9 Harry Potter Plot Holes That Actually Have Simple Fixes

Plot Hole: The Goblet of Fire marks a big change in the Harry Potter series, as the death of Cedric Diggory in the wake of Voldemort's return casts a dark shadow on the rest of the story as the knowledge of imminent war starts to fill each character one by one. Poor Harry watches as the loyal servant Wormtail returns Lord Voldemort to his body. Shortly after this Harry watches helplessly as Wormtail kills Cedric with just a careless flick of his wand.

This isn't the first death Harry has witnessed, but it is the first one he goes on to remember and over the summer we see Harry hasn't recovered from it (Dudley remarks that Harry cries out in his sleep for Cedric every night). But we really come face to face with Harry's experience when he returns to school to find a breed of skeletal, winged horses pulling the carriages to Hogwarts.

We find out from our resident quirky girl Luna Lovegood that the horses, or thestrals, have always pulled the carriages, but that only people who have witnessed a death can see them. Well that's all fine and dandy, until you stop to think about it for a minute. Shouldn't Harry have always seen the Thestrals then?

The author of HP explained this away by saying that the person had to REMEMBER the death to see the thestrals, but this doesn't explain why Harry didn't see the thestrals straight after Cedric's death.

Answer: If someone has to remember the death to be able to see the thestrals, then that implies seeing a death isn't what makes them visible; it's experiencing a death that makes them appear to you.

Now at risk of getting philosophical, an experience is a state of mind, which means it's quite easy to explain why Harry did not see the thestrals straight away: he hadn't processed Cedric's death yet. He had not yet accepted that he had seen an innocent die, and therefore could not see the thestrals.

See everyone, Philosophy is a useful skill!