Half-Blood Prince Film Mistakes

Missing lens - On several instances throughout the film Harry's glasses have no lenses in them - you can only see the frame. One example where this is clearly evident is when Harry and Ron are lying in bed and Harry is looking at the map showing the foot prints. The rest of the scenes show the glasses having lenses in them.

Basin half full or basin half empty? - When Harry takes a scoopfull of potion out of the basin, there is still some remaining. After giving this to Dumbledore to drink, the basin appears to be empty and Harry grabs the locket.


WWW storename - In the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes scene, the camera pans across the front of the store and you can see the name on the front in gold lettering. Later, when Harry, Ron and Hermione leave the store to follow Draco Malfoy the store name is no longer present.

The re-appearing Felix Felices - During the scene in which Harry takes the Felix Felices, he empties the vial into his mouth. In the following shot however, when he speaks to Ron and Hermione, the vial can be seen between his hands completely full and with the stopper still on.

Hairy Potter - When Dumbledore and Harry are talking about Horcruxes, Harry's hair is nice and combed in one shot. The camera cuts to a side view and his hair is now messy.

Hand placement - In the Great Hall, when Lavender's eyes are shooting daggers at Ron and Hermione, Harry's arms/hands keep changing position on the table as the three of them speak.

Aragog - At Aragog's funeral, there is a long shot of Slughorn, Hagrid and Harry standing by Aragog. However from this angle Aragog is not here. Given the angle you should be able to see Aragog's body.

Visible crew? - When Harry and Dumbledore are standing in the tower three men are seen to walk across the room on the right.

Disappearing debris/leaves - When Harry finds Hermione crying at the bottom of the stairs, with the conjured canaries flying overhead, there are numerous leaves/debris on the lowest steps and near her feet, but in the shots looking down from the top of the stairs the area is clear. (This has nothing to do with the few leaves that blow about.)

Harry's arm - At the Burrow, when Tonks and Lupin are at the front door with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, it cuts to an exterior shot of Harry looking out the window with his arm leaning across his knee in front of him, but in the next interior shot his arm is down at his side.

Back to front - When Harry first gets his potions book, he opens up the front cover to find the inscription, "This book belongs to the Half Blood Prince". Later, when Ginny grabs it out of his hand, she flips open to the BACK of the book to find the inscription. Later on, when Katie returns to the Great room, the book is open and the inscription is there in the front. When Harry first gets his potions book, he opens up the front cover to find the inscription, "This book belongs to the Half Blood Prince". ater, when Ginny grabs it out of his hand, she flips open to the BACK of the book to find the inscription. Later on, when Katie returns to the Great room, the book is open and the inscription is there in the front. (This could possibly be explained if there were two inscriptions in the book, as we have recieved reports that the font differs too.)

Newspaper placement - In the Great Hall, when Ron sits down with Harry and Hermione before Quidditch, the newspaper Hermione is reading goes from her hand to under her arms, then back again, etc, between shots.

Knees-up - At the Burrow, shortly after Harry's arrival, he, Hermione and Ron are sitting and chatting. Hermione changes position several times - notably her knee is up, down, up, etc.

Hermione's hat - Whilst this is probably looking too deeply at the meaning behind an innocent wardrobe decision - during the Quidditch game Hermione is wearing a green hat, which implies that she is supporting Slytherin.

Page 10...ish - During the scene in Professor Slughorn's lesson, the students are told to make a Draught of Living Death, the recipe for which "can be found on page 10". During the lesson, it is quite clear that Hermione has her book open somewhere in the middle (Around page 200).

Hermione's position - In the Great Hall before the Quidditch match, in the shots facing Hermione she is sitting opposite the empty place setting beside Ron, but in the shots facing Ron she is directly opposite him. Take note of the goblets, plate of eggs, etc.

Harry/Hermione positioning - In Potions class, just before the students go to their cauldrons to prepare their Draught of Living Death, Hermione stands in front of Harry, but in the long shot she is instantly beside him, then she's suddenly back in front of Harry again.

The locket - When Hermione opens the locket to read the note, the locket and chain's position changes in her hand between consecutive shots.

Leg positioning - When Harry, Hermione and Ron are sitting on the floor talking in Ron's room at the Burrow, the position of Hermione's legs changes frequently from cut to cut.

Is that a bicycle seat I see? - During the Quidditch match, whilst Ron is celebrating a save, the wind blows his robes and reveals a bicycle-like seat attached to his broom.

Ron's right arm - In the Great Hall, when Ron (wearing his Quidditch uniform) asks Hermione about the Slug Club, Ron's right arm lies on the table in front of him in shots from behind, but in shots facing him his right arm is down beside him.

Ron & the rug - After drinking the poison in Slughorn's office, Ron falls and in the overhead shots the top of his head is near the rug's edge, but in side shots his head is well below the large diamond pattern, more than a foot away from the edge.

Foam - When Ron is foaming at the mouth, the foam dissapears in some views.

Hole-y shirt - In the dormitory, when a lovestruck Ron is obsessing over Romilda, he is wearing a brown sleeveless tee shirt that has many holes. When Harry brings Ron to Slughorn, Ron is still wearing that tee shirt, but now some of the holes are gone and the rest of the holes have changed position.

Lip-sync - When Ron and Harry are walking down the corridor towards Potions class, Ron says, "...Quidditch trials coming up, I need to practice," but his mouth is not moving and/or not in sync with that dialogue.

No Ginny, Ginny. - In the Quidditch trials, shortly after a player flies in on a broom, the camera moves around behind Harry and he is clearly standing alone. Moments later however, the camera switches position and we can see that Ginny is standing beside Harry.

Ginny/Harry spacing - When Harry is kneeling beside Dumbledore's body, at the foot of the Astronomy Tower, Ginny joins Harry and holds him at his left side (viewer's right). In the last close-up of Professor Dumbledore's face, Harry is visible in the background with a space to his left and Ginny is now gone. That same angle was shown before Ginny joined Harry.

Inconsistent cloak - On the first train ride to Hogwarts, Harry picks up his cloak, which is visible because nobody is wearing it - and goes to spy on Malfoy. Later, when Luna finds Harry underneath the invisibility cloak she casts it off, but it does not appear even though nobody is wearing it.

Quibbler position - Aboard the Hogwarts Express, when Luna finds Harry lying petrified on the floor and then speaks with him, the way she holds her wand and the Quibbler newspapers differs between shots.



Wrong table - When Harry pretends to pour the Felix Felicis into Ron's drink, Luna sits down at the Gryffindor table, however, Luna is in Ravenclaw, and she doesn't have a reason for sitting there until she points out about the Felix Felicis.

Number train - In the scene where Draco attacks Harry on the Hogwart's Express, it appears that they shot the scene at different ends of the train compartment and then spliced the different takes together. If you watch the numbers on the wall above the seats, they bounce back and forth from low to high numbers.


Tapestry - It has been noticed that at times when Draco is standing in front of the wall for the Room of Requirement, there is a large tapestry there. At other times, the wall is bare.

Position change - In the Room of Requirement, when Draco first uncovers the Vanishing Cabinet, the items on the floor behind him change position between the overhead shot and next close-up.

Finger drawing - On the Hogwarts Express going back during Christmas Lavender Brown wrote in a heart "R+L XX". But when she does this the writing doesn't appear where her finger is touching the glass.

Dirty pedestal - When Dumbledore gets up to give a speech, the gold owl on his pedestal shakes its head and then spreads its wings, which are perfectly clean. Later during the speech, the wings are shown covered in dried wax from the candles.

Hair troubles - When Dumbledore is talking to Harry about Horcruxes, Dumbledore's hair is blowing and messy in one shot but fine in the next one.

Nice shoes! - At the beginning when Harry and Dumbledore first disapparate, there is a full shot of them walking up to the entrance of the house. In this shot, you can see Dumbledore's shoes sticking out of his robe as he walks, only he is actually wearing those blue bags on his shoes, the ones they wear in between takes so as not to damage the set floors.
Completely 'armless - When Harry and Dumbledore return from the Horcrux cave, Dumbledore sits down with his arm around Harry's neck. When Dumbledore asks Harry to go fetch Snape, his arm suddenly disappears. There was no time for him to have moved it.

Dumbledore's glasses - In the first of Dumbledore and Harry's lessons, at the beginning of the scene, you can clearly see that Dumbledore is wearing his glasses, but when Harry enters the room a minute later, Dumbledore is not wearing them.

Off the rails - In the establishing shot before Snape casts the killing curse, safety rails are visible on the astonomy tower behind Dumbledore. When the camera cuts to Harry's view of Dumbledore being hit with the spell, the railing is no longer there and Dumbledore falls right off the tower where the railing once was.

Is blue the new green? - When Snape casts Avada Kedavra the light emitted is blue and white. In the books and in all the movies prior to this date the killing curse always gives off a green light.

Crew rugs - After Draco is escorted out of Slughorn's party by Snape and Harry begins to spy on them, you can see crew rugs used to quiet Draco and Snape's footsteps. The same rugs are visible earlier in the film when Harry and Ron walk down a corridor after Slughorn's class.

Tape that! - Towards the end of the film, when Harry is lying on the ground near Hagrid's Cabin, Snape kicks Harry's wand away from his hand. Right in the middle of this shot, as he kicks the wand, you can clearly see a square of neon tape where Harry's wand was placed, so that the actor, Alan Rickman, would know where to kick.

Beer spillage - In the Three Broomsticks Pub Slughorn spills some of his beer on the table & on Hermione. Moments later when we see a different view of the table, it is completely dry.

Swapping hands - At the Three Broomsticks, Slughorn is holding a mug with his left hand when he speaks to Harry, but when he says, "Good to see you, Wallenby," the mug is suddenly in Slughorn's right hand, with his left arm down by his side.

Cup size - When Hagrid and Slughorn are drinking after Aragog's funeral, Slughorn's cup is considerably larger than Hagrid's cup, but after Hagrid passes out Slughorn's cup is now the same size as Hagrid's cup.

Slug Club - During the Slug Club's dessert, as Slughorn speaks to the students, their ice cream, syrup, thin wafers, spoons, etc, change depending on the camera angle.

Vial position - In Potions class, when Slughorn removes the vial of Felix Felicis, he turns to face the class and holds the vial up for the class to see, but in the next shot facing him he holds only the very bottom point of the vial.

Reflection in eyes - When Slughorn stands before Tom Riddle speaking of seven Horcruxes, as the professor faces the fireplace and says, "This is all hypothetical," and when Tom replies, "It'll be our little secret," in these close-ups particularly the square lighting/reflector screen becomes clearly reflected in the eyes.

Dancing debris - When the Death Eaters attack Ollivander's, the debris,fire and the bodies lying on the ground differ between the overhead and next close-up shot.

People on the bridge - During the destruction of the Millennium Bridge: to begin with the bridge is full of people, including a lot of school children, walking across. As the bridge begins to wobble, people start to trip up and fall down. When we see the bridge from above, as it is destroyed seconds later, there aren't any people on it.

Death toll? - The newspapers in the movie imply that there was a death toll from the bridge collapse at the start of the film, even though when watching the scene, everybody seemed to escape from the bridge safely and not a single person falls into the water.

Smashing! - When Bellatrix smashes the glass in the Great Hall window behind the staff tables, it differs from the subsequent shot when we are shown that the Great Hall is empty.

Paper change - When Harry is in the restaurant and places the newspaper down on the table as he speaks with the waitress, it lies over the table edge (front and side edges), in the next shot it doesn't, then it does so again.