10 Times Harry Potter Magic Made NO Sense 

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re: the elixer of life: he needed it to keep quirrell alive, the same reason he made quirrell drink unicorn blood. he could possess people, but possessing them burned through them and made them degrade and die quickly, as he ran through animals in the albanian forests. quirrell was dying. he wanted the elixer to keep him alive until he could regain a body of his own. and canonically the elixer does not permanently give immortality, it simply keeps away death; you have to keep drinking it to be immortal. so he's not worried about quirrell becoming immortal; he would make quirrell drink until he got what he wanted and then he would discard him.

JKR mentioned the dementors being a representation of clinical depression. If you know anything about clinical depression and the things people tell the depressed, you will know that doing those things: "snap out of it," "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps," "write affirmations," "call somebody," and others, though easy enough for some people, are almost impossible for the clinically depressed, including bringing up a happy memory. So indeed it is a hard spell to cast a patronus charm.

I have headcanon for a few of these in one. Magic seems to be less structured than you seem to think. I’m pretty sure the incantations are just words to train your mind to imagine the effect you want, and the reason they’re old sounding is tradition. But we know Magic exists in other languages and places. So when you want to invent a new spell, you need a very vivid inner mind, a clear imagination and strong willpower. You envision what you want the spell to do, train your mind see the effect you want, such as bubbles. I’d say “Bubbley Boo!” and in my minds eye I envision bubbles, while using a wand movement that does the same thing and feels unique to that effect. Lastly, I use my mastery of magic to “form” the magic into bubbles the way I might bend my hands in front of a lamp to get the shadow puppet I want. It’s about shaping your magic into the result you want, and having a movement and phrase that helps train mind and body to accomplish it. It’s essentially a Pavlovian response like a cat coming when it hears a can open… when my mind starts flicking my wrist in circles, and I say “Bubbley Boo” my mind, body, and magic all get on the same page and the result is magic bubbles flowing from my wand. Then, I can teach my new spell to others and it’s easier for them because I can show them what the result looks like, I can let them hear my awesome incantation see my epic wand skills. Then, when I become the bubble master and my body is used to the visual and the feel of the flow of magic I no longer need the words… I can just flick my wand and my muscle memory takes over and Bubbles! Eventually if I train enough I can cast it without a wand… I just shape the magic into bubbles on my own. That’s how I believe magic works in the Wizard World. I think anyone with enough dedication, imagination, skill, and most importantly a great understanding of their own body and the flow of magic through it, can create spells. I’m sure it probably could go catastrophically wrong, like people inventing new skateboard tricks or parkour moves.. one wrong move and snap.. This is how some powerful and skilled wizards can use magic without speaking, and some don’t even need wands for certain basic spells. It’s all about how well you can visualize the result, and shape the magic to match… the more stimuli you give your brain to assist, the easier and more reliable it is. So add in a wand, a movement and a verbal component and you have redundancy. You have a rock solid way to cast a spell, even in a stressful situation or when sleepy… because you have several different kinds of “muscle memory” focusing your mind and magic.

I’ve seen a lot of fanfic suggest that the trace being useless for wizarding families and specifically to prevent muggleborns from casting is a feature and not a bug - they purposely prevent muggleborns from being able to practice magic over the summer, so they fall behind in class and it furthers wizarding prejudice against them

The Time Turner can be explained with a "Linear Time" system. Simply put, anything you went back in time to do already happened the first time without you knowing about it. So if someone died the first time that means even if you went back in time to save them then you failed to do so. Because Linear Time prevents time paradoxes from occuring.

Veritaserum is a potion that forces you to answer with not the truth, but the truth as you know it. That means if your memory had been edited, erased or otherwise tampered with, you would answer truthfully acording to those memories. Also, i believe it is mentioned that Horace Slughorn had carried an antidote to veritaserum with him ever since Dumbledore cornered him the first time. This means, that veritaserum is kind of like our polygraph exams, largely accurate but beatable and sometimes inaccurate.

Another thing regarding The Trace that didn't make much sense to me: in "The Deathly Hallows" it's briefly theorized that Harry might still have the trace on him, but Hermione quickly dismisses this by saying that Ministry law dictates that the trace would be removed upon Harry's 17th birthday. Yet... the Death Eaters had taken over the ministry by that point. Depending on where or how or what controls The Trace spell... why or how would "Ministry law" stop or prevent Death Eaters who had taken over the Ministry from just extending or renewing it specifically for the one person they'd be looking to hunt down?

Another thing that doesn’t make sense: Why don’t the kids wear helmets while riding on broomsticks? Not even during their first lesson or while playing quidditch. Before their first game in Philosophers Stone, Wood tells Harry that after two minutes in his first game he was hit in the head by a bludger and woke up a week later. A helmet would have helped.

I always assumed the trace worked backwards. It essentially detects magic, and then checks if there is a registered magic user of age in that location and if not, they assume it’s the under age child known to live there. That’s why they can’t tell the difference between Harry and Dobby or why they don’t bother with magical families. I just assumed the “trace” was a way to “scare” kids into behaving and not using magic in dangerous ways or exposing the wizard world.

I like to imagine that, to create a new spell, you'd need the muggle equivalent of a PHD understanding in the subject. And even then, much like in our world, that in itself doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to advance the field.

re: inventing spells: all spells are invented, and the best magicians improvise. the idea that magic is always a scientific process of XYZ words + XYZ wand movements = XYZ results is nonsense. wizards from other schools use other incantations. magicians from ouagadou use wands much less altogether. the incantations are culturally specific, and I'd guess they have something to do with our subconscious. the magic you cast has to do with your mindset, your visualization. it's why dumbledore conjures a squashy armchair while mcgonagall conjures hardbacked wooden chairs - it's not that they're using specific, different incantations to create different chairs 🙄they have different ideas about the chair they want to conjure. it's why dumbledore says he knows tom riddle's style, because magic has a STYLE. it's an art form. the idea that you need specific, ministry approved incantations to perform specific ministry approved spells is a way for the ministry to exert control. why didn't voldemort create a more powerful version of the killing curse? which would be what, exactly? it does exactly what he needs it to do, there's no room for improvement. why didn't harry invent a spell to kill voldemort? because harry is not as good a wizard. it's consistently shown that MOST wizards are unimaginative and stick to what they were taught in school, and probably the fact that you can die if you mess up a spell keeps many of them from experimenting more. magic is elusive, mystical, powerful - magical people can alter reality at a whim. but most of them need the fairly tight focus of a specifically learned spell and a wand to do things. it always bugs me when people think magic in harry potter is this mechanical, brandon sanderson-style "magic system." it is not. it is poetic and wondrous, it is the physical manifestation of your imagination, and most people can't do much because most people have a limited imagination and a limited focus. it is bound only by the deepest mysteries - you cannot conjure love, you cannot evade death, you cannot stop time (and note that all three of these are ~attempted~, i.e. amortentia, horcruxes, time-turners, but all of them have extreme consequences and are not really the thing they are seeking).

re: the patronus charm: come on. the person writing this has clearly never experienced depression or sadness or any other negative feeling, which are not solely the result of dementors. it requires you to genuinely feel happy. it's hard for anyone to genuinely find a sliver of happiness inside you at a moment's notice in a bad situation. and note that it doesn't have to be a "memory" - harry conjures one during his OWL by imagining umbridge sacked. any truly happy thought will do.

Requiring animagous to register but not talents of magical beings is very governmental. Take weapons: some are banned, some require permits, and some aren't regulated at all

And despite all the trouble with the Timeturner, she still approved of the Cursed Child.

The super carlin brothers suggested that the trace is given to 1st students when they board the boats from the train the Hogwarts... i like this theory, since the following years the students always go from the train via carriages pulled by Thestrals.

My takes/"solutions" to those "issues": 1) The Trace - We know that the first time a witch or wizard showcases magical abilities, their name is written down by the Quill of Acceptance at Hogwarts. Seeing how this possible, a similar quill likely exists at the Ministry of Magic, which puts the name and age of these new magic users in a registry, marking them until they are 17 years old. Some places (like Quidditch fields and Hogwarts) are probably dead zones but in all other cases, every use of magic around a minor will cause an alarm. A system that off course only works properly on muggleborns and my guess would be that this is actually by design! There are several hints throughout the books that even outside the Death Eater community, a large part of the magical community is in fact still quite supremacist and xenophobic, don't look further than Hagrid for example. The Ministry has put this system into place, knowing they would overpolice muggleborns (magical parents are expected to deal with their offspring themselves) and they are perfectly fine with that. Like certain countries now also have laws in place, knowing it will affect minorities more than the general populance and this too is by design. Voldemorts ability to kill his parents undetected (the Ministry went to investigate because the coronor couldn't find a proper cause of death), indicates that the Trace is a recent law, possibly pushed by groups around the Malfoys for example. Why not use it on prisoners, probably a privacy law. When you are allowed to leave Azkaban, you are no longer considered a criminal, hence don't need follow up. If you were still considered a criminal and therefore dangerous to society, you'd remain in prison. 2) Veritaserum - Interesting thought but what is truth? Is the truth one tells when under the influence of Veritaserum the actual truth or only what they perceive to be the truth. Because if it is latter, Veritaserum would likely be as useless in court as a polygraph test. And we see hints of this in Crouch Jr. telling. He was dazed before giving the potion which made it impossible for him to resist answering but everything he told Dumbledore where the things he believed to be true. Voldemorts actions for him, he portrayed almost altruistically as his master coming to save him, while we know that if Voldemort had a better choice, he would have gone with that and not necessarily bothered with Crouch Jr. 3) Elixer of Life - It is specifically mentioned that the Elixer of Life would have been a viable way to bring back Voldemort in full and with some extra but once he had his body and power back, he would return to his Horcruxes as only security. And it is entirely possible that at some point, Nicolas Flamel, in his 600 years of life, was disembodied before and used the Elixer once to return that way. (He would have survived disembodiment due to lingering influence of said Elixer) and we know for a fact that Voldemort wasn't the first to be disembodied in history as his resurrection potion was specifically called an obscure and ancient form of dark magic. So, the Elixer can in fact do what Voldemort wanted it to do but the immortality buffs it granted, he would no longer need. 4) Time Turners - Everything with paradoxes are a difficult one but still, the reason why you wouldn't use time turners in the way many fans suggest, is the Butterfly Effect. You don't know what you will change if you go back (unless it is closed loop scenario) and alter time. And harsh as this sounds: saving Lily and James Potter would be a terrible idea as you would also bring back Voldemort who was at the height of his power. Their lives were a fine sacrifice in exchange for the lives that were saved with Voldemorts disappearance. 5) Patronus issues - I don't really see this as an issue. It is made clear that it has to be the exactly right happy memory to work and that's not easy under the best of circumstances, let alone when under the pressure. And there is also an interesting parallell with medical issues: a lot of medical issues worsen under stress. Guess what causes a lot of stress: suffering medical issues ... 6) Inventing spells - Well, they have to come from somewhere and it is highly likely that with a lot of things, there has been a lot trial and error to invent effective spells. I would compare it with math. There is a lot of complex mathematical equations invented through history by people with a mathematical inclination and likely something similar is at foot with magic. If you have a predisposition towards understanding the workings of magic and how spells can be created, you can your insight to create your own and build upon others. Spellcraft is probably a whole field of study in the magical community, similar like we have physcis, chemistry and again, math. For someone outside these fields, it will be all gibberish but for those in the field, it will be likely lot clearer. 7) Transfiguration ethics - Well, it is a bit like animal experimentation in our world. The ethics are at best loose and bare-bones, and the question is always what you want to prioritize: furthering knowledge or animal wellfare. Transfiguration on other humans will likely be very much frowned upon outside certain safe and controlled settings. 8) Homonculus Charm - Privacy is the keyword here, I believe that the magical community has a very strict policy on privacy. Especially seeing how magic can be used and abused in regards of privacy violations, it is highly likely that is very frowned upon for institutions to spy on others like that. Even in our world, there are countries with very strict privacy laws, so this is likely while official institutions don't use this charm. With the Marauders, it isn't like they were ever against some rule breaking, now were they? 9) Animagus registration - I would compare it to permits for guns or driver licenses. You have to register to avoid abuse because how easily it can be abused and with legitimancy (which might also have a register for it, we can't be certain), there is the fact that it can be both felt as well as countered. Animagus is a bit different (like, if you are falcon, you could spy on people from vast distances...) 10) Inconsisent spell-naming: I think this is more a case of: hey, this incantation works, why bother changing it with something else, even if it is easier. It is highly likely that reparo glasses works just as good as oculus reparo but the former stuck already, so people don't bother using the other. People are creatures of habit after all. I see it enough in my job, there might be easier ways to do something but often people are so used to doing it one way, they simply won't bother. (The example I think off, there is an applice at my work that has a built-in timer for tests but most colleagues with go and look for seperate timer, because they are more used to it.

first off, reparo is only "reparo" in the books, the occulus is a movie only thing. And I think the movie implies that it works just like accio, just saying a latin term instead of "reparo glasses". There's instances of a similar spell, like in PoA they use Mobilicorpus (to levitate snape iirc) and Mobiliarbus (Hermione moves a Christmas tree in the three broomsticks when they are listening in The Sirius Black exposition group)

The problem with your question of “creating new spells.” Is that ever spell had to be created and was new when it was created. I always thought of spells needing the correct verbiage, and possibly intent. It would be compared to potions. You have to have the ingredients and the method to get the correct outcome.

It always bothered me that the Ministry detected the Hover charm at all since it wasn't wizard magic at all. Since they did detect Hover, why did they miss Dobby's Apparating in and out of the house? I contend that a House Elf's magic shouldn't be detected for the same reason that a House Elf or an underage wizard could accompany an adult wizard in the boat to cross the lake in the cave. That boat canonically could not support two adult wizards.

The trace could be tied to the wands. Because prior to children getting wands or learning that they are wizards, sometimes inexplicable things happen. For example, Harry making the glass vanish at the zoo. No trace was on him then.

ok re: the trace. consider that canonically there is a book and quill in Hogwarts that automatically notes the names of any child that performs magic within the british isles. it's how muggleborns are detected. it's why squibs don't get hogwarts letters. also, yes, the trace can only detect the conjunction of an underage person and the performance of magic. it's why the trace couldn't tell that it was dobby and not harry who did the hover charm, and why most wizarding kids are able to get away with doing magic during the holidays, because they're doing it in a magical house where magic is normal.

In the case of the vomiting spell or the repair spell I can see it being necessary to identify the subject prior to using the spell's trigger word. Repair... repair what? The glasses. Ergo the subject before the action. In the case of the repair spell it may be possible to say it either way. The slug spell on the other hand needs to set up what's to be vomited first. Use the vomit spell without determining what's to be vomited could result in a fairly mundane vomit. When Harry uses the summoning charm it's entirely possible the spell simply won't activate until he names the object to be summoned. I might even go so far as to suggest that line of sight summoning may not even require naming the item.

"Oculus" Reparo is an invention of the movies. It's just "Reparo" in the books. The incantation "Slugulus Eructo" came from one of the Lego HP games, whereas neither the book nor film gave one. If you want an example of an oddly specific incantation that was *actually* in the books, try on "Mobiliarbus", a spell that moves trees.

In regards to the Veritaserum, I think they don't use it in trials because you could just remove your memories of the crime. Or someone who did the crime could frame you by implanting false memories in your mind

Dumbledore explained the Trace in HBP, when Harry asked how underage Tom Riddle was able to murder his family. The Trace is simply this: The Ministry monitors the homes and neighborhoods of underage magicals who do not live with of-age magicals. That's all. (Usually that's muggle-borns.) The Ministry wants all kids to believe that it's more precise than that, to discourage them from using spells, but it's not. I understand why most people believed in the Trace in DH, and I have no idea why Harry forgot that.

Always wondered why Lupin couldn’t magic himself better clothes / magically fix the ones he had, or get a decent job in the muggle world and use his abilities to cover up his monthly absences.

The solution to the problem with the time turner is adequately handled. As in, nothing could be changed that wasn't already changed. I thought it was set up quite cleverly, as everything Harry and Hermione did while time traveling already happened. Therefore, it was not possible to make something happen that didn't happen already.

The fact she said she had the Time Turners destroyed during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and then wrote Cursed Child should have been the first clue she betrayed the Fandom.

Quirrel (or any other possessed host) was dying from sharing his body with Voldemort. That's why he was drinking unicorn blood. Elixir of Life would've been much better, giving Quirrel the health and strength required to be a truly good host for Voldemort to possess until he could get a body of his own.

What makes no sense is, that you can't "make" food out of nothing but you can create objects out of nothing. And where do the disappeared objects go when wizards make things dissappear

Time turners are one very easy thing to correct: The timeloop is fixed. When Harry and Hermione go back in time to save Sirius and Buck, they've already been saved by them when they're returning in time. That's how Harry is able to see himself and save himself, for example. So of course you can't save your parents or save members of the Order of the Phenix, they're already dead, if you could have saved them, you would have ^^ That, plus a time limit on the time you can return back to the past and it would do the trick. But alas, Rowling chose to just ignore this in the Cursed Child and so now it's a big problem XD

re the trace: Its stated that magical parents are responsible for enforcing the rule of no under age magic outside of school. I can see the malfoys not caring and just letting their kid do whatever, whereas the Weasleys would likely be stricter about it. I also think the trace can be applied in a similar way to how people are selected to attend hogwarts. There's a book and quill that makes a note of each child born with enough magical ability to attend, the ministry could have a similar method. I think it's likely the trace was implemented to monitor the muggle born children or maybe something a bit more sinister

Something to say about the patronus being a hard spell to pull off would simply be... if it's any happy memory will do which it won't it needs to be a strong one. It requires both focus and ignorance in a way which when in intense situations can be bloody hard to do. See the Big one Harry does to save Sirius... The memory that powered that patronus was from the beach he was looking at in a way. He say waiting for his Father to turn up n realised the only person standing there was him... He saved himself and Sirius the God Father he always wanted. That's a place where he could reach infinite levels of joy and hope and love n essentially no negative could phase him no doubt in his mind. It may have been partially cause he seen himself do it that he didn't doubt himself but that's how the potronus works unwavering merciful intent.

About the phylosopher stone, you miss the fact that horcruxes only grant immortality to the soul ie. the separation of the soul into parts does not allow us to go "beyond" when our material body dies. So regardless of his Horcruxes, Voldemort's material body is still vulnerable and aging. He's around 70 years old in the seventh book, and while the typical lifespan for wizards is around 120, his body isn't young by any standards. That is, even if he wins the war, after 50 or 60 years, his current body will grow old and die, necessitating a new vessel for his soul, ie. he has to create a new body, again... The perfect combination would be a horcrux (immortality for the soul) and a philosopher's stone (immortality of the body). Voldy is so obsessed with splitting his soul into 7 parts that he never even addresed this problem (at least it's not mentioned in the text). In fact, it was the instability of his body that caused him to fall during the assassination attempt on Harry. And after that, when he reunied with Peter Pettigrew in Albania, he made another horcruxs from Nagini. Long story short: If you not possese phylosopher stone or have nobody to rely for resurection ritual, in case of death of material body, your soul will wandered as a ghost of wrath, despite you have a 7, 10 or 50 horcuxes.

Simply put, the author created a universe that was too vast for them to manage, and unfortunately, they tried plugging the holes retroactively but couldn't do it with 100% success due to their skill level.

There are two things which are weird to me. Both start in the "Prisoner of Azkaban". 1. Dementors are only named when Harry saw one. Before that, they were only called "Sentinels of Azkaban" (I only read the book in German, so it could be the wrong wording.) 2. Nobody, not even Dumbledore, was able to create a corporeal Patronus, before Harry did. They only created a silver mist. After that, it seemed rather simple. It even was used to send messages in later books.

I think this is very easily explained by the fact that people can create new charms for specific needs they have. Pretty much like phone apps, the first ones are very generic and then people create more niche ones

9:13 first of all, in Voldemort mind you couldn't ever be "immortal enough", otherwise he would have stopped at one Horcrux, or wouldn't have hunted down Harry with just a fragment of a vague profecy; second, it was stated multiple times in the first book that Voldemort was seeking the Philosopher stone to regain his body and powers. Lastly, even if it wasn't already explicitly said, he regained his body using blood, bones and serpent's venom: I can see the Elixir of Long Life as a powerful ingredient to improve the end result: as using Harry's blood circumvented Lily's protection, the Elixir could have given him an unaging body.

what do i think? i think you've completely misunderstood the nature of magic in the HP world, and think it's much more mechanical than it really is.

That's a very good point, I honestly never thought of that because the map is introduced when you still don't know just how powerful Harry's Invisibility Cloak actually is, but it is crazy that any kind of detection charm can pinpoint a wearer of the cloak to the degree that the map can.

I’m sure it makes ‘more sense’ than anything in current Disney land…

re: the inconsistency of incantations: "shouldn't slugulus eructo just be eructo, a general vomiting spell, that you could then tack any number of other modifiers onto?" yes, that's exactly what it is. there is no specific slug vomiting spell. the incantation just helps people concentrate; a more specific incantation can help people concentrate better. it's why hermione says oculus reparo instead of just reparo; she's helping herself concentrate because she's a beginner. do i think all wizards know this? no. do i think this is a generally understood aspect of magical theory that people like dumbledore, mcgonagall, snape, voldemort would understand? yes of course.

You missed the fact that felix felicis is way too overpowered. It says that if one drinks it, one will succeed in all one's endevours, so why doesn't Harry just drink some then go kill Voldemort?

I don't mind some of these. The criticisms about logic of certain spells and inconsistencies of incantations for example. Magic, by its very nature doesn't have to make sense, that's why its magic, not science!

11. How come when Harry Potter used the Cruciatus Curse twice when was still under age on Bellatrix and Snape there no court hearing. However when he use the Patronus Charm to defend himself he almost gets expelled. 12. In the muggle world there are many easy way to kill someone without being trace but in wizarding world killing someone take way to much time and can be trace. Are there any easy way to kill someone with magic without being traced? 13. The Lily's Lover Charm makes no sense.

About the trace. It definately is attatched to the person, not the household. So its weird that they couldnt identify that it was in fact Dobby who had performed the hover charm, not Harry, and also that it was a different kind of magic that operates differently than human magic (as proven in Malfoys dungeon when Dobby states that he can come and go as he pleases into that dungeon because he's an elf whereas none of the humans there can because of a spell, like the one put on Hogwarts, that prohibits apparition.). The evidence that it is attached to the person is in HBP when Dumbledore performs magic in Privet Drive with no letters from the ministry telling Harry he's expelled, as in COS. And the same thing in DH when the Order comes to pick Harry up. So that is strange. As for how muggleborns are tagged with the Trace, it might be as easy as responding to a magical disturbance large enough (manifested by the child having a temper tantrum as often is the case), and the ministry officials who go there to erase memories anyway, simply tag the child while also informing and educating the parents about their child being a witch/wizard and the true state of the existance of magic, the Statute of Secracy and what is now expected of these muggle parents in the future. Which I assume has to happen in order for the wizarding world to remain hidden. Otherwise people would obviously figure out that magic exists with all these muggleborn witches and wizards running around performing spontaneous magic. About the lack of logic behind tagging criminals with a new trace and the ministry not using Veritaserum for trials. It was stated by Hermione in PS, when figuring out Snapes potion obstacle, that logic is something that is hard to grasp by the common witch and wizard in the same way that muggles do it. Magic often times make no logical sense and obeys few laws of physical nature and so the need to understand things logically is never really a very well developed sense. To muggles it is something we have to learn in order to understand the physical world, but magic screws wuth those rules and thus makes the grasping of it much more difficult. That could be one of the reasons why things that appear perfectly logical to us muggles may have completely escaped a witch or wizard even when dangled right in front of them. As for the Homonculus spell. I cant remember any other object in the series that have this spell on it; its possible that the Marauders themselves created it. Another thing about it that proves that it is an insaneky powerful spell is the fact that it can still track people when they are using Harrys invisibility cloak. That is one of the Deathy Hallows and was described to be so powerful that nothing at all could detect it while it was in use. But the Map could. And so could Dumbledore, as he was able to look right at Harry, who was using it, in Hagrids cabin in COS as Hagrid was being arrested and sent to Azkaban. But this might be due to Dumbledore having the Elder wand. As for Reparo. It actually is a basic spell that you can add words onto. Oculus just means glasses and is the word that specifies what you intend to repair. If you just aim it at someones head and use the standard Reparo, what would happen to the head? Thats why no specific word is needed when repairing something that is wholly broken, but not attached to, or on more likely, a living being. Like a broken object, all on its own, would be repaired with the standard Reparo, but if you wanted to repair clothes, glasses or anything else being currently worn by a human you would need to specify what you are repairing. Otherwise the garments might get fused into the body of the human wearing it.

14:20. This just came to mind. When Harry cast full patronus at Draco and Co., the whole school saw it. Then why, at the first DA meeting in the Hog’s Head, were the others so surprised at learning Harry could produce one?

I agree the *Trace* was always rather iffy for my tastes. The only way I could make sense of it, was that the Trace is a magic that is constantly active and reacts to magic used by or around underage witches/wizards, with the exceptions of adult witches/wizards. In TCoS, Harry was sent a letter from the Ministry that they'd detected a Hover Charm used in his house and so they assumed it was him when in fact it had been Dobby, a House Elf. That leads me to suspect that since the "Hover Charm" was not used by an adult wizard in that area, the Ministry assumed it was done by Harry. the fact the Trace no longer works to sense magic used by a witch/wizard once they turn 17, it leads me to suspect it is constantly active but will no longer sense magic used by witches/wizards who have come of age. Of course there are further details to consider, such as underage magic used before one even knows whether or not they are a wizard/witch at all *Veritaserum* is certainly powerful in its effect of compelling one to tell the truth, but the problem with that is Truth can be skewed between what is true as a matter of fact or otherwise what is _believed_ to be true. Not to mention the usage of Veritaserum can be called into question as to whether it really is Veritaserum at all. Even if it's the real deal, one could argue that the person who was made to speak truthfully is deluded or fooled into thinking they are speaking truthfully. Like how Cornelius Fudge refused to believe Barty Crouch Jr was credible, believing he was a deluded lunatic who only _thought_ he was telling the truth. The *Philosopher's Stone,* in my opinion, is really not all that impressive. Sure, using it to have basically unlimited wealth would be cool, but JK Rowling later established money can't be magically created, whether actual currency or something of value like gems or precious metals, which kinda calls the Stone into question. As for it producing the Elixir of Life to make the drinker immortal, it still duzent make sense for Voldemort to want it becuz I don't see how he could have used it to create a new body for himself. Plus Dumbledore pointed out how Voldemort would become dependent on the elixir, which would have been something he would find intolerable. The fact one must continue to drink the elixir feels like a dbl edged sword: the fact one must continue to drink it to preserve their immortality is kind of a turn-off, but on the other hand it merits the idea of magic having limits so it duzent feel over-powered The introduction of *Time Travel* into any work of fiction is always gonna be a complicated mess to work with, and honestly the rules are always gonna change based on the writer's needs regardless of whether they established them, if at all. JK Rowling getting rid of the Ministry's supply of Time-Turners felt kinda pointless, all things considered. Sure, those particular Time-Turners are no longer usable since they're forever caught in an endlessly resetting time-loop, but that duzent necessarily mean new ones can't be created. The *Patronus Charm* is one of my all-time favorite spells in the Wizarding World, and I feel it works in its detail and its execution, if one duzent nitpick it all too much. In the film adaptation of TPoA, Dumbledore gave a speech on how Happiness can be found in even the darkest places if one only remembers to turn on the Light. I felt it was a beautiful and appropriate metaphor for not only the Patronus, but also for Hope and Joy in general. True, the spell requires a memory of real happiness in order to make it work, and that in and of itself is a positive thing, both literally and figuratively. Not just any happy memory will do; it must be of something profound and truly joyous, especially for the Patronus to reach its full potential. Harry was able to master the Patronus in that pivotal moment by realizing he'd already done it, meaning he could and he did, which honestly counts as joyful by the elation of realizing your potential is there and it can (and was) be achieved. *Spell Creation* is more questionable. How does it work? How is the incantation chosen? How is the effect executed? What requirements, if any, are determined? The fact that inventing spells is so vague yet warned by Luna Lovegood of how dangerous and unpredictable it can be makes me wonder how Severus Snape could have invented even one or two spells, let alone at least seven, when he was still a student! I'm not discounting the fact that even as a student Snape was a talented and capable wizard, but even so, it seems reckless and foolhardy for a student to even attempt inventing a spell when even a fully matured and talented witch such as Pandora Lovegood accidentally killed herself in the creative process *Transfiguration Ethics* should not be overlooked, in all honesty. Magic in general is a great power and demands both respect and responsibility. Transfiguration, or else any magic that would have a transformative effect such as turning a living creature into an inanimate object, could well and truly be dangerous in the wrong hands or if used by those who don't understand or respect its power. Many works of fantasy involve magic where a subject is transformed into something else, such as "The Frog Prince", but we don't really understand the full ramifications of such magicks in how they can be abused/misused and the damage they could do. The *Homonculous Charm* is a useful spell in how it detects human presence whether or not an individual is hiding or in disguise. I admit, I did not understand the spell when the Marauder's Map was introduced in the series, which is rather fair tbh since the greater intricacies of the Map were not explained at the time, only in how to make it work and deactivate it with the right commands. I recall Hermione using the charm when the Trio arrived at the Black Residence in TDHs to confirm they were alone and no one was lying in wait for them. I feel I should point out the charm did not react to Kreacher, who lived in the Black Residence, which implies the charm only worked to detect _human_ presences and therefore would not have detected a house elf. Let us not forget the Map was not foolproof, since it failed to discern people with identical names, showing Bartemius Crouch but not the Junior part, leading Harry to mistakenly think Barty Crouch _Senior_ was sneaking about Hogwarts when it was actually his son disguised as Alastor Moody The *Animagus Registry* always seemed, to me, a tad presumptuous. Sure, it is understandable to want to make sure magical powers are not abused/misused, but I think the Ministry underestimated the willingness some witches/wizards are willing to do in order to gain an edge. The Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew) became Animagi to prove their dedication to their friend Remus Lupin and provide him with comfort during his werewolf transformations, but they didn't register, likely so they wouldn't have to explain why they became Animagi to begin with, tho this unfortunately allowed Pettigrew to go into hiding after faking his death and framing Sirius for his crimes while Sirius finally found the strength of will to escape by using his animagus form. Furthermore, Rita Skeeter used her animgus form as a beetle to spy on others and use what she learned to write her articles with facts that were twisted, taken out of context, or even outright lies When Hermione looked up the registry, it said there were an exceedingly few animagi currently around, but the fact that there were four more (unregistered) animagi (six if you count Hogwarts Mystery, like the player character and Talbot Winger) could indicate there are a lot more unregistered animagi out there than one might expect. Plus, Uagadou, the African wizarding school, had many animagi, enough to put together a performance of sorts, so the potential for there being many animagi, registered or not, is rather high. *Incantations* are the words uttered to cast a spell and sometimes they're obvious or otherwise obscure until you look up the words and determine their meaning or else the words they are based off of. Many spells in HP are Latin or at least derived from Latin, so plenty sound obvious or understandable, like _Incendio_ being a fire spell pr _Glacius_ an ice/cold spell. The Unlocking charm _Alohomora_ is more obscure until you learn it is of African origin and means "Friendly to thieves" so some spells are in other languages besides Latin Even the Patronus Charm _Expecto Patronum_ is not immediately understandable despite it being Latin-based and can roughly translate as "I await a protector" Incantations are literally the magic words in spells, and so they must be involved in the Creation of Spells

What bothered me the most with the Trace was something you already mentioned. Some young magical kids were homeschooled. How did the trace work for that? Did the parents of the homeschooled kids have to get a special license from the Ministry of Magic to allow their kids to do magic at home, perhaps only at certain times of the day, that wouldn't trigger the trace? And if that's the case, there would be some magical families that would bribe someone to get them a license even if their kids went to Hogwarts. There are those that say the trace only applies to muggle born to prevent them from doing magic in the non-mag world...perhaps that's the case? And as for Mad Eye Moody saying anyone doing magic to get Harry out of the house...if they planned it so Harry disapparated from inside the house just one second after he turned 17, then the trace wouldn't be on him and he could have gone anywhere...without being found or killing Hedwig. I dunno. But it's always bothered me.

I'm not saying it's not bullshit, however, it's explained that the ministry relies on the parents of children in wizarding families to keep their kids in line.

With the truth serum, it probably could be because with death eaters and other criminals, people just say what they think is the truth and could not be true at all. With the Trace, I have a feeling that J.K never really thought of it.

22:21 How about when shamus finigan and hermione used ‘Acio’ to summon fish from a river, acio dosnt work on human only their clothes why should it be any different for fish? (If anyone has a answer please reply it)🐟

I can't understand why Ministry officials who reach a certain rank (like department head, for example) aren't required to take an unbreakable vow against corruption. That would be treason, anyway (working against the law of the land in exchange for a bribe), so the punishment would be appropriate.

My main issue with the time turners is that the rules changed for The Cursed Child. In Prisoner, they use the time turner to ensure events played out as they did the first time. They couldn't change the past. In the Cursed story, they go about changing everything.

Real question: If McGonagall can transform her desk into a pig and a pig can be cooked to make food, why can't transfiguration be used to create food?

The partronus is difficult for kids to conjure and such a big thing for kids to do because it takes a very powerful happy memory which a lot of kids don’t truely understand. Like the example harry tried using the memory of the first time he rode a broom. Which to a kid would be a happy memory. But definitely not that powerful to create a patronus

Yeah when they put a jinx on voldemort's name they could have put a curse on the unforgivable spells and be able to track where they were. I agree with the super Carlin Brothers that it has to do with something like the ritual going across the lake. Once you answer those boats and get across the lake and onto the Hogwarts grounds that's when they receive the trace.

I think in regards to creating spells, not just anyone can do it. I believe Snape here has been severely underestimated. Remember that he was Voldemort's death eater. This meant he was recognised by one of the world's most powerful wizards of his time as worthy to represent him. Snape was an exceptional wizard. His abilities at magic were astounding. His occlumency was so on point not even Voldemort could see he was being betrayed. His understanding of potions (as well as herbology related to potions, and dark magic on top of that shows he is a well versed wizard. He clearly has an innate, round, understanding of magic. So him creating spells doesn't seem that far fetched. Especially when you realise he can fly as a wizard which is a consider highly advanced magic. Only person I think who'd be a match would be Hermione. Now if Hermione had been bullied, and had no friends, spending time alone all the time not having to save the magical world... I can very much imagine she'd have created some spells too Like the patronus and the cruciatus, there has to be intent too. Maybe "saving the world" was too vague to create a spell to stop voldemort.. and wouldn't be applicable because Voldemort's soul was split. But I'm sure if Hermione put her mind and heart into it, she could create spells. But because she's an exceptional witch

"Reparo" is an existing spell, though. As for the trace, it has more than issue. How did it not react to Tonks's magic when the order escorted Harry to London in OOTP? Especially since the ministry would've loved to have another reason to expel Harry at the time?

When it comes to the Trace I think it was a very vague topic that was added onto throughout the series. For example, Dobby performs magic near Harry, but in later books/movies the Minitry only hears about magic that was cast by Harry himself, not anyone near Harry. I think the Trace (however you may get it) only monitors underage witches and wizards. This is why the ministry can hear about Harry blowing up his aunt, or casting a patronus, but they (seemingly) don’t hear anything about Tonks using Alohomora, or Dumbledore using magic at 4 Privet Dr during his visit in the Half Blood Prince

The time travelling worked in Harry Potter because it was only a matter of munutes and hours. If you were to travel back to save Harry's parents, thwn would you be able to travel forwards again, or would you have to live out all your years alongside baby Harry while teenage Harry has travelled back to aave his parents, and thus having 2 Harry's?

Inventing new spells is something I've wondered about, too. Like, what do you do: come up with an incantation, wave your wand, and hope it knows what you want it to do? If it's a spell that's never been done before, how does the wand know what to do? Are wands fluent in Latin, and produce an effect based on what the incantation means? I don't know; it's getting weirder the more I think about it!

I've often imagined that HP magic exists like a wavelength. Trolls and dragons and other creatures that are inherently magical but don't use it are at the low end. Centaurs, goblins and humans are near the middle, giving them a wide range of magical abilities. House elves are at the high end, allowing them to do things others can't, such as apparating with no restriction.

The truth serum (and the luck serum) could be cumulative poisons so may have a finite safe use

i thought it was always weird that they could track anyone that said voldemort, in the movie i think they said they jinxed it, and in the book i think they said something about them making it taboo or it was taboo, like it already was, could one jinx a word like "the" is it only in a radius like only the uk, or is it worldwide, is it like wifi where the signal gets less and less as you get farther from where it was cast, or does the tendency of the words usage make it more difficult for one to cast a jinx on a WORD. all where confusing

So, could you, theoretically, create a spell that would essentially behave the same way as, say, the cruciatus curse, but wouldn't be called "cruciatus curse" and therefore would, technically, not be an unforgivable curse? And even if the status of an unforgivable curse was connected to the overall effect, you could just change the duration or magnitude, and it would objectively be a separate spell... 😅

Regarding number 4, traveling back in time, for me it's pretty clear. You cannot travel back in time to change the future, the timeline of events is already defined and what you do by traveling in time is fulfill that timeline. When Harry cast the Patrons to save himself, he didn't alter the course of history, or changed anything, he just followed what had already happened. Same with Buck, the headsman doesn't kill it, and then they save him in an alternate universe; he never gets to kill it so he smashes the pumpkins.

10:00 - Another thing to keep in mind, it was confirmed later that Time Turners have a hard limit of how far back you can go in a given 24 hour period- I know that in a certain popular fanfic and in pottermore/wizarding world, one had it at 5 hours and one had it at 6, but I can't remember which is technically correct for canon.

In regards to the time turners, it’s made clear that you can’t change how things happen even with a time turner. Harry and Hermione had already done everything they did after using the time turner in POA such as producing the protronus and saving Buckbeak

based on the events of the books, you can't change the past with the time turner, it just creates a stable time loop. that was the answer until The Cursed Child play came along and ruined that

The Elixir of Life was more than just a life extender. "The Elixir was also able to restore a disembodied but earthbound soul to full life, creating a body." And it's also stated that Voldemort used unicorn blood to sustain himself. Indicating that had he not done so, he wouldn't be able to have any form in the physical world at all. Getting his hands on the elixir would basically have served the same purpose as the dark ritual did in Goblet of Fire. Except he also wouldn't have had Harry's blood in him, making him even more powerful! The Philosophers Stone was destroyed for that very reason, that it was a way for Voldemort to come back very much alive.

Cool video! ❤ I wish all of the HP fans could have had a live to all discuss these!! 4:13 This question was answered. I don’t remember which book or movie it was in but there was a mention that said children in magic homes are not likely to get in trouble because of the close proximity of other adult wizards/witches. 6:35 I agree that veritaserum would/should have been used for criminal or possible criminal activity. 16:06 Dumbledore made a comment in Deathly Hallows (I don’t remember if it was 1 or 2) “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” I feel that it’s a matter of getting the right words, the right intentions, and the right wand movements to create a new spell; IMO. 17:18 I never thought of this. Deeper than it looked on the surface!

On my drive home from work I always listen to your videos. I learn so much. And your voice is like a de- stressor. Thanks!

11:30 Plus there is the bootstrap paradox, in which anything you would of done travelling into the past would of already happened in the present; so if Harry travelled to the past to save his parents he would of failed somehow because they were already dead in the present. O-O

I might have an explaination or a Theory: The trace is not a spell or incantation. Its more a bio-magical function of a magical persons body. We know souls exists, these souls indicate that there is a spiritual layer to life. In my opinion any magic user or magical being has a magical core and a magical reservoir, which begins to grow and fill with magic as the child ages, slow at the beginning, at a young age, but the flood gates open shortly before the kid would start puberty. And this growing magical core, radiating out so to speak IS the trace. Changes in that core are detectable at that age cause it isnt fully saturated yet, like it would be on an adult. Any spell cast is a spike in magic or a drain to the magic reservoirs. If a Teenager casts a spell that change is noticeable and detectable. The reservoirs are fully filled at about age 17, which is why they are considered an adult by the magical world. From now on their cores are so saturated with magic that the spikes become unnoticeable, basically fading. The ministry jsut observes these spikes, maybe via a large area enchantment, think of it liek a bubble shield around the whole country. Any spike within this field is detected and reported. These letters are not completely written by people, they are basically intertwined with the field. Thats why it has all the details of where, when and what. The ministry wizards just send it out after iut comes from the magical "printer" I would say it is plausible that the wizards arent fully aware of what teh trave truely is as most are morons. And i think it is plausible as it basically functions like surveillance. So lewts say you are a teenmager performing magic above the fiel, like on an airliner, it wouldnt register at all. (though i would hope that the field goes high enpough up.

One thing that always puzzled me was the "Dark Arts",they seemed to be condensed into the unforgivable curses because if you can cause a)blind obedience,b)pain and c)Instant death what more do you need?

For Veritaserum, I’ve seen a fanfic use the idea that veritaserum can’t be used as evidence in court, which I really like the idea of.

I always imagined that inventing a spell required a contract with whatever power in the universe allows magic. It's difficult. After the contract is formed then an easy, quick set of words are created to use it. Hence, few are able to do this

The Time Turner is one of the few things that make sense. JKR didn't understand that and destroyed them all. The Time Turners are described in the respect of the Novikov self-consistency principle, that say that you cannot change the past because the future cause the past and the past cause the future. Harry knowing he could make a Patronus because he had already done so (as he tells Hermione) is a perfect example of that principle.

Even if Sirius were to have been questioned under Veritaserum he'd have said "I killed James and Lily, and all those muggles" because Sirius seriously sucks at communication.

Reparo works exactly like Acio, you can just make it more specific Oculus reparo 'repair glasses' refining the level of magic. Acio can basically be used to bring things to you within sight. But you can enhance the spell with some additional mental components. Accio firebolt your firebolt comes flying from where you had it because you were looking specifically for that particular object it doesn't have to be within sight.

It is entirely possible that "the trace" is a spell that has a really long and wide area of effect. If anyone under the age of 17 with any magical abilities comes within its sphere of influence, the trace is installed. It's a powerful bit of magic that needs several casters to perform, the same way the shields around Hogwarts are raised. It takes many witches and wizards to put those shields up and the shields have quite the substantial sphere of influence. The trace is however a low effect spell that only binds itself to young ones with magical abilities. In fact, the reason for 17 years of age might actually be a side effect of the spell being effective only on anyone under the age of 17. It's the spell that sets the age, not the caster. And the spell might not even be a humanly developed spell, but something that just exists in magical nature.

As far as the Homunculus charm is concerned I don’t think teachers would want to risk making their own maps due to the chances of losing them, stolen by mischievous students or potential criminals. The ministry of magic operates mostly on appearances, serving as a deterrent from people committing crimes, rather than actually catching people who commit them.

- Here's what I think about the trace: its entire purpose is likely to stop underage wizards from performing magic when there's no magical adult supervisor around. If there are wizard parents, siblings or other adults next to underage ones they can be responsible for their actions and, if it comes to it, their punishment. But when there are none then the Ministry feels the need to intervene. It's sort of like the wizarding world version of the ESRB rating. You're not supposed to let kids buy R-rated games, but if a parent does it for them then it's their choice and responsibility. I don't see how this would help them catch criminals, though. Just because they can detect someone because of their age it doesn't mean they can just do it for any reason of their choice (like the use of unforgivable curses). - Veritaserum is a truth potion, sure, but it really looks to me like it can only be useful under determinate circumstances. I've argued about this before, but seeing how memory modifying and mind control are a thing in this world I see any wizard that was prepared could easily deal with it. - I think you're missing a crucial part of this whole deal here. It wasn't until the end of the first book that Voldemort learned that the magic that protected Harry from him was still in place. The Elixir of Life could have easily given him his body back, but it was only after Quirrell's defeat that he realized that he'd have to find a different way to do it if he wanted to be able to defeat Harry. - I'm sick of this nonsensical complaint. The books establish very clearly that _you're not supposed to change the past._ The entire reason they give Hermione a time turner is that they know she's not going to use it for that. The only time this is a problem is in The Cursed Child, and that thing breaks canon so much that we can't possibly count it. - I really don't see how this is an issue at all. The only people shown having trouble conjuring a Patronus are students and they're still learning how to do proper spells of every kind. They're also not learning this particular spell under the better of circumstances, so the results are going to be iffy before they get good. - _"The idea that spells could be invented was a new concept introduced in The Half-Blood Prince"._ I am positive this isn't true. But again you're asking nonsensical questions. Just because spells can be created it doesn't mean you can create a spell that can do anything you want. - Transfiguration is an issue, but I wouldn't say it "doesn't make sense", it's just not properly explained what the ethics of its use are. But seeing how little care wizard society generally has against what they consider "lesser" creatures (even when those are entirely sapient) I think it's feasible that they simply don't care much for what happens to transfigured animals. - It's never stated as such, but it's possible that the reason the Homunculous charm isn't more used is that it's not more known. For all we know, the Marauders invented it. That aside, there's the matter of privacy concerns, which means there might be laws against it. - I think this has been discussed before, but the reason for why Animagus should be registered it's not just the damage they can cause to others, but that the procedure to become one is hard and might be dangerous for the user, which is why it'd need supervision. - The specificity of these spells goes back to the earlier discussion: these are very likely created by students as either pranks or for particular needs.

Children are born with the trace. Possibly all children but it doesn't become active until the child's first magical act.

Besides the Gaunt girl. What if the sorting hat applies the trace, thats when they develop magic, then when they are fully trained, they graduate school, and lose the trace? Because Harry put Duddly in the snake tank at the zoo, didn't get a howler. Used lumos maximus, and blew up his aunt fudge let him off the hook. Got a howler when he used the patronus charm. So maybe the trace is bullshit, idk, i just confused myself a great deal. Love the videos. Ive watched them all, twice.

My main issue with the time turner is that the rules change between Prisoner of Azkaban and Cursed Child. Harry and Hermione could only repeat the past, whereas Albus and Scorpius made significant changes.

Re: Time travel in the Wizarding World. Because we operate under "the closed loop" version of time travel, you can't go back to fix something you don't know is broken. For example, Dumbledore wouldn"t be able to go back in time to kill little Tom Riddle in the orphanage because his future self would have already made the decision to do that, thus eliminating the threat. By the point that Dumbledore would reach the point his future self decided to go back, he wouldn't know to do that, because Voldemort wouldn't exist.

I do agree the Patronus is confusing but if your happy memory is of someone who has passed away (like parent, sibling, grandparent etc) not only would caster be happy but it would make them sad too, which would make the spell hard to cast if there is more then one emotion in mind

The problem with the Philosopher's Stone isn't that Voldemort wanted it. It's that nobody else did. Even if we assume all wizards go suicidal after a century or so and want to die, why spend the intervening time aging? I know contracts matter a lot to goblins, but would they really care so much about securing it that they'd let everyone die including themselves? If Voldemort didn't want to die, why not just come back as a ghost? What does he need horcruxes? The Death Eaters set something up so if you say "Voldemort", the Death Eaters would know and could go after you. This is apparently a concept already known rather than something he invented. So why didn't something like that exist before? If you're in trouble, say the wizard equivalent of 9-1-1, and suddenly aurors apparate in to help you. In later books, it was established that a wand will only work at full capacity for its "owner". Yet there was no mention of this earlier when people practiced Expelliarmus, which would mean now they're the owner of the wand and it won't work right for the person who had it before. What stops someone from casting Imperious on someone, and having them cast it on more people, etc.? Why don't they just admit the Trace is only for muggleborns? Just change the law to be that children aren't allowed to practice magic without supervision from someone who can do magic, and you have the same end result with a perfectly reasonable-sounding law that people aren't constantly violating. And all those wizards don't have to worry about any spells cast near children being tracked. Why not use the Unbreakable Vow on criminals? For most things it's overkill, but it seems pretty reasonable to cast a spell that kills them if they try to kill someone. Why aren't ghosts used as spies? They can presumably stay inside solid objects and be next to impossible to catch, and if you do catch them, what are you going to do? You can't kill a ghost. Boggarts eat fear, so they make people scared in order to get that fear. Why not teach dementors the same strategy? Imagine a theme park run by a dementor who can directly tell what makes people happy and can make it the happiest place in the world, even after they take a little off the top. Before the Statute of Secrecy, why weren't wizards in control of the world? And if they were, why allow the Salem witch trials? This isn't really a magic thing, but what was the deal with the second task in the Tri-Wizard Tournament? They just had everyone watch an empty lake for an hour?

Well, the fact that they don't even have to draw power from a resource like for instance mana to be able to cast spells in the first place is a huge flaw in the magic system. A wizard is pretty much allowed to cast as many spells as they want without any limitations, since they don't have to draw their power from any type of energy source. Also power levels are extremely skewed, why is the strength of the wand tied to the wizard wielding it?

My only thought about Veritaserum being highly restricted is that it’s in short supply. Maybe the ingredients are hard to find, the ingredient sources are extinct, or the recipe has been lost. Hence, even 3 drops would be too much to spare on usual crimes…like freakin’ murder.

You missed a major issue with the trace. it is obviously not put on the child at birth because there were no alerts or notices or any consequences when Harry accidentally caused the glass of the snake's enclosure to disappear at the zoo. If he had the trace on him since birth, the ministry would have definitely responded to this as it was in the presence of a whole lot of muggles. Harry was put on trial for using magic in the presence of one muggle, who already knew he was a wizard, when he cast the Patronus charm to protect himself and Dudley from the Dementors. If that had such serious consequences when Dudley was already aware that Harry was a wizard, there should have been much more serious consequences for preforming magic, even accidentally, in the presence of numerous muggles who had no clue he was a wizard.

The spells are likely so specific because they likely those started out with a more general version (such as "reparo") and were refined into a specific utility spell ("Oculus Reparo"). There's probably thousands of specific spells people use everyday that have been refined down. Hence why it takes so many years just to learn enough to get by in society but there are still specialists. You have to keep in mind that these stories are told not only from a child's perspective, but one that's never even had an inkling that magic exists for the first 10 years of life.

No 1. The trace: I think it was Snape who once said most wizards don't have an ounce of logic. That would explain not tracking criminals and a lot else.

1. The Trace. I think that The Trace is placed on children in different ways. Some have it automatically placed on them when they go to school for the first time, others who never attend school might have someone personally place it on them without speaking the spell out loud. I think it definitely should have been made more accurately, letting them know if it was indeed cast by the child or someone nearby. I also agree that it should have a modified version for use on criminals. 2. Veritaserum. The fact that it isn't used as much as it should be doesn't mean that the magic of it makes no sense, so I don't think it belongs on this list. Still, a possible explanation for why it isn't used too often would be that perhaps it is difficult to make and the ingredients are hard to find, so it isn't as available as they'd like it to be. Another explanation is government corruption. 3. Elixir of Life. The uses of the Philosopher's Stone are only the stated uses. There is always hidden, secret magic as we learn through the series. It is very likely that the stone was capable of restoring Voldimort's body. After all, Voldimort was immortal, but his body was still destroyed, wasn't it? The stone probably makes the body immortal, so he could probably use it to restore a destroyed body, too. The dark ritual he uses to restore himself doesn't have to be the only means of doing so. The Philosopher's Stone was probably a cheat method so he could skip the ritual he eventually was forced to default to. 4. Time-Turner Paradox. The thing about time travel is that it is problematic. You couldn't just go back in time and stop Voldimort before he became a problem or anything like that because, then why did you go back in time in the first place? You create a paradox. That is exactly why, I thought, that it was emphasized that meddling with time was looked down on. What Hermione did was not something that would cause a paradox, so it was deemed okay as long as she wasn't caught. She wasn't undoing anything, she was only adding to it. Also, the story had another solution for the problems with the time turners by suggesting that everything you would have done was already done by the future you. So in that sense, Harry couldn't go back and save his parents or stop Voldimort before he became a problem, no matter how badly he wanted to, because the events would still play out exactly as they had because his future self had already made the attempt. 5. Patronus Problems. I honestly don't see where the problems lie. Sure, people struggle to produce the patronus. It's a high-level spell. Anyone can wave a wand and think of a happy memory while saying the words, but that doesn't mean you produce the charm. You have to actually be in the right mindset for it, and that would take practice to put yourself into, especially when you're around creatures that make it difficult to enter that mindset. As for the issue of the spell being hard to produce against the very creature it's made to thwart, there probably are other spells that could be used in those situations, but the patronus would still be the most powerful one to use if you can pull it off. It's a Captain Planet issue, really, but I don't see it as an issue that makes no sense, just an issue that shows there are checks and balances to things. 6. Inventing Spells. Spells being invented may have been directly stated in the Half-Blood Prince, but I think the mere fact that spells exist in the story is evidence that they can be invented. That's usually how magic comes to be in any magic story. Someone plays with it until they produce an effect that they like, and then they name it a new spell. As for why new spells aren't invented all of the time, or specific spells, the reasons are obvious. It's stated to be potentially dangerous since you don't know what effect the new magic could have without a lot of magical knowledge, and maybe you just can't figure out what you need to do to make the desired effect? Either way, I don't see this as something that makes no sense. 7. Transfiguration Ethics. There is a reason they don't allow transfiguration to be used as a punishment, after all. Also, I don't think the rabbit is decapitated just because it's body is a footstool. As far as I can tell, transfiguration doesn't cause any pain as the new shape for the creature is basically treated as its new natural form, it just may be inconvenient and difficult to set right. I believe they have their ethics well in order by not using it as a punishment, however it does get a little gray around animals, it seems. 8. Homonculous Charm. Yes, this one doesn't make much sense why it isn't used more often, but I thought this was a list of magic that makes no sense? Oh well, you're definitely correct. The charm should be used more often, especially by those who are in charge of the students. Maybe this is another ethics problem, though? It could be seen as an invasion of privacy. Still, that doesn't explain why the bad guys don't use them more often, and it would certainly help people know whether or not a criminal is using polyjuice potion to pretend to be a teacher. 9. Animagus Registry. I think the registry has more to do with their ability to hide from the law than with the ability being rare. As such, I think the better question is why Harry doesn't have to register himself as the owner of an invisibility cloak. Also, while we're on that subject, how about something that makes even less sense than this? The misuse of muggle artifacts. They say that you can't use wizard magic to enhance muggle objects, such as making a flying car, but how do you avoid this? Aren't all objects muggle artifacts until treated with magic? A flying car is bad to have, but a flying broom or a cloak that makes you invisible is perfectly fine? Who decides these things? 10. Incantation Issues. The super-specific spells actually do have more general versions. They are simply more powerful in their field when used in more specific terms. Oculus Reparo does have the more general Reparo which can be used to fix anything, not just glasses, so I imagine the others have the more general use, too. It's just that these spells are made more specific in order to further focus the spell on the task at hand. It's possible that they exist this way because they were made for the specific task first, then made more general after, thus why the specific task is mentioned first.

3:03 "Who put the spell on underage children" You know a potential answer popped in my head the second you said that. We know there is no trace before going to school, and children who don't go to school still get taught by their parents would suggest they use magic, so I don't think they have a trace. So that would suggest the trace is put on by something first years do, we have the train but everyone uses that, the boats that first years take rain or shine, but I think the most likely source is the sorting hat! Oh and technically they do use magic outside of school without setting it off. Hermione uses magic in Hogsmeade just feet away from Fudge and teachers

I don't see the issue with Patronus being hard to cast. It's clear in both book and movie that when Harry thinks of normal happy moments, it's not enough to summon a Patronus. To succeed, he has to remember the life-altering experience that was meeting his parents for the first time. I summoning a Patronus requires the memory of an exceptional event (such as meeting your true love, or the birth of your child), it's not a surprise that many people struggle.

It's a bit odd that Snape, fine wizard though he is, created seven spells himself when I don't recall Dumbledore making any or Voldemort other than Morsmordre. Snape really would have probably gone on to be on a par with Merlin in terms of power!