Updates:

06 June 14 :

The Other World: Chapter 3 6500 words and growing. Really sorry about the delay but life has been really hectic. But I promise that there will be an update in the first week of August. I hope to write regularly from next month.

Well, I have been reading fanfiction since last 3-4 years after I read Harry Potter books. I was shocked with the number of different aspects which the authors here have brought to attention and the issues they raised regarding the things which were not clear or inconsistent in the canon. To be honest, apart from a handful of doubts until then I almost agreed and did not think much about the plot holes, backward compatibility issues in the canon. I was thinking why no one seemed to combine all these issues and write a big fat essay. Only recently as I was reading the bio of muggledad and he listed various points and provided the link to the page of the author ARedHair. ARedHair has the most comprehensive write-up on many issues like plot holes, inconsistencies which might have bugged us and many more which some of us did not even think about. I think he has given the material for fanfiction authors which can be explored in many more stories. After reading this I could see some more things which are not clear. So, I thought I would write them here.

In PS Petunia says "- and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats." How could Lily do that? She can't perform magic outside of the school according to the law. Was it different back then ? But again in DH in Prince's Tale we learn from Snape that Lily knows that underage magic is illegal and is therefore punishable.

In GoF it is established that Voldemort used Harry’s blood in the ritual for two things: one that it is his enemy’s blood and second that it negates the protection provided by his mother when she sacrificed for Harry. Voldemort couldn’t touch Harry in PS due to this protection only, but now that he used Harry’s blood he could touch him. So, if he negated the blood protection then why would Harry be protected at Privet Drive anymore? Dumbledore placed Harry at Privet Drive because Petunia has the same blood as Lily’s which runs through Harry. The wards around Privet Drive are effective against Voldemort because of Petunia and Harry’s blood relation. There are many references to this when Dumbledore tells Harry about Prophecy at the end of OoTP and GoF

‘Very well,’ he said, sitting down again. ‘Voldemort has overcome that particular barrier. Harry, continue, please.’(GoF, Chapter 36: The Parting of the Ways)

“I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother’s blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative.”(OoTP, Chapter 37: The Lost Prophecy)

‘But she took you,’ Dumbledore cut across him. ‘She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you, and in doing so, she sealed the charm I placed upon you. Your mother’s sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you.’ (OoTP, Chapter 37: The Lost Prophecy)

‘While you can still call home the place where your mother’s blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge.” (OoTP, Chapter 37: The Lost Prophecy)

“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realise that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign ... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.”(PS)

This says that Quirrell couldn’t touch Harry because of his mother’s Love gave protection to Harry, which contradicts the protection due to blood revealed in OoTP. If the protection was due to only Love of his mother, then Harry cannot be safe at Privet Drive as it is very clear since first book that Petunia never loved him. If it is due to blood relation, now that Voldemort also has the same blood what is there to stop him from reaching to Privet Drive? There is only one guard standing near Number 4 at a time and they are no match if Voldemort himself comes there or even if he send number of his Death Eaters. Remember Mundungus was supposed to be on the guard duty when Harry was attacked by Dementors. Are there another set of different type of wards which are not powered by blood around Privet Drive. But, isn’t Dumbledore’s idea of placing Harry there solely is based on the blood relation. If there are another set of wards also then couldn’t Voldemort break them? He is after all the most powerful wizard.

When Hermione forces Harry out of Buckbeak’s room and subsequently while talking to Ginny about Voldemort possessing Harry she asks him “Well, can you remember everything you’ve been doing? Are there big blank periods where you don’t know what you’ve been up to?” For which Harry answers “No”. Then Ginny says that he wasn’t possessed by Voldemort because in CoS when she was possessed by the Diary Horcrux she couldn’t remember what she’s been doing for hours and many times she found herself wondering how she came to a certain place. But, when Voldemort possessed Harry in the Ministry after the duel with Dumbledore Harry could remember being possessed even after that. Harry feels “pain beyond endurance” but there was no mention of pain other than exhaustion in case of Ginny and Quirrell. Are there different types in which Voldemort can possess people? One by causing pain other by not causing it. Is it only because Voldemort needed Ginny and Quirell to do certain things he did not cause pain to them? Or is it because it was the Horcrux (part of his soul) and his spirit possessing Ginny and Quirell respectively?

After getting the information from Rookwood that only the people about whom the Prophecy is made can take out the Prophecy (this information is already known by Order of the Phoenix as Dumbledore says in his explanation to Harry at the end) why did Voldemort wait for so long to make Harry get to the Ministry? If Voldemort has the ability to possess someone without causing pain he could have possessed one of his followers who work at the Ministry and wait until night fall then as his followers supposedly did when Harry and his friends came could take out the night guards and then sneak into Department of Mysteries and take the Prophecy. He could have also used Polyjuice to impersonate one of his followers and do the same thing. Is there some protection on the Orbs which contain Prophecy against Polyjuice? May be he thought impersonating his follower is beneath him.

Or Like on the night of the fighting at the DoM Voldemort could have taken a port-key and get into one of his followers office just before the nightfall and cast a Disillusionment charm on him, way lay the guard (just like DE's supposedly done on the night of the battle) and go to the Hall of Prophecies and take it and port-key away. Maybe Voldemort wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Get the Prophecy and Kill Harry.

Why did Voldemort even think that if he possessed Harry and caused him pain then Dumbledore would kill the boy? Dumbledore did not even kill the previous Dark Lord (Grindelwald). Is Voldemort that stupid?

Why did Voldemort even come to the Ministry? While Harry was shouting to Bellatrix that “the Prophecy is gone and Voldemort knows it” he feels pain in his scar. The pain could have been caused because Voldemort used their connection and tried to read Harry’s mind. Voldemort could do this even by sitting in his lair. Then if he saw that Prophecy is smashed then he would have been able to see that the members of the Order and Dumbledore are already there. Then why would he risk coming to the Ministry? Was he blinded by anger and wanted to kill Harry?

In GoF Hermione says she has been researching thoroughly about House-Elves and their enslavement. In all that research did she never found out that she cannot free House-Elves and only their masters can do that by giving clothes? And then in OoTP why did she start leaving the knitted things so as to trick the elves into taking them? Harry didn't trick Dobby. He tricked Malfoy into freeing Dobby. Couldn't smart girl like Hermione see the difference? And why there was no follow-up of this in HBP? Why did Hermione suddenly stopped knitting? Did she some how got the fact that she cannot free the elves? If she did, it is not mentioned. Was it because she thought getting Ron's attention is more important than fighting for the cause she firmly believed in? Or was it because if she kept up with this Ron as always gets irritated and this will hinder her in her attempts to woo him?