# harry potter stuff that bothers you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466 "2014-02-04T00:06:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/281 "2014-02-10T02:30:48Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > At least the first file is corrupted and cannot be opened. That’s weird. The files themselves seem to work fine in my eReader program. However, I did notice that the download filename is screwed up. Maybe it’s just where I uploaded them. Let me try another hosting location: [ol] [li][Harry Potter and the Natural 20](http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=71732537592390944177)[/li][li][Harry Potter and the Confirmed Critical](http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=56109729239792056618)[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/282 "2014-02-10T03:47:30Z")
Any supposed plot holes that expect teenagers to act rationally are null and void. Real life, let alone a long fictional tale, can’t stand up to this much scrutiny. It reminds me of the observation that WW II is a poorly thought out story and doesn’t hold up to reason. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/283 "2014-02-10T03:58:34Z")
The thing that bothers me is that it seems pretty common for witches and wizards to marry muggles. How would that work exactly. I mean, for the relationship to develop at all, the magical person would have to lie constantly to the muggle. If they didn’t, the would risk exposing the magical world to someone with whom they are having a possibly short term relationship. But normal conversations such as “What kind of job do you have” or “Where do you live” or “Where did you go to school?” are a minefield if you are trying to keep the magical world a secret. So at some point you either marry someone you have been lying to like crazy, or you reveal the truth and hope they won’t be too mad at you for lying for a while, and also hope they won’t then reveal the secret to the world. And once you are married, how would you deal with your muggle inlaws? Lies upon lies would be the only way to make it work. Very unhealthy in a relationship. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/284 "2014-02-10T03:58:55Z")
Rowling’s characters marry people they knew in high school because it’s a YA book. Young people want things wrapped up with a little bow and they want the fantasy that the boy they have a crush on at 14 is “the one.” Most YA books perpetuate that fantasy. It’s more than a little annoying and I make a point of talking to my kids about what parts of YA books are fantasy beyond the obvious magic stuff. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/285 "2014-02-10T04:03:20Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I went ahead and made a MOBI version. It’s an automatic conversion, so it’s not the best, but it turned out a lot better than I thought. I separated the two books into separate files (keeping the Omake in book 1 where it fell). > > [ol] > [li][Sir Poley - Harry Potter and the Natural 20.mobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/372257)[/li][li][Sir Poley - Harry Potter and the Confirmed Critical (as of 2014-2-08).mobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/372260)[/li][/ol] Wow thanks. I completely missed this post(last post on the page 😕 ) and went ahead and read it on the pc, but thanks for the effort, maybe other people will be able to use it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/286 "2014-02-10T04:07:36Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > The thing that bothers me is that it seems pretty common for witches and wizards to marry muggles. How would that work exactly. I mean, for the relationship to develop at all, the magical person would have to lie constantly to the muggle. If they didn’t, the would risk exposing the magical world to someone with whom they are having a possibly short term relationship. But normal conversations such as “What kind of job do you have” or “Where do you live” or “Where did you go to school?” are a minefield if you are trying to keep the magical world a secret. > > So at some point you either marry someone you have been lying to like crazy, or you reveal the truth and hope they won’t be too mad at you for lying for a while, and also hope they won’t then reveal the secret to the world. And once you are married, how would you deal with your muggle inlaws? Lies upon lies would be the only way to make it work. Very unhealthy in a relationship. There’s also the all-Muggle families likeLily’s and Hermione’s who get the Hogwarts letter from out of the blue and rather than freaking out, are thrilled to have a witch/wizard in the family. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/287 "2014-02-10T04:11:50Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I posted in the other thread but didn’t get an answer. > > How far along has the fanfic HPMOR gotten? It seems to be going into a lot more detail. Is it going to hold onto the Harry vs Voldemort plot? Avoiding spoilers. HPMOR is close to ending. So it’s quite unlikely that you will be left hanging for more than a few months. As for the Harry vs. Voldemort thing…well it’s difficult to answer without spoilers. It’s not the sole focus. Lets just say there’s more complexity to the story. Evil comes from different - even some as yet mysterious - directions, and there is a fair bit of grey. Voldemort does figure prominently in the story though. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/288 "2014-02-10T06:05:16Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > The thing that bothers me is that it seems pretty common for witches and wizards to marry muggles. How would that work exactly. I mean, for the relationship to develop at all, the magical person would have to lie constantly to the muggle. If they didn’t, the would risk exposing the magical world to someone with whom they are having a possibly short term relationship. But normal conversations such as “What kind of job do you have” or “Where do you live” or “Where did you go to school?” are a minefield if you are trying to keep the magical world a secret. > > So at some point you either marry someone you have been lying to like crazy, or you reveal the truth and hope they won’t be too mad at you for lying for a while, and also hope they won’t then reveal the secret to the world. And once you are married, how would you deal with your muggle inlaws? Lies upon lies would be the only way to make it work. Very unhealthy in a relationship. Same way it probably happens when you have wizard or witch who’s Muggle-Born, I would imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/289 "2014-02-10T06:39:20Z")
Let’s be honest: the entire concept of a masquerade requires huge amounts of suspension of disbelief. Not just in Harry Potter, but as a general sci-fi and fantasy device. It can be handwaved when the thing the masquerade is concealing is extremely rare (e.g. there are 50 Bigfoots still alive and they deliberately hide from society), but once you hit Harry Potter scale it’s just comical. Once you’ve postulated mudbloods and muggle/wizard romance you’ve basically just broken it, there’s no way the Ministry could mind-wipe every accidental blab by a hyperactive little brother or gushing parent. Successfully covering up an entire functional and relatively large world of magic complete with dragons, giants, merfolk, and everything else is getting on par with truther levels of complexity to keep the coverup going, even WITH memory charms. That’s not to say that I hate the masquerade concept, it’s cute and provides a convenient (if lazy) way for fantasy stories to be set in roughly “our world”, but it is almost certainly one of the literary devices you can’t hope to analyze if you intend to keep your sanity for very long. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/290 "2014-02-10T08:06:28Z")
well the problem with masquerading concept is that there really isn’t any. All the muggle family members of wizards know. ---
**Author:** ![KKKK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KKKK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KKKK)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/291 "2014-02-10T10:05:59Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Huh. HPMOR led me to believe he was called a muggleborn, having been raised by Muggles, even if he wasn’t technically born to them. (I’m intentionally avoiding the real books until after HPMOR so I get a [nearly] unique experience of the work. I only know things through cultural osmosis.) > > He really was called a halfblood? Was his dad also a mudblood? Or was his mom really maybe 1/4 witch, making Harry 5/8, which is pretty close to half? (I’m assuming mudblood is less specific than halfblood.) Dumbledore, while talking about the prophecy, says that Voldemort went after not the pureblood (Neville) but the halfblood like himself (Harry). However, Voldemort had a muggle parent – Harry didn’t. James Potter was emphatically not a mudblood, he had an ancient wizard background stretching back to the Deathly Hallows. ---
**Author:** ![KKKK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KKKK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KKKK)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/292 "2014-02-10T10:11:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Pretty much the only allusion to it is Dumbledore noting that of the two candidates for the Prophecy’s subject, Voldemort decided to do away with the one with a muggleborn mother. > > Yabbut, Voldemort isn’t going to get racial purity for himself; half of his chromosomes come from a Muggle. Accepting an axiom that halfbloods are wielders of an inferior grade of magic forces him to accept that HE is the wielder of an inferior grade of magic. > > And **fachverwirrt** ’s point, if I’m reading him correctly, is that during the purges of the Thicknesse administration, the interrogators only required their defendants to prove the magical status of ONE birth parent. I don’t think Voldemort needed to worry about racial purity, since his followers saw him as pureblood anyway. The one time Harry told them Voldy was halfblood (in the Order of the Phoenix), the Death Eaters simply yelled at him and refused to believe. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/293 "2014-02-10T13:02:31Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Let’s be honest: the entire concept of a masquerade requires huge amounts of suspension of disbelief. Not just in Harry Potter, but as a general sci-fi and fantasy device. It can be handwaved when the thing the masquerade is concealing is extremely rare (e.g. there are 50 Bigfoots still alive and they deliberately hide from society), but once you hit Harry Potter scale it’s just comical. Once you’ve postulated mudbloods and muggle/wizard romance you’ve basically just broken it, there’s no way the Ministry could mind-wipe every accidental blab by a hyperactive little brother or gushing parent. Successfully covering up an entire functional and relatively large world of magic complete with dragons, giants, merfolk, and everything else is getting on par with truther levels of complexity to keep the coverup going, even WITH memory charms. > > That’s not to say that I hate the masquerade concept, it’s cute and provides a convenient (if lazy) way for fantasy stories to be set in roughly “our world”, but it is almost certainly one of the literary devices you can’t hope to analyze if you intend to keep your sanity for very long. I totally agree – have long reckoned the whole “wizarding world in masquerade” conceit, preposterous through and through. Nonetheless, I love it – and the details of it, no matter how loopy, which the author thinks up – and most of the time, am prepared to do as much suspension of disbelief as is needed, to swallow it. For my tastes, the “masquerade” shtick is a more enjoyable element of the books, than the struggle / quest, or the characters interplaying and developing – both those aspects are for me, on the lame side. If it weren’t for the world (however faulty) which the author builds, I would for sure not have persevered very far with the series. On a side note, and with the mention of Bigfoot: there comes to mind for me, Rowling’s IMO delightful supplement to the series, _Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them_, presented in the form of a wizarding school textbook. The Yeti (“believed to be related to the troll”) has its sub-section in the book; and the book mentions that “The International Confederation of Wizards has had to fine certain nations repeatedly for contravening [the edict making every wizarding governing body responsible for concealing and controlling all magical beasts within its territory’s borders]. Tibet [Yeti] and Scotland [Loch Ness Monster] are two of the most persistent offenders. Muggle sightings of the Yeti have been so numerous that the ICW felt it necessary to station an International Task Force in the mountains on a permanent basis.” The author does not get into the Bigfoot issue; but reading between the lines, one sees the wizarding governments of the US and Canada being, similarly, permanently in hot water with the International Confederation of Wizards. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/294 "2014-02-10T16:07:45Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > yes, they were able to exchange money. Gold is gold. And there is a school fund for the indigent because that’s how Lord Voldemort was able to attend. There was a scene in one of the early books where Hermione mentioned that her parents were off exchanging Muggle money for wizard money. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/295 "2014-02-10T16:37:00Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > The author does not get into the Bigfoot issue; but reading between the lines, one sees the wizarding governments of the US and Canada being, similarly, permanently in hot water with the International Confederation of Wizards. Which certainly raises the question… what’s magical about bigfoots? I mean, we know that they don’t exist because we know that in the real life. But in the HP world, what differentiates a magical creature from a non-magical creature? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/296 "2014-02-10T18:37:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Jragon** : > > Once you’ve postulated mudbloods and muggle/wizard romance you’ve basically just broken it, there’s no way the Ministry could mind-wipe every accidental blab by a hyperactive little brother or gushing parent. And they don’t. Surely you’ve heard a kid insisting that magic is real, or an excited parent saying that their child is magical? They don’t need to stop all leaks; they just need to stop enough of them that the ones that get through are ignored. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/297 "2014-02-10T20:03:37Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Which certainly raises the question… what’s magical about bigfoots? I mean, we know that they don’t exist because we know that in the real life. But in the HP world, what differentiates a magical creature from a non-magical creature? I’d respectfully ask – who are “we”, who know for certain that Bigfoots don’t exist in the real world? There are a fair number of real-world people who opine that they do – some claim to have encountered them first-hand – and as totally flesh-and-blood non-magical creatures; and it’s well-known that proving a negative, is virtually impossible. In the HP world, magical versus non-magical creatures – who knows? JKR’s writings don’t claim to comprise everything in “our or their” heaven and earth. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/298 "2014-02-10T22:16:12Z")
No, there are not bigfoots. FFS people. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/299 "2014-02-11T01:11:08Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Which certainly raises the question… what’s magical about bigfoots? I mean, we know that they don’t exist because we know that in the real life. But in the HP world, what differentiates a magical creature from a non-magical creature? I don’t think there’s been a reliable explanation in the wizarding-world context of what magical properties/powers yetis are supposed to have. I would refer you to Gilderoy Lockhart’s _Year with the Yeti_ but it’s doubtless a pack of lies. 😉 I imagine that Rowling just went with the “all creatures that are mythical/controversial in real life default to being well-known (albeit rare and/or exotic) fauna in the magical world” principle. Although, of course, the magical world has its own mythical critters, such as the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466/300 "2014-02-11T01:19:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I imagine that Rowling just went with the “all creatures that are mythical/controversial in real life default to being well-known (albeit rare and/or exotic) fauna in the magical world” principle. Sounds plausible. (Pity the poor Okapi, who, assuming you’re correct, was demoted to Muggledom in 1901. ☹ ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-stuff-that-bothers-you/680466.md?page=16)