Harry Potter

I wonder if this was the Great Plothole Rowling was talking about around book 4.

Edit: I found this blog, which discusses the famous plot hole. Apparently, there was going to be a Mafalda Weasley cousin to the Weasleys. One who was sorted in Slytherin, and an intellectual match for Hermione. But as an 11 year old, she just didn't fit the role Rowling had written for her, and she rewrote it for Rita Skeeter, instead. Apparently, Mafalda was axed completely in the process.

There is mention of a SECOND plot hole, though...

Edited by Redmess on Jul 10th 2019 at 3:13:20 PM

Agreed, there's enough explanation laid in for the diary to make sense. It was first, had the longest time to grow in power, and Voldemort gave it to Malfoy for the purpose of reopening the Chamber of Secrets—therefore he must have experimented with it and modified it to be more than an "average" Horcrux. The others he merely hid to be Soul Jars; the diary was a weapon.

The locket defends itself from Ron in a similar though lesser way (though I still wonder why they had to open it in the first place instead of just stabbing it), and it's a shame we don't get to see the cup or the diadem do anything of the sort.

Granted, the cup and diadem would have been much harder to do than the diary and locket.

As for why they had to open it, I'd say Attack Its Weak Point. I always somehow thought that if it were closed, the sword might have slid off instead of pierce it - maybe it would have only scratched it.

Edited by akanesarumara on Jul 10th 2019 at 4:20:09 PM

You can see rowling have to just jump strait out of the horrocruxes or otherwise it would feel repeptive.

And I will said you can see Rita and in a way Luna suplementing the whole "match against her" in many ways: Rita is the coutnerpart of a complete dishonest person who used soundbites and Luna is more of "the are other ways of learing" kind of thing.

It would be weird if it did, also opening the locket didn't make sense to outside giving Ron that final moment.

I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility. Basilisk blood or no, there is a chance that sword wasn't made for piercing.

Well, considering the locket was Slythern's and was likely made with a strong magical metal and/or goblin metal forging, it's likely Gryffindor's Sword wouldn't have been able to pierce the locket's outer shell.

The inside likely would have just been the glass and the soul fragment, making it much easier to stab.

Thank you. That makes sense.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Jul 10th 2019 at 12:57:16 PM

That would have a good point to bring up when they were talking about destroying it, however I don't think it was meant to be the case.

To make it clear, I'm not against the Attack Its Weak Point explanation.

I think it's mostly Rule of Drama, especially given how the picture frames were replaced with eyes.

Also, I think it is an unspoken rule of drama that when there is something important that is locked, chances are it will be opened, preferably at the most dramatic moment. And the locket being unable to open WAS established beforehand to mark that it was important that it be opened.

I'm pretty sure they had spend hours trying to hex it open already. I distinctly remember in the film adaptation they did. Can't remember if that also happened in the books.

They did. They tried hexes, jinxes, and brute force, but only Parseltongue opened it, like the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

Here's an oldie: if someone's afraid of boggarts, what does they see if approached by one?

Then that someone would presumably know what a boggart's "natural" form is.

But since that form is unknown, this has apparently never happened.

Remember that a boggart isn't a "real" being. It is in essence simply a tulpa born from the collective fear of humanity, much like how dementors are tulpas born from the collective sorrow of humanity.

Edited by M84 on Jul 15th 2019 at 5:06:58 PM

Next question: Does a boggart always know it's being observed? If not, what does it look like?

Or in other words, what did Moody see when he looked at a boggart through walls, floors, and cabinets using his magical eye in Order of the Phoenix?

It is generally supposed that as Moody was a few floors beneath the boggart at the time, he saw the true form it would take - as in the boggart would only be alarmed to being seen when you are in the same room.

It's a matter of speculation, since it's one of the many things Rowling didn't think through.

Though given some of the stuff she's said recently, maybe that's for the best.

My is that a boggart has no true form aside from some vague distortion in the air. It's not an actual living being after all, it's just a manifestation of human fear.

Edited by M84 on Jul 15th 2019 at 11:53:51 PM

I assumed Moody was detecting the Boggart's magic, rather than actually seeing it.

The boggart's true form is severus snape in tacky old witch clothes

Headcanon accepted. Though I do wonder what that would say about Neville...hmmm...

I always assumed that, if the Bogart did detect being seen, whatever Moody saw was either impossible to be in that drawer or cabinet, or too big to logistically fit in that location with the Bogart being the only logical answer for the physics distortion. Like a video game model being folded up and waiting to be released onto the hero.

I'm of the mind that boggarts have no true form, and if a person is afraid of a boggart, it will take the form of what ever the person believes is its true form.

What if it encounters an insane person who's physically incapable of feeling fear?

I guess the same thing as what happens when it meets several people with each their own fears - the boggart gets confused and tries to find something.

What I was wondering is how come Muggles believing witches and wizards exist and are to be destroyed still exist in the US (or at least did in the 1920ies) when that trend phased out long ago elsewhere? I mean yes Salem happened here in huge part because witches and wizards tipped off the witchhunters to settle old grudges, but they could have done that everywhere witches were persecuted.