Talk:Mistakes in the Harry Potter books

bookmistakes

Is it just me, or is this page pretty much a carbon copy of bookmistakes.com? --Cubs Fan ^{(Talk to me)} 23:55, September 12, 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm... Suspicious. We should move this to the respective book article. --  Seth Cooper  owl post! 00:06, September 13, 2009 (UTC)

In order?

Should the book mistakes be rearranged in order of how they happened in the book to make it easier? Just a thought... GinnyPi 23:27, October 13, 2009 (UTC)

The Hogwarts' equipment list mentions the Lockhart book "Wanderings With a Werewolf," but later, Lockhart refers to the book as "Weekend With a Werewolf".

• It's most likely intentional to show how clueless he is about his 'own' work.Oneshot 19:35, January 20, 2010 (UTC)
• It is also possible that the title of the book was changed by the editors/publishers from the original manuscript/working title. Sings-With-Spirits 16:54, April 24, 2010 (UTC)
• No, I think, like Oneshot said, that this was an intentional mistake by Rowling to show how much of a fraud Lockhard is and how he is completely clueless and knows nothing about "his own work" (as if it was his anyway :P ). _—  Firefox1095  _— 15:02, July 20, 2011 (UTC)

Secret Keeper

When Dobby arrives at Malfoy Manor to help Harry and the others escape, Ron tells him the location of Bill and Fleur's house in Tinworth. But ever since the Death Eaters found out Ron was with Harry, the house has been protected by the Fidelius Charm, and the charm works in a way that a protected location can't be revealed by a third party. Only Bill could have told Dobby where the house is, and that isn't what happened.

There is nothing that indicates that the Fidelius Charm had not been in place long before the Death Eaters found out about Ron. In fact, Ron had visited the Shell cottage before and was almost certainly a Secret Keeper.

As such, this is not a mistake and I have removed it.Sings-With-Spirits 17:00, April 24, 2010 (UTC)

A bunch of these are speculative

A bunch of these "mistakes" are speculative, and should, imo, be removed (eg - Lupin "probably not" able to have taken 7 days worth of Wolfsbane in 1996; the idea that since it wasn't mentioned there were no Quidditch tryouts in Harry's 2nd or 3rd year, etc). They're not technically mistakes as they require us to assume that because something wasn't specifically mentioned, it could not have occurred. Stevehim 03:01, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

Omissions

We should also add the books omissions. Omissions are not real mistakes, but it's still a "book-trouble" and that could maybe help. FrenchPygmyPuff 16:38, June 4, 2011 (UTC)

Yes but here is the part where cinematography kicks in. Trust me, if the films didn't have their own style that is dependent from the books and were copied page by page from the books they wouldn't have been as good as they are now. Books have their own style which makes them awesome in their own way while films have they own style which also makes them awesome in their own way. _—  Firefox1095  _— 15:06, July 20, 2011 (UTC)

Quidditch Through the Ages (real)

• A discrepancy in the in-universe book is that although Harry had the book in his first year (1991-1992), there is an event listed that occurred in 1994. It is, however, possible, that the "real" edition was updated.They should have something about that in the book series.
• This book is available in the muggle world (Dumbledore writes that everything is "fictional"), but Wizards try to stay invisible to Muggles so we can imagine that lot of them are against the idea of this book available in the muggle world but there is nothing about this in the books series. FrenchPygmyPuff 16:47, June 4, 2011 (UTC)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (real)

• This book is available in the muggle world (Dumbledore writes that everything is "fictional"), but Wizards try to stay invisible to Muggles so we can imagine that lot of them are against the idea of this book available in the muggle world but there is nothing about this in the books series.

I'm going to go through and delete the ones that assume somthing is a mistake on rowling's part over being fine if interpreted a slightly differant way

"In the American paperback on page 461, it states: "It was Moaning Myrtle, who was usually to be heard sobbing in the S-bend of a toilet three floors below." However, in Chamber of Secrets American paperback page 230, Moaning Myrtle says, "I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death..." meaning that she normally sits in the U-bend, not the S-bend."

Yes of course because she happened to be sitting there that praticuler time means she must always do so! Honnestly!

To be perfectly honest, I agree with you. As a matter of fact a lot of the "mistakes" here are not really mistakes but are just misinterpretted by the readers such as the one you just mentioned but no one listens....Your delete will most likely get reverted :P. Anyway always remember to leave your signature but pressing on the "signature" button on the top or by typing "~~~~" without the quotes. _—  Firefox1095  _— 21:00, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

Chapter 15 of HP3

Come on. 200 hundred Slytherins? That's 20 thousand people! The books say 200! And eight dormitories? 180.252.135.95 03:19, November 7, 2011 (UTC)

This was presumably an error on the part of someone who intended to write "2 hundred" or "two hundred." I've corrected it. Thanks for pointing it out. ★ Starstuff ^{(Owl me!)} 05:20, November 7, 2011 (UTC)

Maybe not a mistake!

The article mentions this "mistake":

When Harry and Hagrid are leaving the little shack out in the middle of the sea, they used the rowboat that the Dursleys' had borrowed in order to leave the rock. This leaves the Dursleys with no way to get back to shore, yet there is no mention of retrieving them, and it is implied Harry goes straight back to Privet Drive after his shopping at Diagon Alley.

I don't really think there is a mistake. As stated in the book, the island is within visual range of the coast, and once daylight came, the Dursleys would have been able to wave a blanket or bedsheet from the shack to make known that they're stuck on the island, and someone would have come to take them back with a boat. 91.52.52.188 14:01, December 15, 2011 (UTC)

Another bit... "fug" referred to on p38 of HBP as a mistake; clearly not the case and a perfectly legitimate word Sheriff85 21:39, December 23, 2011 (UTC)

Thestrals

Since this has come up a couple of times, simply seeing someone die is not enough to be able to see a thestral. According to JKR:

"That is a really good question, because it enables me to clear up a point. The letters that I’ve had about the Thestrals! Everyone has said to me that Harry saw people die before could see the Thestrals. Just to clear this up once and for all, this was not a mistake. I would be the first to say that I have made mistakes in the books, but this was not a mistake. I really thought this one through. Harry did not see his parents die. He was one year old and in a cot at the time. Although you never see that scene, I wrote it and then cut it. He didn’t see it; he was too young to appreciate it. When you find out about the Thestrals, you find that you can see them only when you really understand death in a broader sense, when you really know what it means."

(JK Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival, 15 August 2004)

Wva 19:58, March 2, 2012 (UTC)

Maybe there should be a separate list of "mistakes" that aren't mistakes but misunderstandings on the part of the reader. The Thestrals one is a common one (I've seen it multiple times in various media), but I'm sure there are others.

As well as being asserted that Harry should have seen the Thestrals at the end of GoF, having seen Cedric die (in fact, end of term was only a week or two after Cedric's death so it hadn't sunk in yet), there are also those who claim that Harry saw his parents die (as noted above, he didn't, and even if he did he was too young for it to register) or that Harry saw Professor Quirrell die (I think he was already unconscious by the time that happened). -- RobertATfm (talk) 10:37, August 12, 2012 (UTC)

Myrtle's bathroom

In the passage: "Hermione says Moaning Myrtle haunts the bathroom on the first floor. However, when Harry sees the writing on the wall outside her bathroom, he is on the second floor. (This, however, is explained by the fact that in the UK, the ground floor is the floor on which the entrances are, and the floor above it is the first floor, and this was one of the few edits made for the North American release, despite the criticism on edits for Philosopher's Stone.)"

The 'mistake' is only valid for people reading the book in a language other than the language the book was written in. In addition to this, it is not unreasonable for some who was not born in the UK to know (by common general knowledge) that the floors are named differently in different countries, and so it should not be listed as a mistake.

Bowman Wright 17:43, April 9, 2012 (UTC)

Hogwarts House Quidditch Format

This is not really a mistake as such, but the House Quidditch competition format at Hogwarts seems to be that whichever team has the most points at the end of the season wins. This means it is possible for a team to win the Quidditch Cup by losing all their matches, which is strange

27.32.32.27 07:45, July 19, 2012 (UTC).Anon Y. Mous

Yes, the Cup is awarded by point totals, not wins, so it would be theoretically possible for a team to lose all 3 of its games and still win the Cup. For example, if a season went like this:

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin: 300 - 310 (S win)

Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw: 160 - 150 (H win)

Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin: 160 - 150 (R win)

Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff: 300 - 310 (H win)

Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin: 150 - 160 (S win)

Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw: 300 - 310 (R win)

At the end of the season, Gryffindor would have 900 points despite losing all 3 of its games, while the other teams would each have 620 points and 2 wins. - Nick O'Demus 08:09, July 19, 2012 (UTC)

Precisely. Don't you think it's a little odd that a team can win the Cup yet lose all its matches? Did Rowling think of this scenario when designing the Cup format? 27.32.32.27 02:53, July 22, 2012 (UTC) Anon Y. Mous

Also, here's another, more striking scenario.

> Gryffindor vs. Slytherin: 300 - 500 (S win)

> Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw: 0 - 220 (R win)

> Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin: 170 - 0 (R win)

> Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff: 300 - 500 (H win)

> Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin: 150 - 160 (S win)

> Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw: 300 - 500 (R win)

This is just one of the infinitely many scenarios where a team loses all three of its matches yet wins the Cup. However, this is different to the previous scenario. In this one, you can clearly see than Ravenclaw looks far and away the best team, and Gryffindor looks like easily the worst team. Here, Gryffindor gets smashed by 200 points in all its games, and Ravenclaw breezes past all its opponents with ease. Yet Gryffindor would still win the Cup with 900 points, and Ravenclaw would only come second with 890 points, despite easily beating all its opponents.

I conclude that surely Rowling made a mistake when designing the format, as it would be absurd to allow a team to win the Cup yet get smashed in all its matches, like in the scenario above. 27.32.32.27 02:53, July 22, 2012 (UTC) Anon Y. Mous

Th

Descent from Slytherin

This is one that's been bothering me for some time.

The Gaunts, and hence Riddle, are supposed to be the last descendents of Salazar Slytherin. But given the large degree of inbreeding in the wizarding world, isn't it far more likely that many, if not most, wizards (especially pure-bloods) are descended from Slytherin?

In Deathly Hallows it is revealed that the Gaunts are descended from the oldest Peverell brother, and Harry from the youngest; meaning that Harry is, at least distantly, related to Voldemort. -- RobertATfm (talk) 03:31, August 3, 2012 (UTC)

Suggestion

I think that the page name should be changed to "List of Mistakes and continuity errors in the Harry Potter books" as the term "continuity errors" better fits some of the points listed, as they are not always completely incorrect ("mistakes") , just JK Rowling's oversight. I wanted to propose the thought rather than change it myself as this is a new account and although I have experience on other wikia's, I am by no means a moderator. RavenclawDBS (talk) 16:07, August 10, 2012 (UTC)

Cornelius Fudge never checks Harry's memory..?

They call Dumbledore and Harry liars about Voldemort returning, and for some reason no one thinks to check Harry's memory to confirm what he saw that night? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.244.154.187 (talk • contribs).

Because, as Slughorn proves in Half-Blood Prince, memories can be tampered with. Either way, Fudge didn't want to know: Cedric's body, Harry's testimony, and Barty Crouch's confession alone would be proof that Voldemort had returned, but he simply chose to disregard them; he would disregard Harry's memory in the same way. --  Seth Cooper  owl post! 13:21, August 14, 2012 (UTC)

Vanishing Cabinet "error"

I've just removed a spurious "mistake" in which Bellatrix Lestrange (correctly) calls Harry a half-blood (inserted by someone who was under the false impression that Harry was pure-blood), which was "corrected" on-page by somebody pointing out Harry's blood status, instead of by removing the spurious "error" as should have been done. (Even if that had been a mistake, it would have been a mistake on Lestrange's part, not JKR's.)

However, there's another passage which seems dubious to me, which I suspect ought to be removed, but I'm not sure so am posting it here:

• In Half-Blood Prince, the Death Eaters enter Hogwarts via the Room of Hidden Things, yet a year later Voldemort is certain that no one else knows of the room's existence.
  • However, he may have not known that the Vanishing Cabinet was in there, just that it was somewhere inside Hogwarts.
  • Voldemort's ignorance and arrogance do not make this a mistake.

My thoughts on this are as follows:

1. The Vanishing Cabinet was not in the Room of Hidden Things in Voldemort's time; it was only moved there after Peeves broke it.
2. Likely none of the Death Eaters informed Voldemort that the Cabinet was in the Room of Hidden Things; they probably assumed that he already knew, and that this sort of thing was too trivial to mention.
3. As mentioned in the third part of the above section, Voldemort's assumption that he was the only person (at least in his time and afterwards) to find the Room of Hidden Things was probably due to his arrogance blinding him to the fact that finding the Room didn't require very great wizardry. Certainly his arrogance caused him to ignore the evidence of the Room being crammed to the rafters with assorted items, showing that the Room had in fact been discovered hundreds or thousands of times before; he probably assumed that these items were centuries old, or created by the Room itself to indicate that this was a good place to hide stuff.

I thus think this is another non-error which should be removed; what does anyone else think? -- RobertATfm (talk) 10:40, August 15, 2012 (UTC)

I am currently re-reading the HP books, this time in the e-book editions, and have just got to the bit of HP2 where Peeves broke the cabinet (at the behest of Nick, as a diversion to stop Filch giving Harry detention). At the time, the Cabinet conveniently happened to be in the classroom directly above Filch's office; reinforcing my impression that it was only moved to the Room of Hidden Things when it got broken, and because it got broken. -- RobertATfm (talk) 20:26, September 5, 2012 (UTC)

I completely agree, it's not an error. I've already combed through the article and removed a number of non-errors, but if you see anything else that strikes you as a non-error or needs re-writing, feel free to take care of it. ProfessorTofty (talk) 20:40, September 5, 2012 (UTC)

Cleanup

Well, I've finally cleaned up all of the stuff with the various weak attempts at explanation and natter. I've also removed a lot of things that are nitpicks at best and non-errors at worst. If anyone thinks I've removed something that's really a legitimate error, then it can be restored, but please not if it can be easily explained away. I'm also going to be watching this page closely. ProfessorTofty (talk) 19:23, August 31, 2012 (UTC)

If you need it then i'll look over it too just to help you as this article is pretty long. But for now I think that you have done a pretty good job. Rainbow Shifter (talk) 19:35, August 31, 2012 (UTC)

By all means, you're quite welcome to look it over and remove anything else you see if you feel it doesn't belong, or edit it if it can be worded better. ProfessorTofty (talk) 20:51, August 31, 2012 (UTC)

What time does the Hogwarts Express arrive?

I've just checked my eBook copy of Philosopher's Stone and it says that it was getting dark by the time the Hogwarts Express arrived. Yet the best idea we have of Hogwarts' location is that it's near Dufftown, in Moray; according to Wikipedia that means that it's 430 miles from London, and according to sunrisesunset.com, in Moray on 1 September sunset is 20:11, and civil dusk (which is when it starts to get dark) is at 20:52. Unless the Express is ridiculously slow for a train, or takes an extremely roundabout route, surely the journey doesn't take 10 hours? -- RobertATfm (talk) 02:03, September 17, 2012 (UTC)

The Map of Hogwarts location - "The Hogwarts Express leaves London at 11am (by British Summer Time, presumably, since they are catching the train more-or-less in the Muggle world), heads north and travels until it is almost dark. That's definitely sunset-dark, not just cloud-cover dark, because in CoS they can see stars from the flying Ford, in OotP we are specifically told that it is night when they arrive, and in HBP we see that the sun is setting just before they arrive.

Sunset in Britain on 1st September, when the train travels, would be about 7:45pm BST in London, 8:15pm BST in the Highlands, becoming seriously dark about forty-five minutes later. In a mountainous area sunset and darkness will arrive somewhat earlier, because the mountains cut into the path of the sun and interrupt it before it reaches the true horizon, but even so we know the journey takes nine, maybe nine-and-a-half hours." ProfessorTofty (talk) 03:06, September 17, 2012 (UTC)

E-book "error"

About two weeks to a month ago, I removed a supposed error because it was claimed to be "in one of the electronic editions", yet it isn't in my e-book copy, which is of the only official e-book edition (at least in British English). This shortly afterwards got reverted ("pending verification" according to the edit summary) because apparently there's also an American English version available from Pottermore (I know there's also a Japanese version, but I doubt this error is such that the Japanese edition could be the one meant) and this needs to be checked.

I now notice that the deletion has been re-done by an anonymous editor (not me, and to judge from the IP not anyone else on Three UK ether), but they didn't give an edit summary so there's no telling why they did it. Have they purchased the American edition and found that the "error" isn't there either? Or did they re-do the deletion simply because of the vagueness of "one of the electronic editions"? I think we should be told. -- RobertATfm (talk) 03:10, October 17, 2012 (UTC)

It's a good question as to exactly why they deleted it. But even if it turns out that it is an actual error, upon reflection I'm perfectly comfortable with it being removed. I consider this sort of spelling/grammatical mistake error to be a nitpick error and not really a priority to include. ProfessorTofty (talk) 03:24, October 17, 2012 (UTC)

PS: no error: Supposed location of Little Whinging:

Supposed location of Little Whinging:

In the listing of errors for PS is the following entry (in intalics)

When Harry returns from Diagon Alley to Little Whinging, he takes a train from Paddington station. But Little Whinging is in Surrey, south of London, so he should have travelled from Victoria or Waterloo; trains from Paddington head to the west.

I believe this entry can be either deleted, or perhaps better modified to avoid confusion, because I'm sure that many readers wonder about this.

It is true that the largest part of Surrey is south of London. HOWEVER, as the hp-lexion explained years ago, this is not necessarily an error in the book PS, if we take into consideration that there is a small part of Surrey to the west of London. So, Privet Drive, Little Whinging can very well be located in the farthest north of Surrey, to the west of Heathrow Airport and to the northwest of Staines.

The station need not be in the County of Surrey. All that is necessary is it to be the most convenient station for Privet Drive. Harry could have taken the 16.20 train from Paddington towards Reading - direction west - and get off at a station near Little Whinging like for example Langley in Southern Buckinghamshire, and then either walked home or he could have caught a local bus. (Paraphrased from the hp-lexicon).

Please look at: Surrey: Showing the Location of Little Whinging

Essay on hp-lexicon about Surrey location Privet Drive

93.213.20.247 07:27, October 19, 2012 (UTC) Tonks-is-cool 93.213.20.247 07:27, October 19, 2012 (UTC)

There is one slight problem with your hypothesis; no station on the Reading line, or on any other line from Paddington, is anywhere near even the westernmost part of Surrey. As the essay you linked to points out, even if Little Whinging is in the very north-west of Surrey, there are no statons on the Reading line within one and a half miles of the presumed location of Little Whinging. Besides, the essay linked is not canon; and a further argument in favour of Little Whinging being somewhere on the lines from Victoria or Waterloo (and hence against it being on any line from Paddington) is that in the Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Script movie, Dumbledore meets Harry at Surbiton station, which is on a line from Waterloo (and which, incidentally, used to be in Surrey, and is just over the border from Surrey, as is Surrey's county town of Kingston-upon-Thames, about a mile away). As Joanne Rowling was a script consultant for all the movies, this can thus be taken as a pretty strong indication that Little Whinging is somewhere near Surbiton, and hence not within 20 miles of anywhere on the Reading line. Thus there is noo need to amend this entry. -- RobertATfm (talk) 09:14, October 19, 2012 (UTC)

Oops; in the above "20" should read "several". I've now made the correction; book canon trumps film canon, but film canon trumps speculation on fanon websites, even respected ones such as the Lexicon. -- RobertATfm (talk) 18:26, October 29, 2012 (UTC)