When you have a book series as dense as this one, some things are bound to be left on the cutting room floor. For this list, we’ll be going over the unexplained plot points from the enchanting series that were fully explored on the page.
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00:00-"What's this rubbish?" -"What's this rubbish?" she says.
00:02-"That there is the secret to our success."
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10
00:09Harry Potter questions that were answered in the book.
00:12-"No permission form signed, no visiting the village. That's the rule, Potter."
00:16-"All those with permission, follow me."
00:18For this list, we're going over the unexplained plot points from the
00:22enchanting series that were fully explored on the page.
00:25If there's a wizarding question we magically left off our list,
00:28please take your quills to the comments.
00:30Not really though, because it scratches up your keyboards and phones.
00:39Audiences probably notice that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has
00:44quite a lot of turnover with its staff.
00:46-"Now we have two changes in staffing this year."
00:49At least it does with one particular position, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
00:53-"Harry, this is Professor Quirrell.
00:55He'll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts."
00:58-"Oh, nice to meet you."
01:00Every single year Harry Potter attends the school,
01:03there's a new person doing the job, and they do not stay for long.
01:06-"Fame is a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does."
01:12We've seen professors die, get amnesia, be revealed as imposters, and more.
01:18This phenomenon all comes down to he who must not be named.
01:22As Dumbledore tells Harry in the Half-Blood Prince book,
01:25Voldemort once applied for the position.
01:27When Dumbledore denied it to him, the Dark Lord put a curse on the job.
01:31But if we're being honest, most of them deserve to be sacked.
01:42Number 9. How did Harry know Lupin and Tonks had a son?
01:46It's the side characters who get the real shock.
01:50During the final battle, Harry uses one of the titular Deathly Hallows
01:54to speak with his departed loved ones.
01:56One of the departed souls is his former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin.
02:01During their conversation, he mentions Lupin having a son.
02:04-"And Remus, he your son?"
02:05-"Others will tell him what his mother and father died for.
02:10One day, he'll understand."
02:12However, this information about his fatherhood is only slightly referential.
02:18The seventh book features a scene where Lupin asks Harry to be his son's godfather.
02:23But the eighth film only has a deleted scene where the former professor
02:26talks about his son with Tonks while Harry's not around.
02:29-"You shouldn't have! It's Teddy who needs you."
02:33-"He'll sleep till dawn and snore like his father."
02:36Number 8. Why is Harry allowed to go to Hogwarts?
02:39Harry is allowed to go to Hogwarts because he's a Harry Potter fan.
02:43-"He'll sleep till dawn and snore like his father."
02:45Number 8. Why is Harry allowed to go to Hogsmeade?
02:49Starting from their third year,
02:51Hogwarts students are allowed to visit the local village Hogsmeade for weekend trips.
02:55-"These visits to Hogsmeade village are a privilege.
02:58Should your behavior reflect poorly on the school in any way,
03:01that privilege shall not be extended again."
03:04However, they need permission from their parents or guardians.
03:07Harry's family doesn't sign off on his field trips
03:09because he turned his aunt into a human balloon.
03:12This forces him to sneak into Hogsmeade through secret passages
03:16and while under his invisibility cloak.
03:18-"Harry!" -"Bloody hell, Harry.
03:22That was not funny."
03:25But in later films, Harry has no problems visiting the village the normal way.
03:29In the books, it's clear that Harry's godfather Sirius Black
03:33signed the permission form the boy who lived needed.
03:36It's odd that the filmmakers didn't just explain this with a quick couple of lines of dialogue.
03:40-"If you signed it, then I could go."
03:42-"I can't. Only a parent or a guardian can sign.
03:45Since I am neither, it would be inappropriate."
03:51The Weasley family aren't well-to-do wizards.
03:54-"It's not much, but it's home."
03:56While they may live in one of the coolest houses in the world,
04:00they're still quite poor by magical standards.
04:02So it probably surprised a few viewers to see that Fred and George
04:06managed to establish a joke shop on Diagon Alley in the sixth film.
04:10-"Step up! Step up! We've got fighting fancies!
04:13Nosebleed nougat! Adjusting time for school! Puking castles!"
04:17But how did they get such prime wizarding real estate?
04:20Well, Goblet of Fire neglected to mention that the winner of the tournament got a cash prize.
04:25-"Trust me when I say, these contests are not for the faint-hearted.
04:30But more of that later."
04:32Since Harry inherited tons of money, he gave the winnings to Fred and George.
04:36Their burgeoning business wouldn't have been possible
04:39had Harry not reached the cup that fateful night.
04:50Harry Potter has been haunted by death since an early age.
04:53That's why the Thestrals in the fifth movie left viewers scratching their heads.
04:58-"What is it?"
05:01-"It's what?"
05:02-"That. Pulling the carriage."
05:04Since these creatures can only be seen by people who have watched someone die,
05:08Harry should have seen them earlier.
05:10He was in the room when his mother died,
05:12and watched Professor Quirrell turn to dust in front of him.
05:16However, both events were depicted differently on the page.
05:19-"But why can't the others see?"
05:22-"They can only be seen by people who've seen death."
05:24He was in his crib while Voldemort killed his mother.
05:27And Harry also passed out before Quirrell died.
05:30While you could argue that he should have been able to see them after Cedric's tragic end,
05:35the books made it more plausible why he couldn't view them earlier.
05:45During the sixth film,
05:46Dumbledore lets Harry know that Voldemort has multiple Horcruxes.
05:50These sinister items contained pieces of the Dark Lord's soul,
05:53and helped him cheat death.
05:57-"In other words, you cannot die."
06:02However, the movie never delves into how Dumbledore figured out
06:06where the ring and locket Horcruxes were,
06:08or why Voldemort chose those items specifically.
06:11-"It'll be hard to see."
06:13The book details that both items have ties to the Dark Lord's family.
06:17Dumbledore found the ring in a house that belonged to Voldemort's relative.
06:20And after reviewing the Dark Lord's life,
06:23the headmaster uncovered a cave the evil wizard used to visit.
06:26These small details explain how Dumbledore found
06:29two of Voldemort's most important possessions.
06:37One of Goblet of Fire's biggest reveals
06:39is that Barty Crouch Jr. has been impersonating a dark arts professor this whole time.
06:52Before this reveal,
06:53we saw a memory of him being sent to the legendary wizarding prison Azkaban by his father.
07:03However, the film never explains how Crouch Jr. got out.
07:12The book explains that his father brought his dying wife to Azkaban.
07:16She then switched places with Barty Crouch Jr.,
07:19while Mrs. Crouch died while disguised in prison.
07:22Barty Crouch Jr. was imprisoned and controlled by his father for years.
07:26The films also don't mention that the Voldemort follower received the Dementor's kiss later on.
07:31Maybe knowing that his soul was sucked out might have been too much for viewers.
07:40One would think the three experienced young heroes
07:43would be better able to hide themselves from Death Eaters and Voldemort's other minions.
07:52However, during the first of the final two films,
07:55the trio is repeatedly found by the villains.
07:58But these incidents aren't just about bad luck.
08:04In the book, Ron reveals that you-know-who has put a taboo spell on his own name.
08:09The Dark Lord reasons that Harry and others who rebel against him
08:13aren't scared of saying Voldemort's name.
08:15Alright, Voldemort.
08:20So, anyone who speaks his moniker aloud will have their location
08:24instantly made known to Voldemort and his followers.
08:27It turns out that Harry's bravery was his undoing.
08:35In the two Deathly Hallows films,
08:37Harry suddenly acknowledges that he has a shard of a mirror
08:40that lets him reach out to other people over great distances.
08:45It's a curious thing to keep in your sock.
08:47This item becomes a crucial plot element
08:49because it leads to the heroes being rescued from Malfoy Manor.
08:56However, we never actually see Harry receive the mirror in the films.
09:00The final film just explains that it belonged to Sirius.
09:12But those who read Order of the Phoenix
09:14know that Sirius gave Harry the mirror so they could easily communicate.
09:22Admittedly, leaving the mirror out of early films
09:25explains why the young hero didn't try to confirm
09:27that his godfather was kidnapped by Voldemort in his fifth year.
09:30The mirror omission might have actually helped the narrative.
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09:54In the third film, Harry is introduced to the Marauders map.
09:58This magical document was created by Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
10:02So you mean this map shows...
10:03Everyone.
10:04Everyone?
10:05Everyone.
10:05Where they are, what they're doing, every minute of every day.
10:07Brilliant!
10:08But the identities of this group weren't fully fleshed out in the films.
10:12While the connection is never made on screen,
10:15the Marauders are James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.
10:20Remus?
10:23Sirius?
10:25My old friend!
10:27The failure to explore their identities unfortunately leads to several weird plot moments.
10:33In one instance, Harry insists the person who conjures a stag Patronus must be his dad,
10:39since his map codename was Prongs.
10:41It was my dad who conjured the Patronus.
10:43Harry, your dad's...
10:43Dead, I know.
10:46I'm just telling you what I saw.
10:48The boy who lived also refers to Sirius as Padfoot out of nowhere.
10:52He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden.
10:55By not defining the Marauders,
10:58the filmmakers definitely managed to stir up some plot mischief.
11:01Mischief managed.
11:03Do you agree with our picks?
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