Top 10 Harry Potter Mistakes

We’re starting out with a mistake only hawk-eyed viewers will have spotted - and it comes when Wood is teaching Harry the ins and outs of Quidditch. Placing the Quidditch trunk on the ground, it supposedly shudders due to the bewitched bludgers inside. After Harry slogs one of the bludgers, it flies back and Wood catches it. But as he falls onto the ground we get a quick glimpse under the trunk and see a small rod installed to simulate the trunk’s shaking effect. Hmm, not so magic after all.

Yes, the film when Dudley turned up his douchey teenager appeal to 11. Together with his gang of bullies, and sporting some dapper jewellery and hip shorts, Dudley berates Harry for no apparent reason. And it’s his funky shorts we want to draw attention to - because after fleeing from dementors into a tunnel, the design of Dudley’s shorts changes completely. And then they change again when he falls on his back. You may not have noticed because like everyone else, you were too busy laughing at him.

Remember when Harry blew up his Aunt? How can we forget. Well, eagle-eyed Potter fans may also remember this iconic sequence for its inconsistent set design. With Uncle Vernon desperately trying to stop Marge from floating away, we catch a brief glimpse of the Dursley's back garden, complete with a bench and some bushes. But wait! The layout has changed since the scene’s opening shot. You have to be Sherlock to spot it, but it’s there.

Expecting to pass through the hidden pathway of platform 9 ¾ , Harry and Ron take their usual run-up, but instead collide in a heap, thanks to Dobby’s mischievous intervention. And it is here that we get a quick glimpse of fake Hedwig. For obvious reasons, the studio couldn’t mount a real owl on the front of the trolley, so they used a model, which remained incredibly rigid throughout the collision. Regardless, running into a brick wall with a trolley is never advised.

The hippogriff Buckbeak features a few times throughout the Harry Potter series, and it’s at the forefront of more than one movie inconsistency. But our pick is it's take off when escorting Sirius out of Hogwarts. We see Buckbeak fly off from an empty courtyard, but moments later when the camera pans back, the same courtyard is covered in leaves - just like magic. Either that or Sirius hit a tree on his way out.

This Hogwart’s professor, turned evil baldy, wears a turban throughout “Philosopher's Stone” to hide an insidious growth of he who must not be named in the back of his head. However, those with a keen eye for follicle falsity will notice Quirrell's sideburns peeking through his headscarf in multiple different moments. Lucius Malfoy is guilty of this too, trying to hide his dark locks with a blonde wig, but the nod has got to go to Quirrell with this one.

Actors - they have scripts to tell them what to say, directors to tell them how to say it, and markers to tell them where to stand when they say it. And you can actually see one of these secret markers on the floor of platform 9 ¾ during Harry and co’s visit in “Chamber of Secrets”. Briefly as the camera pans up, Ginny walks right next to one [1] - and shortly after Molly says [2]. A brief, but exciting insight into the way films are ocrashestrated.

If this scene teaches us anything it’s that something as common as a towel can be magical. After Harry emerges from the Great Lake following his Triwizard challenge, cold and shivering, Hermione comforts him with a white towel. From here, said towel jumps from Harry’s shoulders, to Hermione's - and back again - multiple times. Clearly the result of completely separate takes, it’s proof how two seemingly identical scenes are not as identical as you may think.

Many actors in films wear portable microphones to record their audio in scenes. And these are stashed in their clothing so we can’t see them. But in this scene, we can! When Harry and Hermione are avoiding detection behind some pumpkins, there are certain angles where you can clearly see the back-mounted battery packs of the microphones bulging out from their clothing. It’s only for a few of the shots, but it is definitely noticeable.

Of all the veiled and hard-to-spot mistakes and bloopers in the series, we had to give the top spot to the most blatantly obvious one of all. During Harry and Malfoy’s memorable table-top duel in “Chamber of Secrets”, there is a moment when the camera catches a glimpse of another camera - and the guy operating it. There are a lot of people standing around in the scene, but it’s as clear as day. Again, it’s only for a second or two, but when you see it, you can’t unsee it.