EVERY Mistake in Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone (All ERRORS + Plot Holes)

Welcome to Harry Potter Theory. This is part 1 of a video series where I’ll be diving in to the Harry Potter books and taking a look, chapter by chapter, at all of the mistakes that were made. Starting with book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

I’m going to be placing a particular focus on instances in which factual errors were made or canon was somehow contradicted. Trivial errors like typos / grammatical issues will not be focused on this video.

I should also mention that I’m not making this video to CRITICIZE the books, but rather, take a look out of my own curiosity. Authors are only human and nearly every book series has mistakes like these made in them.

Rowling has even addressed this topic herself:

"As obsessive fans will tell you, I do slip up! Several classrooms move floors mysteriously between books and these are the least serious continuity errors! Most of the fansites will point you in the direction of my mistakes. But the essentials remain consistent from book to book because the story has been plotted for a long time and it is clear in my mind."

In the interest of time, I’m also only going to briefly summarizing each mistake as there’s quite a lot of ground to cover.

Starting…With the COVER of the very first book.

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[cyanshad]

The broom shed issue could be explained as because first years are not permitted a broom Harry had to keep it there but in subsequent years he was permitted a broom so he was able to keep it with him.

[Lupinemancer]

As someone who has experience with children, I think it's more then likely that Molly simply asked where the Platform was to make sure her kids knew, just in case. That, and it would allow someone like Ginny to feel a bit included as she wasn't going before next year.

[cammo]

12:46 - We'll take the lot!

Nice work with this one. I wasn't expecting there to be so many so I was a bit surprised. It's great how you can always create new video types for us! Cheers!

[jonnehhhh]

Dumbledore understanding how Harry survived could be due to now knowing Voldemort can’t touch him… considering this is brought up in Goblet of Fire as why he needed Harry’s blood for the potion and how he would then be able to touch him. Dumbledor could’ve had this theory before but it was now confirmed.

And also Voldemort had possessed Quirrel so technically he did want to get the stone to use it as he and Voldemort where sharing a body.

[jamesq.]

Oooo I like this new series you are doing - it's so interesting listening to the gaps/flaws and especially if the new tv show will fix some of them. Keep it up!

[brendan]

In retrospect I actually don’t think hagrid telling Harry that all evil wizards come from Slytherin was a mistake at all, but rather just what Hagrid was instructed to tell Harry to continue to sway him away from Slytherin.

It would entirely make sense for Dumbledore to instruct Hagrid that if the opportunity arose to sway him away from Slytherin as Harry landing in the house riddled with the kids of Death Eaters would certainly throw a wrench into his plans for Harry and have him in even more danger. It’s not like Dumbledore is above lying or leaving out crucial details after all.

Now despite what Rowling might claim, I doubt at this point Rowling had any type of thought about the Pettigrew & Sirius situation, but still I see this as a rather happy accident that ends up fitting pretty well.

[josecarlosnunocorona]

I have a theory that I put on your Spanish channel; is that everything changed with the Muggles' mastery of electricity, let me explain; At some point in the novels someone mentions (I think Hermione) that electronic devices do not work in the magical world because magic interferes with the signals, they comment on it very superficially, so I imagine that it refers to electromagnetic signals, electromagnetism is a physical field, therefore magic could be interpreted as tangible effects of another physical field that interferes with the electromagnetic field, In the real, natural world, all things that interact with each other and generate interference do so in a symmetrical or equivalent way, therefore if one thing affects another, then it suffers from the same effect but in reverse, therefore if electronic devices are affected by magic, then, YES or YES magic would have to be affected by the presence of electricity so that, the more electricity used in The more electricity used in a town, city, or country, the less effective the magic that is attempted to be manipulated within that area would be. Therefore in YOUR theory of a fictitious Wizard-Muggle war, it would be enough to use isolation fields against magic based on electromagnetic pulses to render wizards totally useless, likewise it would explain your theory that wizards are getting weaker and weaker, it would also explain why it seems that wizards used Muggle artifacts and enhanced them with magic for their use, but out of nowhere they were frozen in the analogous era. And all this in the 90's!!, I can't imagine what the tension of the magical world would be like today!!

[Viech]

At first I wasn't sure if I should even click on this video. Frequently, these types of videos fail to understand what a plot hole really is and expect the characters to be omniscient and omnipotent and if their actions are not perfect, it is a plot hole. Which is already flawed.

Glad to see you didn't do this, so yeah, I'm positively surprised and absolutely keep these videos coming.

[PrecariousPorcupine]

Fantastic video! Def keep going with this series ❤

[Alejandroigarabide]

Also, in the book the snake is a boa constrictor from Brazil... Which is impossible since Brazil has no boas. Brazil has anacondas.
As a Latin American, it's like reading "a panda from Yellowstone".

It's either a boa from Asia (which is what the movies went with) or an anaconda from Brazil.

[trolletuva]

There were a lots of small mistakes I hadn't noticed. Please keep this series going. It'll be fun to know what I missed in the other books.

[tcunero]

I think a lot of these are "mistakes".... I would not necessarily say they are mistakes in the writing. For example, Hagrid saying "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin" could simply be an expression of Hagrid's world view. Many people say things that are "mostly true" or True from their reference frame. I could see many of the ones here fall into that category. Also Dumbledore walking through parties on his way to Privite drive. He could have been in Hogworts where the parties were, also which he would have to leave to Apparate. Or even something mundane as making a stop on the way to get dinner (maybe that butterbeer at Hogsmeade was too good to pass up)

[Hexen_Wulf]

One you didn't mention: The required list of items for potions class includes a pewter cauldron. A cauldron is used to heat liquids over an open flame. Pewter is pretty much just tin and lead, both of which melt readily over an open flame. Why the hell would you want a pewter cauldron?

[jb]

You missed the biggest one: magic isn't real.

[ryangraf]

love the series <3 i like how you try to explain the mistakes :D

[lauramiller]

Quirrell was the one who "donated" the troll used to protect the stone. I've often wished that after "fainting" in the Great Hall, and after Dumbledore calmed everyone down, he would have looked down his glasses at Quirrell and said, "Since you're the troll expert at this school, professor, I'd appreciate it if you would get yourself up off the floor now and go deal with it. Everyone else, tuck in!"
I also noticed in chapter 17 (The Man with Two Faces) that Voldemort not only backpedals that Harry's parents were brave, but that James put up a "courageous" fight. When we see that memory in Deathly Hallows, it's reduced to a quick kill of AK because James had no wand in his hand. I've reconciled both the story and an author's error this way:
Story: It made more sense to lead Harry to believe that his father fought courageously but still lost. And since by then we know that Voldemort lies whenever he decides it's a good idea, it makes sense. If he'd told Harry the truth, it would have made him all the more determined to take Voldemort down for killing a defenseless man.
Author: By the last book, Rowling must have written so many battles, fights and confrontations for DH alone (more than the other 6 combined?) that she was getting tired. She also likely knew how Harry's last battle with Voldemort was going to play out, and giving James a "courageous fight" would have looked far more impressive and overshadowed that final fight.

[MaxGormley]

Considering we don’t know the contents of the letter, it’s safe to assume the letter specifically requested he didn’t travel in one of those ways… after all the letter wouldn’t have worked too well if that instruction wasn’t in it🤷🏻‍♂️

[subzippo]

1:42 Another thing I just noticed on the cover is another train on the platform right next to the Hogwarts Express. Looks modern, too.

[Curtiz]

Anything Dumbledore says to Harry can be regarded with suspicion and is not necessarily the truth. Dumbledore pretty much admits this later in the series.

[taliesinllanfair]

Rowling built this world a bit like a computer game. With each book more mechanics are introduced, like apparition, floo powder, etc. It's great to see the 'mistakes' as a fan because many, so far, show the world-building narrative taking shape. Compare the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, not everything matches between them either. I am going to love this series of videos. Good job mate!