Why didn't Harry get in trouble in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie?

Question

Cause I noticed that in the beginning of the movie, he was using the 'Lumos Maximus' spell, but he's 13, which is underage. And he got in trouble in the 5th movie, why not the third?

Answer 1

The movies are way different than the books... The book says nothing about harry practicing a spell... he actually was writing an essay. So I guess they just put it in there to be a nice start to the movie.

Answer 2

Well, first of all Harry Potter is not only a movie, but anyway. That was all the director's mistake. They should have followed the HP guidelines. If you read the book, the Lumos Maxima thing never happens.

Answer 3

The reason that he doesn't get in trouble is that the script writers don't think about stuff like that. In the book, he was writing essays, and it says multiple times- in every book- that underage witches and wizards aren't allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the movies don't follow the books, so if you want a more consistant version of the HP universe, I'd reccommend reading the books.

Answer 4

Like everyone else has said, movies made out of books are usually wayyyyyy different. In the book he was using a flashlight in the movie it could have been allowed cause he wasn't doing it in front of muggles. In the 5th movie he got in trouble because Dudley was there when he did it.

Answer 5

In the book, Harry was using a flashlight to write an essay. Movies, however, like 2 make things flashy!

Answer 6

The movie wasn't completely true to the book.

If you read the book you'll see that Harry was actually using a flashlight under the blankets to do his homework. That's why he didn't get in trouble for using magic in the book.

I'm assuming it was either an oversight by the director and writer or else they didn't care.

Answer 7

This is an oversight by the movie makers. I asked myself the same question when i first saw the movie, and was very disappointed that they would overlook something such as this.

Answer 8

Because the movie did not follow the book. Harry actually used a flashlight to do his homework while at the Dursley's in the book "Prisoner of Azkaban." The movie ignores the fact that he's afraid of getting into trouble with the Ministry of Magic while there. But as the Ministry was afraid Sirius was out to kill Harry (you have to remember that the wizarding community believed Sirius was loyal to Voldemort and had given Harry and his parents up to him years before), they were less likely to punish Harry as his preforming magic in self-defense would have been fine.

That's one of the things Dumbledore brings up at Harry's trial in the fifth book. Any underaged witch or wizard using magic in front of muggles as a means of self-defense can not be punished as Clause 7 of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery allows for the use of magic in self-defense. And the Ministry was at that time more concerned with Harry's safety than with any underaged magic he preformed. He was clearly concerned with the fact the fact that he'd used magic to cause Aunt Marge to blow up like a balloon, but Fudge brushed that off despite the fact that Harry had recieved a warning from the Ministry the previous year. A warning directed at him even though it had actually been Dobby who had preformed magic. But in his third year the Ministry was letting a lot of things slide as far as Harry preforming magic outside of school went. They were simply scared that Sirius was on the loose and out to kill Harry, so all they really wanted as far as the boy who lived was concerned was to make sure Harry was safe and alive.

Then things had changed in the fifth book. The ministry was trying to discredit Harry and Dumbledore. They were the ones saying Voldemort was back, the ones getting the warning out. The Ministry wanted the wizarding community in Britian to still have faith in them, to believe they would keep them safe and that Voldemort was in fact dead. Having Harry and Dumbledore spread the truth certainly wasn't good for the Ministry's image on that front.

So to have Harry cast magic, though it was in self-defense, was a dream come true for most of those in the Ministry looking to discredit him. Here's the only living witness (whose not a Death Eater, their keeping things silent) to Voldemort's return and he breaking the rules. So they can punish him for it, and use his use of magic as an example of how he supposedly thinks the rules don't apply to him all because he's the boy who lived.

For him to be found guilty at a trial would not only get him kicked out of school (which the Ministry tried doing without a trial, but still had to take him to trial for), but also virtually no one will believe him anymore and he could end up being sent to Azkaban. Yet the affore mentioned clause in the Degree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery actually caused the Ministry's best possible chance at discrediting and shut Harry up to fail. And it was actually Umbridge's fault. She sent the dementors to get rid of Harry, thus giving him a reason to use magic. To defend himself and Dudley.

Answer 9

It's just the movie the writers don't relize that it wouldn't fit they just thought it was a good way to start the movie.

Answer 10

Disregarding that this is not in the book, they are assigned summer homework, so there could be controversy over doing homework vs. underage restrictions. As well as that, he was excused as well for blowing up his aunt, simply because a mass-murderer was after him. In the fifth, the MoM is looking for a reason to cast him as the bad guy. No breaks.