The Harry Potter discrepancies - Post 2: book 5

The Harry Potter discrepancies series continues. After reviewing the discrepancies in books 1-4, we can move on to book 5.

Where hp4 is the watershed of heaviness and seriousness in the series, hp5 is going seriously into the darker sides of life.

The movie's trailer illustrates this well:

j.k made a very interesting attempt at the inspection of evil that can be summarized nicely by a Sirius Black quote:

"the world ins't split into good people and death eaters"

And yet, sadly, it is also the first book that isn't working well in the series.
Why?
Too many discrepancies.
Not all of the same magnitude.
But once a certain amount is reached, a book fails to get you over that suspension of doubt and let your imagination to sore with the author's.

So, lets start talking about those discrepancies !

1. I just can't get the detection system that the ministry operates. They can find out about any magic done by an underage wizard. know where it was performed. They know what spell was performed. And yet, they do not know of the presence of dementors in the immediate vicinity of Harry's house ?!? there is no sense in such a detecting ability.
   (the information supplied by Dumbledore in hp6, p. 344, regarding this detection (about it being able to identify location and not identity the perpetrator, as there is an assumption that wizarding parents watch after their kids, does not make things clearer. Vice versa, it raises another question: what do the ministry people do with magic performed in settlements where there are several wizarding families, and magic is performed by an under-age wizard somewhere in the street? assuming they have detection on two wizarding family houses, as they watch two underage wizards and the magic was performed mid-way, do they press charges both underage wizards?
   Just for reference sake: the same information is repeated in Moody's mention of the TRACE, the system that traces all magic performed near under-age wizards (that are being traced), in hp7, ps. 46-47)
2. Serious stuck in the house in the same book we learn about the possibility of metamorphmagus Nymphadora Tonks? I mean, really. what kind of lousy magicians are Dumbledore and Mcgonagall if neither can't help Sirius to look different ?
3. And Dumbldore, with all his troubles - how lame is he as a people's person, that he doesn't understand what he is doing to Sirius and Harry? do us a favor.
4. Dumbledore helps Harry to be cleared of all charges and then  leaves him there without a single word of encouragement? do us a favor. Even if he wishes to avoid seeing Voldy looking at him from Harry's eyes, even if he wishes not to make it clear how important Harry is to him, there was no reason whatsoever to be so blatantly distant, considering he must have known how Harry must have felt. There is no logical explanation for the behavior, unless you say Albus Percival was cruel. Is that what you actually say ,  J.K ? I thought not.
   This blunder, making Dumbledore act out of character, carry throughout hp5 making it one of the least Believable aspects of this book, and one of the main reasons hp5 is the first in the series I could not believe  from the start. sad, really.
   If you still don't get it, read again the end of hp4. remind yourself how considerate Dumbledore was then, and his realization of harry's distress. Then go to hp5's end and read J.K's lame excuses for this behavior. now rethink this. The boy has been under a very difficult experience a month ago. He has been in a very hostile environment ever since. And you don't bother to communicate with him at all? What kind of a monster are you, Dumbledore? or more accurately, how senseless do you think we are, J.K ? 
   (for fairness sake, see item 18 regarding j.k's partial and problematic response)
5. Misconception of Percy: what he is, in essence, is a regulation and order person. As such, Percy would not say that Harry got off a technicality (as per his letter to Ron), but would focus on the nature of testimony for him (old woman, squib, unreliable and supporting an unbelievable tale).
6. Lack of constitutional background in magical England ?!? where have all these wizards been during the Magna Carta, the Glorious Revolution and the slow evolution of an Unwritten Constitution?!? And if there is a constitution of sorts, how can it be that Doloras Umbridge can give a license to one Quidditch team immediately while she still considers the other? Umbridge might be a horrible person but she has shown a tendency to stick to the letters of the law. Where is that law? 
7. The confiscation of brooms following Harry, George and Fred's ban from Quidditch for life had nothing to do with the ban. After all, they were not banned from flying. or training. just from competitive Quidditch in school. Are there no property rights in the wizarding world of J.K ? (and yes, I know, this is an attempt to stress the dangers of power misused. But it is an unreliable attempt, which is very poorly performed, especially in comparison to J.K's great work on details in other aspects of this marvelous creation). 
8. What happened to a week's  worth of detentions with Umbridge Harry was supposed to receive as punishment for the interview he gave the Quibbler ? Did it evaporate ? Because unlike previous detention, there was no mention of this punishment taking place, after its announcement .
9. How can it be that the room of requirement enabled anyone searching after the DA to find them, if it was established to let them be in a place that shall not be found? (btw, why run away hysterically instead of waiting inside for a while and devising a strategy that would also make use of the maurauder's map?)
   hp6, p. 424 explains (thru Hermione) that Malfoy was able to enter the room as he knew he was searching for the D.A's headquarters. But it wasn't formed just as that. it was formed under the wish not to be found. Why did it answer this later request and not the earliest of not being found? And why, when Filch, for example, was looking after George and Fred, both could not be found ?
10. How can it be that Hermione Granger did not think of bewitching the list so only those on the list can read it ? (a spell so simple that all students at school used to hide the quibbler article....)
11. What does Fudge know exactly about the use of time-turners ? After all, Sirius was saved behind his back, no ? What does he mean when he says (p. 542): "is there the usual simple explanation involving a reversal of time...?"
12. Is harry really that irresponsible, that although he knows Snape is a spy for Dumbledore (p. 521), and although he knows that there is a real risk that Voledmort may be able to read his memories, he chooses to get to know memories of Snape saved in the Pensieve ??!
13. The most illogical moment of hp5 is probably that moment when Severus Snape, the master of self-control (whose full capacity in that aspect, as well as his willingness of  self-sacrifice are revealed in hp7) breaks and sends harry away from his office: "I don't want to see you in this office ever again" (p. 572) and leaves harry unprotected against Voldemort. It is particularly illogical, considering Snape's complicated duty towards harry, and that fact that even if Snape broke for a minute because of the emotional burdens of facing Lilly's son, he had plenty of time to recuperate. And he didn't. 
14.  As Hermione sets Umbridge up with the centaurs (p665-667), several things don't add up:
    a) why does she try to stop Umbridge from insulting the centaurs? she could just stay quiet.
    b) why does she tell the centaurs she wanted them to handle Umbridge ? if she was smart enough to plan this, she had to remember that the centaurs did not wish to be aligned with humans in any way...
15. There is a basic theme going in the hp books: Harry doesn't desert people in trouble.
    Even if it means he is going heads on into an incredible danger at desperate odds (books 1 &2 are excellent examples of that, and in both he does it with a cold head. In the first he willingly goes to face a teacher trying  to steal the Philosopher's stone. In the second he willingly goes into a place where Slytherin's monster awaits (most likely with slytherin's heir....). In book 3 he has no choice as Ron is being dragged in front of his very eyes (and it is unclear what is happening). In book 4 he has no initiative in choosing the confrontations. Book 5 returns to the theme of harry-goes-to-the-rescue. Only, this time, he goes heads on to face Voldemort himself. And he does it as he knows, fully and clearly, that last year he barely escaped.  Had he done it alone, this would have been the most noble of actions. But he is bringing 5 other kids along. And he does it knowing what was Cedric Diggory's fate.
    This is a clear break from the past books as far as Harry the self-sacrificing hero goes.
    It is a different kind of story now.
    For the first time in the history of the series, Harry knowingly puts his friends in danger.
    Now, don't get me wrong, getting to the department of the mysteries in the ministry of magic is essential for the purposes of book 5, as it enables to present to the entire public that V is back, in the most dramatic fashion possible... and we have to admit it: Rowling did it exquisitely with the battle in the atrium. But the price for this was breaking Harry out of character.
    We are going to see much much more of this breaking of character in book 7, for similar reasons.
    key quote. p. 690 as harry realizes the truth: "If sirius really was not there, he had led his friends to their deaths for no reason at all.. He just wanted to get them all out of this alive, to make sure none of his friends paid a terrible price for his stupidity".... but there was no real difficulty with them paying a terrible price to save Sirius?
16. p. 730: "Voldemort, of course, had been obsessed with the possibility of hearing the prophecy ever since he regained his body"
    Why the obsession? surely he knows, like all worthwhile wizards, the limits of prophecies....
    (this tendency to instill a flaw into a villain, so common in literature, was done here with uncharacteristic negligence by J.K. Rowling) 
17. p. 732 : "members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office" ...
    And yet no one thought that Harry or someone in his surrounding should be supplied with such means of communication for an emergency?
    Let us assume that Harry is not trusted. It is known that he tends to get into dangerous situations. It is also known that he is a prime target for the enemy.
    Won't it be wiser to make sure that he knows how to call for help in dire situations ? Was it so difficult to supply Hermione or Ron with a means to communucate with Mrs. Weasly, or with Lupin ?!?
    Wouldn't you expect a simple measure? to make sure that Harry knows that whenever immediate action is required, he must coordinate it with the Order, to make sure no one gets hurt by accident ? (and lets drive this nail home: p. 731, knowing of Voldemort's problem regarding the prophecy (not wishing to reveal himself, but requiring that either he or Harry shall remove the prophecy from the shelf): wasn't it obvious that Harry would be tempted somehow? after all, this was a major purpose of the Occlumency lessons !
    So, wouldn't it be easier just to supply the kid with a reliable means of communication so he would be able ascertain what he saw was a false vision ?
    btw, the need for such a mean of communication became extreme once Dumbledore left the school. 
18. J.K's logic in response to discrepancy 4 is in p. 729-730, ,mainly regarding the uses Voldemort could make of harry's connection to him, but there, more discrepancies present themselves:
    if Dumbledore feared Voldemort's realization of the Harry-Voldy connection for such a long time, why didn't he bother to have Harry learn Occlumency beforehand ?
    yes, we know.
    It would mean no luring of harry to the department of mysteries and no hp5 as we know it.
    But seriously.... Dumbledore can't be so smart and so stupid at the same time!
    Dumbledore suspected the nature of the curse 15 years ago, believed V to have survived (hp5, p. 736) and had stout knowledge that Voldemort had survived and tried to regain human form for at least 3 years ! (since the end of book 1) he should have undertaken the necessary steps to prepare harry for his challenge at the beginning of book two (and truthfully? when we see how harry copes with his challenge in book 7, it becomes apparent how his earlier years have been wasted) 
19. Legilimens is once more an example how super powers confound a writer much more than they enhance a character. think of all the times when harry got in trouble in hp1-hp4 and Snape/Dumbpledore looked at him, seemingly reading his mind but not learning of what troubled him/what he tried to hide...
20. choosing Snape to teach Occlumency? Is this an attempt to mark Snape for Voldemort as an expert Occlument? So he'll start thinking about what Snape might be hiding from him? After all, he is a Dumbledore spy !
21.  p. 734: J.K through Dumbledore explains why D couldn't teach Occlumency: "it was a mistake for me not to teach you myself, though i was sure, at the time, that nothing could have been more dangerous than to open your mind even further to Voldemort while in my presence".
    Surely, there are other wizards/witches that control Occlumency, other than Snape and Dumbledore....
22. Remember the mirror Sirius gave harry for communications? Is it logical that harry would not inspect such a thing carefully ? That he would just shove it aside without any reason ? And once finding it (too late for any use) how can he completely ignore the fact that he had a medium of communication and he had that he neglected to use ? with the sad outcome regarding the death of Sirius?
    also, is it logical that Sirius, knowing that harry detests danger and tends to protect him,will provide such an item without reference to its advantages?
    J.K wished to use this mean only regarding Harry's difficulty in accepting Sirius' death (the stage of denial), but she ignored all other aspects... 
23. The members of the order have a talk with the Dursleys at the end of HP5, telling them to treat him nicely. Why didn't anyone do it before? Why didn't Dumbledore do something in the first eleven years ? Why didn't any of the others (Lupin, Weasly, etc) do this decent action?
24. If Voldemort was not willing to come to the ministry to take his prohphecy, why did he show up there at all ? How illogical can that person be ?!
25. Why wasn't harry warned about value he had regarding the prohpecy, so that it be much harder to lure him outside of Hogwarts?  Dumbledore himself states so at p. 728 but does not provide an adequate explanation. Wasn't it enough to say that Voldemort needs something from that place that only Harry can get for him and that the longer Voldemort does not have this information, the better ? 
26. Once Hermione released Rita Skeeter from the jar - she no longer had real leverage on the journalist. Why would Rita cooperate? Hermione can't prove her allegations.

--- All page numbers refer to the Bloomsbury 2003 First Edition (UK) of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K Rowling;