The Harry Potter books have been out since the 1990s—and the movies weren’t far behind with their start in the early 2000s—and fan dedication to these stories has been immense. After all, even decades later, there is considerable fanfare about the upcoming HBO Harry Potter TV series. With that level of fan loyalty and the years of books and movies offering a deep looking into these characters, one might think there are no serious questions left.
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It would particularly seem as though the story’s three main heroes, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, wouldn’t have any loose ends left unexplained or unaddressed. However, that hasn’t been the case. Both in terms of the books and the movies, there are several things that still make very little sense about Hermione, Harry, and Ron. Here are 5 of the most significant confusing plot points regarding the golden trio, some in both the books and the movies, and some being a byproduct of solely the movie adaptations.
Harry’s Scar Moves Around In The Movies
One of the most glaring issues in the Harry Potter movies is the fact that Harry’s scar moves all around his forehead over the course of the eight films. Although perfect precision may be a bit of a large ask, the movies are far from getting even close to nearly perfect. Arguably, they also should have had some system in place to make sure Harry’s scar was consistent.
Particularly because this is such a defining trait, it seems like a matter that should have been prioritized by the makeup team, yet even Daniel Radcliffe has made comments over the years about how much it moves around. Obviously, given that the scar placement is a visual consideration, this issue is not present in the books. Hopefully, the upcoming HBO show also avoids this at times cringeworthy problem.
Hermione Has To Explain Dentistry
The wizards’ lack of understanding of the Muggle world is consistently a hilarious part of Harry Potter. Mr. Weasley’s fascination with Muggles is an especially funny facet of that, particularly because he desperately wants to understand concepts as basic (in the real world) as a rubber duck. Yet, the movies made one bizarre mistake that undercut this aspect of the story. Specifically, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Hermione says that her parents are dentists and then must explain that they take care of people’s teeth.
The trouble is, the very first time Harry visits the home of the Weasleys, the Burrow, there is a clock-like mechanism on the wall, showing the location of each of the family members. One of the locations shown on it is “the dentist,” meaning that this is not a Muggles-only concept. The best defense for this plot hole could be that the Weasleys were more accustomed to Muggle customs than others, but that still doesn’t explain why they would ever be at the dentist if wizards generally didn’t know about or need dentistry.
Harry Needs Glasses
Slightly similar to the idea that wizards wouldn’t need dentists is the idea—in theory—that they would have no need for glasses because, surely, they could just use a spell to improve their eyesight. Harry Potter has depicted innumerable more mind-bending, powerful feats of magic than that. Yet, one of Harry’s most defining traits is the fact that he wears glasses (which themselves frequently need repairing with magic).
Weirder still, Harry is far from the only Harry Potter character to don glasses, so it can’t simply be chalked up to his being used to them from his childhood. Professor Dumbledore, Moaning Myrtle, and many others also use glasses (and, for poor Moaning Myrtle, it’s all the worse, as she is permanently stuck with them as a ghost because that is what she had on when she died).
Hermione And Ron Just Aren’t A Good Couple
It’s been said many times before by fans of the movies and the books, but the romance between Hermione and Ron really doesn’t make sense. In fact, that is especially true in the movies, in which it’s clear they have feelings for one another in the later movies, but that doesn’t seem to have any serious foundation. If anything, they both seem like very different people who wouldn’t work in the long run.
Nevertheless, the Harry Potter epilogue confirms that this was no mere crush or fling. Hermione and Ron get married and have multiple kids together, which means that they actually go the distance (or at least they have nearly 20 years after the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).
Harry Names His Son After Snape
Finally, one of the most bizarre moments in the Harry Potter franchise also comes in the epilogue, when it is revealed that Harry named one of his sons “Albus Severus.” Frankly, both choices are a slight surprise, given that it’s ultimately revealed that Dumbledore raised him “as a pig for slaughter,” but he was very close to Dumbledore for years before that revelation, and he clearly forgave him.
With Snape, however, it’s confusing that Harry would name his son after him, especially instead of someone like Lupin. Sure, Snape revealed that he had loved Harry’s mom and had protected him for years, but he still treated him horribly and hardly deserved such a major honor.
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