Things that didn't quite make sense in Harry Potter?

[Kyng]

A while back, I posted a map of the world's 11 wizarding schools (which is just a fan creation, but is based on statements by Rowling herself). There were some glaringly obvious flaws with it: not least of which was that there's just one school for China and India combined (thus covering about 40% of the world's population), and just one school for the Middle East (which apparently handles Arabs, Turks, Israelis, and Iranians without issue).

But, this video dives deeper into it:

• How many students are there? - Rowling has contradicted herself so much when it comes to wizarding demographics, that it's obvious that she has no clue about this aspect of her own world. So, this video takes one figure ("Hogwarts has 1,000 students") as canon, and ignores all of Rowling's other statements on the topic .
  
  
• How big are the other schools? - Since Hogwarts only covers the UK and Ireland - and, as of 1991 (when the first book was set), the UK and Ireland had about 1/80th of the global population, this implies that there would have been around 80,000 wizards of school age in the world at that time. But, if there are only 11 schools... then, that's an average of 7,500 students per school (making Hogwarts one of the smaller wizarding schools ). In fact, the Chinese/Indian school alone would have around 40,000 students !
  
  
• What would be a better map? - For the purposes of this challenge, the 11 schools should all be of roughly similar size and at least somewhat culturally coherent; and there should be no split nations (1 school per nation). However, all canonical information about schools other than Hogwarts will be discarded, and it will be assumed that travel will not be an issue (these are wizards, after all ). So, with that in mind, here's an improved list of 11 schools:
  
  
  1. Hogwarts remains as-is (preserving canon);
     
  2. There will be a Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking school, covering the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America (and France and Italy will join this school too, as there's nowhere better to put them);
     
  3. East Asia (China, Japan, the Koreas, Vietnam, etc.) will have a single school, which will be the largest on Earth;
     
  4. India and south-east Asia (plus Mongolia) would have a joint Hindu/Buddhist school;
     
  5. The Arab World would have a school of its own;
     
  6. The non-Arab Islamic parts of Eurasia (e.g. Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia) would be combined into one school;
     
  7. Russia and other Slavic countries will have a school. Other Eastern Orthodox nations (such as Greece) would join this school too;
     
  8. There would be a school for the non-English Germanic-speaking countries (e.g. Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia);
     
  9. Sub-Saharan Africa would get two schools. These would be a western one...
     
  10. ...and an eastern one;
      
  11. Finally, there would be a school for the rest of the English-speaking world (e.g. Canada, the USA, Australia, new Zealand).

I think this is pretty good, but I'd replace one of the sub-Saharan African schools with a Francophone school (which would cover much of sub-Saharan Africa anyway ). To me, that seems much better than lumping France in with the Latin-American school, and arbitrarily dividing Sub-Saharan Africa into 'West' and 'East'. Though, I'm still not sure what I'd do about Italy!

[Moonshroom]

and just one school for the Middle East (which apparently handles Arabs, Turks, Israelis, and Iranians without issue).

That WOULD take some magic XD

[Kyng]

and just one school for the Middle East (which apparently handles Arabs, Turks, Israelis, and Iranians without issue).

That WOULD take some magic XD

It certainly would .

Here's my own effort at a revised 11-school map:


(Click to enlarge)

1. Hogwarts covers the UK and Ireland, as in canon. I've extended it slightly to cover British territories (including Hong Kong, because that was still a British territory during the time period in which Harry Potter is set);
   
2. Beauxbatons covers France and Italy, as well as French- and Italian-speaking regions of the bordering countries, and Francophone countries elsewhere in the world;
   
3. Castelobruxo covers the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world (minus Puerto Rico, as this is a US territory);
   
4. Durmstrang covers the parts of Europe that speak Germanic, Baltic, or Uralic languages (other than English );
   
5. Koldovstoretz covers the parts of Europe that are either Slavic or Greek Orthodox. (It also includes Armenia, which is technically Oriental Orthodox rather than Eastern Orthodox, but I had nowhere better to put it );
   
6. Ilvermorny covers the US and Canada, as well as most of Oceania. I also included Israel, since I saw nowhere better to put it;
   
7. Uagadou covers the parts of sub-Saharan Africa not already covered by one of the other schools;
   
8. Mahoutokoro covers all of East and Southeast Asia (except for China and North Korea, which have their own school);
   
9. School #9 covers the Arab World, and adjoining parts of the Islamic World. Also includes Bangladesh, since that seems to be the best place for it;
   
10. School #10 covers India, as well as a few adjoining countries (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan);
    
11. School #11 covers China and North Korea.

Now, I didn't map this - but, I imagine there would be a lot of split nations here . For example: Canada is covered by Ilvermorny, but I imagine a lot of French-Canadians would opt for Beauxbatons instead. Likewise, Switzerland and Belgium would be split between Beauxbatons and Durmstrang (and come to think of it, so would Italy, since any wizards from South Tyrol would probably choose Durmstrang over Beauxbatons). As for Africa, Uagadou would probably also recruit from the Francophone and Lusophone countries allocated to Beauxbatons and Castelobruxo: it's not like everyone there just speaks French or Portuguese, after all!

However, I've still had to lump together some vastly different places. That's unavoidable, when you only have 11 schools - one of which is required by canon to cover just the UK and Ireland. If I had a 12th school, then I would probably split the Islamic world, so I would end up with something like this:


(Click to enlarge)

Oh, well... I tried !

[JHG]

So…if Draco Malfoy actually redeemed himself, how come he hasn’t actually done much to convince everyone he’s got a change of heart not even Katie Bell who he nearly killed? 5,000,000 points to Hufflepuff!

[Kyng]

So…if Draco Malfoy actually redeemed himself, how come he hasn’t actually done much to convince everyone he’s got a change of heart not even Katie Bell who he nearly killed? 5,000,000 points to Hufflepuff!

Well, I don't think he ever fully 'redeemed himself'. Sure, he and Harry were no longer sworn enemies; however, they were still a long way from being friends. (In fact, I'm not sure that he had any friends outside Slytherin!)

Furthermore, while he was always a bully at school, I get the impression that he was never a 'true believer' in Lord Voldemort's cause: he only became a Death-Eater out of fear and/or because his father wanted him to. So, I don't believe there was much of a 'change of heart' in the first place .

[JHG]

So…if Draco Malfoy actually redeemed himself, how come he hasn’t actually done much to convince everyone he’s got a change of heart not even Katie Bell who he nearly killed? 5,000,000 points to Hufflepuff!

Well, I don't think he ever fully 'redeemed himself'. Sure, he and Harry were no longer sworn enemies; however, they were still a long way from being friends. (In fact, I'm not sure that he had any friends outside Slytherin!)

Furthermore, while he was always a bully at school, I get the impression that he was never a 'true believer' in Lord Voldemort's cause: he only became a Death-Eater out of fear and/or because his father wanted him to. So, I don't believe there was much of a 'change of heart' in the first place .

And how do the lines “Don’t make friends with the wrong sort” “Nobody asked you, filthy little M-word” and “This time, I hope it’s Granger” factor in? 4,000,000 points to Hufflepuff!

[Kyng]

Another one, inspired by one of @ JHG's recent posts:

When Voldemort encounters a Boggart, it transforms into his dead body. But... why would that be in the least bit scary to him? After all, he knows the dead body isn't actually him .

At least with Neville, he doesn't know whether he's encountering a Boggart or the real Professor Snape!

[JHG]

Another one, inspired by one of @ JHG's recent posts:

When Voldemort encounters a Boggart, it transforms into his dead body. But... why would that be in the least bit scary to him? After all, he knows the dead body isn't actually him .

At least with Neville, he doesn't know whether he's encountering a Boggart or the real Professor Snape!

Easy! Voldemort is that necrophobic and my grandma hits harder than him.

[Kyng]

Another one, inspired by one of @ JHG's recent posts:

When Voldemort encounters a Boggart, it transforms into his dead body. But... why would that be in the least bit scary to him? After all, he knows the dead body isn't actually him .

At least with Neville, he doesn't know whether he's encountering a Boggart or the real Professor Snape!

Easy! Voldemort is that necrophobic and my grandma hits harder than him.

Sure, but he'd be scared of being dead . I don't think seeing his own dead body would trigger that TBH, since he'd know it's not real.

On the other hand, seeing all of his Horcruxes destroyed probably would scare him - although, Rowling obviously couldn't say that when Boggarts were first introduced, since we didn't know about Horcruxes yet !

[JHG]

You’d think someone would realize house sorting kinda sucks especially for Slytherins. Heck how would you sort Willow Birnbaum who did get Hufflepuff but happens to be a performer and therefore showboats? The Owl House makes more sense since they

Spoiler

ditched the whole Coven system after Belos died.