Okay, I'm understanding the trace is on the wand and the place the magic is used, and if only one magical person lives their, they automatically assume it was the person listed as living there.

But in OOTP, Advanced Guard chapter, the guard uses magic inside, so how come that didn't get listed or have Harry be sent a letter...

 

Because JKR didn't want it to.

Plot holes in HP are nothing new, boyo.

 

Wow. Three years late there, son.

Even worse is that every Harry Potter forum everywhere has already got a huge thread about this specific plot hole.

 

Or.. you know... There is a way to mask magic from the Ministry and the leader of the rescue party(Dumbledore) thought ahead?

Just because it's unexplained doesn't make it a plot hole.

 

You can handwave away any plothole. Like Taure does with his essays.

 

Just because it's not explained in vivid detail in the book doesn't make it a plot hole. The fact that you 'can' explain it away using logic means it isn't a plot hole.

I'd understand if it was some random people coming in and using magic without a letter from the ministry coming in. But, guys, he's Dumbledore, he's practically omniscient in the last few books.

 

Do not tread on this path, for it leads to manipulative!Dumbledore. Applying logic and 'explaining' away everything goes both ways. Its one of the main reason a lot of stories with potential fail at delivering.

Personally, I think Dumbledore was an excellent gambler in the last 2 books. Or you can extrapolate a little bit more and finish it by saying he was god. I mean c'mon...he was telling Harry to sacrifice his life from beyond the grave, he must be a demi-god atleast.

(Yes, that last sentence was sarcasm. And I didn't like Dumbledore after the 4th book. Not one bit. >_> )

@OP : Any and all plot-holes/possible-plot-holes have been discussed in detail here. I believe there's a thread specifically for that purpose.

 

OP, did you just join DLP for this?

 

Actually, this is a fairly easily explained 'hole'.

Firstly, the incident in which Harry receives a letter from the Ministry in the summer after first year was actually in response to Dobby casting a levitation charm in front of muggles. The DMLE may have decided that as there was a perfectly formed levitation charm, without the use of a wand and no other conceivable magic users at that address, that it must have been Harry performing wandless magic, using a spare wand, or in some other way circumventing the trace.

In the case in which the Order of the Phoenix come to retrieve him, I imagine the presence of multiple adult wizards and the fact that Harry didn't use any magic personally, would have negated the fact that magic was being used in his presence.

Or alternatively Dobby is much more brilliant than we give him credit for and some how tampered with the trace. He did after all circumvent the magic on the entrance to Platform 9 3/4.

 

It's just magic...let's leave it at that.

 

The less there is explained, the more wiggle roomm fanfic writers get - which isn't a bad thing.

 

Waitwaitwait...

There's plotholes in canon!?

 

That.

Trying to explain and use logic on everything is Less Wrong's and Taure's way of destroying the spirit of the story.

If someone wants to expose that 'plothole' I'd counter with a scene of Harry and Hermione discussing the problem, Hermione coming up with several possible explanations and then Ron shrugging it off with "Who cares?"

 

Lol that's fucked, making Taure and Less Wrong have something in common.

 

Dark Minion, you just raped Taure's soul.

 

Count me in that group too, then. Though I dispute that last bit.