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9 tantalising unanswered Harry Potter questions

Photo credit: Warner Bros
Photo credit: Warner Bros

From Digital Spy

With the Harry Potter books, JK Rowling created an entire elaborate, fully-formed world – sorting-hats off to her!

Unsurprisingly, though, there are a few loose ends – questions that have been bugging us even after reading the books and watching the films. Questions like: what happened to Hagrid and baby Harry during the missing 24 hours after his parents' death and before his arrival at Privet Drive?

And why is the snitch worth 150 points in Quidditch when it largely renders the rest of the game irrelevant? (Don't ask JK this one).

Here are 9 more head-scratchers that we'd love to know the answer to.

1. How do the owls know where to deliver the mail?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

It's not by address from the sender, since Hagrid receives post from the Daily Prophet at the shack on the rocks (they wouldn't have known he was there). Is it some sort magic psychic GPS? If so couldn't you use owls to track people down (for example, Sirius Black after his escape from Azkaban)?

2. How big is the wizarding world and how many kids does Hogwarts take each year?

As far as the movies and the original books are concerned, Hogwarts is the only school for witchcraft and wizardry in the UK. In Harry's year, at least, there really don't seem to be that many students. Does this mean the wizarding world is very, very small, or is Harry's year an anomaly? This slightly depressing fan theory suggests it's the latter...

3. How exactly was Hagrid conceived?

We're not looking for detail here, but, um, Hagrid's dad was a human wizard, while his mum was a giantess. How does that work then?

4. Why don't wizards use the internet?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

We get that muggle tech doesn't work properly within Hogwarts, and we are aware that witches and wizards are in fact allowed to use the internet during Muggle Studies, but although Rowling has explained on Pottermore that magical people just aren't into it, it still could have been pretty handy – specially as an information source for someone like Hermione.

Or even just for a bit of Gchat to save the owls the wing-work. Also, um, porn?

5. What did Aberforth do to that goat?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Dumbledore's brother was prosecuted for "practising inappropriate charms on a goat" – but exactly how inappropriate are we talking? Rowling herself has responded to this question, but in a roundabout way (after all, she was talking to an 8-year-old). It's something about trying to make a goat that's easy to keep clean with curly goat horns. Yeah, right.

6. What does the Sorting Hat do when it's not sorting?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

The sorting hat belonged to the four founders of Hogwarts and was enchanted by each (according to Rowling on Pottermore). It's one of the cleverest enchanted objects around, it can speak, it has opinions, it can even read minds. So what's it up to for the other 364 days in the year when it's not sorting day?

We know it brings Harry a sword in Chamber of Secrets but still, surely an object that cool must get pretty bored stuck on a shelf somewhere.

7. Is the Triwizard Tournament the most boring spectator sport of all time?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Crowds of witches and wizards gather to watch the intrepid contestants from around the world compete in a series of perilous tasks! Only they don't. They gather to not see events which take place in a maze and underwater. Yawn.

Maybe it's like the Olympics, where everyone wants tickets for the dragon-baiting but has to make do with the underwater treasure hunt.

8. What did Lily and James Potter do for a living?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

How does the whole money-and-employment system work in a magical world? We can see the appeal of working in Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic, but wouldn't you be a bit bummed out if you discovered you were a wizard but still had to take a job driving a (k)night bus?

9. What happens to the 'portrait-people' when they travel between paintings?

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

They can move between pictures and go into pictures that aren't their own, and they'll find themselves in the surrounding of their new backdrop. But where are they when they're in that bit of wall space between the two?


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