12 Questions About Harry Potter Movies That Keep You Up At Night

12. What Is The Punishment For Breaking A Magical Contract?

While the witches and wizards of Hogwarts literally go to school to learn how to make just about anything happen, there are still a lot of rules in place to prevent it. The power these children are learning could easily be translated into something terrible, as with Tom Riddle, so there still need to be laws in place.

One such law is the magical contract. Seemingly exactly the same as a muggle contract, two parties become locked into an agreement that cannot be breached without consequences. The biggest example of this in Harry Potter is during the Triwizard Cup. Though Harry didn't put his name in the goblet himself, the act of having it pulled out bound him to compete by way of a magical contract.

But what exactly would be the punishment for breaking such an agreement? Surely any level headed wizard would forbid the young Potter from competing underage, yet still he was forced to out of fear of these consequences.

But what could be worse than potentially being killed by a fire breathing dragon? This is what Harry was being forced to do as a preferable option to breaking the contract, but what could that possibly be the preferable option to?

Would Harry have had his wand taken away? Would he have been killed or tortured had he not competed? If not, it's hard to see how the punishment for breaking the contract could have possibly been worse than what he had to face in the tournament. Surely the only thing worse than almost certain death, is certain death?