themselves if they couldn't do anything to help so he let them play defense attorney for their sake more than his.
** Well the animal itself can't go on trial. Buckbeak is in Hagrid's care, so he's the one who speaks for him.

[[folder:Has Scabbers outsmarted the Map?]]
* How come Fred and George didn't notice Peter Pettigrew being on the map? Since they'd been there longer, you would think that they would know more names of people in the school than Harry would, so they might know quicker that it wasn't anyone who attended, right?
** It's not like being at Hogwarts a particularly long time makes you familiar with every single student. At the start of his fifth year, Harry had never met Luna Lovegood, even though she had been attending since his second year. If you saw a perfectly ordinary name on the Marauder's Map, would you assume it was a student you hadn't met or an Animagus Death Eater in hiding?
** Also, the map is big. Unless Peter happened to be in the corridors they intended to snoop through, they might not have seen him.
** [[WordOfGod Word of God]] has answered this on her official website; it can be found in the FAQ.
** "It would not have mattered if they had. Unless somebody was very familiar with the story of Sirius Black (and after all, Sirius was not Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's best friend -- indeed, they never knew him until after he escaped from Azkaban), Fred and George would be unlikely to know or remember that Peter Pettigrew was the person Sirius had (supposedly) murdered. Even if Fred and George HAD heard the story at some point, why would they assume that the 'Peter Pettigrew' they occasionally saw moving around the map was, in fact, the man murdered years before? Fred and George used the map for their own mischief-making, so they concentrated, naturally enough, on those portions of the map where they were planning their next misdeeds. And finally, you must not forget that hundreds of little dots are moving around this map at any given time; Fred and George did not know everyone in school by name, so a single unfamiliar name was unlikely to stand out."
** I hate to challenge the FAQ, but her version of events seems incomplete. Peter Pettigrew was given an Order of Merlin for 'bravely defying Sirius Black to the end', so the events are public record. And given that 'Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban!' has been the headline news event all summer, the name "Peter Pettigrew" should be in common wizarding knowledge all of fourth year unless we assume that despite running 'Sirius Black: Threat Or Menace?' articles for months on end, the Daily Prophet has never once mentioned what crimes Sirius Black was put in prison for in the first place. Even for the Daily Prophet's famously low standards of journalism, that would still seem to be a bit too low to be believed.
** They did know who Peter Pettigrew was. When Harry finds out that Sirius supposedly betrayed his parents Ron tries to calm him with saying, "Do you know what Pettigrew's mother got when Black was done with the guy? A single finger and the order of Merlin, because that was the biggest part of Pettigrew they could find.", adding that he knows this from his father who worked at the Ministry already then and he told them after much prodding probably after Sirius escaped and the kids bombarded him with questions for juicy details.
** Except that the map would show "Peter Pettigrew" and "Ronald Weasley" right on top of each other, nearly 24/7. Even if Fred and George weren't looking for the secret passageways, they must at some point have needed to find out where Ron or the Trio were, and they would see Pettigrew with them. It doesn't make any sense that Fred and George wouldn't put 2 and 2 together and realize that Scabbers was Pettigrew.
** [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190909041258/http://i43.tinypic.com/219xy1i.jpg This image suggests the brothers are just]] open minded.
** They're looking at a map, not security cameras. Assuming the twins ever bothered to spy on their brother, it would almost always show several people practically on top of him. There's only so much room on a two dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object full of thousands of ever-moving trackable people. The only time it would ever be obvious would be if he was right in front of them with Scabbers in his pocket (pets don't go everywhere with their masters). Hell, even if they did notice Peter was with him so much when they couldn't see him, they might have just assumed he had a secret boyfriend he was trying to hide. Percy had spent a year trying to hide the fact that he had a girlfriend, after all.
** This may work to explain how Peter Pettigrew was never discovered in waking hours, but what about at night when everyone is in their room? I may not have been to a boarding school, but I'm quite certain that you do not normally need to share a room with, say, hundreds of students. And by the way the books describe it, it seems there are only a handful of students that share a room, and along with Ron and Harry, only Neville, Dean, and Seamus appear to be sharing the same room, and George and Fred do know all of these boys (if not personally, in name's and appearance's sake).
** At some point, you would think that the twins would be sneaking out at night (and am I not going to accept the possibility that they wouldn't sneak out... after breaking practically every rule in the book, how could they have not snuck out after hours?!) and when they consult the map they wouldn't have seen the name "Peter Pettigrew" in the same room as their brother. Hell, let's go one step further and point out that the nights Peter as Scabbers was sleeping in that room at night instead of scurrying about the castle, that he was even sleeping in the same bed as Ron (much to the disgust of the poor boy when he realized his pet rat was a balding man). How could the two mischief makers Fred and George not only have not noticed that Ron's and this "Peter's" name is suspiciously way too close together, but to have resisted the urge to tease their brother about this? Please explain how they would not notice an additional name in one fairly decent sized room that should only have at most FIVE boys occupying it. Even on a small two dimensional magical map, this feat should not be too hard to accomplish, unlike trying to find one name among thousands of moving names in a narrow corridor.
** Also, why didn't they notice that Scabbers' name never appeared on the Map? Mrs. Norris's name does, so we know that named pets aren't exempt.
** "...they concentrated, naturally enough, on those portions of the map where they were planning their next misdeeds." In the two and some years Ron goes to school and F&G have the map, we never hear any hint of them pranking the room. The only time they even go into the room is to wake the boys up on Christmas Day, an event which doesn't require looking at the map.
** [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-marauders-map.html This HP Lexicon essay]] offers a possibility - the map focuses itself on the areas most likely to be relevant to the user, in this case Harry or F/G: their immediate vicinity, teachers' offices and quarters, etc. If it showed the common rooms at all, it might only focus on people of particular interest to mischief-makers, perhaps going a la Facebook and saying "Percy Weasley, (prefects' names), and 117 others are in here."
** Yep. Indeed, the twins themselves said they didn't use the map much anymore, else they wouldn't have given it away in the first place. From their comments, it sounds like they used it to find secret passages, not spy on people.
** Ron didn't have Scabbers with him all the time, he was probably in the Common Room or the dormitory most of the time during classes. And though Scabbers did sleep in Ron's bed, it's doubtful Fred and George would ever think to check that room while they were about their mischief. Even on the off chance that Ron happened to catch them sneaking out, they would have just told him to go away. They'd be more likely to see what Percy was doing, so they could avoid him.
** Does it say that Scabbers/Pettigrew necessarily was sleeping in Ron's bed every night? Potter only notices him on the map himself because he was out prowling and saw Pettigrew's name wandering the corridor.
** Did Harry notice Peter's name in the book? I think it was just in the film.
** No-Prize Explanation: The name on the map used to be Scabbers. It was only that year when the name started showing Peter Pettigrew again, because Peter's identity returned as his fear of Sirius and Crookshanks overwhelmed the mellow pet personality he'd assumed for himself over the years. In short, he had been BecomingTheMask as Scabbers, and come Sirius's escape, the mask came off.
** For all the twins knew, ''Sean or Dean'' could've had a pet named "Peter Pettigrew". We don't know whether either one of them had a pet at all.
** We know that Arthur Weasley told Ron about Peter Pettigrew's finger, since it was Ron who told Harry about it. And Arthur had equally good reason to tell the rest of his family, including Fred and George. Now, whether Fred and George saw fit to listen to him is another story.
** Don't forget - Gryffindors sleep in a tower, with rooms stacked by years following a stairwell. Maybe names are always on top of each other if (logically) the beds are in the same spot on every floor.
** All the explanations above have the same flaw - they adhere to the following sequence: *Twins don't have the Map* - ??? - *Twins use the Map exclusively for pranking and focusing only on secret passages and such*. But let's return to Step 2, namely what happened immediately after they found the Map and figured out how to make it work (note, it doesn't have a manual on it). What would they do? Test it! Examine it thoroughly! And where would they start? Naturally, with the parts of the castle they already know well and can verify, i.e. their Common room! And what would they see? Exactly, an extra person, whom they at best never heard about, and at worst know as the gallant hero and martyr of the First War, Peter Pettegrew.
** Fred and George had two years at Hogwarts before Ron and Scabbers came. They probably had finished experimenting with the map before Peter was on school grounds.
** "Never heard about" shouldn't raise too many alarms, because even within the houses not everyone knows everyone. For example, Harry didn't meet Romilda Vane until his sixth year, and they're both Gryffindors.
** She's a girl and Harry's a SociallyAwkwardHero. Twins hardly had that problem. If anybody ever knew everybody in their House (if not in the whole school), it would be them. Not that it matters, the simple fact of there being more people on the Map than there were in the room should've raised their interest.
** Um have to point out that Scabberd wasn't even NEW to the family when Ron got him, Scabbers was Percy's pet rat BEFORE he became prefect so that means from Nov.2? Nov 3? 1987(maybe 1981-since for all we know it could have been Bill's pet before Percy's)-1990 Percy had it the twins start going to school in 2 years in fall 1989. The twins get the map in 1989..? and Percy has the rat for at least one more year between 1989 and 1991.
** FridgeBrilliance: Every time we see Harry notice someone's name on the Map, they're always moving around. Possibly the Map doesn't routinely apply names to dots that aren't moving, as stationary occupants of the castle aren't as relevant to its function - showing a clear path to wherever there's mischief to be carried out - than those who are roaming about and might cross the Map-user's path. And how did Scabbers spend 99% of his time at Hogwarts? ''Sleeping'' in Ron's dorm.
*** So if Filch is standing somewhere ''keeping watch'' rather than roaming around, you run smack-dab into him-?
* Peter, Sirius, and Remus are all only seen on Marauder's Map when Remus opens it and leaves it open on his desk for Snape to find, even though they've been wandering around the castle all year. The Marauders enchanted the Map so that only they could see each other on it as a safety measure.
* I seem to recall WordOfGod having said something similar to: to see a person in their Animagus form on the map, you must have knowledge of that person's Animagus form. Probably an extra trick added by the Marauders themselves because of their own illicit Animagus-ing. So Fred and George wouldn't have seen "Peter Pettigrew" on the map because they didn't know about his Animagus rat form. The movie complicates this significantly, because in the film Harry is the one to spot Peter on the map for the first time--recall that Scabbers had gone missing before Harry was given the map, so he wouldn't have seen him earlier and wondered why the map said there was an extra person in their dorm room that clearly wasn't there. But in the book, Lupin is the one to find him, after he's confiscated the map from Harry. Thus, Fred and George would never have been able to see Peter on the map and never had occasion to wonder who this strange person in their brother's dorm was, even if they had cared to look. Lupin found Peter because he already had knowledge of his Animagus form, and no one else found him before that point because they didn't.

** Let's face it, the Map is probably the greatest security device that Hogwarts has but doesn't know it has. Also, the Peter situation does make sense. It seems like the kids are only looking for things on the Map that are immediately beneficial to their current situation. Harry hones in on Draco and Ginny only when he particularly wants to know where they are and what they're doing. He hones in on Snape and Filch when he is planning to break school rules and wants to check where they are so they don't catch him. The Weasley twins probably wouldn't need to look for Ron so they wouldn't see who is with him. Unless they looked in this book, I'm not sure the name would mean much. Sirius and suspected Death Eaters had been out of the news for some time and they were young when Peter's faked death occurred. Had they searched for Quirrell at any point in the first book, they would have found him with "Tom Riddle". "Bartemius Crouch" came up on the Map constantly in ''Goblet of Fire'', with Crouch Jr. only avoiding being discovered because he could circumnavigate the Map's one weakness of not be able to tell apart two people with the same name. Sirius would have appeared on the map and where he was in ''Prisoner of Azkaban''. Four severe infiltrations in four years (three of the four are suspected to be dead at that point by the vast majority) of the allegedly the most secure building in Magical Britain would have been spotted immediately if an adult of responsibility in Hogwarts had thought to do what four teenagers did. The Map is so powerful that it even circumvents the Unplottable nature of Hogwarts as Harry uses it when he is not at the school. It's a brilliant piece of security.

* Remember, the Map also shows the names of ghosts as they move around the castle. Even if Fred and George were aware of Peter Pettigrew and had seen his name on the map, would it really be that strange for a dead, heroic former Griffindor to spend its time haunting the tower?

[[folder:The Strange Case(s) of Peter Pettigrew]]
* It is established that the reason Sirius knows where to find Wormtail is that he recognized him from the newspaper photo. Now, I can buy that Sirius would be able to tell the difference between his friend's animagus form and any other rat, but the picture wasn't of Scabbers, was it? It was of the entire Weasley family, and Scabbers was sitting on Ron's shoulders. And they have a big family. You may have been able to identify Scabbers as a rat, but he'd have been tiny. There's no way the differences between RATS are going to be visible at that size. I seriously doubt they'd have noticed the missing toe, either.
** A couple of points here: Some rats are bigger than people think. In the movies, Scabbers is shown to be about the size of a 3-month-old kitten. Secondly, wizarding photographs move about, and interact with the wizard holding the photograph (as seen in [=OotP=] with Moody telling people in the old Order photograph 'Move along, one side' and the like to show off all of the old Order). It's possible that he saw the rat that was familiar, asked Ron to step forward with the rat in the picture, and got a clear view that way. It's not just the missing toe that gave Peter away; in their school days, they used to run around at least once a month with each other for the better part of at least 2 years. It's like recognizing a human friend in a photograph from a distance. You get the idea you might be wrong, and you need a closer look, but you get that pang of recognition.
** Indeed, male domestic rats can weigh upward of half a kilogram. I should know, I've held one that was - he's so big, he has to be held in two hands.
** Also keep in mind that the Dementors have been "eating" his happy memories and forcing him to dwell on Peter's betrayal. It's not just a hazy memory of what his buddy looked like as a rat, it's all he's been able to think about for 12 years.
** If that's not good enough, consider that maybe it being Pettigrew was a stroke of dumb luck. I doubt being around mind-raping demons is good for your mental health. Maybe with Sirius being unable to think of anything but Pettigrew's betrayal, saw a rat, fixated on the possibility of it being the traitor and boom. The missing toe on Scabbers would have only fueled that obsession (would he have seen the rat in enough detail in photo to see the missing toe?). The fact that this rat would be at Hogwarts with Harry only made things worse.
** Also, remember just how much time Sirius spent with Peter. To an outsider, two grayish/brownish rats would probably look the same, just like two roughly same-sized black cats would. Yet I can usually tell the difference between ''my'' black cat and some random other black cat even from a considerable distance, because I saw that kitten grow up. Same thing here, Sirius is so used to how Rat!Peter looks, he can easily distinguish him from some normal rat, even from a distance/small picture.
** Moreover, the newspaper picture is an animated one. Even if Scabbers looks like just any other rat, his ''mannerisms'' may have been familiar to Sirius. He had weeks to watch the little rodent fidgeting about on Ron's shoulder.
** And aren't Animagi established to have markings that resemble their human form? Both [=McGonagall=] and Rita Skeeter have markings that resemble their glasses, and Pettigrew has his missing toe. Harry and co might not have picked up that 'Scabbers' has different features because...well...[[YouDirtyRat they're hardly going to have lots of rats to compare him to]]. So Sirius could recognize these markings. And as another troper mentioned, maybe it was just a hunch that he was lucky enough to be right on. It would explain why he kept a distance and took months to finally confirm it was Peter (he could have been using Crookshanks to work out if there's something off about the rat).

[[folder:Traitor]]

* Neither the Potters, nor Lupin, nor Sirius ever figured out that Peter had turned over to Voldemort's side. True, they probably didn't pay much attention to him, but surely someone would have recognized that something was wrong? In Lily's letter to Sirius that Harry finds in DH, she mentions that Peter was acting odd last time he visited, and it makes sense that she wouldn't know why given that they didn't spend much time together. But James and Peter spent nearly their entire Hogwarts careers together -- don't you think he would have been able to see that Peter was seriously off the mark? Or is Peter just that good of an actor?
** People lie successfully all the time. That one's not even something we see take place in the continuity of the series, we just find out about it about after the fact, so I don't know how you can find it badly done/hard to believe. You might as well say the books are at fault for not explaining exactly how Aunt Petunia met and married Uncle Vernon.
** Also, if Lily didn't know Peter all that well, it's entirely possible for her to describe "acting odd" when, to James, he was acting the same as he always was for the past 7+ years. Peter is clearly a frightened person. While it doesn't excuse the betrayal of his only real friends or the glee he obviously took from the bullying of Severus Snape, he probably hid behind James a lot and James would've been used to seeing a jumpy Peter. Peter being more jumpy than usual during a time of war wouldn't have surprised James. Lily would've only have gotten to know Peter well for at least three years, more depending on the exact age difference between Harry and his parents. (I'm under the assumption James and Lily were 20-21 when Harry was born, but that's due to something I read long ago. I've recently read they were 25-26, but I'm not sure which is correct.)
** Besides, Lily is the type who sees the best in people. Look how long it took her to ditch Snape. Even seeing that Peter was acting strange, she probably wouldn't jump to the conclusion that he's a Death Eater.
** I can't remember what was said from the films, but in the book, Lily doesn't say he was acting oddly at all. He said that he 'seemed down', but rationalizes it as probably being due the news about the [=MacKinnons=], something she cried all night when she heard about, according to the letter. Harry, who unlike Lily knows that Peter was a cowardly douche, assumes otherwise.
** Also everyone knew Pettigrew ([=McGonagall=], the Marauders) described him as stupid and cowardly, which are poor traits for a spy and would get them caught quickly. Its possible that nobody suspected Pettigrew due to [[BeneathSuspicion incompetence]] rather than lack of loyalty
** At any rate, who says that Lily doesn't know Peter? Sure, she may not have been close with him when we see them in school in HBP, but they've had years to become friends. And it's worth noting that Peter was one of James's best friends, just like Lupin and Sirius, and she became good friends with them. There's no reason to believe that she was any less of a friend of his as James or Sirius was at this point. Maybe the fact that she realized something was off but didn't put 2 and 2 together is exactly why James or Sirius or Lupin didn't figure it out.
** And they're in the middle of a war where friends are dying everywhere. It makes sense that he'd be acting a little down.

[[folder:Lupin discovering the traitor]]

* Until Lupin saw Peter Pettigrew on the Marauders' Map, he, like the rest of the wizarding world, had believed that Sirius Black betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort. Lupin seems oddly calm about having his entire world-view shifted in just an hour or so - even though he's considered the OnlySaneMan to a bunch of (mostly) [[AdultsAreUseless useless adults]], that seems to stretch AngstWhatAngst to its limits.
** It's possible that Lupin always suspected that something was off. Keep in mind, he knew something that no one else did: Sirius's and James's loyalty was such that they would risk a highly dangerous act of magic in his service. Peter was along for the ride, for the most part. So he can't rectify the image of Sirius that he's always had with the image of Sirius turning to Voldemort. Which would make him feel guilty, especially since he probably wouldn't be able to imagine Peter as the courageous hero he made himself out to be in his last moments. Then he sees Peter's name, and he sees that Peter ''didn't'' die. And the already shaky image he has of Peter as a hero falls apart. I imagine him being more relieved than angsty: he didn't underestimate Peter, he hadn't gotten himself killed for James and Lily; what else could he have been wrong about?
** Besides, take note that Sirius didn't act as a bloodthirsty murderer either. He didn't kill anybody when he had a chance in the boys' dorm. Lupin was already confused and unsure in anything by the moment of Reveal. Finally, even seeing Peter's name on the Map didn't immediately transcribe into "Pete's a traitor" for him. Only when learning about Peter's time as Ron's rat, did he understand everything. So in fact the "shift of world-view" was rather gradual.
** Lupin has spent most of his life waking up naked and bloodied in the woods every month, wondering what happened last night and if ''he'' just killed someone. If anyone's going to be able to adjust to disorienting circumstances quickly, it's Lupin.
** If you read the books, you would know that Lupin didn't "spent most of his (Hogwarts) life waking up in the woods. He woke up in the Shrieking Shack.
** Six or seven years is not "most of his life", and the Shrieking Shack wasn't available to him once he left school.
** No but is hinted in the books that after school he still took precautions when transformed, like lock himself probably somewhere else, it’s very unlikely that he just let himself wander around when transformed, besides it’s also mentioned that the Ministry keep track of werewolves to make sure they won’t harm people. Fenrir Grayback was considered a rogue werewolf because he didn’t comply to the Ministry’s security measures.
** Again, something that we have to realize is that we see almost everything from Harry's POV. Who's to say that Lupin took it in stride? When Harry first tells him about Pettigrew, it's as Harry is leaving Lupin's company and Lupin's only reaction is denial. It's possible that he spends the next few hours combing the map hoping both to find Peter's name and hoping not to at the same time. Then when he finds it, he goes into a {{Heroic BSOD}}, all of which would have taken place away from Harry's POV.

[[folder:Pettigrew and Crookshanks]]

* If Crookshanks was such a threat to him in his rat form, either physically or because the cat's actions might eventually cast suspicion upon him, why didn't Pettigrew ever do something to stop Hermione's pet from pursuing him? There must have been times when both Scabbers and Crookshanks were left behind in the dormitory while all the students were in class. So why couldn't Peter have returned to his human form and snuck into Hermione's room long enough to stun or kill Crookshanks? That would protect his life and his secret, while denying Sirius the help he needed to get past the Whomping Willow. He could even set things up for Sirius to take the blame for Crookshanks's death, if he left the doors to the Gryffindor dormitory and Hermione's room open a bit, so it looked like Sirius broke in again, and found the cat wandering loose in the common room.
** Boys cannot enter the girls' dorms. Maybe the staff is exempt, but Pettigrew wouldn't be.
** So use his rat-form to lure the cat into the common room when nobody's around, then revert to human when it tries to pounce and kill it. Even if he's a coward, we're talking about a full-grown man letting himself be terrorized by a cat, for pity's sake!
** Yeah, except Crookshanks is half-kneazle, is intelligent, so much so that he was able to partially communicate with Sirius and help him out, and he knows something is fishy about the rat, if not that it IS an Animagus. Crookshanks is not going to be stupid enough to let Pettigrew get the jump on him.
** Also, dead cat in the common room? Or inexplicably vanished cat? Could potentially lead to unfortunate questions and perhaps a risk, be it ever so slight, of discovery. Pettigrew has played it safe and stayed in rat form for more than a decade; he's not the type to do anything that might even look like it could potentially lead to him being exposed. Much safer then to fake his own death; everyone knows cats eat rats so this would come with its own handy explanation.
** For what it's worth, Crookshanks only usually attacks whenever he's with Hermione. So Peter can't do anything then. Crookshanks doesn't ever seem to go after him when he's not with Hermione. And clearly Peter thought faking his death was more convenient than killing the cat. For one, he doesn't have a wand, so he can't transfigure the cat into something else like a bug to be squashed. If he wanted to get rid of Crookshanks, he'd have to kill it the old fashioned way - which is anything but fool-proof since he needs to get the cat alone and to a place where he can kill it without any of the children noticing. Sure if he wanted to use magic he could steal a wand, but then again that leaves a lot more chance for things to go wrong. So faking his death is much simpler.
** And here's food for thought - maybe since he's been a rat for so long he's forgotten how to turn back into a human. He only turns back because Sirius and Remus cast a spell that forces him to.

[[folder:It's pronounced "Stoo-puh-fye"]]
* What is the point of putting someone in manacles when you already know they can shrink down to rat size? And why make one of the people holding the prisoner's restraints be the kid with the broken leg? If they'd simply fed Pettigrew a couple stunners and then levitated his unconscious carcass along like they were doing with Snape's, then even Lupin's wolfing out would not have ruined the whole thing. Or, hey, if they didn't want to risk the stunners wearing off, they could have just put Pettigrew in the Full Body-Bind. Hermione had only learned that one in first year.
** Word. In fact I can practically envision Lupin or Hermie (i.e. present people with brains) looking at the safely tied up and unconscious Severus, then at the conscious Pete in his stupid manacles and saying: "Guys, something tells me we're doing it wrong."
** Maybe Peter would have been able to transform and that would have caused the spell to wear off? They could have at least tried, though.
** I felt the same way. They spent 10 minutes on exposition when it would have been simple for Black to tell Harry who he was after, then transform Peter right away. Lupin stopping Black with "We need to explain everything to Harry first" is just stupid, even considering they didn't know Snape was there.
** Re: 'wearing off' -- we see in [=OotP=] that four simultaneous stunner hits will knock someone as tough as [=McGonagall=] down for hours. How many good guys were in that scene with working wands? Four.
** The Doylist reason is that Rowling hadn't invented the Stupefy spell yet, which doesn't appear until the next book. That doesn't excuse the lack of Petrificus Totalus.
** Or worse yet, the lack of Levicorpus, which they are ALREADY USING RIGHT THEN AND THERE IN THE VERY SAME SCENE, on Snape. There is ''no'' reason not to just use it on Pettigrew, too! He can't run away (in either human or rat form) if his feet can't touch the ground; Sirius and Remus especially should already know this, given how they used to prank 'Snivellus' with it when they were in school.

[[folder:Containing werewolves: you're doing it wrong!]]
* What was Dumbledore thinking when he devised the procedure to deal with Lupin's condition? An allegedly haunted house on the outskirts of a town, with a secret passage leading to it, with an open entrance on the school grounds protected by a homicidal tree? The hell? Even Voldemort would scratch his head at the contrivedness of this solution. It is blatantly unsecure, it's conspicuous, it adds another giant SchmuckBait to the place that already feels no shortage of them and most importantly, what's the point? Why not just a padded, soundproof room somewhere in the dungeons? Why not the Room of Requirement? Even if it has to be a separate building (which does makes sense, I guess), why not just cast the Disillusionment Charm on Remus and whoever escorts him there? And why not simply immobilize him after he transforms, so that he couldn't hurt himself?
** All I can say about the Room of Requirement suggestion is that it wouldn't work because Dumbledore didn't know it existed. The rest, however, I have no answer for.
** How was it "blatantly unsecure"? No one was ever able to get into the Shrieking Shack without being told about the Whomping Willow's secret by someone who knew. As for being conspicuous, sure, the Whomping Willow and Shrieking Shack would stand out, but who would assume that there's a secret passage under the Willow that leads to the Shack? That, and when the locals interpreted the noises Lupin made as the sounds of violent spirits, Dumbledore further encouraged the rumors to keep people from getting too suspicious. I feel that the dungeon idea could work just as well, but also feel that it wouldn't stop James, Sirius and Peter from getting past it. I do agree though that it would have made sense not to let people see Lupin being taken to the Shack. Finally, as for why they didn't immobilize Lupin during his transformations, they might just have been unwilling to chain him up like an animal.
** Why. Why go to all the troubles and create such an elaborate scheme that was threatening to come apart at seams once somebody starts snooping around? DD was lucky it were the Marauders and not some Slytherin, whose parents would've killed for such an opportunity to undermine his authority. Why NOT a dungeon cell? No, the Marauders would've never got there because, a) had it been done correctly, they would've never learned about it and b), that's the reason for the "keep guard while he's transformed" part. As for immobilizing Lupin, excuse me, but Remus was an animal during those times. And having a rabid, viral monster near a castle full of children is the absolutely worst time to be fastidious.
** I always figured that the Marauders found out that Lupin was a werewolf before finding out what was protecting the students from him (considering that Hermione could, I don't find this hard to believe) and that he told them how to get past the Willow afterwards. All they had to do then was learn how to become Animagi. Considering that's a hard piece of magic to learn, and they managed it, if Lupin got put in a dungeon cell, I can imagine the Marauders learning how to break Lupin out of whatever's imprisoning him there and modify the guards' memories so they're none the wiser, if he told them what to do. As for whether to keep Lupin immobilized or not, while it would have been wise to do so with the cell scenario, in the Shrieking Shack it seems he's too far away from humans to want to go after them, so it's not too necessary.
** "Imprisoning him there" should've been a locked door and DD standing in front of it. Personally. That was his school, and his bright idea to bring a monster into it. Would ''you'' feel safe if you knew that the only thing that is potentially keeping your child from a gruesome death is that the monster is "too far away from humans to want (not actually be able to - he is and nothing stops him, but ''want'') to go after them"? Who can say, how far is far enough for that? And then this point became moot anyway, when the Maraduers started bringing him close enough to people (please don't tell me they were keeping him in check, and thus it was Ok, just don't). And then Sirius sent Severus to the Shack to be ripped apart and do you still have doubts about the "unsecure" part? Again, DD was lucky that nobody with a malicious intent (of which there is about a quarter of the school) took interest in Lupin's ailment and decided to investigate. You said it yourself - figuring Lupin out wasn't that difficult, if you wanted to.
** I don't consider it anymore unsecure than the O.P's idea. Why? Because Snape got past it by being told how. That would work for either Rowling's plan, yours, or the O.P's (I don't know if the two of you are separate people or not). In fact, this is probably why Lupin's kept in a separate building when a werewolf: if someone does get in there, the casualties are limited to that person alone. Which is more dangerous; a werewolf running amock in a shack, or one running amock in a castle filled with children?
** 1) Remind me again, what exactly stopped the former from turning into the latter? No, "it just didn't happen, so that" is not an argument. BTW, if you read the OP carefully, you'll see that I admit the merit of using a separate building as an ''extra'' precaution. That doesn't negate my other points.
** 2) Yes, Sev was told. Not by some insider, mind you, but by a dumb teenager. Which is exactly the problem. "If Lupin told them what to do" is not a given - that he was able to is the sign of how weak the whole system was, despite being riduculously contrived (a hallmark of Dumbledore's designs, if you think of it). Revealing the "secret" wasn't even required, and becoming the animagi had nothing to do with it either. If Sev oversaw Remus being taken to the Willow, what would've stopped him (or any other snooper) from witnessing the complicated and arcane ritual of pushing a twig, which can be done with a first-year spell? I'm not even sure how couldn't he see it and why did he need Sirius to tell him (other then to set up a conflict between them, of course).
** If Lupin tries to go through the tunnel, he's got to get past the Willow (which starts moving again shortly after being frozen, according to p. 295 of the book) again, which would probably batter him to a pulp, if not kill him. If he did get past it in one piece, they could probably have locked and strengthened all the doors to the castle beforehand, so that he'd be unable to break in. And how do we know that they didn't do the same thing in the shack itself? Though I admit that this is just speculation. I do agree though that Dumbledore should have taken ''some'' steps to prevent Lupin from telling anyone else (and if he did, bigger ones), and that not doing so greatly weakened the whole protection system. I'm guessing he trusted Lupin not to tell anyone. As for the last point, yes I agree that taking Lupin to the shack unconcealed was a mistake, but as for Snape seeing them go through the Willow, how do we know that whoever was escorting Lupin didn't use Homenum Revilio to check for snoopers before stopping the tree? Again, this is just speculation.
** "...which would probably batter him to a pulp, if not kill him." - so either way DD would've got himself a corpse or a mangled victim, and I'd LOVE to hear him explaining to the authorities just how the hell did that happened. "they could probably have locked and strengthened all the doors..." - so, another layer of headache, even more threat of exposure, and even that guarantees nothing, judging by the number of secret entrances, and besides, what about Hogsmeed? "...didn't use Homenum Revilio to check for snoopers..." - would it reveal a distant person using a looking glass? Now, I hope, you see, what I meant by "blatantly unsecure". Not impossible - they'd used it, and it even "worked", because Rowling willed it, but it's akin to crossing a shasm via a flimsy suspened bridge, when you've got a perfectly good stone one just to your left.
** "''I'd LOVE to hear him explaining to the authorities just how the hell did that happened.''" Easy. All he'd have to say is "some kid was an idiot and tried to approach the Whomping Willow at night" or "some werewolf was an idiot and tried to attack the tree at night".
** Fortifying all the doors would only require putting an unbreakable charm on them, and if ''Goblet of Fire's'' to be believed, there's no way of seeing if one's there short of trying to break the charmed object. As for the secret passages, I always figured that werewolves lose their minds when they transform, seeing that Lupin says that Wolfsbane potion allows him to keep his mind when he transforms. So even if he found out about a passage while human, he might not remember it while he's a werewolf.\\
I do agree though that the Whomping Willow could have been replaced with something less conspicuous, like a large rock. And if you had to say a password to get through it, it would solve the problem with the spyglass. As for why DD didn't do that, I'm guessing he only concerned himself with keeping Lupin from harming anyone, and wasn't too worried about what would happen to his reputation if the secret got out. He's never been afraid of that.
** "Fortifying all the doors..." That leaves out Hogsmeade. But hey, I guess you cannot make it entirely airtight, oh wait, yes you can, put him in a dungeon cell, lock the door and stand guard, and you don't have to worry about the passages, or charms, or interlopers, or anything, and I still see no reason not to do it - only how DD's insane plan kinda sorta could be made work. Yes, I agree that it could. It doesn't make it less needlessly contrived.\\
"he only concerned himself with keeping Lupin from harming anyone..." Well, he failed at that as well, didn't he? Snape nearly got killed, Khorne knows how many people were put in danger during Marauders' little night trips, and if the secret got out, Lupin himself would've got the boot, and that is if he didn't actually hurt anyone. And all that for no reason.
** I thought I had already explained why DD had chosen not to keep Lupin in the castle: if he breaks out, he'll be a lot closer to students than he would be if he came out from under the willow. As for Hogsmeade, I don't know a great deal about how well JK's werewolves can detect humans, but at the end of ''[=PoA=]'', Dumbledore seemed content to let Lupin run around the Forbidden Forest when he did get out, which he probably wouldn't have done if Lupin was going to threaten any wizards. As for it failing, yeah it did, because of Lupin telling his friends how to get past it. DD never addressed that because he never found out about it until over a decade after they all graduated. And while I acknowledge that your werewolf containment plan would have worked, it could have failed the exact same way (Lupin telling people how to crack it).
** 1) ''How'' was Lupin going to break out of a cell that had no doors, only several feet of solid enchanted stone around it, ''and'' DD guarding it? Remus had no magical powers in his lupine form - he was just a big rabid animal (and AGAIN, I do not argue against using a separate building - I argue against every other part of the plan, which were so asinine they ended negating the good part). 2) ''What'' could Lupin possibly tell the Marauders that would help them bust him out, if he didn't know the password to the cell (because it would be wordless), and ''if DD was personally guarding it''? That's what bothers me - the problem was so trivial that the simplest solution would not have failed (or at least not nearly as easily), because there was virtually no room for failure until they went out of their way to create some.
** A couple misc parts. 1) "DD seemed content to let Lupin run around the Forbidden Forest...which he probably wouldn't have done if Lupin was going to threaten any wizards." I'd like to point out that the rationality of DD's decisions ''is'' the object of scrutiny here, so the argument "DD did it, which means it was a sane thing to do" is invalid by default. But I guess it is alright, the wizards would be wishfully safe, and the centaurs and unicorns... meh, you're right, buck them.
** 2) "DD never addressed that because he never found out about it until over a decade after they all graduated". Yeeeeeeeeah, this part. He knew. He couldn't possibly not know, and I don't even have to go WMGing. Even if we assume that DD would've left his secret werewolf without a watch, there's this little slip in "[=OotP=]": "I watched from afar as you struggled to repel Dementors, as you found Sirius, learned what he was and rescued him." There's no way around it. DD had surveillance in the Shack, he knew what was going on both in time of Lupin's youth and in the finale of ''[=PoA=]'', and he allowed both to transpire.
** 1) I never imagined that Lupin breaking out WAS likely to happen. That's why I said your plan would work just as well. Guess someone at Hogwarts must have figured that you can't be too careful. 2) If DD was guarding it, and there were no doors, all the Marauders would have to do is: have James sneak up close to DD while under the invisibility cloak, use a spell to make him fall asleep for the rest of the night (even he can't perfectly defend against a surprise attack), hide him somewhere Lupin won't be likely to go, open the room the same way that whoever put Lupin in there did, then have all the Marauders transform into their animal forms and take Lupin out. Once they're done for the night, they can shut Lupin back in, then put DD back where he was, and he'll wake up none the wiser.
** Misc points: 1) "the rationality of DD's decisions is the object of scrutiny here". Sorry, forgot about that. I entered this thread to find out why people thought DD's plan sucked, and you've certainly given me some reasons: namely why did they need a violent willow tree that you can find out how to get past with a spyglass?\\
2) All that quote proves is that DD knew what was going on at the shack in Harry's third year. There's nothing that proves anything about Lupin's time, and from what I remember at the end of the third book, DD tells Harry that Sirius had told him all about them being animagi, and that he considered it "An extraordinary achievement - not least, keeping it quiet from me." So right now I'm not buying that claim that he knew what was going on.
** Something tells me that if letting Lupin out demanded regularly assaulting their Headmaster rather than pushing a twig, it would've discouraged the Marauders at least a bit. If DD could possibly be sneaked up to and put to sleep by a teenager, then the war with Voldemort would've ended in five minutes with the victory of the later. And how the hell were they supposed to replicate a wordless spell? And AGAIN, inventing some (rather outlandish, if you ask me) way for the proposed solution to fail does not negate the point that it was still much simplier and more reasonable than the one they ended up using. 2)If DD knew what happened in the Shack in Harry's time, it means he did have some kind of surveliance there, and why would he have it except for keeping an eye on Lupin back in his time? If he ''didn't'' keep an eye on a freaking werewolf on his turf, then he's an idiot. Also, YOUR quote could be interpreted in the meaning that they managed to become the animagi wihout his privity - it doesn't say anything about their night escapades. And "keeping" doesn't mean indefinitely.
** More simply perhaps spells were cast on the shack to prevent people from going inside it from Hogsmeade - but they're not active anymore because Remus isn't using it.
** To answer the original question, Dumbeldore's set up acomplishes three things: 1)it keeps werewolf Lupin contained 2) it keeps the students from running into werewolf Lupin by accident as it takes deliberate effort to get into the shack and 3) it hides the fact that Lupin is a werewolf. That last one is one of the main reasons they couldn't just lock him up in the school. As soon as the student body learned his secret the parents would have forced him out of the school.
** Thing that bothers me is that the Wolfsbane Potion was available at the time, it was expensive and complex, but, he was, you know, at Hogwarts, why dumbledore never made some for him during his sutdent days is a mystery, especially when you consider that during ''VideoGame/HarryPotterHogwartsMystery'', which is considered canon, Lupin wasn't the only werewolf in Hogwarts at the time, Chiara Lobosca was getting Wolfsbane Potion, said potion, during his time as a teacher allowed him to sleep while transformed in his office, rather than setting him up in an abandoned house with full function.
** The Wolfsbane Potion wasn't avaliable to Lupin during his student years. It was a recent discovery ''after'' he left Hogwarts.
** One question would be when Dumbledore discovered (or created?) the chamber they used in Harry's first year to hide the philospher's stone. It was a large distance under the school and they could simply fly Lupin in there once a month. He would be all alone while a werewolf, unable to get to anyone and everyone else unable to get to him.

[[folder:Not like the Death Eaters all have identification tattoos on their arms...]]
* OK, it's mentioned several times that Sirius is believed to be TheDragon to Voldemort. If that's true, then why the hell didn't they check to see if this oh-so-important Death Eater had the Dark Mark when he was arrested?
** He was arrested for betraying the Potters and murdering 13 people. Whether or not he had the Mark was hardly important in comparison. Besides, with V dead apparently all the Marks faded.
** They didn't fade right away, nor did they fade completely. Dark marks were still present during the trials for other Death Eaters, including Snape.
** Maybe they did so and, finding none, concluded that Voldemort had opted not to slap an obvious "I'm-With-The-Bad-Guy" label on his Deep Cover agent.
** It is also stated that Sirus went to Azkaban WITHOUT A TRIAL.
** And it's not unreasonable for them to think he wasn't given the mark so he could be a double agent and spy for Voldemort.
** Where was it mentioned that the Dark Mark was still present during the trials? I don't recall that. I agree with the assessment that they faded quickly after the attack on the Potters. For that matter though, there's reason to believe that the Ministry didn't even ''know'' about the Death Eaters' branding. Otherwise, it would be shockingly easy to confirm or deny the identity of ''all'' accused Death Eaters, period. Ex: Ludo Bagman doesn't have the mark, but Barty Crouch Jr does. For that matter, at the end of [=GoF=], Snape shows Fudge his Dark Mark, and has to explain what it is and why it's there, strongly indicating that their presence wasn't common knowledge. By that logic, we can also pretty strongly conclude that the Marks did fade fairly soon after Voldemort's first fall. Otherwise, surely it would have been noted during their entrance into Azkaban that "Hmmm... All these people we've imprisoned for being Death Eaters mysteriously have the same Dark Mark tattoo on their left forearms. Perhaps this is an identifying feature, and thus something we can use as evidence to convict other suspects?"
*** However, IIRC, the defense of Lucius Malfoy et al. was NOT that they had never been Death Eaters, but that they had only acted under the influence of the Imperius curse. And I don't recall anyone saying that no one could have got the Dark Mark while under Imperius.
** When Karkaroff shows Snape the Mark on his arm in the potions classroom, Harry discusses this with Sirius in Hogsmeade. The exact text of that bit of conversation:
--->[-"Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was."-]
--->[-"He showed Snape something on his arm?" said Sirius, looking frankly bewildered. He ran his fingers distractedly through his filthy hair, then shrugged again. "Well, I've no idea what that's about'' . . . -]
*** It follows then that at the time Sirius went to Azkaban, no one knew about the mark on the arm. From which we conclude that no known Death Eater had been captured alive at the time, and the Ministry was guessing in the dark about who had been one. They learn about it between Sirius's imprisonment and ''Goblet of Fire'', because Snape shoves his under Fudge's nose for evidence, and seems to think that Fudge should have some idea of its meaning. However, ''even he isn't sure.'' He explains what it means, spelling out the brand in detail.
*** Ergo, I argue that the "Identification Tattoos" were relatively unknown at the time of the event in question, and not well known thirteen years later.
* ''Deathly Hallows'' confirms that only Voldemort's inner circle are branded with the Dark Mark; associates like Fenrir Greyback don't have it. Therefore, not having the Dark Mark doesn't assure that someone wasn't working for Voldemort.

[[folder: Hogsmeade children]]
* The village of Hogsmeade is small, but still has a fair number of residents. It would be illogical to assume that there isn't at least one child in the entirety of it. And since the village is only inhabited by witches and wizards, that means their kid(s) would most likely be magical. So, do Hogsmeade non-Squib children go to Hogwarts when they come of age? And, by that, do they have to go all the way to King's Cross when the castle is RIGHT THERE? Also, would they be allowed to pop home whenever they go on trips to the village after their third year? Or on holidays, would they be allowed to walk back and forth from the castle to the village?
** Most likely. Of course not. Most likely. Most likely.
** Well that last one seems unlikely, as the castle would be closed, presumably including the grounds. And why would they want to?
** I thought professors lived on castle grounds if they wanted to, not just on campus?
** Hmm in my school there was always a special dispensation allowed for kids who lived in the town where the school was. If they had a permission slip from a parent, they could go home for lunch or at least wander down to the shops. If there's a Hogsmeade child then maybe they get permission from parents to visit the village at weekends. Presumably they can't during lunch since it's quite a walk to Hogsmeade and they only have an hour.
** The professors do live in the castle. Most of them seem to be still there during holidays when the students are away. Presumably getting a free room at the school is part of the perks of teaching there. Not sure about the couple months of summer holidays though. It seems odd if they'd have other houses they'd only live in for a couple of months, but then again it also seems odd if they'd stay at the school when the students are gone.
** We learn in HBP that Snape lives in Spinners End when school isn't in session.
I would imagine if any of the teachers were married they probably don't live in the castle and more likely do in Hogsmeade, or even elsewhere and apparate back and forth each day.
** I assume at the start of term, students who lived in Hogsmeade went to Hogsmeade station and took the carriages/boats to Hogwarts.
** I agree that Hogsmeade children would simply go to the Hogwarts dropping off point, or even to the gates--save for first years who would go by boat. As for going home, students were not even allowed to leave campus to go to Hogsmeade until their third year. I would assume they would need their parents to pick them up in the first two years. After that, during the breaks, especially Christmas, anyone is allowed to go home so they could just walk with their peers to the station and then into town.

[[folder:How is a slashed arm worse than a coma?]]
* In book one, Harry missed out on the last game because he was in a coma for three days and the rest of the team had to play without him. In third year, Malfoy gets a hurt arm and manages to have the games rearranged. What the hell? How is it a hurt arm prompts a change and a coma doesn't? Given that they were probably aware that Harry would wake soon (given that they didn't have St Mungos take care of him, it shows they knew there wasn't any real harm other than exhaustion, why not delay for a week then decide that they can't wait too long for the final match. Why were the Slytherins allowed to postpone their match? I doubt the Gryffindors didn't ask, if only so they have a chance to get a replacement seeker and give them some rush training. What gives?
** Dumbledore needed to mollify the Malfoys in order to make them drop charges against Hagrid. Although that only accounts for the second part of the issue. Only Rowling knows why in world wouldn't they wait a couple days for a guy who (supposedly) saved the world or why wouldn't they have a back-up seeker.
** How is it that no one in the school noticed this? I mean, I would think at least Oliver would make a fuss, talk to his house and classmates.
** Consider that you are comparing Harry Potter, an orphan with no political power and minimal access to his wealth, to Draco Malfoy, the offspring of a freakishly wealthy Death Eater who has enough Dark Magic and political power that the Minister of Magic himself asks "How high?" when Lucius says "Jump". Also, Lucius used to be one of the school governors. He had quite a bit of say as to how Hogwarts is run up through the Basilisk attacks.
** Answer: Snape is a whiny arse who's willing to lie, cheat, and steal his way to victory, [=McGonagall=] isn't.
** Yes, which is why he reminds MG about the Firebolt, and how Gryffindor will lose without it, rather than keeping his mouth shut and having Gryffindor lose without it.
** Well back in the first year, the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw match was the last one of the year. Malfoy didn't have the game rearranged. He just had the opponents changed. Snape would hardly be above something like that.

[[folder: Marge, dear, you're overreacting]]
* Marge Dursley spends her whole visit insulting Harry and his parents... why? I can understand that she sees Harry like a burden for her brother and family but why she hates the Potter so much? She doesn't know about the magic and only met Lily and James one time (Vernon and Petunia wedding), where, according to Pottermore, their behaviour was flawless. Even so, she hates them more than Petunia and Vernon put together. Seriously, what's her problem?
** She's just your ISO standard Middle-England {{Jerkass}}. She probably sends letters to a certain blue top tabloid and signs them "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" (or where-ever she lives). In short she is the muggle version of Umbridge and her dislike for Harry is because (a) she is a bully, and (b) Harry is not from her family tree. Sadly these character types are not a rare phenomena, as the circulation figures for that certain blue top tabloid stand testament to.
** She, as well as the rest of the Dursleys, appear to be suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
** On top of all that, she's also drunk. So yeah, no mystery why she's ranting like an idiot -- she's three sheets to the wind and her brain-to-mouth filter has been entirely disabled.
** You've said it yourself. Marge only met them once, but she's undoubtedly heard stories from Vernon and possibly Petunia as well. The two of them would do their best to hide that they have a witch in the family, and Marge is definitely the type to pry about why Petunia rarely keeps contact with her sister. So Vernon has probably made up all sorts of lies about Lily and James - he tells Marge that James was an unemployed lout who scrounged off his wife. So for thirteen plus years, this second-hand (and biased) information is all she has and it's enough for her to develop her own image of what they were like.
** It seems unlikely that Marge would consistently be given information about Lily and James while Harry was growing up — why would she need an explanation why the Dursleys rarely see them if they’ve been dead for the last thirteen years? And even before that, how does she know that they rarely see each other? Plus, Vernon and Petunia are both characterized by how they don’t like to be reminded of Petunia’s frank sister and her husband, so that they would continually discuss them, even falsely, with another relative seems odd. The film even makes it seem as though this is the first time Marge has asked about Harry’s parents.

[[folder: Gringotts has no precautions against identity theft.]]
* All Sirius had to do to take money out of his vault was write a note that wasn't even in his name. He bought the Firebolt under Harry's name. And with a postscript that said "Use money from vault number 711." He also didn't show up at the bank- it was a ''cat'' (not even HIS cat) that brought a note in. And the order goes through. This is probably the most insecure method exchanging money possible, and a bank- the ''only'' bank in the wizarding world- accepts this. Keys? Who needs vault keys? Just write a note and stick it to a frog, it'll be fine.
** How did the goblins verify the authenticity of the note? Sirius obviously didn't give any information that could have led the authorities back to him. what if he just wrote some different vault number? Some poor wizard will just lose a Firebolt's worth of money?
** Password? PIN #? Verification question? Anonymous numbered bank accounts in real life use methods like this.
** Real banks also have to use a secured connection to transmit this password/PIN information, not a cat. I can accept Sirius being kind of out of his mind and not realizing that someone could just pick up the note off the cat and immediately have full access to his entire account. But it's stupid for the bank to accept it.
** My assumption is that the goblins knew it was Sirius Black, and didn't care (because they're still getting paid), but the order was placed to Quality Quidditch Supplies under Harry's name.
** Several other possibilities come to mind:
** Sirius sent a separate letter to Gringotts, under his signature, saying 'I hereby authorize/confirm the bank draft for X galleons you're about to get from Quality Quidditch Supplies, charged to my vault #'. He doesn't mention this to Harry because of ConservationOfDetail.
** Sirius' bank account, or one of his bank accounts, is not under his real name. So he can just sign his (assumed) name to the payment instructions without difficulty.
** [[AWizardDidIt Gringotts has access to some type of divination magic that lets them infallibly know by whose hand the ink was put on the paper.]]
** Maybe the bank account was actually the family Black account, since Sirius had inherited their house upon their death. So the goblins just assumed it was some other member of the Black family like Regulus.
** Hagrid managed to get the Philosopher's Stone out of Gringotts with just a letter and the key from Dumbledore. Presumably transactions can be authorized, and they have a means to detect forgery.
** Regarding the issue of why Sirius can go around using Gringotts like a law-abiding member of society, apart from having to use a cat as an intermediary: maybe since goblins have such a tenuous relationship with the Wizarding World (rebelling all the time, etc.), their own set of values, and the economic leverage to just do things their own way, they refuse to do things which the Aurors might wish them to do, such as reporting whether supposed mass murderers have been withdrawing money. Maybe since they don't have a voice in making the laws, they don't want to help enforce them? Or they're just stubborn on principle. Or they just generally don't want the human legal system all up in their business.
** I was under the impression that exactly that was the case. Goblins are loyal to their clients or, put in other way, they have an agreement with wizards and they don’t care if the client is a criminal or a fugitive for the wizarding society. Sirius is their client and can do whatever he wants with his money and his account, they don’t care.
** A point worth noting: even if there are procedures for freezing a convicted criminal's assets, Sirius is not legally a convicted criminal (since he never got an actual trial). And it would make perfect sense for Gringotts to insist on the letter of the law in cases like this.
** Uhh, guys? It was revealed in the sixth book that Sirius bequeathed all of his assets to Harry, wasn't it? If that includes the Black family vault, then the goblins wouldn't need any identification from Sirius - although he didn't know it at the time of the third book, Harry presumably could've withdrawn money from the vault entirely on his own.
*** It was revealed in the sixth book, because it was the result of Sirius's death in the fifth book. At the time of the Firebolt incident, Sirius's vault was Sirius's vault. Not Harry's.
** Simple. Sirius used the Black Family vault. I can easily imagine that old (and very rich, as the Blacks presumably are) clients can use some kind of code word if they want to do business per owl and not show up in Gringotts in person. The Blacks lived in London, yes, but some Wizard families (like the Malfoys, for example) live in the countryside, or maybe even outside GB, so it isn't a stretch to think that Gringotts offers mail-based services.

[[folder:Replacement Broom]]
* After Harry's Nimbus 2000 gets destroyed, he inexplicably lingers with buying a new broom. He doesn't want to buy a Nimbus 2001 because Malfoy's got one, which I can kinda understand. But why doesn't he buy ''another Nimbus 2000''? What, were they all instantly taken off production and in one year it was impossible to find one? That I find hard to believe.
** Remember that he didn't buy his 2000 in the first place, Prof. [=McGonagall=] did. It's a high quality broom even if it's no Firebolt, and may be too expensive for him to repurchase for now.
** Even if that's true, and his ''mountains'' of gold were not enough, that still doesn't explain why he couldn't buy the next best broom that he could afford.
** Two-counterpoints there. If he could afford a Nimbus 2001 (and as you pointed out, his dismissal of the idea is that he doesn't want to be like Malfoy, not that it's too expensive), surely he could afford a Nimbus 2000, as it's an older model and therefore almost certainly cheaper. Which brings up the second point - he doesn't consider just getting a replacement, because why get a broom that's at least somewhat inferior to your opponent's, if you could apparently afford a broom ''equal'' to your opponent's? Especially given that the whole Slytherin team is writing 2001s. He's planning to upgrade, he's just putting it off because it's painful to think about.

[[folder:Scabbers and Crookshanks feud]]
* Ron's anger with Hermione for the alleged death of Scabbers is Ron being a world-class git. One: Rats are not on the list of pets allowed in Hogwarts while cats are, so Ron's automatically in the wrong from square one regardless of what else is going on. Two: There are ''dozens'' of natural predators roaming freely around Hogwarts (owls) that eat rats, in addition to the housekeeper's pet cat, in addition to the pet cats that other students own. Scabbers is, to put it charitably, in a high-risk environment. In such an environment it is Ron's responsibility to keep his pet rat inside its cage, where it will be safe. If Scabbers had been a normal rat and not actually a shapeshifted adult wizard he wouldn't have lasted the first week without going down something's gullet. And three: Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brother, ''cats eat rats''. For Ron to act surprised, let alone morally outraged, because a cat allegedly indulged in what is entirely natural and expected behavior for cats is a massive entitlement complex. So yes, Ron looks like a total idiot in this sequence and why did Rowling write it?
** Ron Weasley's defining trait in this story is being a complete git and idiot. At least this time he had some ground for his outrage, even if shaky. Next book he will lash at his friend who saved his sister from certain death for ostensibly leaving him out of a prank no one with half a brain would ever believe Harry undertook in the first place. And the less said about his behavior in "Hallows", the better.
** Hermione's the one in the wrong here. Ron had some justification in that Crookshanks had repeatedly attacked Scabbers, and yet Hermione wouldn't do anything to control her pet. Hermione herself used the reasoning of "it's just his nature, cats eat rats", which still doesn't excuse her from making a better effort to keep Crookshanks away. Then when Scabbers went missing Hermione tried to blame it on some other circumstance when all the evidence pointed to Scabbers having been eaten. The truth turning out to be far more complex doesn't excuse her from making no effort to stop her own pet.\\
\\
Also, if rats were restricted from Hogwarts, Ron would have been forced to turn in Scabbers long ago. The cat/owl/toad rule is most likely just to keep students from bringing unusually exotic/dangerous pets (probably in response to Hagrid raising an Acromantula in the school). The pet vendor at Diagon Alley couldn't detect anything unusual about Scabbers, so it's likely too the teachers would have just dismissed Scabbers as an ordinary rat and not a danger to the students.
** Except that there ''is'' no practical way to keep a properly-trained domestic cat from chasing rodents. While it is true that some cats, due to upbringing, never actually make the mental leap that rodents are food at all, once a cat has internalized that lesson its going to hunt and kill everything that squeaks. The entire reason cats were domesticated by mankind in the first place was because they kept mice and rats out of the grain storage at a time when nothing else was able to, and it wasn't until the ''20th century'' that the primary purpose of keeping a cat became 'companionship and leisure' as opposed to 'pest control'. When Hermione says that "it's just [Crookshank's] nature" to chase rodents she is not being dismissive -- she is making an entirely literal and factual statement about animal behavior, just as if she's said "owls fly" or "dogs bark". So its either cage the cat or cage the rat, and while pet cats are not normally kept in cages pet rats ''are''. Ron is being too lazy to do what any rat owner is expected to do as a normal course of business, and then blaming Hermione for the consequences of his own failure. That's like not housebreaking your dog and then yelling at your roommate for failing to keep the carpet free of dog shit.
*** Your argument is a little like saying "There's no practical way to keep dogs from biting people, so if my dog bites someone, it's not my fault!" You even acknowledge that Hermione could put Crookshanks in a crate while she's not in the common room. Especially since the circumstances of Scabbers's "death" make it seem as though Crookshanks made it out of the girls' dorm and into the boys' dorm to get at him, not that Scabbers was running around in the all-access common room when he was killed. Hermione had evidence that Crookshanks was interested in Scabbers from the beginning - even if it's natural for most cats to eat rats, that doesn't relieve her of the responsibility to do anything to keep her cat in check.
*** As mentioned later on in this same thread, Hogwarts is full of cats (and owls and toads), something not shown in the movies probably due to budgetary constrains, but clear in the books. Call me crazy but I do think that if you own a rat in a building full of cats, it is kind of your responsibility to keep the rat safe.
** Also, the justification of 'the rule is being laxly and indifferently enforced, therefore its not actually necessary' fails generally as an ethical argument, and fails specifically in Hogwarts' case because the staff is singularly inept, haphazard, and biased about enforcing ''any'' kind of discipline standard. I mean, goodness, there's at least two canon instances where a student fails to be punished for ''attempted murder'' despite the staff entirely knowing about it, but that doesn't mean murder stopped being wrong.
** Jack Russell terriers were made to capture rats too but I don't see them at Hogwarts. The only dogs I see are Sirius's Animagus form, Fluffy (the Cerberus), and Fang (Hagrid's boarhound).
** Well yes Ron is being a twat. He's thirteen. But in his defense, he left Scabbers in his dorm. Hermione presumably kept Crookshanks in her dorm. So it looked like the cat had easily gotten into the dorm and Hermione had made no effort to prevent it from doing so. And let's face it - it's a tad dickish to buy a cat when one of your best friends has a rat for a pet too.
** I don't understand how anyone can defend Hermione here. I have to ask, what kind of person buys a cat as a pet when all you know about its behavior is that it ''attacked one of your best friends and tried to murder his own pet''? What kind of message does that send? How could anyone, let alone somebody as intelligent as Hermione, not realize that that would be a colossal dick move that would cause serious problems down the line? And it doesn't matter if keeping a rat is against the rules or if it's in a cat's nature to do those things, the mere act of buying that cat in the first place is one of the most insensitive things I can imagine doing.
** And Harry has an owl... another natural predator of rats, the monster! Truth is if most students are allowed only to have toads, cats and owls then there are already lots of natural predators that Ron should be worry about anyway. Is not shown in the movies but in the books it is said that there are a lot of cats in Hogwarts. Luna or Cho have one too if IIRC. Besides Crookshanks, as a cat-kneazle hybrid, is intelligent enough to not persecute her owner's friends' pets, if he did was because he knew it was an animagi. Granted neither Ron nor Hermione know that but in reality if Scabbers was an ordinary rat probably no problem would have happened, in a similar way to how Hedwig does not chase Scabbers nor does Mrs. Norris (because they probably are already trained not to).
** Above all, even after Ron thought Crookshanks had ''eaten'' his pet, he said he would've let it go if she would just apologize. And once Hermione did apologize, he ''did'' let it go! That's hardly Ron being unreasonable or a git. He just wanted her to take responsibility for the actions of her pet.
** This sounds a lot like victim blaming. Ron had Scabbers first, and Hermione buys a cat and continues to keep it around him even after it's tried to eat him (or so we believe). Hermione never attempts to stop Crookshanks from doing that, and tells Ron it's his fault for not expecting a cat to chase a rat. She even brings the cat into the dormitory, again giving it free reign to attack. And when it looks like Crookshanks ate Scabbers, she goes into denial and even snaps at Harry for siding with Ron when he tries to break the truth to her. Hermione was being a colossal callous bitch and playing the victim card, while being horribly ignorant of her friend's feelings. The only thing that keeps her remotely sympathetic is Harry and Ron cold shouldering her about the Firebolt and Scabbers turning out to be Pettigrew. It's thus more important that ''she'' be the one to apologise first. Once she does, Ron forgives her and immediately tries to make her feel better (the first thing he says is that Scabbers was an old rat unlikely to live longer). If you think about it from Ron's POV, he was angry because his pet had apparently been killed and one of his best friends didn't seem to care. So yeah, BothSidesHaveAPoint and both apologised and forgave each other.
** The feud is apparently because Crookshanks knows Scabbers isn't a real rat, Crookshanks is Half Kneazle, which are highly intelligent and have a sixth sense of untrustworthy things.
** First, the "it's natural for cats to hunt rats" excuse. Yeah, and it's natural for owls to deliver mail across the country too, right? Don't forget, the animals owned by wizards and witches are not average pets. They are familiars, virtually every animal in the series displays some unusual trait, whether we talk about Trevor's ability to escape no matter how hard Neville tries to stop him (about the only thing he's consistently shown to put effort into in the first two books), or Mrs Norris's quasy-telepathic connection to Filch, none of them are normal animals. So no, saying that Crookshanks couldn't have been trained to not go after Scabbers does not fit with the context of the series at all. Hermione absolutely should've at least tried to have Crookshanks get socialised with Scabbers.\\
Second, Crookshanks was consistently shown freeroaming the castle and grounds, so Hermione definitely didn't keep her promise to keep him in the girls’ dormitory. Not to mention that at Christmas she outright brought the cat into the boys’ dormitory, and when Ron immediately told her no to do so, she utterly ''ignored'' him, and then had the nerve to be angry at Ron for trying to kick the cat away from his rat, ''after the cat pounced at Ron with claws erect''.\\
Ron on the other hand carried Scabbers in his pocket, or in his backpack, or otherwise kept him locked in the boys' dorm, that Crookshanks at least once definitely have tried to sneak up into, because ''again'' Hermione let him free roam. So how exactly is Ron at fault, when he did take precautions to keep his rat safe, while Hermione repeatedly ignored blatant signs that her cat wasn't just simply following a hunting instinct and was in fact deliberately going after one specific rat?\\
While Ron definitely took his grudge way too far after Scabbers disappeared, don't forget it was not simply about Crookshanks presumably eating the rat. It was also about Hermione refusing to admit her fault and apologising for it. Seriously, just imagine this thread, if Ron had a dog that killed Crookshanks, after repeated incidents when the dog went out of its way to target the cat, and Ron did nothing to train it to stop. Noone would dare to say that Hermione should've been taking better care of the cat.\\
On a sidenote, Ron and before him Percy had no problem keeping Scabbers safe from the other cats (and owls) in the castle for years, so the excuse of "he shouldn't have brought a rat to a castle teeming with cats and owls" is beyond disingenuous.

[[folder:Forget the cloak, I'll be safer without it]]
* When Harry was rushing back from Hogsmeade after getting seen by Malfoy, he left his invisibility cloak in the secret tunnel. Why? Apparently he was worried that Malfoy had tipped off a teacher. But how could any teacher, even Snape, have caught Harry if he was invisible?
** Because they're trained, adult wizards who may or may not know about the invisibility cloak. Also, it encumbers his movement, and he was **rushing** back to Hogwarts.
** I'll concede that the teachers probably did know about the cloak. But even so, what could they have done? Guard the exit of the tunnel until Harry emerges?
** Why not? The cloak doesn't make him intangible. Just put some magical barrier around the exit and voilà. His only chance was to get back before Malfoy reaches Snape. Of course, eailer Snape clearly demonstrated that he knows about the passage, so only an idiot would use it after that, but that's beside the point.
** I don't think *any of the teachers* other then Dumbledore know about the cloak. There is the question about how would he be able to say what he did in book 3 in the Shrieking Shack?
** Harry outright says he doesn't know if the other teachers know he has the cloak - and only Dumbledore would know for sure. He does know that no one seems to know about the secret passage, so if he leaves it there, he can fake innocence.

[[folder:"There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."]]
* In the first book, Hagrid claims there's "not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin." But in this book, we find out that as far as he knew at the time, there was an exception to the rule: Sirius, who was in Gryffindor, and who Hagrid along with everyone else believed was very, very bad indeed. So why does he say that? And also note that Hagrid mentions Sirius loaned him the motorbike in the first chapter of the first book, so Rowling actually had some idea of Sirius being a character. Did she just forget later on while writing the first book, or was Sirius initially not going to be in Gryffindor or considered a murderer?
** It was a figure of speech on Hagrid's part (and Ron's in the first movie). Not ''all'' dark witches and wizards were Slytherins, but seemingly most of them were.
** Maybe Hagrid didn't entirely believe that Sirius was guilty, considering that they already knew each other.
** Alternatively, Hagrid didn't know that Sirius was actually a Gryffindor, and he just assumed he was a Slytherin because the Blacks had such a reputation for being a pro-Slytherin household.

[[folder:Keeping the Time Turner]]
* Why didn't Hermione keep her Time Turner after the events in this book? Yes, she promised to take care of it and was responsible for it and all, but given how insanely useful Time Travel is to resolve ANY problem, wouldn't it be a good thing to have in case, you know, the Dark Wizard in service to Lord Voldemort succeeds in resurrecting him and he begins a campaign of terror over Britain and kills the Minister of Magic and institutes a rule of evil pureblood supremacists? I know the possibility of that happening are [[SarcasmMode virtually nil]] but it seems to me like it might have been a useful ace in the hole to keep. And they even have a convenient magical felon to blame on the "missing" or "destroyed" Turner. And if the Ministry DOES happen to have a spell or charm that can let them track each Turner...I will remind you that Hermoine Granger has a time machine.
** She probably realized that it was more trouble than it was worth.
** At this point none of the kids think there's a war on the horizon. They don't learn that until the next book. Hermione probably didn't think she'd be in a situation where it would come in useful. And she did register to have one solely for taking extra classes - so if she's not doing that any more, she'd probably have to hand it back.
** Indeed, why would Hermie think she's likely to be in a situation where a time rewriting device would come in useful? She only had been attacked by a ravaging troll. And then an evil wizard tried to steal a powerful artifact. And then another evil wizard sicked a monster on people, including her, resulting in her spending half a year in a coma. And another evil wizard, and also one of the most powerful people in the country, got royally pissed at her friend. And then an innocent man nearly got executed, except she saved him using a Time Turner, which happened just a day before she realized "that it was more trouble than it was worth". Oh, and another evil wizard escaped justice and was then at large. And holy crap, I didn't even think that she could've said Sirius destroyed it! That's brilliant and instantly eliminates all the problems with the Ministry! Now this is even more glaring than before.
** Well Hermione is a stickler for the rules. And she was only given the Time Turner so she could do the extra classes. She dropped Divination and Muggle Studies because the workload was getting too much for her. So she'd have to tell the teachers she's dropping the classes, which means [=McGonagall=] will know she won't need the Time Turner - and will ask for it back. Hermione probably doesn't have a choice about keeping the Time Turner.
** No, she's not. Should've brought that up much sooner - that excuse holds no water at all and needs to die as much as those stupid pumpkins[[[note]]the ones Macnair smashed with an axe, which somehow proves time travelers cannot change the past, despite that happening because of them changing the past[[/note]] do. She's as much a rule breaker as the others, she's just the only one who feels bad and complains about it. She lies, she disrupts lessons, she steals, she lets her friends cheat on her, she cooks illegal potions, she partakes in after-curfew activities. You cannot tell me that after all that she would've suddenly hit a mind block regarding a device that had just let her save an innocent man from execution. Is everyone just ignoring that last part? Same goes for [=McGonagall=]. The potential usefulness of the Time Turner completely offsets any trickery she'd have to undertake to keep the thing in Hermie's hands, up to doing her homework for her. It's simply a matter of priorities.
** You're missing the point. Hermione didn't want the Time-Turner anymore because time travel was ruining her life. She doesn't want to use time travel anymore because she spent a whole year doing it and it made her miserable. She doesn't want to have to even think about the potential uses of time travel, even if it's not a daily basis for class anymore, because the whole thing has been an enormous headache for her. Saving Sirius was great but going forward she would like to live life like a normal person. Is this a character flaw? Maybe, maybe not. Is it a plothole or a headscratcher? Not really, because this is the explanation Hermione gave us herself.
*** But she didn't have to keep using it for attending extra classes. In fact, she wouldn't be able to. Because the legend would've been that Sirius Black destroyed it. So, obviously they would've kept it safely in DD's office in case of emergency, and she would live life like a normal person but with the knowledge of the massive ace in the sleeve they have.

[[folder: Lupin on the train]]
* Why is Lupin riding the train into Hogwarts? I know you can't Apparate into the castle, but why not Apparate into Hogsmeade, have a firewhiskey, and then walk or thestral-coach up and save yourself the inconvenience of a long train ride?
** Dumbledore asked him to, because he knew Dementors would want to search the train, and also to familiarize him with the Trio.
** Maybe he was dead tired and Apparating while sleep-deprived is a good way to get splinched. And maybe he didn't just get a good night's sleep ahead of time like a sensible person because of werewolf problems. Although I agree being there to keep an eye on the Dementor situation works better (since he also brought all that chocolate, presumably not to stuff his face with).
** Having just read this book, I recall coming across a statement that Lupin was poor and not well-off, as he wasn't able to find employment due to being a werewolf. Chances are, unlike the other teachers, he didn't have a means of travelling to the school anytime before the start of term, and his only choice (the only choice he could afford) was to take the Hogwarts Express with the students.
** Hmm for all we know, other new teachers sometimes take the Hogwarts Express. We don't know if Lockhart did, since Harry and Ron weren't on there. Moody didn't because he arrived late [[spoiler: after being attacked and replaced by Barty Crouch Jr]] held him up. Umbridge seems as though she would have arrived in advance to get her office ready (hers is particularly done up). But the next year Slughorn chooses to go on the train. I mean there might be at least one teacher on board in charge since there's seven years worth of students on there. It seems unlikely that all of them would be left completely unsupervised in case of an emergency.
** There is one scary thought about that train ride is that the full moon happened between Aug 31 and Sep 2 of that year. It was at 99% on Aug 31, 100% on Sept 1, and 99% on Sept 2. That could easily explain why he was so tired, but not why he would dare to take the Hogwarts Express so close to the time he changed into a werewolf.
*** The full moon only rises just around sunset, which is also near the time that the train arrives at Hogwarts. Since even the Wolfesbane potion doesn’t stop the transformation itself, I think we have to assume that only a completely perfect, 100% full moon is enough to bring on the transformation, not the 99% illumination phase it was in the day of the train ride. Otherwise, Lupin would’ve been cutting it way too close.

[[folder: Soul Eating]]
* How do wizards know that Dementors eat souls and not brain function or something? Are there soul detectors? Can they contact the afterlife? Did they ask the Dementors politely?
** It's entirely possible that they asked the Dementors way back when they first showed up. They're rarely inclined to do so, but Dementors ''can'' communicate with humans (hell, there was once a colony of Dementors who lived in peace with a Muggle village right next to them, they're not necessarily AlwaysChaoticEvil); it can't be through arduous and eldritch methods, either, because Cornelius Fudge could do it in this very book. Presumably, the first time a Dementor Kissed a wizard, the other wizards desperately asked/screamed "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" and the Dementors were only too happy to [[EvilGloating gloat]] and explain just how horrible their trump card was.
** I'm guessing it's something that's studied in the Department of Mysteries. There must be some way to communicate with the Dementors but we just don't know about it.
** They do know ghosts exist, and ghosts are the disembodied souls of the dead.
** Ghosts are imprints left on the world by departing souls, {{living memor|y}}ies that seem to largely resent their own existences. Point stands, except this topic is about Dementors and logic dictates that if ghosts were actually souls, letting Dementors loose in their dwelling would be kind of mean.

[[folder: Sirius and Wormtail]]
* 1.) So, after everyone thought that he'd blown up Pettigrew along with a street full of Muggles, Sirius was sent to Azkaban without a trial. But the book mentions there were witnesses Indeed, there would have ''had'' to have been witnesses for anyone beyond the scope of the event to have known what had happened. So does that mean that every person that saw the crime vouched that ''Sirius'' blew up the street, even though Pettigrew was the one who did it?

::2.) Trial or no, why would the Ministry of Magic rely on what was presumably a bunch of magic-illiterate Muggles as their only witnesses to a crime committed entirely through the use of magic?

::3.) The book also mentions that Sirius was found going mad with laughter at the scene of the explosion. Was this meant to be taken as true? If so, why would Sirius be laughing at what amounted to his friend trying to ''frame'' him?

::4.) Pettigrew used his wand to blow up the street behind his back, then transformed into a rat and escaped down into the sewer that had been exposed. Where in all of this did the whole "cutting-off-his-own-finger" bit come into play? After he got down into the sewer?
** Pettigrew also yelled to everyone in the street that Sirius had betrayed Lily and James. Presumably when Sirius advanced on him or reacted to that, then he blew up the street. He gets a couple of seconds where the blast confuses everyone, cuts off his finger with magic and then transforms. Sirius laughing isn't as crazy as you'd think. LaughingMad is a common reaction to immense stress or trauma. He clearly knew Pettigrew had transformed and cut off his finger, so the laughing was probably from the realization that he'd been planning to frame Sirius all along.
** As to why they convicted Sirius, everyone else knew Sirius had been the SecretKeeper. Only James, Lily, Sirius, and Pettigrew knew that it had been changed. So as far as the Aurors were concerned, Sirius was the only one who ''could'' have betrayed them. This includes Dumbledore himself. It's also revealed in ''Goblet of Fire'' that Barty Crouch Sr. was cracking down on Death Eaters to the point of giving Aurors free reign to kill if they wanted. Sirius was one of many who was either sent to Azkaban without a trial, or if they ''did'' get a trial, it was a biased KangarooCourt (like Crouch Jr.). If he'd had a trial, the truth would have easily come out, especially with Remus to provide testimony. But Crouch was so dead set on jailing as many of Voldemort's associates as they could, he didn't care about sorting the innocent from the guilty.
*** The thing that bothers me most about the entire scenario is not necessarily that Sirius never got a trial, but that no one is ever particularly concerned that he never got a trial. Rowling does this a lot in the books. She gives lip service to ideas like equality and justice, but we never see it in application. Like, sure, not all Slytherins are bad, but we aren't shown an effective example. And while the Ministry of Magic is awful, we never see any attempts to reform the government, only seeing less-jerky Minister getting elected. To modern day British and American readers, Sirius' lack of a trial would be a huge deal, yet this is never resolved, or ever addressed. Here's how J.K. seems to have dealt with it:
--> Reader: Well, how come they didn't just ask Sirius what happened? He'd have told them!
--> J.K.: Oh, well... He was put in Azkaban without a trial, so he never got the chance.
--> Reader: Oh, okay, that makes sense.
--> Troper: Actually, that's a serious breach of an individual's legal rights, and sounds like a huge problem!
--> Sirius: Oh, I'm not complaining. I got out, didn't I?
*** And don't forget that little bombshell about their only prison being staffed by ''demons'' that drive people insane, which is casually dropped and then never explored in any way other than the unpleasant experience the named characters have with them or their unreliability as guards. What's that, a grossest violation of prisoners' rights in history, which god knows how many people could've been sumbitted to for little to no reason, like Hagrid? Buck that, we have a Quiddich tournament coming!
** The magic of the Fidelius Charm does kind of make it only Sirius who could have betrayed them. His story about Peter Pettigrew being the one who betrayed them sounds pretty fantastic. And remember the context; Voldemort had just been defeated and the Ministry were rounding up all the remaining Death Eaters. Sirius was just one of many captured at the same time. And if you think about it, Peter had become something of a martyr for the Wizarding World - due to his apparently tragic death. It's not unreasonable to think that the authorities may have not wanted to believe that a symbol of hope [[BrokenPedestal was none of that]] in such dark and horrible times.

[[folder: Animagi in disguise]]
* In a world where people can transform into animals at will, without having to be registered in order to do so, shouldn't there be some method that would be able to tell the difference between a normal, regular animal and an actual Animagus? Especially at Hogwarts? A charm? Because by this logic, anyone in the wizarding world, good or bad, could potentially infiltrate Hogwarts with ease by just transforming into an animal as posing as a student's pet.
** That's what registration is supposed to do, as the animal's marks are listed among other traits. There presumably hasn't been much effort in inventing a spell, though, because Animagi are extremely rare and the user may just end up with a form ill-suited for infiltration. As far as we know, there have only been eight in the past century.
** Unless the animagus is unregistered and then registration won't do jack. Also, the fact that people like Pettegrew and Skeeter mastered it, hints that it wasn't that complex a craft.
*** What make you thing Pettegrew and Skeeter are bad wizards? In any case the number of animagus is clearly more than eight if they need to register and if three high schoolers could master it it is hard to think that is a difficult kind of magic, but is probably one of does talents that not everybody has like playing the piano. In a similar way how Snape is particularly good making potions.
** Related to this, shouldn't the teachers at Hogwarts who helped the Marauders become Animagi have known that they were Animagi? [=McGonagall=] was still Transfiguration teacher back then, wasn't she? Shouldn't she, at least, have been one to know about them?
** Who says any teachers helped them?
** ...I dunno, I just assumed they had to have had someone there to teach them how to become Animagi. Lupin regrets not telling Dumbledore that Sirius ''was'' an Animagus, and thus may have been using his canine form to get onto the grounds and into the school. He says he chose against it because it would've required him to admit that he went against Dumbledore's trust after Dumbledore let a child werewolf into the school. This would imply that the Marauders underwent the transformation by themselves - it was said to be such a difficult, years-long procedure, especially when they don't have a professor to help them out.)
** I always presumed that they could have easily asked [=McGonagall=] about Animagus theory as we know that it was covered in the Golden Trio's third year so perhaps the Marauders got the idea from the same class and could ask all sort of questions about it/had homework and list of approved works they could use without [=McGonagall=] becoming suspicious. And IMO the transformation seems more concentrated on the willpower and practice of whoever wishes to turn, as opposed to complex spellwork or potions. As for how difficult it's supposed to be that Pettigrew and Skeeter mastered it - Pettigrew had help from his friends and being bad at school subjects in general doesn't mean he couldn't have mastered something so complex, and Skeeter is at the very least incredibly driven in her career. And just because something is complex, it's not impossible - the Patronus Charm is fairly hard to do, especially as it requires a sufficiently happy memory to work but we seen plenty of people master it because they want to protect themselves and others - wand movement is not so difficult but you must be in the right state of mind (same as the Unforgivables) and ''that'' can be hard to master.

* Becoming an Animagus is more than just casting a spell, or learning a specific phrase. It involves rituals, focus, things like keeping certain plants under your tongue for a month. Even then, actually maintaining your own mind while transformed must be pretty hard. I wouldn't be surprised if 'failed attempt at conducting Animagus ritual' was a common cause of the Ministry sending out magic-reversal specialists.

[[folder: Moving in with Sirius]]
* Say Pettigrew hadn't escaped at the climax. How would Harry have been able to move in with Sirius, anyway? He was sent to live with the Dursleys because Petunia is his mother's sister, and thus, his relation to her helps to keep him safe from Voldemort and ambitious Death Eaters - Sirius being proven innocent wouldn't have changed the fact that he still needed protection. And it also couldn't have been because "Sirius was a skilled-enough wizard to keep Harry safe on his own," because there were already a ton of qualified witches and wizards Harry could've been sent to live with, in that case. I know this isn't too big an issue, because it never came to fruition anyway - I'm just wondering how it would've worked if it had.
** It wouldn't have worked. Harry would still have to stay with the Dursleys for reasons known only to Dumbledore then. Whether or not Sirius and Harry would get him to say why a few years early is anyone's guess.
** [[Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical "Harry, I am homeless. Can I live with you?"]]
** Sirius as the last male Black had Grimmauld Place all to himself. Yes he hates it enough to spend a whole year in a cave rather than there but for the sake of taking Harry in he surely would have swallowed his misgivings and pride.
*** Well as an aside, he may have gone to Grimmauld Place first after he escaped. He only hides out in Hogsmeade to be closer to Harry in the event of danger. Grimmauld Place is in London, while Hogwarts is in north Scotland.

[[folder: Hack that tree down!]]
* What's the point of the Whomping Willow now that Lupin is no longer at school? Even when he's teaching there, he has the Wolfsbane potion, which lets him just curl up in his office until the transformation's worn off...And all the Whomping Willow does throughout the books is cause pain and misery for the students, destroying the Weasleys' car, wrecking Harry's broom...Could someone just tap at that upturned root to neutralize it and then chop it down and get rid of it?
** It removes the C from [=C02=], giving everyone fresh air.
** It's also still guarding a secret passage, making it part of Hogwarts' defenses. And it's been there so long by now that Professor Sprout may have incorporated it into some of her Herbology lectures; RealLife botany professors often request that specific exotic plants be included in campus landscaping, specifically for that purpose.
** The passage they didn't need, so no reason not to collapse it, and "exotic" is not the same as "homicidal".
** How about in case another werewolf student has to be dealt with?
** Then they have the Wolfsbane potion for that.
** Clearly Dumbledore felt there might one day be a use for it. And students don't seem to go near the tree at all, so there don't appear to be any problems with them getting hurt (they do have a matron who can heal most injuries in a few seconds).
* I see the whomping willow as almost a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds since it's a living creature that was created specifically to cause pain and misery to anyone that comes near it. It was Dumbledore's idea to plant it, and I'm sure he feels remorseful for what the tree is forced to be, so he's allowing it to live (while making sure everyone steers clear of it) to compensate for what he created the tree to be.

[[folder: Swimming]]
* After escaping from Azkaban, Sirius swam all the way across the ocean to get back to the mainland? Isn't the prison located on an island in the middle of some northern European sea? Wouldn't the water have been freezing? How could Sirius have survived that trip?
** He did the doggie paddle ... I'll leave. In all fairness, the guy spent years managing to keep his sanity amidst soul-sucking guards, so he's got a fairly powerful set of willpower. Plus, he could transform into a shaggy dog. Maybe the dog's fur kept him warm.
** Dogs can resist lower temperatures than humans as they have an extra fat layer, and also swimming in open air, even freezing water, was probably paradise compare to be in cell for so many years.
** According to the wiki, Azkaban is in the North Sea. So it's not that far from the mainland. People have swum the English Channel all the way to Calais, so it's doable. And aren't wizards implied to be just that bit stronger than normal humans?
** Stronger, no. Tougher, more resistant to blunt force trauma, crushing and burning, yes. If anyone has any idea how that works feel free to elaborate, but if a wizard takes heat better than muggles, chances are they can take the cold too. Dementors lower the temperature around them. Prolonged dementor activity actually condenses water vapor, creating a depression causing fog from a muggle's perspective, and numerous wizards forced into close quarters with dementors are not suffering from the effects of long term exposure to cold, despite being too depressed for regular meals or exercise. On top of that, taking a dog form. Some breeds of dogs, such as labs and Newfoundlands, do remarkable well in water humans consider cold, and a grim, being a magical canine associated with death, would likely do even better. Low temperature and death are closely related in these books. For instance, contact with ghosts is compared to a cold shower.
** For what it's worth, Sirius escapes in the summer.
* Makes one wonder why nobody else had ever escaped Azkaban.
** Said prisoner would have to also be an Animagus who was also innocent of whatever crime they'd been thrown in for. Sirius says that he wasn't completely broken down by the dementors because he was able to keep his mind somewhat as a dog. Sirius's motivation for escaping was also the realization that the friend who'd framed him was both still at large and could potentially hurt his godson. So he was able to resist the Dementors because he had a unique ability and kept his mind long enough to ask for a newspaper and get his PapaWolf instincts flared.

[[folder: Secret-keeping woes]]
* So Lily and James decide to put their lives, their son's life, and the peaceable future of the world in the hands...of Peter Pettigrew. They decide to switch it from the hands of someone more capable, and without telling anyone, and for what? Why, because Pettigrew's such a spineless coward that a judgmental, mind-reading chessmaster like Voldemort wouldn't possibly suspect him! Now, not only did the members of the Order already know at this point that there was a spy amidst them, but the whole point of the Secret Keeper is that they keep the secret, so whether Voldemort knew who it was wouldn't have mattered if he couldn't get the secret out of them. And I honestly think that even Mundungus Fletcher himself would've been more tight-lipped than Peter-spineless-backstabber-coward-Pettigrew.
** In all honesty, that's hindsight speaking. Pettegrew wasn't a spineless backstabber coward back then. Remember, he was always a member of their inner circle, he went along with their dangerous animorph shenanigans and never ratted them out. Besides, Sirius was a reckless idiot, which in this situation is a far bigger liability than cowardice. His idea of keeping the secret was: "Hey, let that stupid Voldemort go after me, I will never tell him anything!" instead of "I will run to the end of the world and crawl into the deepest hole I can find so that he doesn't catch me and torture the secret out of me."
** He was the outermost member of their inner circle, and I know that it's mentioned somewhere that he only got in because [[NiceGuy Lupin]] brought him to Sirius and James and vouched for him - Lupin calls himself out on this later. And you can't say he wasn't even the slightest bit spineless or a coward, since the reason Sirius switches the role over to him was because he was the spineless outermost member that Voldemort would never have expected the Potters to entrust their lives to.
** Except that it was Sirius talking. Makes me wonder if this attitude (which he hardly kept a secret) influenced Peter's decision in any way. Also I don't recall Lupin mention bringing Peter in and vouching for him.
** Also, how is "Let Voldemort hunt me down and torture me - I'll never give him the secret, anyway!" worse than "I'll run and hide from Voldemort because I'm scared of him finding and torturing me!"?
** It's worse because it's stupid and empty bravado - V would've got everything he knew out of him, there's absolutely no argument here. And because Sirius was too stupid to Obliviate himself, that would've included Peter's name, thus voiding the entire charade. I wonder if that also influenced Pete's decision. He's a goner either way, and these people are clearly idiots, so they won't last either - might as well save everyone the troubles.
** According to Pottermore, the Secret can't be tortured out of the Keeper. It has to be given willingly.
** Awesome. In that case changing the Secret Keeper makes no sense at all. If Sirius kept the role and was willing to die in it, the Potters would've been safe, but all that switching to Peter did was bring him under the strike, since, I presume, V could've still tortured Peter's name out of Sirius. Also, as usual, Rowling sets the rules without giving a bit of thought over how easily they can be bypassed. "Ok, Black, I will not torture you. Instead we'll see how many of these precious Muggle children right here will it take for me to turn inside out before you WILLINGLY tell me all I want to know."
*** [spoiler]As demonstrated by Dumbledore’s death and the Fidelius on Grimmauld Place[/spoiler], if Sirius had died defending the Secret everyone whom he’d previously told would automatically become a Secret Keeper, which presumably included more than one person since the Potters kept on having social relations with a few people. So him dying wouldn’t have helped much. From this POV, entrusting a coward with the Secret, rather than a reckless person, may look as a safer option, counting on the coward’s higher sense of self-preservation.
** Also, what's implied anyway is that Peter didn't need any coaxing for him to give the Potters' location over to Voldemort - he was already acting as a spy, and while his primary motives for doing so may have been due to fear, it likely wasn't fear of an immediate threat, since Sirius mentions going to check up on Peter, not finding him where he was supposed to be, assuming the worst, and going right away to check on Godric's Hollow before resorting to hunting him down. If he thought Peter had been kidnapped by Voldemort, I would hope he would've gone and tried to save him at once before going to check on the Potters. (Especially if what above is true and Peter would've had to have given the secret over willingly.)
** "Go and save him" ''where''? If Peter's been kidnapped by Voldemort, then too bad, but there's hardly anything to be done for him. No, for once, Sirius' actions make sence. Since V isn't even supposed to know that Peter is the Secret Keeper, because only Sirius could've told him that and he obviously hasn't, then Peter's absense means that he either relocated to another hideout or betrayed them. After checking on the Potters, Sirius realises that it's the latter.

[[folder: Secret Keeper woes 2]]
I always thought that the saddest part of the whole Secret Keeper debacle was that ''Remus Lupin'' was not considered as an option. He’s far less a liability than Sirius (in that he wouldn’t chafe at remaining in hiding nor take reckless risks with his life and Secret just for kicks) and much more reliable than Peter, even without 20/20 hindsight on the latter. Not only that, but they didn’t even tell him about the switch. This always makes me exponentially more sad when thinking about how poor Lupin must have felt that November, when in a matter of two-three days his three best friends (possibly his only friends) were all either dead or irrevocably incarcerated and responsible for the death of the other two.
Was it ever addressed why he was kept out of that particular loop?
* A few things are implied about this time period: First, that the Order of the Phoenix suspected that there was a mole (hence why they weren't incredibly surprised when Sirius Black was "revealed" to be a traitor.) Second, that Remus was working undercover, infiltrating Fenrir Greyback's pack. Third, that James and Sirius actually suspected ''Lupin'' of being the mole- or at least getting in too deep. Even disregarding all this, they may just simply have considered it wiser to have a Secret Keeper who wasn't involuntarily transformed into a bloodthirsty wolf 7 nights out of the month.
** Sirius was chosen because he was James's closest friend, and thus the least likely to betray them. But they then switched to Peter, because he was the one they'd least suspect. Sirius was the RedHerring, and Lupin would be more likely to be chosen than Peter. James trusted all his friends, so he had no idea that Peter would betray him like that.

[[folder: Why didn't Remus Lupin just move between time zones?]]
* In his backstory he went to the Shrieking Shack on full moon nights and gave it its name. But if he only turns into a wolf at night, why not just stay away from it during full moons? Wizards seem to have multiple methods of instant transportation. Is it so hard to transport a long distance that the shrieking shack is a better option?
** Lupin didn't want his condition to interfere too much with his life at school - being evacuated to the Shrieking Shack with the coming of each full moon seemed to serve him well enough, he couldn't Apparate both until he came of age ''and'' learned how to, and Portkeys are monitored by the Ministry. All in all, being taken into a safehouse that was on school grounds was just the safest, most hassle-free option.
** Was he keeping it a secret that he was a werewolf or something? I'd expect staying out of the night would be standard. The Ministry monitoring the portkeys just means that they'll know something is up if a known werewolf isn't using one. I don't see how spending the "night" in another country is less safe or more of a hassle than sneaking into a safehouse, turning into a monster, and then spending the night frantically biting yourself and howling.
** "Was he keeping it a secret" Yes, he was, that was the whole point of the charade. They were afraid that should it come out, other parents would demand to give him the boot. Your suggestion implies that the nightfall is the trigger for transformation, rather than the phase of the moon itself, which will be the same wherever he moves and whatever time of the day it is. Although the idea of teleporting a rabid monster away from a castle full of children and into some wilderness is solid, but solid ideas are not encouraged in Hogwarts. Apparently they're too boring.
** Lupin's situation seemed to be pretty well handled. It worked, didn't it? Seven years at Hogwarts and no one got hurt or bitten. Keeping him in a safe house is more convenient than apparating him through several different time zones to avoid the full moon.
** Why not teleport him into the wilderness? Let’s see, confine him in the Shrieking Shack where he'll be confined, but tear the place/himself up, or send him into the wilderness where there's no guarantee that there are no hikers, rangers, or people of any sort living/staying nearby for him to kill and eat?
** Teleporting Lupin away, between time zones, into the wilderness, etc., would not work for several reasons. First: ''You cannot apparate in or out of Hogwarts''. This one should be pretty obvious. Second: If you wanted to escort Lupin to Hogsmeade, off of the Hogwarts grounds in order to apparate, fine. But it's a lot of work. However, apparition cannot be easily performed by most adult wizards, and side-along apparition is considered one of the most dangerous forms of transportation. Lupin would not be able to apparate himself, and I seriously doubt that there are any staff willing to spend every night babysitting a werewolf. Third: Portkeys are monitored by the Ministry of Magic; you have to get permission to create one. Now, I can buy that Dumbledore would make an illegal portkey for Order of the Phoenix activities, because, you know, Voldemort's kind of a big deal. But creating an illegal portkey to help a werewolf student would cause a lot more problems than it solved. Supposing they were caught, the Ministry would discover that Dumbledore had allowed a werewolf admission to Hogwarts, there'd be outrage, Dumbledore may lose his job, the Ministry would extend its tentacles into the management of the school and the kids' education, etc. Seems to me that that's one particular battle Dumbledore would be less than eager to fight- a battle that would only benefit one student.
** Additionally, it was stated in Deathly Hallows that there's a hard maximum range for teleportation, and from what little information we have (Voldemort, after leaving Grindelwald's prison, needs at least a few minutes of flight before he's close enough to apparate at Malfoy's Manor), it's great - but still not big enough to cross the ocean. Traveling around the globe through teleportation wouldn't be feasible.

[[folder:"I don't need to explain to my friends. I'll just go to a teacher"]]
People act like Harry had no reason to be upset with Hermione for the Firebolt incident. But while he took it too far, he did have a reason. Hermione didn't bother trying to explain why she was concerned. She simply screeched that she didn't think anyone should try flying that broom. Her next move was to tell [=McGonagall=]. At no point did she tell Harry her fears it had been sent by a Mass Murderer. She acted like Harry was too thick and worthless to bother explaining things to and that she was superior and knew best. If she had explained herself and the boys still wanted to ride it, then she would have been justified.

The puzzling thing is that Hermione knows Harry hates people hiding things from him and prefers to be told what's going on. So why did she go behind his back ''before'' she told him that she thought Sirius had sent it to him? Surely she knew he would hate that she did that without talking to him first?
* She had all reasons to expect him to blow her off. After all, he ''didn't'' find an insanely expensive anonymous gift suspicious. And later his main concern was that the stupid women were going to ruin his cool new broom that he "was sure was fine" when he "understood that Sirius Black couldn't have sent him the broom, but she [Prof. [=McGonagall=]] didn't". He's acting like an idiot. So what was Hermie supposed to do after he blows her off? Run off to find [=McGonagall=] while praying that Harry manages to scrap together those two braincells of his and refrain from immediately taking the broom for a ride just to "prove" that it's fine, or to have one last ride before it's taken away? Even if he wouldn't have got this idea, I bet you anything Ron would've suggested it. So Hermie did what's right and not what's "cool".
** But she never explained herself. The closest she came to sharing her concerns before going behind his back was yelling that she didn't think that anyone should fly the broom. Then Crookshanks attacked Scabbers and everyone got sidetracked. She was never actually blown off. And while Harry's no genius, he is more lazy than stupid. And the part where Harry was saying that he was sure it was fine came after she had gone behind his back so it is possible that he was just saying that because she went and told a teacher without explaining things to him. And maybe he would have listened if she had asked him to take it to a teacher. Granted, he would have made a fuss when they took it, but she wouldn't have essentially betrayed his trust by going behind his back.
** Here's what happened.
### Harry got a Firebolt.
### Ron and Harry wonder where it came from and that Malfoy will be "sick as a pig" when he sees it.
### Hermione comes in and sees the Firebolt. Is told it didn't come with a card.
### "I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!"
### Crookshanks attacks. Sneakoscope whistles. Ron tells Hermione to get Crookshanks out of his dorm and she does.
### Harry examines Firebolt in the common room. "For some reason this seemed to annoy Hermione as well; ''she didn't say anything'', but she kept looking darkly at the broom as though it too had been criticizing her cat."
### Lunch.
### Ron and Harry leave, Hermione says she wants a quick word with [=McGonagall=].
### Harry gets the Firebolt, he and Ron admire it until Hermione and [=McGonagall=] come in.
### [=McGonagall=] confiscates Firebolt. Harry asks why, gives one protest but doesn't make an actual effort to stop her (admittedly, from shock, most likely).
### Hermione ''finally'' shares her suspicions: "that broom was probably sent to Harry by Sirius Black".
** At no point was she blown off and she had opportunities to explain her concerns. Odds are, if she hadn't snitched the way she did but was upfront about it, they could have been convinced to take it to a teacher and while they would have been angry at its confiscation, they wouldn't be mad at her for going behind their backs.
** No, she wasn't blown off, but that's ''because'' she hasn't suggested to tell [=McGonagall=]. That "kept looking darkly at the broom" was clearly her struggling with the dilemma: tell them and risk the most likely outcome of them blowing her off and then see above, or keep watch over them until she has a chance to tell [=McGonagall=], and then explain herself postfactum when it can no longer do any real harm (temper tantrum notwithstanding). And as for Harry... Just consider this - he had no benign explanation for who could've possibly sent the broom, in fact, I'd be hard pressed to even come up with one, while there were two plausible malicious candidates (that's my gripe with the episode: why in the world would Hermie name Black, but not Lucius Malfoy?!) and yet he didn't care! Gift horse, right? How is that not sheer idiocy or at least glaring immaturity? And, yes, I understand he was a child at that point. Well Hermie wasn't - she was mature and did the mature thing. An actual adult in her place would've simply taken the broom away. That wasn't an option for her, so she did the next best thing she could.
** But she wasn't an adult, she was at Harry‘s age and one of his two closest friends. She could at least have tried to talk to him but she didn't; if she’d tried, Harry would most likely at least have listened to her before acting.
** Yes, he would have listened. But I want you to (metaphorically) look me in the eye and tell me you honestly believe he would've likely agreed with her, and if he hadn't and she'd announced her decision to tell [=McGonagall=], then he would've absolutely certainly NOT taken the broom for a ride before it can be tested.
** Was the heading of this post supposed to be sarcastic? Because it honestly sounds like a completely reasonable thing to say. As someone else has already pointed out, if Hermione had warned Harry about the broomstick, there was at least a chance he wouldn't have listened to her. (I don't mean to sound like a hater, but there are a few instances where he fails to heed Hermione's often better judgement instead of his own.) Whereas Hermione knows that going to a teacher would ensure his safety no matter what. To me, it came off as a lot more heartwarming and showed how much she cares about him, to not try and warn him against something that might goad him into doing it anyway.
*** No, that's hardly a "completely reasonable thing to say" when she had nothin to lose by talking to Harry first. There was no need to act behind his back the whole time. She could always go to them after speaking to him proved futile. Going to them directly without even hearing Harry's opinion first was a pretty condescending and jerkish thing to do.
** If she talks to him first, and he brushes her off, then there's a chance he might try the broom out right away, before she can reach [=McGonagall=], which is what she wants to avoid.
** Adding to that, I could understand the OP's point if the circumstances were different. But it's incredibly foolish of Harry to accept an expensive broomstick that was sent to him anonymously at such a time as when he did. ''No one'' should've had to explain anything to him, because it should've been obvious enough already that Sirius at least might've sent it! But Harry doesn't even consider this until Hermione brings it up to him, and the fact that he (and other members of his Quidditch team) tried to convince [=McGonagall=] to return the broomstick even after she brought it to his attention shows that she made the right choice.
** Harry accepting the gift is irrelevant. Hermione getting it checked out isn't the problem. Going behind her friend's backs to a teacher is. It's a key part of her character that she thinks she's smarter and cleverer than everyone else - and she loves taking the moral high ground. Like when Harry uses Sectumsempra, she doesn't care about how her friend must be feeling at nearly accidentally killing someone - she just has to lecture him about how she was right all along. Hermione didn't even consider talking to them about it. She just went straight to [=McGonagall=]. And as a result it's important that ''she'' is the one to swallow her pride and apologize to them first.
** "Harry accepting the gift" is the entire point. Again (and again...), it's an insanely expensive vehicle from an anonymous stranger, given after Harry had already pissed off one of the richest and most powerful evil wizards in the country, and another rich evil wizard is after his blood on a general principle. Please, give me a single even remotely plausible gift source other than those two. Unless you do, I will insist that treating that broom with anything but a ten-feet pole was an act of colossal stupidity. Yes, Hermie was smarter than that. Wasn't that hard.
** Hasn’t it been established by this point already that Harry can't be harmed by Voldemort or any Death Eater (including Malfoy) due to the magical blood protection that his mother's sacrifice gave him as far as he formally lives with his aunt? Because if that's the case, then Harry is not so stupid after all, he has no reason to worry about the broom being cursed by Voldemort or Malfoy, and no one else hates him so much as to expend money to harm him.
** I meant Sirius, not V, and no, the entire blood protection thing won't come up for another two years. By that point Harry is only aware that V cannot physically touch him. He's not even safe from direct spells, not to mention all the indirect ways the broom could've been used to kill or abduct him.
** Hermione's reasons are not in question - but the way she went about it. It's Harry's property, Harry's wellbeing and Harry's safety that's being discussed here - and Hermione does not give Harry the courtesy of hearing her suspicions. She actively goes behind his back and tries to hide behind the moral high ground when she's called out on it. Yes, she had legitimate concerns, but there was nothing stopping her from discussing them with her friends.
** It has been reiterated ''eight times'' already what was stopping her. The fear that the discussion might provoke the outcome she was trying to avoid.
** Except, according to the timeline of what happened: they wouldn't have had time to take a flight on it. If they had time for it: they would have taken it. They were itching to try it out. Beyond that: What's the harm in saying: Hey, Harry, did it ever cross your mind to think Sirius Black sent it? No? Do you think that's a possibility? Also no? Okay, well have fun. *Hermione ''then'' runs to find [=McGonagall=]* She doesn't have to show her whole hand and give Harry reason to think it needs to be confiscated before telling a teacher, but she never shows the initiative to at least try to trust her best friend.
** A mild defense of Hermione - at this point she's been at school four months using the Time Turner, and stressing out trying to keep up with the extra coursework. So she is not in the best state mentally. I know when I'm sleep deprived I can be prone to doing things without thinking them through. Hermione isn't thinking clearly and maybe if she wasn't sleep deprived or stressed about schoolwork, she might have talked about it to Harry beforehand.
** "Please, give me a single even remotely plausible gift source other than those two". Remember that in his first year, Harry received a top-of-the-line broomstick from an anonymous source ([=McGonagall=], in that case). Now, shortly after said broomstick is destroyed in an accident, he gets another top-of-the-line broomstick from an anonymous source - why would Harry not naturally assume it's from the same person? This might have been part of Hermione's thinking, and that she asked [=McGonagall=] directly whether it was her doing. At that point, since [=McGonagall=] knew it wasn't her (or any of the other teachers), she took matters into her own hands and confiscated the broom.
** Hermione's got a sympathetic motivation--someone sends Harry a ludicrously expensive present and does it anonymously to boot? When there's a deranged criminal after him? But she comes off as self-righteous. Going behind Harry's back is bad enough, but to not even say why until after is worse. She forms her hypothesis almost immediately and she doesn't say so until it's already done, when Harry is too angry to listen to her. Harry should be calling her out about how this seems to illustrate a lack of trust.

[[folder: Does being an Animagus protect someone from lycanthropy if a werewolf bites them?]]
* It is said that when the Marauders turned into Animagi to keep Lupin company, they were naturally more calming to him, and that he wouldn't attack them because they weren't in human forms. Yet, when Sirius's dog form fought Lupin as a werewolf, Lupin clearly bit Sirius. When Sirius transforms back by the lakeside, there's a clear and bloody bite taken out of his shoulder. Is lycanthropy just not transmittable to animals, and does any tainted saliva disappear from the body when the Animagus morphs back?
** Maybe...Did the bite happen in the book or the movie? Someone does mention, I don't remember if it was Lupin, that Padfoot and Prongs (or maybe it was just Prongs) were both big and strong enough to keep Moony in line in the event that a problem sprang up while they were out at night - odds are doing this would've involved more than a few scuffles along the way.
** The movie part might be just an AdaptationInducedPlotHole - but you can hand wave it by saying they were only scratches, and it's the bite that transmits the venom.
** Given that this is magical venom, it is possible that the active agent proteins simply do not remain stable in a non human body, even if it quickly becomes human after receiving the injection. It is also possible, being a magical creature, that a werewolf will simply not inject venom when it bites a non human. Another possibility is that becoming an animagus and becoming a werewolf might be mutually exclusive, with whichever comes first blocking what tries to come second.
** Also (feel free to correct me, as I don't know for sure that this isn't refuted by lore) maybe not every bite from a werewolf must necessarily cause the lycanthropy to spread. Let's try to lean away from popular media zombies, where every minuscule bite or scratch will inevitably turn the victim into a zombie. There are presumably victims torn apart/eaten by werewolves and they don't come back as werewolves. Perhaps there must be some right circumstances for a werewolf to pass the curse. Several bites? Moon to be perfectly shining on the victims face? We may HandWave it as "this bite wasn't right to do the deed".

[[folder: Animagus vs. Voldemort]]
* So in this book, we find out that James Potter was an animagus and could transform into a stag. It's also been revealed that he was without his wand on the night Voldemort attacked Godric's Hollow. Did he ever think of transforming when he was trying to hold Voldemort off? Granted, it's not much, but even against a murderous wizard like Voldemort, it would seem to me that a giant stag would be at least a bit more helpful than just a young wizard who's been caught without his wand.
** He hadn't been caught without his wand; unlike Lily he did try to duel Voldemort, but Voldemort was just much better than him. Besides, they were inside a house; transforming might have made sense to escape on hooves if they'd been outside, but transforming into a stag while inside a narrow corridor is ''not'' a good idea.
** And how do you know he didn't transform into a stag while fighting Voldemort? If he was killed, he probably would return to his human form.
** I get the idea that such magic requires you to be in the right state of mind - since it's complicated and not everyone can do it. And probably not something you can do on the spot if a dangerous dark wizard has just broken into your house to murder your baby.
** He might have if he'd had more time to think it through, but his first instinct was probably to go for his wand. Voldemort didn't give him time to have a second instinct.

[[folder: Time-travel and multiple Harrys]]
* During their little time-traveling escapade, Harry wants to strike preemptively and confront his past self and his friends, in order to keep Pettigrew-as-Scabbers from escaping before he even has a chance to. Hermione stops him by asking what ''he'' would think if an identical copy of himself burst into Hagrid's cabin, and Harry says that he'd think he'd gone mad. But why would ''that'' be his first reaction? He just drank a potion his previous year that let him flawlessly assume the form of someone else, and the Hermione in Hargid's cabin still has the Time-Tuner, too, so it would occur to her that time travel was a possibility...so why would Harry's first reaction to seeing himself saying things about the future be "I've gone mad, and I'd better kill this identical copy of myself who says he's from the future."?
** And who is most likely to use Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Harry and Hermione? Enemies of course. Harry's first assumption is likely to be that this is an enemy - and he's impulsive enough that he could attack them. If he does then it alters the flow of time so that they never discover Sirius was innocent (as this is before they've gone to the Shrieking Shack).

[[folder: Lupin and the Marauders' transformations]]
* The book reveals that the Marauders became Animagi in order to be able to safely accompany Remus during his transformations and keep him under control. This raises some of questions:
** Why were ''they'' needed to keep him under control? Why didn't Hogwarts put staff in charge of it?
** Why did Wormtail pick a ''rat'' form? That should have made him ''weaker'' than his human form. Unless he choose it because it would make it easier for him to get away when Lupin transforms, in which case you would wonder why he became an Animagi at all, since he could simply choose not to join Remus, James and Sirius when the first transforms. Even James and Sirius' forms (a stag and a dog) don't sound that efficient at fighting werewolves, though I guess we can give them a free pass since they got the job done.
*** 1.) The original plan to accommodate Lupin at Hogwarts was for him to stay inside the Shrieking Shack during each full moon, where there was no one at risk of being attacked, and no need for the staff to control him any further since he wasn't ever supposed to leave. The other Marauders turning into animals was initially a way for them to keep him company - keeping him under control only became a necessity when they started going out on adventures at night. 2.) It's implied that you can't choose what sort of animal you turn into - Peter is a sneaking dirty coward, hence, he turned into a rat; Sirius is extremely loyal to his friends, so he turned into a dog, etc, etc. 3.) Pettigrew's rat form was also used to tap the pacifying root of the Whomping Willow, letting him and the others get in to see Lupin when he was inside the shack.
*** For 1: In that case, what was the point of keeping him company? It's clear that Lupin is out of his mind when he's in werewolf form, so it's not like Werewolf Lupin would appreciate the company. Seems like all it would accomplish is having to fight him needlessly.
*** There wasn't any real need for them to - they just wanted to do it because they were his friends. They probably figured that going out on adventures together during every full moon would at least be more fun than leaving Remus to be locked inside some ramshackle house biting and clawing at himself all night. Even as a mindless werewolf, he knew enough to not recognize the other animals as threats, meaning it carried at least some semblance of their true friendship, and the fights between them didn't come into play unless Remus happened to try anything too risky or dangerous, like (presumably) going after or trying to attack someone.
*** Yes, I get that, it just sounds rather farfetched. Were James, Sirius and Peter so obsessed with Remus that they couldn't stand not being with him 100% of the time? I don't see the gain in keeping him company when he's not even himself, especially when it involves going through all that trouble. And the fact that they became Animagi just so that they could become strong enough to survive being with him shows that Remus did attack them when he became a werewolf, otherwise there wouldn't have been any point in transforming.
*** Apparently their presence in animal form had a soothing influence on Remus, so he could keep himself in check. Don't ask me how it's fundamentally different from human presence, or why DD didn't think to bury him in kittens or invite some registered animagi to keep him company for the night, if that helps - making sense or having the characters who are not Hermione do the reasonable thing is not this series' forte. But if we take for granted that it works, then it makes sense for the Marauders to do it, because Remus' "normal" transformations were maddening and painful, so they wanted to help him go through them.
*** Simply put, there doesn't need to be a practical reason for everything. James and Sirius were both descended from pure-blooded wizarding families - they probably both knew about the prejudices suffered by werewolves in their world, even if Peter might not have. So, as a testament to their friendship with Remus, they desired to spend time with him and show that they didn't care about his condition, that they didn't intend to abandon him because of it. And the only way to do that was by becoming Animagi. Why? Apparently, it's just how werewolves work. Being able to sneak out and go on adventures at night was just a bonus to them. It's a heartwarming sign of their friendship, not something that needs to be prodded and picked apart.
** As usual, there's a rift between "that's how it works" and "that's what the characters choose to do with it". Werewolves do not attack animals and regain their sanity in presence of transformed animagi? Fine, that's how it works here. You might have also noticed that I don't have a problem with Marauders' decision per se (until they began to take Lupin out on walks). But, the Marauders spent years mastering the transformation art. They had to be pretty darn sure that it would work. Meaning, it was common, or at least available, knowledge. So, again, why hadn't this trait been used? What was stopping DD from inviting some registered animagi to keep Lupin from mutilating himself all those years? Don't tell me it was the secrecy, because that's not an excuse even if it wasn't Dumbledore we're talking about.
** The books imply that very few people are actually registered as Animaguses, and the ones who are probably have better things to do with their time than act as nightly company for a single lycanthropic student every full moon. Plus, it has everything to do with secrecy - they probably couldn't (or didn't want to) risk revealing Remus's condition to someone for fear that they might expose it.
** Better then helping a child stop mutilating themselves? If you say so. But even then there was still Professor [=McGonagall=]. A registered animagus, who was in DD's employment and most certainly in on the whole charade and therefore was exempt from any security concerns. A perfect candidate to both keep an eye on Lupin (her own student, mind you) and provide the required soothing influence. Also, if Lupin's friends were so eager to help him they were prepared to master such an advanced art, why not involve them, help them learn it faster and let them come visit Remus under her supervision? Also, why would it have to be "a single lycanthropic student"? Wizards have no problem with transportation or accommodation. There's no reason why the "animagi therapy" for werewolves wasn't a widespread and established practice.
** They might just not see Lupin as their problem to have to deal with - staying up all night just to provide company to some kid doesn't seem like something that would appeal to most normal people, especially if that kid had a condition that is widely frowned upon and shunned by the general public. [=McGonagall=] is another story - I don't think that a tiny house cat would have the same effect on a werewolf that a larger animal like a deer or dog would. For all we know, Moony could end up seeing her as ''food''. (You could say the same about Wormtail, but he would seem fast enough to elude Moony if he had to, and Padfoot and Prongs were always there to make sure he was kept in check.) All in all, I'd say that this headscratcher can't be answered completely and absolutely until/unless we learn more about the exact effects animagi have on werewolves.
** Some insight from Real Life. At the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, they have a demonstration of a cheetah running at top speed. Cheetahs, being wild animals, are skittish around people, especially crowds. One way they've found to help reduce stress in the cheetahs is to raise each one with a companion, usually a laid-back, good-natured dog like a Golden Retriever. They bring them out together, and when the cheetah starts to get spooked by the crowd, she can look over at her buddy and see that her friend doesn't seem to be worried. That calm friend helps her calm down and not be so stressed about things either. I suspect Sirius and James had a similar calming effect on Remus.
** And let's be honest - James and Sirius especially were incredibly cocky. Maybe it was half about keeping Remus company and half about bragging rights that they became Animagi at 15. They seem to have seen it as a challenge, and a chance to cause mischief (they did write the Marauders Map after all).
** This was a loyal clique of friends. James, Sirius, and Peter discovered that one of their best friends was going to a torturous transformation once per month and is left alone where all he can do is to scratch and hurt himself until it's over. They then decided to become animagi in order to be with their best friend during those times.

[[folder: Professor Trelawney teaching at Hogwarts]]
* Throughout the series, it's shown that Trelawney's divinatory skills are pretty poor and 99% of her predictions are wrong. So why did Dumbledore hire her and let her teach at Hogwarts, exactly? If he wanted to keep her near because reasons, wasn't there any better way of accomplishing that than making her a teacher at Hogwarts?
** Desensitize Harry Potter to prophecies, so that when he learns about his own he won't freak out too much, and to threats to his life in general.
** To be clear, the underlying reason why he kept her at Hogwarts was because she gave the prophecy that foretold Voldemort's defeat, without even realizing she'd given it. She would've been a prime target for any Death Eater to try and capture.
** Dumbledore had been planning on getting rid of the subject altogether. But since Sybil made the prophecy, that meant that she was a) a possible target for Death Eaters and b) an actual seer. So he at least has a seer teaching his students. The class is only an elective anyway, and you can drop it if you like.

[[folder: The Marauders' Map]]
* Was it ever explained how Filch came into possession of the map? And if we're to believe that he confiscated it from the Marauders themselves, why wouldn't they just steal it back? If Fred and George had done it, I'll bet the four of them could have, too.
** They may have just stopped using it as they matured in later years. Filch finds it one day, sees that it reacts when you try to ask it anything and keeps it in his office.

[[folder: Malfoy's injury]]
* Seriously, how the hell did Malfoy get away with the whole thing? Flitwick, Sprout or specially [=McGonagall=] would have told him to knock it off within the first day and yet he could keep the farce long enough for the first Quidditch match to be postponed. Seriously, the only one who would go along with it is Snape who likely knew the truth and just used it to be a dick to Gryffindor, further showing his lack of professionalism.
** That or it actually was worse than Harry assumed (if not as bad as Draco claimed).
** His father paid off a lot of people and used some influence.
** This is the same Malfoy who during a shocking discovery of a heinous attack decided to rush in front of the stunned crowd and shout an ethnic slur and didn't get so much as a stern gesture from any authority figures.
** Do you think the other teachers would pay that much attention to one student? They see him wearing a sling and assume the injury must be severe enough to require it. They're not detectives and they have plenty of work of their own to get on with, without worrying about Malfoy's arm.
* The final say, medically speaking, is Madame Pomfrey's, she being the best-trained and most-specifically-trained Healer in the school. When faced with a patient who says they are still in a lot of pain, but the physician cannot find a cause of the pain, some doctors will accuse the patient of malingering, and others will tend to take them at their word and assume there ''is'' something there that they just can't find or haven't found yet. Malfoy was claiming that his arm still hurt terribly. It would appear Madame Pomfrey is the sort of doctor who would rather believe the patient. It's just too bad that in ''this'' case, the patient was lying to her.
** This troper is far from acting the devil's advocate for Malfoy, as we all know who Draco is and what his aim is. But this troper has had (about 12 years, now) pains in both of his elbows. And he has visited several different doctors, and went under examinations. And not one of the doctors found anything, hence this troper was established a malingerer and not continued to be treated. Needless to say I know I'm definitely not faking it, because only I know my elbows hurt, I just can't prove it to anyone because I can't give anyone my elbows. And I know I would give everything I own just to be a healthy person. I have no malicious intentions, or make people feel sorry for me, I just want to get healthy. The only difference between Draco and me is that I didn't acquire the pain via injury, rather than the pain has always sorta... been there.

[[folder: Sirius killing Peter]]
* Why does no one bring up the logical reason for bringing Peter up to the castle, instead of letting Sirius and Remus kill him on the spot...? Reason being, so that he could be presented as living proof of Sirius's innocence? I understand it's a heated moment, and that Sirius has been severely unhinged by his time in Azkaban, but if he killed Pettigrew before showing him alive to the authorities, what would his plan have been afterward? No one would have any reason to trust him if all they had to go on was the dead body of someone Sirius had already been convicted of killing.
** You just answered your own question: Sirius wasn't exactly in his "right mind" at the time. Note that he could have escaped Azkaban at any time in his Animagus form, but only did so when he had built up enough psychotic rage (and gathered the necessary information) to go after Peter. His goals here don't seem to have much to do with clearing his name; he wants (A.) to kill Peter, and (B.) to see Harry again. Granted, Remus should have been the level-headed one in this case, but it's not too much of a stretch to say that he was pretty pissed at Peter, too.
** Yeah, I was referring more to Remus and Harry, the former of whom I could accept as being ''royally'' angry and upset, but the latter only objects to the killing not because bringing him in alive would help clear Sirius's name, but rather just because he doesn't want to see his father's two closest friends stoop to the level of killers. (Not to mention Hermione, typically the smartest and most level-headed member of a group - I know she wasn't involved in what was happening, but she could've at least brought it up.)
** In that case, let's go with: it was spur-of-the-moment, Harry's not the best at thinking ahead, and at any rate, "not stooping to the level of his killers" is not a bad reason.
** Well you also need to remember that Peter was thought dead thirteen years ago - and blown to smithereens at that. If he gets killed by Sirius and they produce a body that looks like it's only been freshly killed, it still proves that what they thought happened is murky.

[[folder: The only thing we have to fear is worn-out platitudes]]
* What the hell is Lupin talking about when he says Harry's Dementor-Boggart is proof Harry's greatest fear is fear itself? Surely Harry's Boggart being a Dementor shows that his worst fear is depression, despair in general, reliving his parents' deaths, or having his soul eaten - all of which are entirely valid fears. If Harry's greatest fear was generic fear, shouldn't the Boggart have taken whatever form it has when no one's around? Or the form of a terrified Harry? Is Lupin just trying to flatter Harry with something that doesn't make sense but sounds good?
** Harry's fear stems from what the Dementors make him feel. JK Rowling based them off Depression - where you fear that everything is horrible, nothing will get better and you end up empty. In that sense, that's what Lupin says Harry fears.
*** So Harry fears depression then. Why not just say that? (And I'd quibble with that definition of depression - certainly for me it isn't fearing everything is horrible, but knowing/believing it - but I understand it's not the same for everyone.)
** Because Harry's only thirteen and probably doesn't comprehend that concept yet. Mental illness is tricky for some adults to understand, let alone teenagers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Taking Scabbers to Gringotts]]
* Has Ron, and by extension Percy, never happened to have taken Scabbers with him to get money from his family's vault before? If he had, wouldn't the Thief's Downfall have forced Pettigrew back into his human form? Or does the enchantment not work on Animagi?
** Seems to me that there's no reason for either Ron ''or'' Percy to go and get money from a vault, let alone with Scabbers; the Weasleys have enough man (and woman)power to watch the kids while the other parent runs into Gringotts, and Gringotts isn't exactly the kind of establishment where you bring your kid and get a lollipop at the counter. Honestly, who ''would'' take a kid on that poor excuse for a rollercoaster? And before you ask, Harry probably only went back there because Hagrid didn't want to leave him in the lobby unsupervised and, because, well, ''Hagrid''.
** Arthur and Molly may have intentionally avoided bringing their children along to their family vault. They surely know that their lack of wealth is a sore spot for Ron, and perhaps his siblings as well, so wouldn't relish the prospect of them seeing exactly how meager their savings are.
** And the Thief's Downfall was set off because the goblins ''knew'' there were thieves trying to break in. Bellatrix had alerted them to it, so they had the defences in place.
** The Weasley vault is nowhere near deep enough for them to go through the Thief's Downfall. It is 'deeper than Harry had ever penetrated within Gringotts.' So even if Percy or Ron were to bring their pet rat with them to Gringotts, which they had no reason to until Scabbers got sick and Ron started carrying him around everywhere, it wouldn't be a problem.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Boggart and the students' privacy]]
* Didn't it occur to Lupin, or anyone at the school staff, that some students may not want to have their greatest fear revealed to the whole class? They may even consider it a privacy breach. That's showing your greatest weakness to everyone, which few people would be okay with, especially considering it may get exploited by enemies, bullies, pranksters, etc. And it could also get you mocked or bullied, if your greatest fear turns out to be something silly or embarrassing. And that's not even taking into account the possibility that someone's greatest fear may be getting caught naked in public, resulting into the boggart turning into his or her nude self. Yikes!
** This was already discussed somewhere else but, in general, the Boggart is not Sigmund Freud, it’s a basic and non-sentient creature that uses telepathy to find out the person’s greatest instinctive fear. It does not go into complex psychological analysis on the person’s "greatest fear" (I can avoid to think in that episode of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' when a mirror shows you your worst nightmare and it shows to a Goblin "You have turn into your father", I mean, it is not something like that). The Boggart is non-sentient, it is the magical equivalent of a chameleon changing colors. As such it is unlikely that it would go so deep as to think that a person’s greatest fear is public nudity as it is something too complex. If the idea is that you are afraid of spiders, then it shows you a spider because that would cause you immediate panic and rejection and cause you to run away, then “public nudity” is too abstract as showing you naked would make no sense if you are alone (when the Boggart is supposed to attack) and you won’t react with fear if you see yourself naked when you are alone, right? \\\
As for the usage of the information by bullies and pranksters: well, precisely the idea of the class is that you get over your fears, so no bully would bully you for being a badass that just confronted the fear and no prank would work because you stop being afraid of that once you face it.
*** Defeating a shapeshifter that takes the form of something you fear =/= getting over your fear. You're still facing an imitation at best, not the real thing. Would you be as afraid of someone disguised as Voldemort as you would be of the real deal? Besides, you were already prepared to face the Boggart knowing beforehand that it would take the form of your fear, and the method you used to defeat it wouldn't work against the real thing. No one is going to get over their fear of the Dark Lord because their Riddikulus Charm was able to best a Voldie Boggart.
*** Fine, then it doesn't work to get over the fears (though certainly helps) but the rest still stands.
*** Also, the only ones who would learn the fears of others from watching the boggart would be students who were already in class, meaning they would have had ''their'' fears exposed, as well. Which allows it to work both ways, and gives the student(s) being bullied a form of leverage.
*** Hey kids, if someone tries to bully you, just bully them right back! ...actually that does sound like Hogwarts.
*** Rowling if from a generation that had that philosophy; bullies should be deal like that. There are episodes of The Simpson (one of the first seasons) and Babar who thought exactly that; fight the bullies with force, fire with fire. Nowadays that would be considered politically incorrect and probably a bad moral, but kids of the 80s were no pussies, the way of dealing with bullies was fighting back.
*** This particular headscratcher is probably directed more towards the films than the books. In the books, apart from a few exceptions, the four houses took classes separately from each other, so a smaller number of them would've been there to witness the boggart changing forms. Since this would've left the filmmakers with classes of about 10 students when they were working on visualizing them, the films were the ones that had students from different houses take classes together. It's unlikely that any of the students in Gryffindor would be interested in outright bullying one another over such trivial fears, but a Slytherin bullying a Gryffindor, I could buy pretty easily.
** Don't forget that this is one of Lupin's first classes on his first teaching job. Teachers are people too; they're not flawless and they make mistakes.
** Don't forget the class is "Defence Against the Dark Arts." Dark creatures aren't going to give two craps about petty things like your privacy, so you need to learn how to ''defend'' yourself against them; unlike dunce teachers like Quirrell and Umbridge, Lupin is teaching them practical skills. The concept of Riddikulus is facing your fears and taking away their power over you; even if you don't immediately conquer your fears, you're still taking a good first step.
** Also, the form a boggart takes has always been shown to be incredibly precise and specific and incorporates little to no context as to what that form actually means. Some examples of note include: Lupin's (who fears his own lycanthropy) which manifests as the full moon (and in fact, few of the students actually recognized it as the full moon at the time - at least one thought it was a crystal ball), Leta Lestrange's (she fears the secret that she killed her baby brother being exposed) which appears as a floating blanket-wrapped bundle bathed in blue light, and Newt's (fears having to work in an office) which appears as a desk and chair. There's not a ton of opportunities to bully anyone with things like these when you have no idea what they actually mean -- it's not as if Newt becomes traumatized every time he walks into a school classroom. It's only what the desk ''represents'' that scares him.
** Call me crazy but there is something empowering in all the students banding together to face their fears. It's not as though Lupin is singling them out to be humiliated; he's giving them a chance to face their phobias and overcome them. Every student who faces the Boggart is able to counter it - even Ron and his crippling fear of spiders. I almost feel as though that would unite them, as a team building exercise.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: 'The most haunted building in Britain'? Really?]]
* The Shrieking Shack has a reputation for being incredibly haunted -- which would work, except that it was explicitly built within living memory, in the seventies. Even with Dumbledore encouraging rumours, and Remus's screams, how was it able to garner such a reputation, ''and'' hold on to it since it's been silent for nearly twenty years?
** Kids are vicious in their gossip, especially if they can convince themselves of a ghost. Ever play the telephone game? Kids ''love'' to create wild stories to scare each other around the campfire. Technically, this house is shrieking about once a month, and creepy-looking to boot. What, do you expect them to put together a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/ScoobyDoo Mystery-Inc.]] gang to go investigate? It makes perfect sense that the Shrieking Shack would land itself in Hogwarts lore.
** It should also be noted that the ''House Ghosts'' (possibly on Dumbledore's orders/encouragement) participate in spreading rumors about how badass the Shack is. Having thousand-year-old spirits pass on rumor as unassailable fact ought to do wonders for a reputation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Imperius and Confundus]]
* So we're introduced to the Confundus Charm here, and we get a more in-depth look at in in Half-Blood Prince. But how is it any different from Imperius? They both control the victim, so why is Confundus a charm? In fact, that makes me think...could a wizard use Confundus on someone and get away with it because it's classified as a charm and not...oh, I dunno, AN ILLEGAL CURSE THAT MIND-RAPES THE VICTIM?!?
** Probably the same way how is legal to give someone several beers but not to use rohypnol. Giving liquor to a boss when you try to convince him of giving you a raise or trying to hook up with a girl in a bar is not only legal, most people would consider it morally acceptable as far as the person do not lost the capacity for consent, whilst roofying someone would be considered rape as the person's consent is and absolutely absent.
** Uhuh, except that it's not "Invite your boss/girl for a beer" - it's "Invite your boss/girl for a beer (or even just tea) and then tacitly spiking their drink with vodka to get them drunk". And yes, people ''do'' lose their capacity for consent, or at least for critical thinking, while under Confundus - Snape didn't simply make Fletcher think it's a good idea to suggest the "Seven Potters" plan to the Order - he commanded him to suggest the plan and also ''to forget about ever having this conversation with Snape''. The only difference between this and Imperius is that the latter is direct MindControl. You (probably) cannot Confound a person to attack their friends, or harm themselves. But you absolutely can use it to commit fraud or sabotage performance, which is what's it's used for all the time.
** Fair enough. Yet as in real life, is possible that it is illegal but hardly ever prosecuted (something like smoking marihuana in most jurisdictions) as its impact on society is too small for all the costs of prosecution or it is not illegal because legislation to forbid it hasn't yet being passed. I'm pretty sure Rowling might go into more detail about the wizarding world legal system, but it doesn’t' sound as a good idea when you are writing children's fantasy books.
** Sure, using mild substances, jaywalking, violating one's agency and integrity of personality - small offences. After all, if directly removing parts of people's mind is perfectly legal there, as long as they're second class citizen, there's no reason why simply messing with them should warrant even a footnote.
** As with the AK curse, the difference is intention. With the Imperius you have to wish for a person to be your mindless slave and in the same way AK doesn't work if you have no homicidal urges, the Imperius probably doesn't work if you don't want to enslave someone. Confundus on the other hand can be use so casually and without effort that no ill intent is needed. The context of the narrative should also be taken into account. The Confundus charm is presented as a humorous thing, in other words PlayedForLaughs and most fans, if not all, take it as such. Most fans would think it will be weird for Rowling to waste time explaining why Confundus is considered legal as it is a RunningGag. Of course, for those who hated the books these kind of things are nervewrecking.
*** Nope, mind-control is still wrong even if you don't mean to do it. (To be absolutely fair, Snape Confunding Mundungus looks more like fiction's standard depiction of real-world hypnosis than the full-on mind control of Imperius, but the caster's intention has nothing to do with it.)
*** That's a subjective opinion, perfectly valid, but in-universe Confundus is legal and Imperious is not, so yes, they do hold them in different standards.
*** Most readers do get the difference between Imperious and Confundus, as was explained before. Problem is the explanation given was rejected (as usual) and therefore we are stuck in the same vicious circle. But again, the Headscratcher did was answer; Imperious and Confundus are different and have distinct motivations, they are not by any mean, the same and is even questionable if they are similar.
** One intrepretation of the Confundus Charm is that it is not as a manipulation of a person’s will but, rather and quite literally, the induction of a momentary confusion which distracts the person long enough to pass something under his/her radar or, if you’re quite skilled at persuasion and/or they’re particularly susceptible, plant an idea in their head (without all the hassle of a Sidney-Los Angeles business class flight). \\\
Hermione didn’t force Cormac to purposefully miss the ball, she just befuddled him for a moment, which made him miss. Unsportsmanlike, definitely. Criminal, not really. It was the magic equivalent of flashing him to distract him. \\\
Dumbledore did the same at the orphanage or, rather, IIRC the paper he showed the director functioned akin to the Doctor's psychic paper in ''Series/DoctorWho'', and was enchanted to Confund the person looking at it so that they’d think they saw what they were expecting to see, which is standard procedure for wizards when avoiding Muggle bureaucracy (it’s probably also how the Muggle authorities are convinced that muggleborn children attending Hogwarts are not being denied an education). \\\
And Ron most probably did the same just as the driving instructor was about to say “well, you didn’t do very good you know...” he confounded him making him lose his beat for a second “oh, what was I saying?” “you were saying I did quite well, Sir” “oh, was I? well, that must be it then: here’s your license”. Same as if the instructor’s phone had rung at that moment and he’d forgotten what he was about to say. Happened more than once to me when I was giving oral exams, that the Professor would become distracted (maybe by a TA asking him something) and I’d have to start again because he didn’t remember what I had been saying (and I couldn’t risk that playing against my grade). \\\
Snape just took it a step further and took advantage of Mundungus’ moment of confusion to imprint him with the 7 Potters idea. It was certainly more manipulative than the other examples, but vastly different from completely hijacking his life, will, and mind in order to Imperius him from their encounter and up until the moment he sold the idea to the rest of the Order. Also, the Confundus!inception only works if the confunded person thinks that the idea they’ve been injected with is a good one: the effects of the Confundus Charm don’t last more than a few seconds and after that you are perfectly free to reason as much as before and therefore Mundungus was perfectly capable of thinking that the 7 Potters idea was stupid and not share it. What he was Confunded about was the source of the idea, having been led to believe it had simply occurred to him out of the blue.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: ''Professor'' Hagrid]]
* Why do people cite the incident between Malfoy and Buckbeak as evidence that Hagrid is a bad teacher? Hippogriffs seem like a interesting subject to learn about, especially as a first lesson, and I saw nothing wrong with how Hagrid introduced and described them to the class. And it was well-understood that they weren't creatures you would want to cross - Malfoy was just being an arrogant know-it-all, as usual, when he tried to approach Buckbeak without the proper etiquette. Maybe Hagrid should've been a bit more careful to situate himself ''between'' Buckbeak and the students, so that he could have a better chance of keeping them from provoking him, but that hardly makes him the deplorable teacher everyone makes him out to be.
** Several possible reasons IMHO: a) ValuesDissonance, should be remembered that these books are European and Europeans, including British, are more badass regarding education. A lot of British boarding schools have, for example, riding lessons and students can fall from a horse and break something, is still accepted as a possible risk and part of education. Some schools in places like Norway and Russia teach things like shooting, fencing, archery and literal survivalism, whilst many Americans would be outright on the idea of risking kids that way. b)Society changes, in a way. Similar to the example before, in the 80s/90s and before it was common for many schools to do actual things that could put kids in certain reasonable danger to get hurt and no one cried about it. Being hit by a Hippogriff is probably less dangerous than skateboarding which was endorsed by some schools and made championships. Nowadays the prevalent idea is that kids should be protected from absolutely any physical or emotional harm of any way, that’s why some schools give trophies just for showing (and thus not hurt any feelings). Rowling is probably from that generation and the books are supposed to happen in the 90s. c) Some people took the books more seriously as they are. They are supposed to be fantasy books with certain elements of comedy, not a school manual. The books are supposed to be fun most of the time and watching the resident prick bully being hit by a Hippogriff is something that you are supposed to enjoy, nevertheless the mentality of "you are endangering kids for God's sake" prevails in some people, for some reason. It is the equivalent of watching the Quidditch games and wondering why they don’t use properly regulated helmets or watching them open the candy in the Halloween scene and thinking that all that sugar is going to hurt their teeth. You know, like a parent... (and not the cool one). d) Some people simply hate the books and/or hate Hagrid as a character.
** It's ValuesDissonance of a different sort - a more in-universe one. Most people don't seem to realize how much more lightly injuries are taken by magic folk. What's the point of getting everyone worked up over a bunch of little things that can be swept away with the wave of a wand? It's always seemed to me that some readers just don't seem able to grasp that this is a completely different ''culture'' we're reading about here, and a lot of instances like these are more understandable if looked at from their perspective. (It makes me wonder why they read, honestly.) And, also, people mistaking Malfoy's arrogance for a genuine mistake he made. It wouldn't have mattered even if Hagrid had been more careful - Malfoy would've found some way to screw it up for him.
*** On the one hand, you're absolutely right about different culture. On the other one, one of the elements contrary to the picture you've drawn is ''precisely'' reaction to the incident with Draco. If this was indeed the right attitude, one would think that Lucius would just tell Draco to shut up and not to embarrass and dishonor him by whining about his injury... Like, you know, when he told his son off for faring worse than a Mudblood instead of going along with Draco's claims that the teachers were biased towards her.
*** Regarding Lucius, keep in mind that a short while ago he had his plan regarding opening the Chamber of Secrets foiled, consequently lost his position of school governnor and to add to further humiliation was tricked by Harry into freeing his house elf Dobby who then proceeded to kick his ass. It wouldnt be surprising if his experiences from the last book left him with some bitterness so when he heard about Draco being attacked by a hippogriff under the supervision of the new CoMC professor, he decided to try to get some petty revenge by attempting to get Hagrid sacked even if Lucius wouldve ordinarily just brushed off Draco's injury as just a risk of magic class
** For Hagrid not putting himself between Malfoy and Buckbeak, in the books it's said that Malfoy has already bowed to the animal and earned his respect. So things appear to be going well, until Draco decides to be an idiot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Peter escaping]]
* Had Sirius known all along that Peter was still alive somewhere? Or did he think that he'd killed himself by blowing up the street, until the picture of Scabbers in the newspaper told him otherwise? The fact that he knew about Scabbers's missing toe hints toward the former, since cutting off his finger was part of Peter's death-faking, but then why wouldn't Sirius have tried to escape from Azkaban sooner so he could hunt him down and take revenge?
** He definitely knew Peter was alive. He tells Harry that he believes the fact that he was innocent was one of the things that kept him from losing his mind to the Dementors when he arrived. However, seeing the picture does seem to be what gave him the strength to escape. Realizing that Peter was at Hogwarts, perfectly positioned to strike at Harry the moment it suited him to do so, made him angry/desperate enough to attempt it whereas before he'd been too weak.
** Also simply knowing where he is at all. Before that he hadn't had a slightest clue on where to even look for him, for he could've been anywhere in the world.
** Sirius did not try to escape sooner because he was crippled by a depression that was being constantly forced upon him. When suffering under this particular form of failure induced depression, a person can usually distract themselves with an enjoyable brainstorming related to salvaging their mess or engaging in some activity that lets them think they can do ''something'' right. It usually doesn't make them feel any better for any amount of time longer than the duration, but it's a good a first step as any. Sirius didn't have these options, as the dementors would force out any feelings not related to misery. With no mitigation whatsoever, failure induced depression can easily lead to suicidal thoughts. Escape, why bother? Peter's won, there's nothing left for me to do. His only out was focusing on something he wanted to do that brought him no joy.[[spoiler:Sirius actually had some mitigation in the form of the reprieve he could get in his grim form, but obviously not enough account for the external force actively forcing the depression on him.]] The thought of finding and killing Peter probably brought him some level of satisfaction, so that wouldn't work. That Peter, a murderer, is hiding out among several children, one of whom is Black's godson, and no one else knows he needs to be stopped before it's too late, is that. Happiness and pleasure take a backseat to the simple desire to act. His life has a purpose now that no amount of guilt, misery or self loathing will slow the pursuit of, so long as he doesn't fail again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: "A heap of bloodstained robes"]]
* When Fudge is telling the official story of Sirius Black's capture, he says that along with the finger they found after Wormtail cut it off to fake his death, there was "a heap of bloodstained robes". How exactly did he manage that? Your clothes transform with you when you transform into your animagus animal form. There's never been any talk about people being able to control what they take with them into their human form as it's "tucked away" wherever it goes when they transform. And even assuming he did do that and for whatever reason wound up shifting back naked later and getting dressed to explain why he wasn't naked when Sirius and Lupin forced him back to human form, I thought his plot to frame Sirius had been panicked and spontaneous. How and why did he get blood on the robes beforehand if this wasn't planned?
** We don't know quite how the scene was staged, but couldn't the blood be from the Muggles he blew up alla round him? He also did cut off his finger, that might have been enough. We only have Fudge's word for "bloodstained", after all; it wouldn't be out of character for the wimpiest Minister of them all to have been dipply traumatized by what amounted to a few drops.
** Apparently it was planned. He had to expect Sirius to come after him after all.
** There's no reason to assume Peter spent the entire period between his faked death and his adoption by the Weasleys in rat-form. He would've needed to get to the Burrow somehow, and rats aren't built for long-distance travel; presumably he slipped out of the sewers, stole some clothes, and traversed the intervening distance in human form, possibly in disguise.
** Fudge could just be embellishing the story. Little details can get changed or exaggerated in the re-telling. Maybe his clothes did transform with him but someone is just incorrectly remembering bloodstained robes.
** Or more simply, Peter cut off parts of his robes to add to the image.
*** This is most likely. After all, if Pettigrew was blown so thin that the only part you can find of him is a finger, the probably didn't leave behind much of his robes. Probably just a small sliver cut off (that may be part of the cuff of the arm he cut the finger off from).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cedric Diggory, Quidditch Captain]]
* So it's indicated that Harry's third year is the first time Cedric Diggory was on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, as Harry has never played against him before and Wood specifically says that "They’ve got a new Captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory". Why would someone who has never played before, at least at Hogwarts, be made Quidditch Captain? On the Gryffindor team at least, the Captain seems to be picked through a combination of seniority and player skill (Wood is the oldest player on the team, after he graduates it passes to Angelina, and then to Harry himself) so it seems rather bizarre for it to go to a newcomer.
** Two possibilities: first, that all of the previous Hufflepuff players were sixth- or seventh-years, and after they graduated, the slots were all filled by much younger players. Or that Harry did play against Cedric before, but didn't pay any particular attention to him because he wasn't a seeker until this year (he might have been a Chaser or something like that). Harry would primarily care about who the Seekers are since they're the ones he's competing against to get the Snitch, which means Cedric (Hufflepuff), Draco (Slytherin) and Cho Chang (Ravenclaw). At the very least, it says something about Cedric's Quidditch skills that he's captain of the team as a fourth year.
** It's also possible that there is another factor taken into consideration: How good they'd be at the job. Harry for instance is a great Quidditch player, but is a rather poor team captain -not putting as much effort into his training regimen as Wood and Angelina did, accusations (legitimate or otherwise) of nepotism in his choice of teammates, having trouble controlling his teammates (Ron and Cormac), and ultimately getting himself banned from playing- which may be why he didn't get the position until his 6th year. Cedric, on the other hand, is a model student and prefect, as well as incredibly athletic and charismatic. It may be Sprout or whoever picks the Hufflepuff Captain just thought he'd be the best leader, even if he was a new addition to the team.
** More simply, Cedric was on the team but played a different position. Ginny first played Seeker and then transitioned to Chaser.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Neville's greatest fear]]
* Regardless of whether you're a Snape fan (like me) or not, you have to admit that Snape is an unjustified asshole to Neville. But his greatest fear? The first thing we learn about Neville's home life is that his Great-Uncle Algy dropped him off a pier in an attempt to force magic out of him. And then his grandmother, who raised him, not only didn't cut off all contact with Algy for attempted murder, but let Algy be in the same room with him at least once more, when Algy dangled him out of a window. Neville's family were willing for him to die if he wasn't magical enough for their liking. Then throughout his second year at Hogwarts he was terrified that Slytherin's monster would get him because he was "almost a Squib". Snape, meanwhile, insults his competence in Potions and threatened (possibly genuinely, possibly not, but Neville believed him and given the Wizarding World's track record on animal cruelty, who knows?) to kill his pet. This is bad, but Neville comes from a genuinely abusive family who put him in mortal danger at least twice and spent a year terrified of being attacked by a Basilisk. (Not to mention how Bellatrix's party of Death Eaters tortured his parents into insanity, but Rowling may not have come up with that backstory at this point.) There's speculation further up the page that Boggarts actually just become "whatever you're afraid of most right now", but it seems to me that all this stuff in Neville's past would weigh at least as heavily on his mind as an asshole teacher.
** This has been discussed before. It seems that the reach of the Boggart's powers is kind of a hot topic. And as said before on one hand the Boggart is not a psychologist and on the other people tend to confuse trauma with fear, which are different concepts. Same question on what if a kid is abused in home. Having your parents tortured or having an abusing raising is a trauma, not a fear. In any case the Boggarts seems to be a non-sentient basic creature that uses the most basic instinctive fear, not a therapist that analyses the person's deepest secrets.
** Another point that should be mentioned is that while his family treated him poorly, they where far away and thus he didn't have to fear them that much. Snape on the other Hand was always in the Castle and he had to be in his class several times a week. Bullying can be horrible for a victim. What would you rather fear: The family that is far away but seems to love you at least somehow or the teacher who bullies and belittles you whenever possible and whom you can't escape for the biggest part of the year?
** Then again, Snape could symbolize a much deeper fear for Neville, a fear of never living up to his parents. I can only imagine how prideful he and his family were when his Hogwarts letter came - they were all worried that it wasn't going to come - but then to actually go to school there and find out not only are you not that great at magic starting out, but you have one person who's supposed to have the supportive role of a teacher who's confirming every bad thing your family used to think about you, instead of trying to help you work through your problems like he should be. Besides, "your parents being driven insane by dark wizards," while pretty traumatizing to any kid, doesn't seem like an actual fear, but failing to live up to their greatness and make them both proud of you, if they could show it, certainly does.
** And let's not forget that Neville is only thirteen at this point. Remember when you were that age, and things that seem harmless now would feel like a big deal then? If you're a bully victim, then that can mess you up for life. Snape bullied Neville quite shamelessly, and he's the only character that's directly antagonistic towards him. He's friendly with the other boys in his year, and Malfoy's main target is Harry. Let's also not forget that Snape's idea of motivating Neville to get his potion right was to feed it to his pet - actively saying that it's tough noogies if he gets poisoned. And when Hermione helps prevent this from happening, Snape punishes them.
*** That's true. And murder attempts from my great-uncle would mess me up even more than a mean teacher.
*** Of course, Neville's uncle never attempted to murder him. He was convinced that Neville was a wizard (turns out he was right) and it just needed a short sharp shock event to bring that out in Neville (and again, turns out he was right).
*** And then in that case Rowling would have to place Neville's uncle, a character that no reader know and that has no relevance for the plot, instead of putting a main character like Snape, generating also a new source of conflict when Snape hears about the incident with the Boggart and the grandma's clothes.
** ValuesDissonance. Wizards are much hardier than Muggles and much less worried about physical injury, as they have every means to fix them rather quickly. Throwing a late bloomer out of a window is the equivalent of a bird mother pushing her little ones out of the nest in order to force them to fly. Neville might begrudge his great-uncle for the act, but it was probably far less traumatic than we might imagine for ourselves, even for scaredy-cat Neville. Especially because it worked. \\\
Besides, I always got the impression that Neville’s family (or his formidable Grandma, at least) loves him and that Neville knows this as well, even if it’s a rather tough love at times.
** People do have a tendency to overlook or tone down the less admirable things their relatives do in their heads, since the image of them being a caring relative supersedes the idea that they would want to put you in danger. It's how emotional abusers work - it's easy for someone looking at the situation from outside to ask why the victim doesn't stand up for themselves, but to the victim, it doesn't even register as abuse. (Not saying Neville's family are actively abusive to him, but they do have a "tough love" mentality, and the effect it has on him is kind of the same.)
** I'm just going off the audio book here, but Stephen Fry has Neville tell the story about his great-uncle in a casual way - implying that it doesn't bother him or he just sees it as a wacky family story. And it probably helps that the uncle only accidentally let go. Maybe Neville doesn't even remember the incident, but Augusta just tells the story and he's only repeating the way she describes it.

* We never really get to see much of Snape and Neville outside of what Harry sees, but Snape has been shown to be a horrible person to everyone. Remember that Neville could have potentially been the 'chosen one' as well, and if he had been picked then Lily Potter might still be alive, so Snape might target him for more abuse than most because of that.

It's important to recall that Snape isn't a good person. He willingly assisted Voldemort, only betrayed him when Voldy decided to do something to someone Snape cared about, and made her son's life as uncomfortable as incredibly petty reasons.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Draco's Dementor Prank]]
* What on Earth was Draco Malfoy thinking with his prank at the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw Quidditch Match? What was he hoping would happen? Anything that results from his prank would lead to Draco getting into serious trouble. He may be spiteful and spoiled, but attempting to make Harry injure or even kill himself in front of every student and teacher at Hogwarts seems unbelievably stupid, even for him.
** He wasn't trying to injure Harry or get him killed - he just wanted to give him a scare that would distract him from catching the snitch. If Harry hadn't conjured his Patronus, odds are Malfoy and co. would've just flown away and escaped once he was sufficiently distracted.
** He's thirteen. That's how bullies at that age roll.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sirius's werewolf prank]]
* If Snape and the Marauders were at odds during their time at school, why would Snape have trusted Sirius when he told about the tunnel under the Whomping Willow? He didn't seem like he would've hated Lupin enough that he would go looking for any excuse to get him in trouble, even if he despised James and Sirius for bullying him.
** Indeed. In fact, wouldn't he have expected a prank? Not a werewolf one, but it does look like such an obvious SchmuckBait, it's downright bizarre he fell for it.
** It's difficult to tell, because we don't know the exact circumstances under which Sirius told Snape about the Whomping Willow. Perhaps Sirius was double-bluffing. Perhaps Snape was holding the IdiotBall. Perhaps Sirius was actually malicious and deliberately lured Snape. Perhaps it was a comedy of errors! All we know is that Snape found out from Sirius, and went, unaware that there was a werewolf underneath. There's just not enough information.
** FridgeBrilliance is that maybe Snape went along with it on purpose. He didn't trust Sirius in the least, but it occurred to him that he's onto some massive breach of rules that even Dumbledore would be unable to turn a blind eye to, so he could have willingly steadied himself to become a victim of something, if that meant a possibility to finally force Dumbledore's hand to the expulsion of the Marauders. He probably still wasn't counting on a werewolf though.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Keeping watch]]
* If Dumbledore knew that Trelawney was an actual seer and could give prophecies at any time, without any warning, why didn't he have some surveillance spell cast over her so that he would know if she made one with no one around to hear it? That would've come in handy.
** Do we know for sure he didn't?
*** Good point, the only time she makes a prophecy after the great one about Harry and Voldemort, Harry was there to hear it- even if a spell would have warned Dumbledore if a prophecy without a listener occurs this wasn't like that hence why Dumbledore is surprised when Harry mentions it.
* Since the Hall of Prophecies seems to make a point of noting the person who originally heard the prophecy — Dumbledore's initials are listed beside Trelawney's — it's possible that Seers only speak prophecies when somebody is available to hear them. There wouldn't be much use to prophecies otherwise, if half of them ended up going unheard.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Taking the potion]]
* I can understand Remus being so taken aback by Peter's reemergence that he forgot to drink the Wolfsbane potion the night it happened...However, he says that he has an entire week before the full moon comes during which he can take the potion and be fine. He obviously didn't have knowledge of Peter for a week and just kept quiet about it, so there shouldn't have been anything to take his mind off taking the potion on time. There are ways to track the phases of the moon well in advance. Does he normally wait until the last minute before taking the potion, and this was one time where it backfired on him?
** My theory is that ''Snape'', being Snape, usually ''gave'' him the potion on the last day, or the day prior — thus having a bit of sadistic fun at Lupin's expense as Lupin grew more and more worried about whether he'd get the Potion in time each month.
** He needs to drink the potion every night of the week leading up to the full moon.[[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wolfsbane_Potion]]
** I can't find an official source that lines up with that. In the book, he says he needs to take it in the week leading up to the full moon, but not how many times.
** We know he at least takes regular doses. In chapter 8 when Snape came in to deliver a goblet of it, he mentions if Lupin needs anymore, he brewed a cauldronful of it and Lupin says he reckons that he'll need some more tomorrow. Most other information came from Pottermore articles: that there are other symptoms werewolves display before their transformation, and missing even one dose renders it ineffective, thus why the potion must be taken a week in advance I suppose-not enough in their system. That would explain why Snape brought the potion to Remus in person even though he hated him.
** Maybe Lupin is still working on trial and error, as the Wolfsbane potion is said to be a relatively recent invention. Maybe one dose the night of the moon might be enough, but he takes extra just to be safe - since now he's in an environment with hundreds of children to think of.
** FridgeBrilliance - Voldemort's curse on the DADA job. The curse made Lupin forget to take his potion so he would transform in the grounds and resign.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Spy search]]
* If the Order knew that someone within their ranks was passing information on to You-Know-Who during the first war, why didn't they just check the arms of every member to see who it was that had the Dark Mark? The fourth film, at least, shows that Pettigrew already had his.
** The Dark Mark was a closely-guarded secret even in 1994. It's no guarantee the Order of the Phoenix already knew about it. And even then, not all of Voldemort's cronies had the Mark, only his most trusted servants; it was pretty weird that he'd mark a spy. In Peter's case, it was because Peter was a reluctant spy only doing it to save his own skin, and so Voldemort had marked him so that he could never turn back even if he wanted to; but if it had been a genuine believer like Sirius whose loyalty wasn't in question, he would have dispensed with the Mark for extra safety, and that's what the Order might have assumed happened.
* It’s entirely possible that Peter didn’t have his put on until after he found Voldemort.
** If Voldemort wanted Peter to keep acting as a spy, then perhaps he felt that putting a brand exclusive to his followers on the man's arm might be compromising his cover.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Why does Harry need the Marauders' Map?]]
* Isn't the Invisibility Cloak alone enough for him to sneak into town?
** Uh-oh, someone forgot that Dumbledore mentioned Dementors aren't fooled by Invisibility Cloaks.
** Or they're just referring to the movie, which never mentions that dementors can see past the cloak.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Legality of the Knight Bus]]
* Why is the Knight Bus legal but Arthur Weasley's enchanted car isn't?
** If it's government approved, it's legal. The Knight Bus was made by the Ministry of Magic for the general public should they be in need of transport, such as if they are underage or desperately ill, and made before it could be considered "illegal". Arthur's car was enchanted by a Ministry official, yes, but for his own purposes, and using its enchanted features was against the law regarding ownership of charmed Muggle objects.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Malfoy taking Creature care]]
* If Care of Magical Creatures was an elective subject, why in seven hells would Malfoy enroll? Nothing about him says he cares about magical creatures, he despises Hagrid, and if he thought he might slack off there or make fun of Hagrid, can you imagine Lucius going along with him taking it instead of something more respectable and useful for whatever career he envisioned for his son?
** Malfoy (and everyone except the teachers) had no clue Hagrid would be teaching until the Start-of-Term Feast. Also, it looks like Third Years must have at least two electives, where the choices are Arithmancy, Divination, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies. Malfoy probably chose the two he believed would require the least work (which includes [=CoMC=]), and he is independently wealthy anyway (the Malfoys don’t work) so why would Lucius pester Draco to work at a subject for a career he won’t work in anyway?
** Of the above options, there is no way he would have taken Muggle Studies, and I feel his father would strongly disagree with him taking Divination since many (including [=McGonagall=]) think it's a waste of time which narrows his options. In book seven it's shown the Malfoys have a large white Peacock living on their grounds, and it would be easy to believe a wealthy family like theirs would have a menagerie of other animals that would be just for show in the gardens. Growing up around these animals may have given Draco a legitimate interest in raising them. Also on paper learning about Dragons, Unicorns, Hippogriffs and other fantastical magical creatures might [[RuleOfCool just seem cool]] to a thirteen-year-old boy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Snape's Logic about the Prank]]
* Snape still carries grudge against the Marauders, but for a man obsessed with the DADA position, shouldn't he know that being a werewolf, Lupin would have no idea what he'd be doing when he was transformed? Or did he think Sirius and him had it set up like Greyback did when Lupin was a kid and try to make it so Snape would be the first human in sight to attack?
** The implication is that he thought Remus had been in on the "prank" before his transformation that night.
** "Snape's Worst Memory" from OotP showed that after the werewolf prank Lupin continued to be friends with Sirius which probably convinced Snape that Lupin was if not in on the prank from the start, then he certainly didn’t disapprove of it, otherwise Lupin wouldn‘t have continued to hang out with Sirius and broken off their friendship in digust.
*** In that very memory, Lupin is shown feeling annoyed and going “You Would” when Sirius wished it was full moon. Lupin is implied to still be annoyed in the present when recalling it. In Moody’s picture of the original order, Lupin is several people away from Sirius, Peter, James and Lily. It’s unclear why Sirius believed Lupin to be the spy but it could be because Lupin might’ve suspected Sirius due to him having no remorse for what he did or Lupin never fully forgave Sirius and only spent time with him when necessary.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hermione, what the heck?]]
* Yeah you said that Crookshanks sleeps in your dormitory and yet you bring him into boys’ dormitory? And you know exactly what he will do to Scabbers? That is low from Hermione.
** I wasn’t aware saying Crookshanks will be sleeping in the girls’ dormitory with her is synonymous with “He’ll be stuck in there all year because you keep having tantrums about a cat being a cat”. Plus, no one else has a problem with Crookshanks at the time - it is just Ron, and I don’t think Hermione is going to sacrifice her cat’s freedom and comfort because her friend has a vendetta against him.
** I never got all the fuzz about Crookshanks. Doesn't Harry own an owl? Don't owls also eat rats? Doesn't Harry keep his owl in the same room that he shares with Ron, or at the very least have him often in it and the owl has full access to the room whenever it wants?
*** The difference is that Hedwig presumably hasn't tried killing and eating Scabbers in the two years Harry and Ron have been friends. Meanwhile, Crookshanks's first action in the story is to try and have a go at Scabbers, and it only gets worse after Hermione purchases him. We have to assume that other cats and owls don't have as much of a problem with Scabbers, meaning that as far as Ron knows, Hermione is keeping a pet that's determined to eat his specific rat for no discernable reason -- and yes, we find out later in the story that Crookshanks ''was'' targeting Scabbers from the get-go. It's only because of the killer good reason why this had happened that Ron didn't say "I told you so."
*** If I lived in a magical place were cats and owls are somehow magically enhanced to not eat rats that are owned by other people, and a particularly intelligent breed of magical cats has one of its members with an unusual interest in my rat, I would assume that something weird is going on as it is uncommon for cats in Hogwarts to chase rats (at least rats with owners). If anything, it is amazing how Ron was so oblivious to that fact.
*** Hedwig does ''not'' stay in the room with Harry, no owl in Hogwarts does. They stay in the Owlery, which is mentioned many many times in the books.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Oliver Wood doesn't accept a rematch?]]
Does anyone find it to be out of character that Wood supposedly didn't accept Cedric's offer of a rematch? I get that it's the polite thing to do to decline, and Wood likely wanted to win on his own terms, but wasn't winning the cup particularly important to him because it would help him get on a professional team? It just seems out of character for someone who wanted so desperately to finally win the cup.
** Technically, the book doesn't say that Wood refused the offer for a rematch, just that he thinks Hufflepuff won fair and square. (Even then, it's not him saying it, just someone else saying he said it.) I don't have a copy of ''Quidditch Through the Ages'', but here in this book, it's worded to imply that arranging a rematch wasn't just up to Diggory and Wood, and that there were other hurdles to clear (like gaining Madame Hooch's approval, probably) even if they both had agreed to it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Harry doesn't want anything Draco thinks is good]]
* When Oliver Wood is unsure that [=McGonagall=] is going to give Harry his Firebolt back, he suggests Harry order a Nimbus 2001, which Harry shoots down by saying he doesn't want anything Draco thinks is good. So he's living his life by defining anything Draco likes as bad?
** What he was saying was that he didn't want to give anyone (especially Draco) the idea that he was trying to be successful by mimicking his worst enemy. If he buys the same broom Draco already has, that gives Draco the satisfaction of being better than him in some way.
** Better? But they'd have the same broom.
** Exactly. And Malfoy bought his first, which is more than enough of an excuse for him to go around saying, "Look, everyone! Potter couldn't afford a better broom after those ''scary dementors'' made him wreck his, so he's decided to try copying my technique to see if he can profit off of it," or something pompous like that. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and so and so. It's definitely the kind of thing Harry would expect Malfoy to say or think, and he just doesn't want to give him that satisfaction.
** But the Nimbus 2001 is a better broom than the Nimbus 2000, so Malfoy's comment about Harry not being able to buy a better broom doesn't make sense. And again, even if it does give Malfoy some satisfaction, in the end, does it matter? It's just a broom!
** You're thinking too much into this. This is just an instance of Harry being stubborn and refusing to do something that he thinks would lend credence to Malfoy's ego. The book isn't saying that this is actually accurate, just that it's what Harry thinks. It's a throwaway line that doesn't need to be examined in depth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Asset protection? Nah, that's for Muggles.]]
* Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban in late July (Harry's birthday is July 31st, and that's when he first notices the broadcast about Sirius on the Muggle news). Harry Potter remains with his aunt and uncle until he runs away a week after Harry’s birthday, on the 6th or 7th of August. At that time, it was believed by everyone from Fudge to Dumbledore that Black's goal was to kill Harry. Despite that, no efforts are taken to protect Harry at 4 Privet Drive; he and his family are not removed to a safe location, Aurors are not dispatched to take up a watch, and no one is even informed. This despite the fact that Harry used magic in such a way to suggest that Shit Was Happening (the spell that broke Marge's wineglass, plus blowing her up). If Black had wanted to kill Harry, he could have. He was actually within line of sight of Harry when the Knight Bus came for him.
** It's possible the Ministry didn't think Sirius knew where the Dursleys lived, and assumed he would wait until Harry got to Hogwarts before attempting an attack. The book's back cover mentions that Sirius was heard talking in his sleep: "He's at Hogwarts...he's at Hogwarts...", which would give them the reasonable idea that that's all he knows about where Harry was.
** Maybe they did have people watching the house like in the fifth book, except Ministry regulated obviously. It's just that he ran out of his house so fast that they couldn't get to him before he flagged the Knight Bus. Maybe if someone was watching the house, the fuss with Aunt Marge being enchanted was the main concern, and they rushed to put a stop to that and modify her memory. It was only after that they discovered Harry had fled and at that point he'd gotten on the Knight Bus.
** That kind of scenario, Voldemort, or one of his followers, is ''what'' the Blood Protection Dumbledore set up is for. Once he left his Aunt's care though, ''then'' they had a problem.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Magical means of tracking your students plus identifying intruders? Nah, why'd we need one of those?]]
* So the Marauder's Map exists and was created by teenagers. It is a sickeningly useful item and the information it reveals is a running theme throughout the remaining books from the moment of its introduction. The ability to know where your students are, and to be able to bypass methods of disguise like Polyjuice Potion and the disguises of Animagi, would be a treasured asset for any group of people trying to track hundreds of teenaged and pre-teen wizards, but also protect them from frequent break-ins and assaults such as happened many times in recent memory. So why the hell does no one re-invent the Marauder's Map for the teachers at Hogwarts to use?
** First off, because that's probably a major violation of privacy to be able to track your students at every minute of the day. And second, who knows about the Marauders' Map to be able to replicate it? Lupin doesn't want to reveal its secret to Dumbledore, since that would mean violating his trust, and Barty kept it a secret in the fourth book because revealing it might've compromised his plan in the fourth book. I know Harry gives it to Professor [=McGonagall=] during ''Cursed Child'', but that was during peaceful postwar times, and she objects to using it to monitor Albus and Scorpius and only does so because Harry forces her to.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Unregistered Animagi]]
* Why would Hermione assume that Peter couldn't have been an Animagus just because he wasn't registered as one? Isn't she supposed to be smarter than that? Registration is apparently something you have to go to the Ministry on your own and complete in order for them to know you're an Animagus, and considering all the applications a secret animal form can have, it's obvious why someone wouldn't choose to do that even without a detailed explanation. What she said would be like suggesting someone couldn't have been in a car accident just because they didn't have a driver's license.
** Because that's one of Hermione's flaws - at this point in time, she's a rule-abiding, law-abiding student who knows the many penalties that come from being found to not obey the law. She also has a habit of expecting others to abide by these laws, and projects this view onto others, unless she has undeniable proof they don't. Hermione has never met Wormtail, and so never met an unregistered Animagus - the only Animagus she knew was [=McGonagall=], who was registered - and only knew of the other registered Animagi and the penalty for not registering. Plus, your example of assuming someone couldn't have been in a car accident because they don't have a driver's license doesn't work - there are such things as innocent people caught up in it; a better example would be assuming someone couldn't be caught drink-driving because they don't have a license, or a car.
*** Right, when I said "been in a car accident", what I meant was "caused a car accident" or "been involved in an accident while driving".
** Becoming an Animagus is also exceptionally difficult, and Sirius is asking them to swallow that Peter Pettigrew managed to become one at a young age and dodge registration all these years.
** She could've been giving the Ministry way too much credit. If they bothered to demand registration from the animagi, surely they have ways to detect unregistered ones, right?... Right? Otherwise, becoming one wouldn't be merely difficult - it would've been one of the most closely guarded secrets, [=McGonagall=] wouldn't be allowed to flaunt her ability before the students etc. It simply didn't dawn on Hermione that the wizarding government could be ''that'' incompetent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Filch was looking for Black]]
* As I rewatched the movie, one small scene stuck out to me. When Sirius attacks the Fat Lady's portrait, and the students are moved to sleep in the Great Hall, three people come back to report to Dumbledore that they'd searched the castle for Sirius and not found him. These are Snape, Flitwick and Filch. The first two make perfect sense, but why on Earth did Dumbledore let Filch, a Squib, search the castle, alone, for a presumed deadly murderer that was so dangerous the entire castle was on lockdown. If Sirius was as bad as everyone assumed, and Filch had found him, he would have killed Filch long before he could have reported anything.
** I don’t think the film or the book established Sirius as having a wand after his escape from Azkaban — he slashed the Fat Lady’s portrait and went after Ron with a knife. Plus, it’s doubtful that Sirius is aware that Filch is a Squib even if the audience does — in his mind, trying to attack him while armed only with a knife might as well be suicide.
** And Dumbledore admits that he didn’t expect Sirius would stick around after failing to get into Gryffindor Tower, so he probably didn’t figure Filch would be in danger anyway. It’s not as if he hasn’t made riskier gambits before.
** As the caretaker, Filch likely knows the castle inside and out (it's said he has lots of knowledge of the secret passages) - so if Sirius is still in the castle and in hiding, Filch would be able to help them narrow down any unusual places they would normally overlook.
** Plus, maybe Filch had a team of house-elves aiding in his search. If he’s a caretaker and they’re all supposed to be caretakers, maybe they work together on all sorts of things; Filch might even have some control over them, possibly. If they were helping him search for Sirius, their magic could’ve sufficiently protected him, if need be.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Buckbeak and the Longest Execution Trial Ever]]
* Other than plot convenience, why does it take months for a hippogriff to be sentenced to death, and even more months for it to actually be executed? If Buckbeak was such a dangerous creature like the Malfoys claim, wouldn't the Ministry want to get the whole thing over with in a few days before he could potentially hurt anyone else?
** Because everyone had better things to do than to deal with a random animal that's only being killed out of spite.
** In addition, legal trials tend to take a lot longer to arrange, get underway, and conclude than they're made out to be in fiction.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hogwarts Express vs the Knight Bus]]
* So, what is the point of the Hogwarts Express? A vehicle that requires hundreds of gabbling school children carrying owls, trunks and wands to descend upon a Muggle train station every year? Why not just have a fleet of yellow Knight Buses that pick you up from your house? I feel as if Rowling quite obviously had not thought of the Knight Bus when she came up with the Hogwarts Express and thus has unintentionally created a hole in the worldbuilding. It’s the same with portkeys, but at least here there is no chance of a Muggle accidentally picking one up and whisking their way to Hogsmeade.
** Tradition plus keeping most of the students where they can be easily kept track of.
** It sounds pretty unfeasible to have a fleet of buses able to collect children from across the entirety of the British Isles, doesn't it? Especially when they would have to pick them all up and get them to Hogwarts in exactly a single day? Besides, what's so wrong about having hundreds of kids at a train station? I'm pretty certain several scores of bustling people are exactly what train stations are meant to accommodate.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The truth about Scabbers]]
* Did the other Weasleys ever find out that Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew? Did they genuinely think Scabbers was eaten by Crookshanks, or did they learn the truth when they realized Sirius was innocent? When Ron becomes a prefect, Molly suggests that he buy a new rat, because "(he) always liked Scabbers", with a tone of voice that could imply that she did not know the truth, yet this is when the Order's been reconstituted, and they're using Grimmauld Place.
** Before the fifth book we can assume no. As Scabbers is thought dead and doesn't turn up alive until the night he's revealed as Peter Pettigrew, Ron would probably keep that quiet and pretend Scabbers just died. Possibly yes they were told between books four and five (certainly Sirius and/or Lupin would've brought it up at some point over that summer), and maybe Molly was just in an excited mood at the news (she even says "I'm all of a dither") that she said Scabbers by mistake. And if it isn't too long since she was told, it might have been out of habit since the rat was a family pet for years.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:What if Crookshanks succeeded?]]
* It’s heavily implied in later books that all Animagi return to their true form upon death… so what would’ve become of poor Crookshanks had he eaten Scabbers? (Or even Sirius for that matter since he’s been living off of rats).
** If Crookshanks is as preturnaturally intelligent as he's said to be, then he genuinely can detect Animagi. He's probably seen Sirius transform around him in private, so he knows what Scabbers could turn into. It's not a big logical leap from there that he'd avoid eating a rat which could blow up into a large man upon death; he'd be perfectly content to just maul him to death. As for Sirius, clearly he was able to subsist off of rats either in human form, dog or both, and his diet improved as of the return of Voldemort.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Let's have a bus, and let's make it stand out like a sore thumb]]
* Why did the Ministry or whoever decide when they came up with the Knight Bus to make it purple, as well as triple deckered? Why not have it resemble an ordinary red London bus, so as to attract less attention? Sure, the conductor said 'Muggles won't/don't notice', but still, why not take extra precaution?
** I think the implication that 'muggles don't notice' means they can literally NEVER see it. And that the bus is somewhat incorporeal. UNLESS the bus itself interacts with something, or hits something, nothing can interact with it. That saying, if it was parked by the road, muggle cars would just park 'through' it and not notice it. And when you get off, you materialize into the muggle world. If your next question would be 'How don't the muggles notice you materializing out of thin air', I can answer you with 'The same way nobody sees you entering 9 and 3/4 platform at King's Cross.'
[[/folder]]

[[folder: How were the Dursleys sending gifts to Harry all these years]]
* It's been mentioned that the Dursleys send Harry a Christmas gift every year though by this point it seems more like a cruel prank than a gift (it was a single tissue this book)....But how were they getting these to him? I doubt Hogwarts has a normal mailing address they could send through the post office since Hermione mentions that any Muggle that sees Hogwarts only sees a ruin with a sign saying it was unsafe. The idea that they went out of their way to actually use an owl to deliver it also seems very out of character since they oppose any form of magical communication, and where would they even get an owl to deliver it?
** I may be wrong, but didn't Harry at one point speculate that Hedwig pestered his aunt and uncle until they sent him a present? Either way, Hedwig is an intelligent owl, so it's most likely she knows about how Christmas is a time of giving, and she can travel far, so she can collect any 'present' the Dursleys have for Harry. Besides that, there was also a piece by Rowling that explained there are wizards working in the Muggle Post Office in order to keep magical post from exposing the Wizarding World, so maybe the Dursleys just put 'Hogwarts School' or something to that effect on a package, which was seen by a wizard working in the Post Office, and sent the 'correct' way to Hogwarts.
** Everything I am reading here could be accomplished by having a simple PO Box set up in London that a wizard from the Ministry could come by and check each day.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Boggart and its threat]]
* How exactly is a boggart meant to be dangerous? I haven't found an explanation to the boggart's threat anywhere. OK, you encounter him in class/in the wild, he scares you shitless... and then what? Does he eat you while you are paralyzed with fear? Does the fear itself kill you if enough time passed with the boggart? My question is what would happen if you didn't defeat a boggart with "Riddikulus"? If the boggart would do nothing, there's no reason to try to fight it, unless it becomes a nuisance, like Peeves, perhaps. Like this situation, for example: "Oh my god, a giant spider, I'm terrified... wait... oh, it's you. Get lost, boggart, I don't have time for you now. No, I'm not in the mood. God damnit, RIDDIKULUS!"
** Note that the boggart apparently doesn't warrant classification in the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them textbook, for whatever reason. Perhaps it's not the creature's threat in and of itself, but that it could be weaponised by a dark wizard. Being able to conjure your opponent's worst fear manifested by a magical creature is a powerful psychological weapon and one hell of a distraction. You have no real chance to defend against the Unforgivable Curses while a literal nightmare is unfolding in front of your eyes. Think outside the box of what the novel presents with just the creature by itself.
** Remember what happened to Mrs Weasley when the boggart at Grimmauld Place conjured up the image of her dead children. She was absolutely wrecked with distraught. I can easily see someone in that state turning their wand upon themselves. I would argue that one of Rowling's greatest talents throughout this franchise is introducing us to items or concepts that are initially portrayed as being harmless jokes - and then going out of her way to demonstrate just how dangerous ''harmless jokes'' can be when misused. The boggart is a great example of this. It goes from Snape-in-a-dress to a potentially suicide-dealing monstrosity in the space of two books.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sirius self-fulfilling the rumour]]
* ''Maybe I'm coming more from the movie source than the book, feel free to oppose me if it's different in the book, it's been a time since I read it''. "OK, I am Sirius Black, a prisoner of Azkaban. I know I'm innocent and break free. What do I do now? Oh, I know, I will try to find the real culprit while behaving like a maniac they describe me." In the movie, we have a scene where Sirius first meets Harry when the latter makes an exit from the Dursleys. Sirius is hiding in a bush in his Animagi form (a dog). And he growls and barks menacingly at Harry. The next scene, where they meet I think is at the Shrieking Shack. And Sirius is standing menacingly in the corner of the house after he dragged Ron into a tunnel in his Animagi form. And then he continues to be enigmatic when issuing death threats to somebody. Then Harry tackles him and Sirius is just giggling like The Joker and asking "Hahaha, are you going to kill me, Harry?". Then all of a sudden after everything is explained to everyone, Sirius behaves like a normal, civilised, friendly and modest person who wouldn't hurt a fly. Excuse me... what? Why did he have to act like a rampaging lunatic as they had described him? Even the newspaper photo shows him as a raging animal... But as soon as it is confirmed by the story that he's a good guy, he behaves like an angel. I have the same problem with Marley from Home Alone, feel free to see my headscratcher there. A character behaves like a villain because other characters and the audience are informed he's a villain. But once the character proves he's not a villain, he then acts like a normal person. We may ascribe the manic behaviour to the Azkaban imprisonment, but we can't ignore that after everything he doesn't show any sign of psychopathy whatsoever.\\\
He didn't do anything to contact Harry and explain himself. When he encountered him as a dog, from Harry's POV, the best he could come up with was a rabid dog biting him. The worst? A magical rabid dog biting him. Couldn't he leave a note for Harry somewhere, saying "Harry, it is your godfather Sirius Black writing. I didn't betray your parents, Peter Pettigrew did". Granted, Harry might not believe it entirely, but it's a start and he would be honest. He could have said the same words in the Shrieking Shack. "Harry, calm down, I don't wanna hurt you, I'm after Ron's rat! I'll explain when I get the rat". Hell, couldn't he contact DD himself trying to plead with the proof of a rat? I don't think DD would be the one to deny Sirius a fair trial/explanation, even if he encountered him himself.
** ....Uhhh...you already gave the basic answer, Azkaban had driven him to madness and left him with nothing but a desire for vengeance, due to the Dementors forcing him to relive every horrible memory, including his being framed for betraying James and Lily Potter, and he also is established to be very impulsive and short-sighted, even after this whole incident is somewhat resolved after Prisoner of Azkaban. It sounds more like you just don't like the idea of someone acting on impulse, when that just is something people do sometimes. People go about things the wrong way, and Sirius actually has a good reason/interconnected reasons. This is like taking issue with Viktor Krum diving into the lake because it should be too cold for him, even though he comes from a much colder region so he's perfectly fine. Sirius' own nature, and his situation, made him act irrationally, and being chased by more dementors couldn't have made him very open to surrendering even if he ''did'' consider it. Also, someone acting violent or erratic or "crazy" doesn't automatically make them a villain or a psychopath (a psychopath is someone without empathy or care for others, not just someone who's "crazy" or anything. Sirius caring about ''anything'' shows he isn't that, such as Crookshanks). The narrative shows someone to be a villain by ''leaving out'' things, not changing the character. In the book at least, Harry and Ron speculate, and are confused by, Sirius' lack of murdering people when he breaks into the castle twice (though he does attack the Fat Lady, she isn't harmed, just terrified), despite his portrayal as a violent madman, and also Hagrid mentions Sirius genuinely seemed upset about James and Lily before we even meet the man (he assumes he was upset about ''Voldemort's'' death, but in light of the truth...). Also, the movie cuts out Sirius trying to say to Harry "you'll regret it if you don't listen..." before Lupin arrives, so he does try to reason with them, though very poorly. As for the scene with Sirius as a dog, Sirius doesn't growl or even make a sound, he just scares Harry because Harry is alone in the dark and is not sure what to do after running away (he actually apologises for that at the end, funny enough). Your confusion is based on an incorrect perspective on tropes regarding a secretly innocent character, and also the movie cutting out moments that question Sirius' behaviour, and also exaggerating Sirius' fear factor.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Never cancel a Quidditch game due to the weather]]
* How could they allow the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff game to take place? There was a ferocious thunderstorm taking place with pounding rain, heavy winds, and lightning. The weather was taking place during a game in which people are flying on broomsticks high up in the sky. Didn't Madam Hooch, [=McGonagall=], Sprout, or Dumbledore consider the weather conditions to be disfavourable and dangerous to a game being played?
** This is probably a combination of "wizards are hardier than Muggles, can enchant their glasses to repel water, etc" and also that in hindsight probably all of the staff you mentioned bitterly regretted taking the risk but they thought at first it would be a worthy challenge for the teams (and especially Harry considering Dumbledore's series-wide agenda).
[[/folder]]