"A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic,—"
Warning: Unmarked spoilers on this page.
Oh, Hermione. You would not know how right you were.
You may put examples from both the book and film adaptations.
Books/films with their own pages:
- The Philosopher's Stone
- The Chamber of Secrets
- Prisoner of Azkaban
- Goblet of Fire
- Order of the Phoenix
- Half-Blood Prince
- Deathly Hallows
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General
- Slytherin House is notorious for producing the greatest number of dark wizards out of any house in Hogwarts.
You'd Expect: Both school and government authorities would take a special interest in ensuring the members of this House were held under special scrutiny. Furthermore, they could try to find out why this pattern has persisted for so long, and what they could do to prevent it.
Instead: No one performs any investigation nor preventative measures, and the House is free to release evil wizards to the world. If anything, to the contrary, most of the prominent Slytherins seem to be assuming major roles in the Ministry. There's minor attempts at justification, like "being stuck there doesn't mean you're a bad person," but this argument, while theoretically correct, clashes against the statistically demonstrable truth that Slytherin is a factory of douchebags. It also does nothing to address the underlying stigma, which effectively plays both against the house and the rest of the community. - The Polyjuice Potion can give you the appearance of anyone you can get a sample of hair from — not just a clever disguise, but it alters your body so you have the same fingerprints, hair, and body shape. Thus, anyone important can be impersonated or outright replacednote .
You'd Expect: There would be more commonplace methods of rooting out such impersonations at any location of importance, such as the Ministry. For example, as the supplanter's mind remains the same after the changes, it'd be easy to do a quick Legilimency check to see if his/her thoughts and recent memories match what is expected of the person. This admittedly would not stop a skilled Occlumens, but very few wizards are after all. Also, given that the Marauder's Map cannot be fooled by the potion, there must have some other ways to detect it. The Order of the Phoenix uses personalized Trust Passwords that are fairly effective.
Instead: The Ministry of Magic has no defense against it whatsoever.
As A Result: The heroes are able to infiltrate it using Polyjuice Potion. The Ministry can be cut some slack, as we don't know if Gringotts (which does have effective intruder defenses) would share its knowledge with them, but they still ought to try and do something to patch it. - From the second book onwards, the same situation repeats itself: some crucial events take place with either no witnesses or kids (usually Harry) as witnesses, and afterwards nobody believes them.
You'd Expect: They would use Legilimency or the Pensieve to look at the memories themselves. If they remain mistrustful, they can also use the Time Turners to send back an invisible observer and oversee the events in question.
Instead: They never do anything remotely similar, and it constantly gets worse. - Dumbledore is revealed to be a highly skilled Legilimens in the fifth book of the series.
You'd Expect: Dumbledore to try using this skill for something, such as finding out who opened the Chamber of Secrets both times in the series. Granted, this might not work, and could be a very controversial step, with the students and their parents getting very upset about Dumbledore's mind-reading, but Dumbledore could point out that with someone going around petrifying (and potentially killing) other students, he's got a very good excuse to take such measures.
Instead: Dumbledore's Legilimency is only used in the fifth book, and only to find out why some of the events of the climax happened. - The Mauraders (James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter) create a map that is not fooled by Animagi or Polyjuice Potion.
You'd Expect: Dumbledore to have a version of this map somewhere so he can identify the Animagi, people under Polyjuice, or possessed people in the school. Preferably with some kind of alarm if a name shows up that isn't supposed to be there, so he doesn't have to keep looking at it. Or any other important place, for that matter: if four kids can make one, surely experienced wizards can imitate it.
Instead: Apparently, nobody thinks of this. Ever. The Marauder's map (the only known one of its kind) is used solely for Harry and co. to sneak around the school without being caught. It's not until 19 years later that Hogwarts authorities think of using it. - House elves can — at the order of their master — use powerful magic, and have a method of transportation that is instantaneous, untraceable, and bypasses anti-apparition wards.
You'd Expect: Anybody, hero or villain, to notice that potential and use it extensively.
You'd Also Expect: Wizards to develop and utilise means of protection against house elves' magic. After all, they are slaves, and like every slave race in history, they might use any advantage to concoct an uprising some day. Even if it would be admittedly very out-of-character for the elves's Blue-and-Orange Morality, at least two elves in the series have explicitly revolted against their masters, so the possibility existed and should have been a serious concern.
Instead: Nobody cares. Elves keep being able to go literally anywhere, and no wizard makes use of that until the desperate situation in the last book. Somewhat justified in that they're usually seen as Beneath Notice, but in the past several centuries, or millennia, you'd think someone would have rectified this. - For his protection from Voldemort, Harry must stay with his abusive aunt, uncle, and cousin from the time he is orphaned to his attendance at Hogwarts, and return there for the majority of the time that he isn't at the school.
You'd Expect: For somebody to check up on him periodically as time went by, to verify that he's being well cared for, and to gradually introduce him into the Wizarding World. Dumbledore for one knows how important he is in defeating Voldemort, and as future books and movies would show, leaving a young witch or wizard untrained, in an abusive environment, or forcing them to suppress their powers can have extremely dire consequences. For example, Prisoner of Azkaban has Harry blow up Aunt Marge when he's provoked enough, and that's possibly the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario? One word: Obscurial.
Instead: The only one who sees him somewhat regularly is his Squib neighbor Mrs. Figg (who deliberately bores him when she watches him so the Dursleys don't catch on, and apparently never passes on word of Harry's mistreatment to anyone else, since Hagrid's first meeting with Harry and the Dursleys is the first time anyone else in Dumbledore's circle learns that Harry hasn't been told about his parents and the wizarding world). Harry is left alone and abused, without knowing why. Added to the Horcrux that occasionally influences his behavior, it is a damn miracle that he's as stable and good-natured as he is.
As a Result: Harry's abusive upbringing gives him severe trust issues, especially when it comes to adults and authority figures, and a stunning lack of self-preservation. This causes a lot of problems throughout the books, and brings about several situations where the problem could have been resolved much quicker if Harry had told a trusted adult about what was going on. The situation is made all the more egregious in that among Harry's allies are some very powerful Aurors, one Mama Bear, and of course Dumbledore. Even McGonagall, after a day of spying on the Dursleys in cat form during the prologue, can tell that it's not the environment that Harry should grow up in. - Related to the above, the infant Harry is miraculously the only survivor of Voldemort's attack on his parents. It's been decided to leave him with his aforementioned relatives to be raised "out of the spotlight" in order to get a "normal childhood".
You'd Expect: For somebody, at minimum either McGonagall or preferably Dumbledore himself, to personally deliver Harry, speak to the Dursleys, explain the situation to them, and simply ask them if they'd even be willing and/or able to take Harry in. Bear in mind, it takes a lot of time, energy, and money to raise a child, they already have Dudley to take care of, and now they'd be forced to unexpectedly to take on another one. Giving them an actual choice in the matter is a common courtesy at minimum. Additionally, Dumbledore would be able to gently break the news of Lily's death to Petunia, offer his condolences, and possibly help smoothen out any resentments that Petunia has with her sister (something that many books shows he's definitely aware of). He could also have taken the opportunity to attempt to alleviate any fears or concerns the two have about inviting a magical child into their home. The pair's distrust — even hatred — of magic is not exactly well-hidden or unjustified at all. He could also explain the nature of the blood protection caused by Lily's sacrifice, and that by taking Harry in, they make their home the ultimate "safe house" for the next 15+ years.
You'd Also Expect: For Dumbledore to offer them some form of monetary compensation to help pay for Harry's needs (which could reasonably come from his late parents' accumulated funds, given the circumstances). And if the Dursleys still refuse, Dumbledore still has more than enough time, connections, and magical power to find another course of action.
Instead: Harry is a Doorstop Baby, with nothing more than a note essentially saying, "Your hated sister's dead. Here's her son, raise him as your own, good luck", and with them having no way to contact him to actually talk this scenario over. note
As A Result: This has the obvious consequence of leaving Petunia with forever unresolved tension regarding her sister (that she takes out on Harry), Vernon frequently demeaning him, and Dudley being a constant bully to Harry, essentially robbing him of anything remotely resembling a happy childhood. - Wizards live in a world with Muggles who have invented many useful things which magic cannot replicate (though electronics don't work in areas with a high concentration of magic).
You'd expect: Wizards would use Muggle inventions as much as they could: for example, pens don't use electricity, and are far more convenient than quills and ink, which are usually non-magic. Wizards also phone each other a couple of times in the books, so there seems to be nothing stopping them from using quite complex technology by themselves as long as they don't take it into magical places like Hogwarts. Wizards would also try to develop some way of shielding Muggle inventions from magic so they could be used in magical places.
Instead: Wizards ignore a potentially incredibly useful source of information and power which could have instantly solved or prevented many of the problems which arose (for example, if Dumbledore had simply texted Fudge rather than going to the Ministry of Magic himself in the first book, Harry wouldn't have nearly been killed by Voldemort). To be fair, this is justified slightly by the huge amount of prejudice many wizards have against Mugglesnote , although only the most vehement anti-Muggle wizards have refused to accept that cars and trains are excellent modes of transport that really have no magical peer (which is why Hogwarts students travel to the school by train, why the Ministry owns a fleet of cars, and why the Knight Bus exists), but you'd think people like Arthur Weasley would jump at the chance to properly use Muggle technology, while pragmatic people like Dumbledore would definitely not ignore a useful resource purely down to prejudice. - After the First Wizarding War with Lord Voldemort, a good number of Death Eaters suffered various fates: death, imprisonment, exile, or renouncing Voldemort. Alastor Moody grumpily points out that it took him months to track down Karkaroff, who gets a shorter sentence in Azkaban by ratting out a good number of Death Eaters like Augustus Rookwood. It's unclear how many Death Eaters actually fled the country. The ones that did evade prison claimed that Voldemort put them under the Imperius Curse. With Lucius Malfoy, it's implied that he bought his way out of prison.
You'd Expect: That the Ministry wouldn't accept the Imperius defense at face value. Veritaserum is a thing, it'd be best to give three drops to each former Death Eater that is renouncing the Dark Lord at trial, and make them take an Unbreakable Vow to never become a Muggle-hating genocide worshipper again. It's cruel, but a necessity given that Voldemort wreaked havoc in both the Wizarding and the Muggle World.
Instead: For the most part, the Ministry lets the renounced Death Eaters resume their former lives. Lucius Malfoy gains a powerful position by making lots of donations to Fudge's campaign. Macnair is employed as an executioner. Dumbledore vouches for Snape, but while good at heart, Snape is still a Sadist Teacher and a bitter jerk.
The Result: The former Death Eaters manage to, on a rather dangerous level, infiltrate the Ministry, playing The Long Game for the coup in Book Seven. The less dangerous actions include but are not limited to the following: creating a new generation of Death Eaters like Draco Malfoy and his friends, terrorizing the Muggle groundskeeper and his family at the Quidditch World Cup, and busting out several of the loyal Death Eaters from Azkaban. - Dementors are dangerous beings that feed on happy thoughts. It can be so bad that they can cause people to lose the will to live. If they get really angry, they will suck out a person's soul, giving them a Fate Worse than Death. They don't care if a person truly deserves losing all their happiness, about innocence or guilt, or about morality. Dementors just want happy thoughts.
You'd Expect: That wizards would avoid Dementors at all costs in terms of negotiating with them.
Instead: Using the Insane Troll Logic that people who are convicted deserve to stay in a prison where the guards suck out all hope of escaping and trap them in their worst memories (which, in our world, qualifies for psychological torture and clashes directly with the United Nations Conventions against Torture, by the way), the Ministry of Magic employs the Dementors at Azkaban, the Wizarding prison. It's notable that Moody, one of Dumbledore's good friends and a Auror known for moral standards, disagrees with Dumbledore about this: Moody asserts that "filth" like Karkaroff deserve despair, while Dumbledore says no one deserves the Dementors' presence.
The Result: Voldemort manages to offer more than "lawfully surrendered" happiness to the Dementors when he returns to power, since he has tons of Muggleborn wizards that could be sent to them. They let fifteen dangerous Death Eaters escape, and that's just the start of it.
Furthermore: Dumbledore explicitly warned Fudge that the Dementors would side with Voldemort at the end of Goblet of Fire and told Fudge to sack them ASAP. Fudge, being a hubris-filled prat with excessive attachment to his job and a nasty streak of typical wizard prejudices, didn't listen, and, well… - Severus Snape wants the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He is good at it, but in addition to being a jerk, he has unrealistic high standards. The job is also cursed, thanks to an angry Lord Voldemort; Lupin and Moody were lucky to be alive after they taught their classes. Dumbledore refuses him the job because Snape is too valuable as a spy.
You'd Expect: Snape would give it up. We see five Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers suffer the curse; Snape has seen at least thirteen. Surely he doesn't want to die or end up with a Fate Worse than Death. Further, Dumbledore could at least have told him that the position was cursed, since given what happened after he refused Voldemort the position, one would think he'd have put two and two together by now.
Instead: Snape keeps wanting the job. Dumbledore acquiesces in Harry's sixth year, where Snape slows down a deadly curse that will kill Dumbledore in a year, and the Headmaster owes him for begging Snape to give him a Mercy Kill when the time allows it.
The Result: The curse hits Snape a year after he takes the job and becomes "headmaster", when Voldemort thinks he needs to murder Snape to gain full possession of the Elder Wand. Also, he's known as the man who murdered Dumbledore, even when the truth comes out.
Fortunately: Snape is fully vindicated in death, as Harry Potter reveals to the world what Snape's true role was in Voldemort's demise following the events of Deathly Hallows. However, Snape is only around to see it in portraits. - Over the course of the series, we learn of at least three students with abusive home lives while not in Hogwarts: Harry with the Dursleys, Snape’s drunkard father who hates magic and is abusive to his wife and son for it, and Tom Riddle, who was consistently sent back to Wool’s Orphanage in World War II London. There have doubtlessly been many more throughout the history of the school.
You'd Expect: There to be some form of alternate housing at Hogwarts over the summer break for students with abusive homes or places to go in general. Even if not at Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic ought to have a system in place for this kind of thing, especially since children or teenagers might snap and grievously harm their tormentors or vice versa for the abuse. And since Dumbledore managed to keep Hagrid on Hogwarts grounds after his expulsion, there likely is some way possible to do so.
Instead: There is no system in place or efforts to keep children away from abusive homes. While Harry’s case could be justified in that no one knew the extent of his home life until 3rd year, and the blood protections requiring him to stay there, there really is no excuse for Snape or Voldemort’s situation.
The Result: Harry grows up with abusive relatives and develops trust issues and a volatile temper, Snape becomes more bitter and cynical to the point he starts falling in with the Death Eaters, and Tom Riddle grows up to become Lord Voldemort.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
- In "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump", a muggle king starts a mass persecution of witches and wizards while issuing a proclamation asking for someone to come and teach him magic. A con man soon shows up, claiming to be a powerful wizard.
You'd Expect: The king to realize that with the persecutions going on, no magic user with any common sense would come forward and essentially put a bulls-eye on himself, or help the king who's been persecuting his brethren.
Instead: He buys the charlatan's claims hook, line, and sinker, and gives him lots of valuable goodies while getting nothing in return. - In "The Tale of the Three Brothers", the eldest of the three receives a supremely powerful wand. Its power is soon demonstrated when he uses it to kill one of his enemies.
You'd Expect: For him to not draw excessive attention to himself and his new weapon, essentially keeping it as an "ace in the hole".note
Instead: He gets drunk and blabs about it to everyone, giving someone else the idea to take it while he's asleep and kill him for good measure.
Cursed Child
- Draco since the events of Book Seven has turned over a new leaf; he has renounced his Death Eater nature for real (unlike his father), has married someone who isn't a pureblood bigot, and raised a kind son named Scorpius. There is just one problem: due to Draco's List of Transgressions, and what his father did, the odds are stacked against people believing that Draco has truly reformed or that Scorpius is a good kid. The Second War also claimed a lot of lives and souls, and for better or for worse, Draco evaded most of the consequences of enabling a murderous regime, even if he was just a kid at the time.
You'd Expect: Draco to have truly made amends for all of his actions, like the whole implying that Death Eaters would torture a teenage Hermione for being Muggleborn, getting Buckbeak sentenced to death to hurt Hagrid, poisoning and cursing two students, and being involved with Umbridge.
Instead: Draco isolates his family and lives on their fortune, focusing on internal character growth rather than damage control, and he doesn't make amends to the victims of his family's actions.
The Result: With few exceptions, most people believe the Malfoys can't be trusted, with Harry's niece Rose representing a portion of the suspicion. Harry has forgiven Draco for nearly killing Katie Bell and Ron back in sixth year, but understandably, a lot of the Wizarding World hasn't. Harry also refuses to go the extra mile for Draco, for this reason, even when Scorpius is the victim of outlandish accusations. - In the beginning of the book, Rose-Granger Weasley and Albus Severus Potter are on the train to Hogwarts. They encounter Scorpius Malfoy, who, unlike his father, is a dorky Nice Guy: he offers them sweets and says his mother told him to do that to make friends. Albus immediately likes him, but Rose has lots of reasons to not trust a Malfoy, especially after the war and with Malfoy Manor being used to torture her mother.
You'd Expect: That if Rose is going to refuse to be nice to Scorpius, she would point out all the terrible things his father did as a List of Transgressions: the Inquisitorial Squad, attempt to murder Dumbledore, nearly murdering two other students in the process — including her father — letting Death Eaters into Hogwarts (which led to her uncle Bill being mauled), and pretty much evading the consequences that the other Death Eaters faced for joining with a genocidal Dark Lord. Even if it's mean and unfair to judge a child by what their parents did, Scorpius can't ignore that he has a comfy life.
Instead: Rose cites a cock and bull rumor that Scorpius is Voldemort's son as a reason to not trust the boy.
The Result: Albus gives her a What the Hell, Hero? speech and decides to sit with Scorpius, feeling sorry for him. The rest of the play doesn't discuss Scorpius having a poisonous legacy, even if Draco has gotten better. - At some point, a rumour starts going around that Scorpius is the son of Lord Voldemort, fathered through the use of a Time Turner. The only things that give this theory any kind of credibility is a rumor that Scorpius's father Draco might have been infertile, and the Malfoys disappearing from public life in the months prior to Scorpius's birth, owing to the poor health of Scorpius's mother.
You'd Expect: Anyone with even a hint of common sense to either take this theory with a pinch of salt, or disregard it for the unfounded nonsense it is.
Instead: It's believed by enough of the wizarding world for Scorpius to be bullied over it in school. And not just the general masses, but even Amos and Harry entertain the theory as well. - Following on from the above point, Draco understandably wants to put a stop to the rumours about his son's parentage once and for all, so he asks Harry for the Ministry's help in the matter.
You'd Expect: Harry to take advantage of the numerous ways he could go about solving this, even if the wizarding world doesn't have the equivalent of a DNA test. He could follow Malfoy's quite reasonable suggestion and make a public statement about how all the Ministry's Time Turners were destroyed during Order of the Phoenix. Or he could investigate the original source of the rumours and perhaps go about discrediting them — he is Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, after all. Or he could suggest that Malfoy take Veritaserum and publicly testify about his ability to father a kid. In any case, he could at least do something.
Instead: Harry's response is to do absolutely nothing, on the basis that "if you answer the gossip, you feed the gossip" — nevermind that a year or two of this is quite clearly shown to have not worked. - Prior to the start of his fourth year, Albus, resentful of having to live under Harry's shadow, gets into a heated argument with his father. The argument ends with Harry claiming, in the heat of the moment, that he sometimes wishes Albus wasn't his son. He immediately tries to take it back, but Albus just assumes that his father is serious about not wanting him. Later on, Albus (in disguise) brings the matter up with Hermione, who remarks that sometimes, people just say things they don't mean.
You'd Expect: Albus would figure out, upon hearing this, that Harry does care about him, even if they have their occasional differences. After all, regardless of whether he's done a good job of it, Harry's tried his best to support his son over the last few years, and until now, never said anything along the lines of I Have No Son!.
Instead: It flies completely over Albus's head, and he continues to delude himself into thinking he's an unwanted child. - Albus and Scorpius plan to use a more potent version of the Time Turner to travel back to the events of Goblet of Fire and prevent Cedric from being killed by Wormtail and Voldemort. They both know that the murder happened due to Cedric grabbing the Triwizard Cup in the third task of the Triwizard Tournament, and being portkeyed to Voldemort alongside Harry.
You'd Expect: That with this knowledge in mind, the two of them would focus their efforts on stopping Cedric from laying a finger on the cup during the third task.
Instead: Both of their attempts to save Cedric consist of them sabotaging and humiliating him during the first two tasks of the tournament, never mind that at most, this would only slightly impair Cedric's chances of reaching the cup first, due to the tournament's structure.
As A Result: The first attempt does little more than prevent Ron and Hermione from getting together and starting their family, while the second attempt creates an alternative timeline where an embittered Cedric joined the Death Eaters and killed Neville during the Battle of Hogwarts, resulting in Voldemort ruling the Wizarding World. - While searching for Albus and Scorpius following their escape from the Hogwarts Express, Harry encounters Bane, who warns him that a "dark cloud" surrounds Albus. After finding Albus, Harry seeks advice from a portrait of Dumbledore, who suggests that Harry's love for Albus has blinded him, and that Harry should look for the source of Albus's inner hurt. At this point in time, Albus is dealing with a number of personal issues, namely an inability to make friends and fit in at Hogwarts, resentment at having to live in his father's shadow, and a mistaken belief that his father doesn't love him.
You'd Expect: Harry would figure out that the "dark cloud" likely refers to Albus's myriad of personal issues.
Instead: Harry somehow comes to the conclusion that Scorpius is the "dark cloud" in question, and is therefore a threat to Albus. Bear in mind that besides his interpretation of Bane's words, his only logic is the possibility that Scorpius might be Voldemort's son, a theory that — as has been mentioned before — has almost no evidence to support it.
Then: He proceeds to deconstruct the Papa Wolf trope by forcing Albus to avoid Scorpius — who just so happens to be his only friend at Hogwarts — even bullying the Hogwarts Headmistress into changing school timetables and keeping an eye on the boys with the Marauder's Map in order to keep them apart.
Naturally: All this does is worsen the situation. - The Augurey is ultimately revealed to be planning to use the Time Turner to alter history and prevent Voldemort from being killed.
You'd Expect: Them to take advantage of the many ways they could do this, on their own, while leaving everyone else none the wiser. They could go back and either knock off Harry before the Battle of Hogwarts, or forewarn Voldemort that attempting to kill baby Harry will not end well for him (in fairness, they do eventually try the latter).
Instead: They insist on following through with a prophecy that requires Albus to bring about the events of a Bad Future. While the Augurey is able to manipulate him and Scorpius into unknowingly doing this, they don't take into account Scorpius having regrets and using the Time Turner to undo his and Albus's mistakes.
You'd Then Expect: The Augurey to realise their folly, and decide to rewrite history on their own, prophecy be damned.
Instead: Still wanting to fulfill the prophecy, the Augurey kidnaps Albus and tries to force him to play his part in the prophecy, by having him perform a task the Augurey could quite easily do themselves. The Augurey doesn't even do something like put Albus under the Imperius Curse, on the basis that it would mean not following the prophecy to the letter.
Unsurprisingly: Albus and Scorpius refuse to cooperate and end up sabotaging the plan. At which point it finally occurs to the Augurey that they DON'T need to follow through with a prophecy in order to prevent Voldemort's death. - The climax. The Augurey and Harry face off inside a church. The Augurey manages to trap Harry's allies outside the building with a spell that seals the church doors and seemingly prevents Harry's allies from magically unlocking them from their side.
You'd Expect: They would simply apparate inside the church. Or just blast down the doors or walls with Reducto. They can quite easily repair the damage before any muggles notice it.
Instead: They have Albus magically open the doors from inside the church, putting him at huge risk of being killed by a murderous villain.
