Harry Potter Plot Holes: Why Dumbledore Shouldn't Know How Voldemort Killed the Potters

The 7-book Harry Potter (HP) series written by J.K. Rowling was really popular and well-loved by so many people. I like the magical and fantasy story about wizards just fine too.

But did you know that the HP series isn't perfect?

There are a lot of things in the books that can really make you ask questions or that can cause you to frown and wonder if you maybe missed some stuff because not everything is as it seems and not all of this makes sense.

This is a very long topic though so this particular article will only focus on one aspect or one question. This is regarding the reason why it doesn't make sense for Albus Dumbledore to know about what Voldemort did to James, Lily and Harry Potter. What exactly is going on?

Who are James, Lily, Harry Potter, Voldemort, etc?

If you're a fan of the HP series, then you no doubt already know the answer to this question. But let me give a short summary anyway for reference and because this is related to what this hub is all about.

This is also for the benefit of those who may not know much about the HP series. If you want, you can just skip right to the point by scrolling further down below.

Harry Potter is the main character in the HP series (I know, you could have guessed that since all the books have his name on them). He's the son of James and Lily Potter. He was still a baby when the incident I'm talking about happened.

The Potters live in Godric’s Hollow (it's just the 3 of them) under the Fidelius Charm(this is a magical spell that's supposed to hide the location of the family so that no one can find them unless that person knows the secret of their whereabouts).

They were hiding from the Dark Lord Voldemort (he's the villain / bad guy / antagonist of the HP series) who was after their son thanks to a prophecy.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know that their Secret Keeper^*, one of their close friends Peter Pettigrew (it was supposed to be Sirius Black, another one of their friends, but they decided otherwise), was actually working for Voldemort.

Thanks to Pettigrew’s betrayal, the Dark Lord knew exactly where to find the Potters (without Peter's help, he never would have found them). As you can expect, he went to Godric's Hollow so he could kill Harry.

^{*Secret Keeper - this is part of the Fidelius Charm; the Secret Keeper is the only one who knows the location of the Potters and he is the only one who can reveal their location to other people}

When Voldemort arrived at the house, James tried to stop him from advancing further. He attempted to defend and protect his family to the best of his abilities.

Unfortunately, he didn't succeed as Voldemort easily killed him. The Dark Lord then searched for Lily and Harry.

Of course, Lily tried to defend her son. She begged Voldemort to spare her baby and to take her instead.

While Voldemort refused to listen to her, he did offer her a chance to live if she would only step aside and let him have Harry.

Lily refused to move and she ended up dying as Voldemort killed her to get to her son.

As soon as Lily falls, the Dark Lord turns to young Harry and attempts to end his life like he did with the kid's parents.

He ends up failing spectacularly and epically (if this isn't a word, then it should be because epic fail is a pretty good way to describe exactly how Voldemort failed).

How in the world does Albus Dumbledore* and what seems to be practically the entire Wizarding World know what happened in Godric’s Hollow on that fateful Halloween night?

That doesn't make sense at all and that shouldn't have happened. In fact, this might even be considered a plot hole. Why?

*He's the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but he has a lot of other titles and positions as well.

There were only four people (James, Lily, Harry and Voldemort) in Godric's Hollow when the incident happened. No one else was there.

James and Lily Potter are dead

At the end of the Potters’ encounter with Voldemort, James and Lily are both dead so, even if they wanted to talk about the events that transpired / happened in their home, they wouldn’t have been able to.

Voldemort became some sort-of undead creature thing or whatever you want to call him (he was some ghost or something that was barely alive) and he was severely weakened thanks to his failure to kill Harry so it wasn't like he could just talk to people and tell them what happened.

Even if he was unharmed and unhurt, why would he tell Albus or his enemies what happened in Godric’s Hollow? Why would he tell anyone how he killed James first then offered Lily a chance to live before killing her when she refused him? Why would he tell people how he failed to kill Harry?

While Harry Potter was still alive, he was just a baby when all this happened so, even if he wanted to talk, he wouldn’t have been able to.

Besides, as we later find out, he doesn’t really remember the incident all that well. He recalls the green flash of light but it isn’t until later on that he even finds out what that is supposed to mean.

He also hears his mother’s voice when Dementors (these are dark creatures that can suck the happiness out of people and make them sad and depressed) are nearby but that hardly tells him much of anything and certainly doesn’t give him any idea as to what happened to his dad.

In short, none of the 4 people that were in Godric's Hollow could have told Dumbledore anything.

So how does Albus know all of these things then right down to the exact details like who was killed first? How can that make an ounce of sense?

For all he knew, it could have been the other way around. In fact, many other things could have happened before the Potters were killed.

What if Voldemort had decided to play with them first before using the Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra; this spell is an Unforgivable Curse that instantly kills anyone it hits) on them?

What if the Dark Lord wanted to torture them first and use spells like the Cruciatus Curse (this spell causes people pain) on them before ending their lives?

Voldemort is the bad guy. He’s the antagonist, the villain, so doing despicable and horrible things like torturing people and making them suffer is only to be expected of him.

But the point is really how Albus Dumbledore could have known exactly what happened to the Potters when Voldemort attacked them in Godric’s Hollow.

Does he have the Potters under surveillance? If he doesn't, then there's no way he should have known about what happened.

But if he does have them under surveillance, then he should have known that they were in trouble.

And if he knows that Voldemort was attacking the Potters, then why didn't he send people (like members of the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society or group that's against Voldemort) or go there himself to help them?

Does any of this make any sense to you? Do you think this is a plot hole or something?

You can share your thoughts or opinions by answering the poll to the right. You can also explain or elaborate on your poll answer below via the comments section (if you want to).

But if you feel that you have a lot more to say about this topic or if your answer isn't listed in the poll section, then feel free to leave a comment below.

Photo credits:

• Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
• Figures in the image are meant to represent James Potter and Lily Evans Potter
• Godric's Hollow picture is by Marek69 / Marek Kosniowski (CC:BY-SA) from Wikimedia Commons