In the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry himself, is a little bit chaotic. He does everything for the greater good, of course, and always saves the day in his end but some of his methods are pretty questionable by authority standards.
Every year, it seems he’s getting into some sort of trouble; whether it’s with the Hogwarts authorities or the actual law. Sometimes he doesn’t get caught and sometimes he does, getting away unscathed. It’s almost a talent by the end of the series.
These are the main times Harry did something that should have had dire consequences — and somehow didn’t. Because it’s Harry, of course.
When He Jumped On A Broomstick After Malfoy
His first major rule break was in his first year, in one of his first lessons. Because, of course, it was. Harry wastes no time.
When Malfoy took off on a broomstick and dared Harry to come catch him, Harry wasted no time. The reason was pretty admirable, as he was trying to recover a possession of Neville’s, but what he did was practically very dumb. He had never even flown on a broomstick before.
Instead of getting into trouble, he was put on the Gryffindor Quidditch team instead. Talk about playing favorites!
When He Helped Get Hagrid’s Dragon To Charlie
Another major thing he did in his first year was helped sneak an illegal dragon out of Hogwarts. In fairness to Harry, this one wasn’t really his fault. Hagrid was the one who should have known better, trying to raise a baby dragon that wouldn’t stay small for long in a hut on the grounds.
And Harry did actually get into some trouble for sneaking around at night. But authority figures never found out he was actually carrying around a dragon, which would surely have gotten him in so much more trouble than just roaming the corridors after curfew.
It would also have gotten Hagrid in some pretty severe trouble, too.
When He Snuck Out To Hogsmeade
In this third year, he was denied permission to go to Hogsmeade. At the time, although he didn’t know this, the teachers used the parental permission as an excuse not to let him go because they thought a mass murderer was after him.
Rebellious and stir-crazy as ever, Harry donned his invisibility cloak and wandered into the village anyway. He was kind of caught in the books but nothing could be proven. Remus Lupin covered for him when Snape accused him of having been in Hogsmeade after he was spotted by Malfoy, so his punishment wasn’t very severe.
Again, Harry gets away with it.
When He Created Dumbledore’s Army
When Umbridge pretty much took over Hogwarts, she implemented a lot of rules that had very severe punishments. Not all of these rules were fair, of course, and she was a monster, but the fact is that Harry still broke them and probably should have been expelled.
He broke a lot, but the big offender was the secret organization he created to learn how to fight back against Voldemort: Dumbledore’s Army. Umbridge tried so hard to get proof of this but by the time she did, she was carried off by Centaurs. Oops.
The fact remains, if she had caught him in the act sooner, he would have been in some pretty severe trouble.
When He Impersonated Crabbe And Goyle With Ron
Starting to get into criminal territory over just breaking school rules, Harry impersonated fellow students in his second year. It may have been for the greater good, and he may have had good reason, but there are surely laws against taking Polyjuice Potion to impersonate people. Identity theft, anyone?
He and Ron imitated Crabbe and Goyle, and would surely have been punished severely if they had been caught. Maybe not expelled, since Harry could have burned Hogwarts down and Dumbledore probably wouldn’t have done much, but the fact remains that it was surely a very risky thing to do; in the eyes of both the school rules and the law.
When He Attacked Snape
Another incident that was probably criminal was when he attacked Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack. Desperate to hear Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, he attacked Snape at the same time as Ron and Hermione and knocked him unconscious.
It’s another time where Harry’s intentions were clearly good but the execution was deeply flawed, considering they could have done Snape serious damage. And assault is probably just as illegal in the Wizarding World as it is in the Muggle one.
In that sense, Harry’s really pretty lucky chaos ensued afterward and the fact he attacked a teacher was forgotten about.
When He Flew In The Enchanted Car With Ron And Crashed It
He was definitely breaking the law when he and Ron, aged 12, flew an enchanted car all the way from London to the Highlands. Muggles spotted them, and some damage control had to be done there. They were risking breaking the Statue of Secrecy that the Ministry of Magic enforces to keep Muggles from finding out about the magical world. Understandable — imagine the chaos!
They were 12 years old when they did this, but if Harry had been anyone else, he would surely have been expelled. Even Dumbledore was mad at him that time, and Harry couldn’t even look at him.
When He Almost Murdered A Fellow Student
The big one: when Harry probably should have been arrested, for sure.
He used the spell Sectumsempra on Draco Malfoy. Sure, he didn’t know what it did, and he was interrupting Malfoy who was about to use an Unforgivable Curse on him (so really, both of these boys should have been arrested). But the fact remains that Malfoy was slashed with an invisible sword and would surely have died if Snape hadn’t stepped in out of nowhere to rescue him.
It’s often hard to feel sorry for Malfoy, but this one definitely had to have hurt. Maybe Harry will think twice in the future before blurting random incantations.
