The magic in Harry Potter can do some pretty amazing things: fix your glasses, make you fly, teleport you anywhere—the possibilities are endless.
You’d think that with all that power, the world would be a fun, relatively carefree place (except when there’s Death Eaters running around, of course). However, there are a few things about Hogwarts that are super inconvenient and could make for a pretty frustrating time. For example…
Quills
I get that Hogwarts wants to keep up with a certain aesthetic, but quills? We stopped using those in the late 19th century because they’re actually the worst. You have to keep dipping the tip in the inkwell, which inevitably spills all over everything. Not to mention you would have to lug it around with you! Even if the school doesn’t want to use standard contemporary pens, could they really not employ magic to make magic quills that aren’t so annoying to use?
Moving staircases
I know Hogwarts is super old and mysterious and stuff, but here’s one piece of the campus’ history I can’t abide: someone at some point in their life decided that it would be a good idea to enchant staircases to move unpredictably on their own. Why? What purpose could that possibly serve? Were they just trolling everyone? Because I can’t even imagine how annoyed I’d be if I were trying to go to class or to bed and the stairs just weren’t cooperating. At that point I’d probably break out my broom and just fly everywhere. (And don’t even get me started about what it would be like to get back home after a few drinks.)
Common room passwords
Who decided keys were such a bad idea? We’ve already seen this pose a problem for the characters in the books. Hufflepuff and Slytherin are a bit more straightforward; you just have to knock in the right pattern or say the right password, respectively, and you’re good to go. But with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, it can be toss-up. If the Fat Lady is in a bad mood, you might be out of luck. And if you can’t solve a particularly hard riddle, you could find yourself sleeping on the cold stone floor. No thank you.
No phones/internet
While it might be nice to unplug for a while, this seems like a bit of an extreme. The kids have to communicate with their families through snail mail delivered by owls. And what if a kid chooses a cat or a toad as their familiar instead—do they just not get mail at all? School assignments must be a nightmare, too. No easy searching and word processors; you’d have to go to the library and actually look through books the old fashioned way. I can respect the commitment to the aesthetic, but when my schoolwork takes five times longer because of the aesthetic, I have to draw the line.
Ghosts
High school is hard enough, but can you imagine if on top of everything else you had to deal with ghosts flying around, too? The ghosts of Hogwarts love to mess with students, especially Peeves and Myrtle. If I were stressed trying to get to class and a ghost dropped a water bomb on my head, I would probably just have a breakdown on the spot.
Classes that can kill you
I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory. You’ve got grumpy Hippogriffs in Care of Magical Creatures, students falling off of their brooms in Flying Lessons, and almost the entirety of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Not to mention how violent Quidditch is. The students must have to sign some pretty extensive release forms because I have no idea how their parents could knowingly let them go to school at such a place!
Even with all of these inconvenient things, I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of us would set it all aside and attend Hogwarts in a heartbeat if given the chance. But what do you think? Is it all worth it? Let us know in the comments!
Images: Warner Brothers, GIPHY