5 MASSIVE Plot Holes in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. So far in this plot hole series we've covered Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire and now finally we arrive at my favourite book and film, Order of the Phoenix. And as you might have guessed, this one isn't free from plot holes either. And that's because the more complicated the wizarding world becomes, the harder it becomes for all of Rowling's magical systems to consistently function together without contradicting one another. Just like in the previous videos, I want to quickly clarify what I actually mean by plot hole, because people online often use the term way too broadly. A character making a mistake is not a plot hole. A character acting emotionally isn't a plot hole. A character making a bad decision isn't a plot hole. I'm specifically talking about moments where the story seems to contradict its own previously established rules, information or internal logic. And before we jump in, please consider liking the video and subscribing to the channel to support future content. It's a lot of fun making these plot hole videos and it lets me know that you like them. Let's dive into it. Trace Rules We first hear about the trace early in the story, presented as a vague but seemingly simple rule prohibiting the use of magic outside of school by underage witches and wizards. The trace is applied to any and all witches and wizards under the age of 17, and at first glance appears to be a straightforward policy designed to prevent young witches and wizards from using magic unsupervised, especially in the muggle world where it could lead to exposure of the magical community. Countless times, Harry had been on the point of unlocking Hedwig's cage by magic and sending her to Ron and Hermione with a letter, but it wasn't worth the risk. Underage wizards weren't allowed Harry hadn't told the Dursleys this. He knew it was only their terror that he might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped them from locking him in the cupboard under the stairs with his wand and broomstick. And among the many mistakes and plot holes in the Harry Potter books and films, the trace is perhaps one of the most confusing and inconsistent elements, a fairly major plot component that is riddled with contradictions. To the Harry Potter casual, these issues with the trace probably went by relatively unnoticed, but for the diehards, it was hard to ignore the glaringly obvious ways in which the trace was misrepresented. There are also many components of the trace that are never explained, like how it's actually applied to underage witches and wizards. The trace is precisely why Harry gets in trouble in Chamber of Secrets when Dobby uses a hover charm in the Dursleys' house. Dear Mr. Potter, we've received intelligence that a hover charm was used at your place of And it's in this same letter we also find out that the Ministry lets first offenders off with a warning, as in Harry wrongfully taking the fall for Dobby, and reserves the power to expel repeat offenders from school. However, this exposes a significant gap in the Ministry's ability to enforce the trace fairly. The fact that Harry is held accountable for Dobby's magic, despite not actually performing it, highlights a serious fault in the system. There's also the issue of the Ministry's blatant disregard for investigating the details behind the magic, acting only on the trace of magical activity itself. As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spell work on your part may lead to expulsion from said school. Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, paragraph c. The Ministry immediately sends Harry a warning, because as far as they know, Harry is the only wizard living there. And then, in Order of the Phoenix, Harry gets expelled after using the Patronus charm to fight off Dementors in Little Whinging. Dear Mr. Potter, we have received intelligence you performed the Patronus charm at 23 minutes past nine this evening in a Muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle. The severity of this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand. Again, the Ministry instantly detects the magic. Okay, fine. But then literally hours later, members of the Order of the Phoenix arrive at Privet Drive to escort Harry away from the house. And what do they do? They use magic. A lot of it. Tonks magically packs Harry's suitcase. Moody uses magical devices. People are openly casting spells inside the exact same house where Harry was living when he got busted for underage magic. And somehow, nothing happens. No Ministry letters, and most importantly, no detection of underage wizards performing magic. And this is where the trace completely falls apart. Because we're specifically told that the trace cannot distinguish who performed the magic. It only detects that magic happened near an underage wizard. That's precisely why Harry gets blamed for Dobby's hover charm in Chamber of Secrets. But if the Ministry truly detects magic by location rather than by caster, then Tonks using magic at Privet Drive should have triggered the trace immediately. Especially if we consider that the Ministry was actively monitoring Harry at the time. Fudge was desperate to expel him. The Ministry was watching him closely. So it seems highly implausible that the Ministry would detect a single hover charm from Dobby, but also somehow miss half of the Order of the Phoenix openly casting spells inside Harry's bedroom. And this is where it gets even more convoluted. Because if adult wizards can freely use magic around underage wizards without consequence, then how does the trace ever work at all in magical households? Ron lives in a house full of magic constantly being used. Fred and George are probably blowing things up every five minutes. And Arthur and Molly are constantly casting spells. This is just the magical way of life. So clearly the Ministry already has some way of ignoring adult magic around children. But if that's the case, why couldn't they tell that Dobby, or Tonks, was the one casting the spell near Harry? Harry lives with muggles. So any magic cast near him immediately gets blamed on him because there are no adult witches or wizards nearby to potentially be responsible. But in the case of someone like Ron, the Ministry would have absolutely no idea whether a spell cast at the burrow came from Ron, Fred, George, Arthur, Molly, or literally anybody else inside the house. Which means magical children growing up in homes could probably get away with using magic constantly. Meanwhile, Harry gets dragged before a full Ministry disciplinary hearing for using a Patronus to literally save his own life. The system is supposedly universal, but it clearly affects muggle-borns and children in muggle homes way more harshly than everyone else. And the inconsistencies don't stop there. During the graveyard duel in Goblet of Fire, Harry uses multiple spells while underage, surrounded by Death Eaters. But again, there's absolutely no Ministry response. And then there's Tom Riddle. When he was still an underage wizard, he killed his father, paternal grandfather, and grandmother outside of school, but was never held responsible. When Harry asks Dumbledore about it, he explains, the Ministry had no way of knowing who performed the magic, just like with you and Dobby. However, Morfin Gaunt, the person who Riddle framed, was not underage, and this alone should have ruled him out as the culprit. Furthermore, Riddle's spell to implant a false memory in Morfin should have triggered the trace, or raised suspicion by itself. And the films just make things even messier. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry casually practices Lumos at Privet Drive at the start of the movie, despite underage magic supposedly being completely illegal outside of school. And while I know the films and books are entirely separate entities, moments like this still reinforce how inconsistent the entire concept of the trace became over time. And then, when we get to Deathly Hallows, the contradictions become even worse. The Order makes this massive, elaborate plan to move Harry from Privet Drive, without triggering the trace. They avoid port keys, apparition, and pretty much every method of magical transportation, with the sole purpose of remaining undetected. Instead, they use brooms, thestrals, and polyjuice potion, because they're terrified that magic near Harry will alert the Ministry to his location. But then, Harry arrives safely at the burrow, and immediately spends days surrounded by adult witches and wizards, constantly using magic around him. And nobody seems remotely worried about the trace anymore. So, can the Ministry detect magic around Harry or not? Because the rules seem to change depending entirely on what the plot needs in that specific moment. Why didn't Voldemort grab the prophecy himself? In The Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort concocts this elaborate plan to retrieve the prophecy from the Hall of Prophecy. And according to the books, the rules surrounding prophecies in the Department of Mysteries are pretty clear. They can only be removed by the people it concerns, meaning Harry Potter or Voldemort himself. This protective measure means that even if somebody breaks into the Hall of Prophecy, they still can't actually retrieve the prophecy, unless they're directly connected to it. We even see this rule demonstrated when Harry notices labels beneath the prophecy's sphere. He had to crane his neck to read the spidery writing was written a date of some 16 years previously, and below that, SPT to APWBD. And to Lucius later explains the restriction directly. Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him. This means Voldemort needs either himself or Harry to physically grab the prophecy. But Voldemort's actual plan to solve this problem is where everything completely falls apart. Instead of simply entering the Ministry himself and retrieving the prophecy, he spends months manipulating Harry into doing it for him. He implants visions into Harry's mind, he exploits their mental connection, he orchestrates fake images of Sirius being tortured, and he carefully engineers this massive elaborate trap designed to lure Harry to the Ministry. But the question is, why? Because when Harry and the others actually arrive at the Ministry, it's basically empty. There are no auras, no Ministry security checkpoints, and basically nothing in the way of one of the most important magical objects in existence. The Death Eaters are already casually wandering around inside before Harry even arrives. The Department of Mysteries is supposed to be one of the most secret and dangerous locations in the entire wizarding world. It has prophecies, time turners, brain rooms, death chambers, and all sorts of mysterious magical experiments. But six teenagers manage to infiltrate it with shocking ease. Which makes Voldemort's entire strategy feel incredibly overcomplicated. Because eventually Voldemort himself shows up anyway, after the prophecy is already destroyed. Which kind of destroys the entire logic of the plan. Because if Voldemort was willing to personally enter the Ministry in the end, why didn't he just retrieve the prophecy himself from the beginning? Especially since we know that the prophecy could only be touched by him or Harry. The typical explanation for this is that Voldemort didn't want the Ministry to know he had returned yet. But honestly, I'm not convinced that reasoning holds up either. Because if we go by what the book actually shows us, the Ministry is practically empty at night. The Death Eaters are already capable of entering undetected. And Voldemort is supposed to be the most powerful dark wizard alive. Which means there's basically nothing that could have stopped him from apparating in, grabbing the prophecy, and disappearing within minutes. Instead he creates this absurdly elaborate year-long plan where he manipulates Harry's dreams, emotionally baits him with Sirius, and relies on Harry behaving in a very specific emotional way at exactly the right moment. Voldemort spends the entire book trying to secretly obtain the prophecy without revealing himself, and ends his master plan by publicly revealing himself to the Minister for magic. Nice one, Voldy. Sirius and Polyjuice Though Sirius was eventually able to clear his name in the eyes of those most important to him, he never proved his innocence to the wider wizarding world. As far as the Ministry was concerned, Sirius Black was still a mass murderer. His face was everywhere, and the Ministry was hunting him relentlessly. And by the time we get to Order of the Phoenix, Sirius is essentially trapped inside Grimmauld Place, because going outside is considered too dangerous. If only there was a way for him to change his physical appearance. Wait, there is. Why doesn't he just use Polyjuice Potion? The Order of the Phoenix is comprised of Dumbledore, Snape, Moody, Lupin, and some of the most capable witches and wizards in the entire series, so it's very hard for me to believe that none of them considered the most obvious solution imaginable. Especially since Polyjuice Potion already solves this exact problem multiple times throughout the story. Harry and Ron successfully brew and use it in Chamber of Secrets while still students. Barty Crouch Jr uses it for an entire year while impersonating Mad-Eye Moody. And later in Deathly Hallows, the trio use it constantly to infiltrate the Ministry and move around undetected. The Wizarding World clearly treats Polyjuice Potion as one of the most effective disguises in existence. Sirius didn't even need to use it permanently, he could have just used it to leave the house occasionally when he wanted a bit of freedom. But instead he chose to spend an entire year isolated inside his abusive childhood home, slowly becoming more reckless and unstable. And instead of using Polyjuice, Sirius instead occasionally sneaks out by transforming into a gigantic black dog, which is somehow the strategy they settle on despite the Ministry already knowing that Sirius can transform into a gigantic black dog. And unsurprisingly this is exactly what gets him recognized later on. The usual defense here would be that Polyjuice Potion is difficult to brew, and while that may apply to some, it would most definitely not apply to an organization with powerful wizards like the Order of the Phoenix. Snape could probably brew it in his sleep, and if second year students managed to make it in a bathroom stall, surely a group of elite adult wizards could manage enough for Sirius to occasionally leave the house safely. Polyjuice Potion is also pretty foolproof. A Death Eater successfully impersonated one of the most famous Aurors alive for an entire school year, which makes it even stranger that nobody seriously considers using it to help Sirius move around in Order of the Phoenix. Honestly, I think the real answer is that the plot needed Sirius trapped inside Grimmauld Place, because Sirius being isolated, frustrated, emotionally unstable, and desperate to escape is a huge part of his character arc in the fifth book. But logically, Polyjuice Potion solves most of his problems almost immediately. Priori Incantatum The wizarding world has magical investigative tools that should solve crimes almost instantly. Things like Veritaserum, or even just extracted memories placed into a pensive, have the potential to dispel doubt in nearly all cases in a matter of moments, but they're all famously underutilized. And later in the series, there's yet another absurdly powerful magical forensic tool introduced called Priori Incantatum. This is the spell that allows us to see the recent magical history of a wand. And the important thing here is that this isn't some obscure piece of magic hidden deep in the Department of Mysteries. The Ministry knows about it, law enforcement knows about it, and we literally see Ministry officials use it during investigations. In Goblet of Fire, after the Dark Mark appears at the Quidditch World Cup, Amos Diggory immediately grabs Harry's wand and checks it. And sure enough, the wand reveals the last spell that had been cast. Winky trembled and shook her head frantically, her ears flapping, as Mr. Diggory raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Harry's. Priori Incantatum roared Mr. Diggory. Harry heard Hermione gasp, horrified, as a gigantic serpent tongue skull erupted from the point where the two wands met. But it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them. It looked as though it were made of thick grey smoke, the ghost of a spell. And what this confirms is that the Wizarding World has an established magical method of determining whether or not a wand recently cast a spell. But if that's the case, why doesn't anybody use this in Order of the Phoenix? Or any other books for that matter? Throughout the entire fifth book, the Ministry is obsessed with controlling information surrounding Harry Potter and Voldemort's return. They monitor Harry constantly, put him on trial over underage magic, attempt to expel him from Hogwarts, and repeatedly insist via the Daily Prophet that Harry is either lying, delusional, or attention seeking. Cornelius Fudge becomes absolutely desperate to suppress anything that supports Harry's claims. But before all of this, the series already established magical investigative tools that should make verifying certain events relatively straightforward. And Priori Incantatum is one of the biggest examples. Because once Rowling establishes that wands can reveal recently cast spells, it creates some pretty major implications for magical law enforcement, especially in Order of the Phoenix. Take Harry's Patronus hearing at the beginning of the book. The entire trial revolves around one central question. Did Harry Potter actually cast a Patronus charm? And the Ministry treats this as a matter requiring a full disciplinary hearing. But if one spell history can be checked, then shouldn't this have been incredibly easy to verify almost immediately? Harry's wand should literally confirm that he cast the Patronus. This becomes even stranger later on during the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Death Eaters infiltrate the Ministry itself, students are attacked, unforgivable curses are used, and the Hall of Prophecy is destroyed. And afterward, there's very little indication that anybody seriously investigates the magical evidence left behind. This creates some pretty major inconsistencies in the way magical law enforcement functions throughout the series, especially if we consider that the Ministry knows about it. Yet, in Order of the Phoenix, the very book where truth, evidence, and denial become central themes, magical forensic tools suddenly become almost irrelevant. And that's it for today's video. Which of these had you considered before, and which ones did I miss? Let me know down in the comments section below. Also, if you haven't checked out parts 1, 2, 3, or 4 yet, then go have a look after this. Until next time, remember, it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.