Harry Potter Shortcuts

At the Secret Service, we like Harry Potter. Only, we think that Harry could have defeated Voldemort/Voldemort could have been defeated much more easily. In fact, we have looked long and deep into each book, and found seven (the powerful magic number) instances in each book where a character could have used a loophole in the plot and brought the series to a satisfactory conclusion ahead of schedule. Presenting - the Harry Potter Shortcut series:

First, a few things we didn't know which book to put in:

• Dumbledore was the greatest wizard ever, right? Then why didn't he just go one holiday and capture all the Death Eaters?
• No matter how much Voldemort tries, he cannot kill Harry. He should have realized this and retired to Albania.
• The things three teenaged wizards do to destroy the Horcruxes are mindblowing - including breaking into Gringotts, breaking into the Ministry of Magic, copying Parseltongue last heard five years before and using the Old Faithful, the Sword of Gryffindor. 
• Whenever there is urgent need, any password to the Headmaster's Office seems to work.

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

• As shown in the seventh book, Snape and Dumbledore were aware that Quirrell was on Voldemort's side. Why didn't they kill him, preferably after removing his turban and making fun of Voldemort?
  
  
• Again, if Dumbledore knew all along that Quirrell was the villain, why did he go to London at the climactic moment? He could just have hidden in wait behind the dog.
  
  
• If the  Philosopher's Stone had to be guarded, why did Dumbledore not keep it in his pocket? Also, why did Voldemort not steal it from Flamel at the time of his first rise to power? Surely it would have been easier than making Horcruxes.
  
  
• In spite of Snape threatening Quirrell and clearly showing that he was on Dumbledore's side, Voldemort still trusted him implicitly when he came back in Book 4. If he'd just killed him, Book 7 probably wouldn't have happened.
  
  
• Harry, Ron and Hermione could just have worn the Invisibility Cloak throughout the last part.
  
  
• Why did Dumbledore let Quirrell make one of the defences, and why were they exactly tailored to the skills of Ron, Hermione and Harry? Was it a defence to keep evil out or to let them have a nice time?
  
  
• Why did Quirrell go to such lengths to harm Harry during the Quidditch match instead of sneaking up to his dormitory at night? And why couldn't he kill the three headed dog by getting a troll to do it, instead of waiting all year for Hagrid to tell him how? 

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

• If Fawkes knew exactly when to come and save Harry, why is it not Headmaster instead of Dumbledore? In fact, maybe all Dumbledore's accomplishments were because of Fawkes. And why didn't it bring Dumbledore? After all, it can airlift four people with ease.
  
  
• (Spoiler Warning) Why did Fawkes not heal Dumbledore's hand at the beginning of the Half Blood Prince? Had it stopped crying or something by that time?
  
  
• Based on the above two accomplishments, we feel that Fawkes should go into business for itself, selling its unique gifts to the highest bidder - who wants the Philosopher's Stone or Unicorn Blood?
  
  
• Harry could just have spoken in Parseltongue to the basilisk, and asked it not to fight with him and to go to sleep or something.
  
  
• If the Sorting Hat is a kind of magical courier service, why didn't it bring a machine gun or nuclear missile instead of the Sword of Gryffindor - a machine gun could have been used by someone who was not a true Gryffindor.
  
  
• After Moaning Myrtle came back as a ghost, she could have gone to Dumbledore/Dippet and told them that Tom Riddle had killed her, thereby preventing the whole rise of Voldemort.
  
  
• Harry, Ron and Hermione could have taken some accomplished Professor with them instead of Gilderoy Lockhart, whom they knew to be useless.
  

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

• If Pettigrew was such a good magician as to put a spell on Sirius Black, kill a huge number of Muggles and change into a rat and escape, all in the space of a few seconds and without being seen, why did he not become the new Dark Lord? Fawkes vs Pettigrew > Dumbledore vs Voldemort.
  
  
• Now, the Time Turner. All 7 points could have been on the Time Turner. If the Time Turner was always available, Dumbledore could have gone back in time, killed Voldemort, saved Harry's parents, gone to the future and saved himself, gone to Vajpayee's childhood and trained him to speak faster... the list is endless.
  
  
• Why not give weak students the Time Turner instead of good students? That way, they could learn things multiple times and take over the world.
  
  
• Why didn't Sirius Black change into a dog just after being arrested/during his trial and run away, thereby avoiding much heartbreak?
  
  
• Peter Pettigrew lived as Scabbers the Rat for 3 years in Hogwarts; he could have killed Harry 1095 times in this period, after first going to the headmaster's office to kill Dumbledore and framing Sirius Black for both their deaths. In fact, Voldemort could have got into Hogwarts as a rat, too.
  
  
• If it is so easy to get a Professor chucked out of Hogwarts (by declaring that he is a werewolf), then Lupin could just have declared that Snape was a Death Eater and got him chucked out. Or is a werewolf worse?
  
  
• Sirius Black  should have been left to the Dementor's Kiss. He seems to be more deadly to his friends than his enemies - a prime example being when he switches to Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper - would Batman say: 'No, let Robin save Gotham City from the Joker today, he would never expect it.'?

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

• Having this book itself in the series is a waste of space; when Mad Eye was in the same castle as Harry, he could have taken him on a picnic any day, called him to his office and given him a Portkey to the graveyard, he could have cut him open by mistake, taken his blood and run away to the graveyard...but no, he had to go to the most skilled Auror of all time, take on his appearance, kidnap him, drink Polyjuice potion every two hours, fake an entry in the Triwizard Tournament, make sure Harry won it against all laws of logic, and then give him the Portkey. Some people can't think straight - Barty Crouch, Jr., seems to be one of them.
  
  
• The ritual to restore Voldemort to a body is the best ever; Voldemort should have used it after the seventh book as well, and come back to take revenge - or is it something only Peter Pettigrew can do? Why didn't Harry do it for Dumbledore: did he not find anyone ready to cut their hand off? Also, imagine how easy Saddam Hussein would have found it to return from the dead this way. Bone of the father - easy, he probably kept his skull at the palace for good luck. Blood of the enemy - he spilt litres of enemy blood every second. Hand of the servant - he probably cut off a hand every time they brought the shaving water a degree above normal temperature.
  
  
• Again, even if the above point is not so easy as it seems, why didn't everybody use the 'temporary body' system, as pioneered by Voldemort? It would put life insurance companies in the Wizarding world out of business - there wasn't even a bit of soul in it but it could do spells.
  
  
• Voldemort should also have taken on Animagus nature like Rita Skeeter (a beetle? a flying rat?) and flown off with Harry.
  
  
• To convince Fudge, why didn't Dumbledore take a video (magical or otherwise) of the confession under Veritaserum?
  
  
• The echoes of dead people that burst from the wand of Voldemort are the best things ever - they can protect you even after they are dead. There are so many kinds of dead people, and they all serve different purposes, and all of them seem to be very updated about things since they died (Harry's mother gives him advice about how to escape from the graveyard. If I was Harry, I would take one ghost, one echo and one resurrection stone with me everywhere, and nobody could ever kill me.
  
  
• Veritaserum and Polyjuice potion - Voldemort didn't know it, but he could have taken over the world using only these two.  Day 1 - come to hogwarts as Mad Eye. Day 2 - Catch Dumbledore unawares, use Veritaserum on him to learn all that he knows, lock him in a magical trunk. Day 3 - take on the form of Dumbledore. Day 4 onwards - call a student to the office every day and win him/her to the cause.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

• The curtain behind which you fall and die is a great invention - wouldn't it kill even a person with Horcruxes, because he would disappear? Voldemort should have manufactured portable versions.
  
  
• Why did Voldemort need the prophecy when Snape had already told him all the important details years before? He could just have killed Harry.
  
  
• Why does Voldemort always send Death Eaters when he could do the job better himself? Maybe he should have enrolled for one of those corporate self-improvement courses on 'Doing it Yourself.'
  
  
• Voldemort should have used the telepathic connection better - something like 'I will let Sirius go if you come alone to place X, or 'come to a deserted graveyard because Cho Chang is waiting there' - something on those lines.
  
  
• Once again, Fawkes steals the show, by surviving a Killing Curse. Dumbledore should have had phoenix armour fashioned for himself, which would basically be a host of phoenixes surrounding him always and looking in every possible direction - that way, no one could ever kill him.
  
  
• Why didn't Dumbledore kill Voldemort's body when Voldemort was possessing Harry?
  
  
• And why didnt Bellatrix kill Dumbledore then?

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• Why hadn't anyone else made horcruxes ever to become immortal? Was Dumbledore's longevity due to the fact that he secretly killed a student now and then, when he felt old age creeping up on him?
  
  
• Dumbledore could have dealt with the potion that weakened him in so many different ways - he could have cut off the cup and inverted it for the potion to flow out, he could have set it on fire and made it evaporate, he could have cut a section through the cup - almost anything would have worked.
  
  
• Felix Felicis seems like a good thing to drink before going on an extremely dangerous mission to destroy a Horcrux - but Dumbledore is a hero and a stud, so he goes empty-stomached to his doom.
  
  
• Given that Dumbledore knew he was dying and that he had limited time with Harry, why didn't he just tell him about Voldemort's past instead of showing him memories in real time? Was it because Harry was a little slow and could only appreciate things with pictures? And why didn't he call him more often and teach him some real spells, ones that could blow things up and save your life?
  
  
• Dumbledore could have destroyed the Horcrux by bringing the Sorting Hat, taking out the Sword of Gryffindor from it (by all accounts, it could usually be found there), and poking around in the basin till there was a flash of light - where's Fawkes when you really need him?
  
  
• Why didn't Voldemort make Snape kill Dumbledore and kill Draco Malfoy himself? This would have accomplished both the main goal (of killing D) and the secondary goal (of torturing Malfoy's parents).
  
  
• Why did Voldemort not ensure that anyone else other than himself entering a place where a Horcrux of his was stored died instantly? I mean, if you're leaving bits of your soul lying about, it might be a good idea to invest in some protection.
  

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

• If Snape was working for Dumbledore all along, why didn't he just kill Voldemort in a meeting? He didn't know about the Horcruxes, he would have thought death would be final.
  
  
• If Dumbledore could direct the effort against Voldemort so well as a ghost (he had regular, lucid conversations with Snape), why does anybody bother to stay alive in the series at all? And why didn't he help Harry a bit more?
  
  
• Everyone around Voldemort was stupid - imagine not checking thoroughly if your greatest enemy was dead. Hagrid was the most stupid of all, he was carrying Harry and somehow missed the warmth and pulsing life of someone who was alive. If anyone with more credibility than Narcissa Malfoy had just checked properly, Voldemort would have got another chance to try to kill Harry and fail spectacularly because of the love that XYZ bore for Harry.
  
  
• If Grawp could defeat two bigger giants by himself, the wizards should have sent him alone against the whole Death Eater force by himself, and barricaded themselves somewhere till he finished off everyone - curses wouldn't hurt him if they couldn't hurt Hagrid.
  
  
• The maternally enraged Molly Weasley is more powerful than Lupin + Tonks (fully qualified aurors), as shown by the fact that she kills Bellatrix. Maybe they should have sent her and Grawp.
  
  
• Dumbledore did not adequately use the puzzle-solving skills of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Alone and unaided, with only a children's nursery rhyme book and with the whole Death Eater force at their heels, they managed to crack the secret of the Deathly Hallows. He should have left them the Millenium Problems as well. Alternatively, he could just have bequeathed them his memories in his will, and made their job a lot easier. 
  
  
• Maa ki suraksha - this saves Harry when Voldemort touches him, saves his life 10000 times, keeps him safe at home for 17 years, and makes Snape protect him. If Dumbledore had also invested in Maa ki Suraksha, he would have got lucky as well. Fawkes would have caught him annd brought him back to life with tears and dropped him on Voldemort thus ending the menace of the Dark Lord. 

If you like very long lists and/or the WWE, you might like this post. You might also like the first picture on this page.