7 Harry Potter Plot Holes You'll Never Be Able To Unsee

Published Nov 8, 2026, 2:00 PM EST Once head of Screen Rant's Star Wars coverage, Tom's career began as a fan of the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and his love of major franchises has ultimately led to a decade-long career. He'd had the privilege of interviewing writers, authors, directors, actors, stunt coordinators, and VFX artists on a staggering number of his favorite franchises, including Star Wars, the MCU, Stranger Things, Halo, Foundation, and more. He's conducted set visits in the UK, attending major comic cons in New York and London, and reported at Star Wars Celebration 2023 as press. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon, on LinkedIn @tabacon, or on Muckrack under tombacon. Tom has a wide range of interests, and he continues to serve his university as a volunteer chaplain. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he's into British politics too. Sign in to your ScreenRant account We all know the story of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. I'll never forget the buzz of excitement when the books were first released; I remember queuing outside bookshops waiting for the next novel, desperate to know what happened next. My first ever article published online was an attempt to figure out what the Order of the Phoenix was (and, to my pride, I wasn't far off). 23 years after I wrote that article, the Harry Potter franchise is about to reborn in an HBO Max TV show. And yet, as the years have passed, I've gradually started to spot problems with the Harry Potter plot. There are issues with the timeline, while the fuzzy magic raises a lot of difficult questions (why are the Unforgiveable Curses banned, when a combination of common spells like Petrify and Incendio would be even worse?). But here are ten plot holes I've noticed since, that I don't believe it's possible to unsee. 7 What Happened In Harry Potter's Missing 24 Hours? Did you know Harry Potter has a missing 24 hours in his life? Worse still, this untold chapter of the Potter story is part of the story's foundation. As we all know, Voldemort's attempt to kill the young Harry backfired catastrophically, bringing an end to He Who Must Not Be Named's reign of terror. The next day, even Vernon Dursley couldn't deny that something strange was going on, and he started to suspect the worst when he heard the name James Potter. That evening, a day after Voldemort's defeat, the baby was left on the Dursleys' doorstep. Here's the problem: According to Hagrid, he collected Harry from Godric's Hollow himself. The next night, as we saw in the prologue to The Sorcerer's Stone, Hagrid was the one who took Harry to the Dursleys'. McGonagall was appalled at the idea, having watched the Muggle family all day and gotten a measure of the Dursleys. So why did it take Hagrid 24 hours to get Harry to the Dursleys? What happened in that mysterious time gap? 6 Why Did The Potters Make Wormtail Their Secret Keeper? We all know the Potters' big mistake: They chose Peter Pettigrew, a Death Eater double agent, as their secret keeper. The Prisoner of Azkaban implies that you need to choose another person to be your Secret Keeper, which naturally creates a certain vulnerability; your secret can be betrayed if your enemy figures out who they are, or (of course) if you've accidentally picked a traitor. Fast-forward to The Deathly Hallows, though, and things get a little more confused. There, we learn Bill Weasley has made himself the Secret Keeper for the cottage where he and his wife Fleur live. So why didn't Lily and James just make themselves Secret Keepers? Why did they choose a friend in the first place, especially when they suspected someone close to them was a traitor? 5 How Is Ollivander Still In Business? Now let's head to Ollivander, the wand-maker at Diagon Alley who gives most British wizards their wands. Here's the odd thing about Ollivander's wands, though; there is absolutely no relationship between the price of the wand and the cost of the materials used to make them. In The Half-Blood Prince, Slughorn was staggered to see unicorn hair in Hagrid's hut, used for mundane purposes like binding wounds. According to Slughorn, every strand can sell for 10 Galleons. Unicorn hair is one of Ollivander's preferred cores, along with dragon heartstring and phoenix tailfeathers. How in the world does Ollivander make this business work? He's spending a small fortune making wands that he sells for half the price. He should have gone bankrupt back when Newt Scalamander was a wizard. 4 Why Didn't Voldemort Make The Death Eaters Swear An Unbreakable Vow? Voldemort was very unhappy indeed with his Death Eaters when he returned. He'd have been even more disappointed had he ever learned the truth; Severus Snape was a traitor, Peter Pettigrew was an unfaithful servant who owed Harry a debt, and Lucius Malfoy ultimately abandoned his forces after seeing Voldemort's failure to kill Harry (again). The Half-Blood Prince introduced the concept of an Unbreakable Vow, an oath binding a wizard that will kill them if they ever break it. So why didn't Voldemort—a control freak by anyone's standard—use the Unbreakable Vow to make betrayal and treachery impossible? It really is one of the Dark Lord's strangest mistakes. 3 Why Did Hermione Need A Time-Turner In The First Place? Ron considered Hermione Granger the smartest witch of her generation. Even granting his bias (he did marry her, after all), the books support that theory; frankly, she's portrayed as though she should really have been a Ravenclaw. All this came to a head in The Prisoner of Azkaban, when Hermione pushed herself by taking 12 subjects, rather than the standard 9. To facilitate this, Hogwarts' management arranged for her to acquire a Time-Turner from the Ministry of Magic. But here's the catch: according to The Half-Blood Prince, Hermione left Hogwarts with 10 OWLS (early editions—including my own—have an odd misprint saying 11). In contrast, according to Chamber of Secrets, Ron's older brother Bill Weasley successfully left with 12 OWLs. He achieved a straight run of Outstanding grades, too, and there's no evidence he needed a Time-Turner to pull it off. Was Hermione really as bright as she seems? 2 Why Doesn't Harry Leave Privet Drive By Muggle Transportation? The Deathly Hallows kicks off with an overcooked plotline in which the Order of the Phoenix create Harry Potter doppelgangers to deceive the waiting Death Eaters, who plan to attack the moment Harry is technically an adult and loses Privet Drive's protection. But why did the Order need to resort to such a bizarre, convoluted plan, when there was a much simpler alternative: use Muggle transport. Imagine a scenario where they simply sent Harry some cash and told him to catch a train to a place where they'd stashed a convenient Portkey. He could have done this before his birthday, rather than fleeing at the worst possible moment. Wizards don't really understand how the Muggle world works. But Harry and Hermione are exceptions, and they should have been able to come up with this much smarter alternative. The lack of Muggle knowledge would have meant the Death Eaters were completely wrong-footed. Yes, I get that it would have been much less spectacular and dramatic, but it highlights how problematic the Potter Polyjuice potion storyline really is. 1 Why Didn't The Ministry Of Magic Use Veritaserum? In the real world, there's no reliable way to tell whether someone is telling the truth; it's why lie detector tests are inadmissible as evidence in court. In the Wizarding World, there is: Veritaserum, apparently a difficult potion to brew that can nonetheless be used to force someone to be completely honest. So why don't the Ministry of Magic use this? Even if it's too rare to depend on all the time, they could have kept it at hand for key trials. Imagine a timeline where the Ministry simply tested whether a suspected Death Eater had been under the Imperio Curse (as many claimed, after Voldemort's defeat). Or one where Sirius Black was given Veritaserum when he was put on trial, meaning the Ministry learned Peter Pettigrew had really done the deed. Or even one where Dubledore just gave Harry Veritaserum in front of Cornelius Fudge, before asking him to confirm Voldemort had returned. Veritaserum really is one of Harry Potter's biggest plot holes. TV Show(s) Harry Potter First Film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone First TV Show Harry Potter Cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, Matthew Lewis, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Richard Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Alfred Enoch, Harry Melling, Gary Oldman, Robert Pattinson, Warwick Davis, Oliver Phelps, James Phelps, David Bradley, David Thewlis, Katie Leung, Jason Isaacs, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jamie Campbell Bower, Timothy Spall, Robbie Coltrane, Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Johnny Depp, Mads Mikkelsen Created by J.K. Rowling Character(s) Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Dobby the House Elf, Draco Malfoy, Sirius Black, Ginny Weasley, Voldemort