The Harry Potter discrepancies - Post 3: Book 6

The Harry Potter discrepancies series continues. After reviewing the discrepancies in books 1-4, and book 5 we can move along to book 6:



So, with no further ado, lets start talking about the discrepancies in the first book of the series where Harry starts hunting Voldemort. (all pages refer to the 2005 UK Bloomsbury First Edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K Rowling):

  1. Severus Snape tells Narcissa and Bellatrix that he did not search for Voldemort because he thought that he was dead. This is a good excuse until the end of hp1. Afterwards, he and all other death eaters should have known better ... And it becomes a ridiculous argument at the beginning of hp4... After all, we know that the dark mark was getting stronger for months during HP4... how can it be that neither one of those death eaters went looking for their master at that time ?!? (and that Voldemort accepted such an excuse knowing the impact his strengthening had on the mark....)
  2. HP6 introduces two new concepts, and both create significant discrepancies.
    The first - side along apparition. Crucial for the dynamics of HP6, it is described in the leaflet the ministry sends (p. 45 ). The problem - it more or less pulls the rug from under the logic of using the following alternatives along the series to help get underage wizards to different places:
    • the magicked car in hp2
    • the portkeys in hp4
    • mr. Weasly going with Harry to the ministry by muggle transport on HP5
    • the Order escorting harry on broomsticks on HP5 and HP7
    why not use side-along appartition and get it over with ?!?
    One of the stronger proofs that J.K is human. Her meticulous and marvelous planning-ahead of an enticing and rich septology (7-book series) is discovered as less from perfect, because of her choice - for her own reasons (most likely - dramatic flow) to introduce an idea that she deemed as crucial for HP6 but that undermined the logic of other books.
  3. As stated above, HP6 introduces two new concepts. The second - None-Verbal Spells. Once again, this was deemed Essential by Rowling for her own reasons (most likely, to enable Dumbledore his first act, as the dramatic confrontation in the tower unfolds), but fact is, till HP6 all spells we've seen performed by wizards and witches OUTSIDE OF HOGWARTS, including duels (such as that in the ministry in HP5), including Voldermort and Dumbledore themselves, were verbal. Why? Why would a person use verbal spells when he can have that split second advantage ? and even more so, why isn't the non-verbal logic maintained in book 7?
    The literary reason is clear - it is far more dramatic to hear the spell Incanted and then view the outcome then see something happen and only then realize what it was that caused it. But the discrepancy is even clearer. 
  4. Hermione explaining Hagrid they couldn't apply for time-turners to include care for magical creatures in their busy workload as six year students, because the ministry's stock was entirely destroyed (it happened during the duel at HP5's finale). But someone made those time-turners, no? So can't more be made?
  5. Why didn't Dobby give Harry a gift this year at Christmas ?
  6. How come that Harry Potter, a very careful and responsible person as far as dark arts are concerned (consider his careful conduct regarding the cursed necklace in this same book) did not destroy Romilda Vane's love-potion filled candies ? or at least handle them with more care ?
  7. How can it be that Harry lets himself send Kreacher away with the words "out of it" knowing too well that Sirius' badly-worded command had sent the house-elf in the past straight to Bellatrix's hands? And why didn't Kreacher use this opportunity to run away to the last true black, once again?
  8. How come Harry thinks that all the tunnels seen in the maurauder's maps are under watch when he knows (since HP3) that some of them are not known to anyone of the teachers? It isn't that he came forward and reported those tunnels to anyone... and we know (spoiler!) that in HP7 one of them would be used without the knowledge of the teaching stuff, so that at that late stage of the saga it was still unknown to the Hogwarts' administration!
    How negligent can harry be in his treatment of the Malfoy threat ? (the answer is quiet simple, but not formally stated: as both Lupin and Sirius are members of the order, one of them must have given the necessary information to Dumbledore by now)
  9. Did Dumbledore really forget that he asked Harry to carry his invisibility cloak on him at all times? Or did j.k forgot that?
    After all, harry did carry it. And Dumbledore was supposed to know things. It might not be a discrepancy. It might have been Dumbledore's way of letting Harry recuperate from their disagreement regarding Snape, or even his way of letting harry alert the D.A.
  10. You would assume that phoenix's tears could cure Fenrir Greyback's bites, as a basilisk bite was no match to Fawkes, wouldn't you ? But j.k preferred the drama of Fleur's loyalty to her injured man and the developing relationship with mrs. Weasly, despite the screaming discrepancy with HP2....
  11. (spoiler if you didn't read 7) What did Dumbledore expect to happen to Snape, as he asked the man to kill him ? Yes, obviously, at first, this would make Snape's position near Voldemort secured. But after all, Dumbledore assumes that Voldemort shall fall. That harry will bring his death. Dumbeldore has been working on this - the solution that will rid the final horcrux while keeping harry alive - in the year before his death.
    So, once Voldemort fell, had Severus survived, who would have believed him ?
    How could he possibly prove his innocence ?
    After all, let's remember that Dumbledore wasn't able to help people in much 'easier' situations, such as Sirius Black at the end of HP3.... with Dumbledore absent, Snape was as good as future-prisoner-for-life-in-azkaban (had Voldemort fallen with Snape staying alive... Didn't Dumbledore care? Didn't Snape consider his survival as a realistic possibility?
  12. (spoiler if you didn't read 7) How can it be that at the end of HP6 Harry Potter seriously thinks that if he meets Snape he can overcome him and that he imagines that he will use the Avada Kedavra curse against Voldemort  ?
    How self-delusional can a person be ?
    In previous books he has survived thanks to his realistic judgement and recognition of his own limitations (Think HP4's end).
    Even worse, Harry knows that dark magic required training. He knows his own failures using the crucio curse (twice: at the end of HP5 against B. Lestrange and at the end of HP6 against S. Snape).
    And it gets even worse... Harry knows that he failed to face Voldemort in HP5, in the duel in the ministry (where he felt the immense gap in abilities between himself and Voldemort).
    He had a very good demonstration at the climax of book 6 to the gap in dueling abilities between himself and Snape.
    And let us not forget that even regardless of the duels, the voyage to get the horcrux demonstrated to Harry how unprepared he was to handle Voldemort's wizardry....
    Now, we all know that Dumbledore has planned everything so that Harry will not need to kill Voldemort, and that instead V shall Perform an unplanned suicide.
    HP7 is an alleged demonstration of Dumbledore's brilliance and ingenuity, but it presents Harry in a very bad light. Do us a favor, J.K, What happened that the boy who lived lost his touch with reality?
Personally, I feel that discrepancies 1, 11 & 12 are so glaring, that they seriously undermine the book. HP6 might have a shorter  list of discrepancies than HP5, but their impact on the reader is greater... How sad. 

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