Forgive me if these have been mentioned elsewhere, but the Reverse-Spell effect in GOF seemed to have a couple of plot holes:

Why did Cedric come out of Voldemort's wand when it was Wormtail who killed him?

Why did James come out before Lily?

 

Thats fanon. If the Trace was linked to the wand, Harry wouldn't have gotten in trouble for Dobby's magic in CS.

 

Wormtail must have killed Cedric with Voldemort's wand then. However, the order of James and Lily comming out of the wand was admitted by JKR to be a mistake.

 

This isn't a real plot hole, but I've been bothered by how badly the stadium was run during the world cup series.

First of all, it seems that the wizards rented the stadium from a muggle and had the said muggle handle the admission cost.

Second of all, this is a quiddish (sp?) Game, meaning that the stadium seating have to be quite up in the air....but muggles don't have any stadium remotely similar to that. So it meant that someone had to either modify the stadium (that was rented) or ordered the players not to fly too high.

Thirdly, the people running the world cup aren't smart... if they knew that wizards were going to have trouble paying or dressing like normal people, then why didn't they had a squib run the admission office? I mean, in the book they had to keep oblivating that muggle whenever he saw something weird. that's some powerful magic for a bullshit reason.

 

Memory charms aren't considered a big deal for whatever reason. Modifying and then returning the stadium to its original state shouldn't be that hard considering magic. Last point, Squibs are generally looked down upon and have trouble getting work iirc, and why bother when a simple Obliviate will suffice?

 

That raises more questions.
What's the gestation period? Human, wolf, or a mix?
How does a werewolf maintain a viable pregnancy while transforming each month?
Uh, what happens if they go into labor while in human form, or does that even matter? OR, is it even possible?

I'm sure 'magic' is the answer to one or more of those. :| I'm surprised this question got addressed in an official (if perhaps only semi-canonical) source.

He's also the guy who had just told them it was (barring Neville being 'marked') going to come down to Voldemort vs Harry, in the end. That may have left them with some misgivings about Dumbledore's motives.

Plenty of fan fic authors have interpreted the prophecy could imply that the Dark Lord could be beaten by anyone (well, anyone powerful enough), once the chosen one kicks the bucket. I find it hard to believe that the Potters wouldn't examine all possible interpretations of the prophecy, and who's to say how close the relationship was between Dumbledore and the Potters; it's entirely possible that they were unsure of what his position was on scenarios like forcing an early confrontation or ensuring a specific boy was Marked, and decided to err on the side of caution by making a friend the secret keeper.

The simplest and least satisfying answer is that they had to hold the idiot ball, or else the books would have had titles like:
Harry Potter and The Lonely Childhood
Harry Potter and The Home-Schooling Schedule
Harry Potter and The Acquired Agoraphobia
Harry Potter and The Inability to Relate to Others
Harry Potter and The Puberty of Solitude
Harry Potter and The Redheaded Girl Who Wasn't Mom
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollowness of Victory...

And, lest I forget:
Fantastic Grass and What I Imagine it Feels Like
Wallpaper Through The Ages
The Tales of Beedle The Bard (and Other Books I Have Instead of Friends)...

 

Come on Sree, you know the answer to that . . .Srlsy! Teh Evilz of Dumbledore, that manipulative bastard!

Wolf Gestation period 60-65 days. Since a Lunar phase cycle is 29.5 days, it's not too much of a stretch to say that viable pregnancy only must be maintained through one transformation, as the second one would see the cubs already strong enough to survive it.

I think the labor issue could simply be hand-waved by saying that the second full moon and transformation actually kicks off the labor.

At least, that's how I'd explain it at first glance.

 

Why doesn't the ministry place a taboo on the incantation of unforgivable and other deadly curses?

 

Silent Casting

 

The taboo was a spell invented by Voldemort or a Death Eater, or discovered by one. The ministry, before book 7, did not know the spell. It is uncertain if the ministry started using the spell after book 7 to track illegal spells and people discussing the private heliopath army. If they don't, it is because they don't know how to cast it.
Edit: This is a speculation. If Fudge had known about the taboo, he would have had the taboo listenng out for peope being impolite about them and arresting them on trumped up charges. And since nothing of the sort was reported in the quibbler, we can assume it didn't happen.

 

It doesn't happen all the time, you could just tell the guys in charge that on so and so date/time a professor will be using them in order to teach. I know it is tedious but if it saves lives, why not?

Not everyone is great at it and just because you wouldn't be able to track silently cast curses it doesn't mean you shouldn't make an effort to track the one that are vocalized.

Source?

 

Probably would be easier just to make the trace permanent.

 

It is also possible that taboo used by Voldemort is Dark Magic(TM). (For example I think that they would avoid using magic that requires human sacrifice or something like that).

 

There's no indication Voldemort invented or discovered the spell. The Taboo only comes into effect after Voldemort takes the Ministry, and the Ministry enforces it. This seems to indicate that it's a Ministerial power.

As for why it isn't used more intrusively: how do you think Muggles would react if a government said they were going to put microphones in every house and on every person, listening for certain forbidden words? What makes you think wizards would be happy with this situation where Muggles aren't?

 

Well, surveillance doesn't have to be done with the person's consent or knowledge. The problem only comes about when somebody does find out and releases it to the public, but then what happens? The government finds a scapegoat, says sorry, and can keep on listening but now more secretively.

 

Than it needs even better reason why it was not used. Or maybe Voldemort was the first to use this tool openly.

 

Does it though? Purebloods are probably all about privacy, especially the ones that practice Dark Magic. Considering the purebloods we've seen in canon seem to have some degree of control in the Ministry, it isn't surprising that the Taboo isn't in use.

 

This one has already been mentioned: Why couldn't Lily and James be their own secret keepers?

Another one that I think I've posted about before: In POA Remus only transforms when a cloud that's blocking the moon moves over, implying that he could just stay inside in a windowless room and not transform.