Continuity mistake: There are two scenes during which Harry is shown having visions of the Dept of Mysteries while he is asleep. The first scene occurs after Harry's confrontation with Seamus in the Gryffindor common room. There are shots of Harry lying in bed wearing a short sleeve, crew neck tee shirt, but when he is startled awake by the vision of Voldemort, he sits up wearing a buttoned henley tee. The next day is the first day of Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Umbridge. That last shot of Harry in the henley tee shirt was cut from a later scene. Later in the film, when Harry has the vision of Arthur Weasley's attack, he is wearing the henley tee shirt. (00:34:00 - 01:09:35)
Continuity mistake: At 12 Grimmauld Place, when Harry and Sirius are in the room with the Black family tree, as Sirius says, "My parents with their pure-blood mania," the area of the wall with both Sirius's and Andromeda's names and burned off pictures is quite visible (as in other shots as well). Bellatrix's name is beside Andromeda's (her sister), but there is no picture over Bellatrix's name banner in this shot (only branches and leaves), nor in any other shot, except in the previous close-up, as Sirius says, "My deranged cousin," where there is a picture of Bellatrix over her name. (01:13:25)
Continuity mistake: When Harry shouts, "Expecto Patronum," he points his wand at 'his' Dementor as the Patronus repels it and it flees. Harry then stands and puts his wand arm down, but in the next shot his wand is still up, pointing to his right with the Patronus in mid-air. (00:04:00)
Continuity mistake: As Harry holds the Prophecy, when Lucius says, "Don't you want to know the secret to your scar? ...I can show you everything," both he and Bellatrix stand directly in front of Harry and neither are wearing masks. The problem is in the overhead shot, when Harry says, "I've waited 14 years," two mask-wearing Death Eaters are approaching Harry, who's holding the glowing Prophecy orb, but maskless Lucius and Bellatrix are supposed to be standing there already. (01:50:30)
Continuity mistake: When Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna are held in Umbridge's office, their confiscated wands, which lie on her desk (Umbridge's lies on the lace doily), change positions repeatedly between shots, and also note the wand on the floor. (01:35:50)
Continuity mistake: In her office, when Umbridge adds sugar to her tea, she places the spoon on the saucer. When Harry walks in and she says, "You're going to be doing some lines today," there is a close-up of the tea cup and the spoon is gone. After a brief close-up of Harry, the spoon reappears. (00:36:45)
Continuity mistake: At the playground, when Dudley and Harry have a confrontation, Dudley wears black shorts with large white designs of words and numbers. When Dudley and Harry enter the tunnel and then later, when yumpy Dudley is in his house, Dudley's shorts have completely different designs (though it is the same type of shorts). (00:01:30 - 00:03:00)
Continuity mistake: After Harry's vision of Arthur Weasley's attack, he has the first Occlumency lesson with Snape. The windows behind Harry have a diamond shape pattern, with horizontal and vertical divisions on the glass. In the last shot, as Snape orders Harry to focus, when the camera dramatically pans out through these windows there is only a diamond shape pattern on the glass. (01:09:45 - 01:10:50)
Continuity mistake: When the Dementors attack, Harry's wand falls. It changes position from the first shot; just note the cracks on the ground. (00:03:50)
Continuity mistake: When Harry is in Umbridge's office to do lines, there is a framed photo of her beloved Cornelius and a bowl of potpourri at the corner of her desk. In the overhead shot of Harry, as he begins to write, the frame has moved towards the center of the desk. (00:36:35 - 00:37:30)
Continuity mistake: At the Welcoming Feast, in the close-ups of Seamus and Harry sitting at the table, there is a substantial space between them. When Dumbledore says, "Good evening, children," and later, when he says thank you to Umbridge, the boys are sitting right next each other. (00:29:15)
Continuity mistake: When Harry and Dudley enter the tunnel, to Harry's left is the large graffitied name "Stark" and to Dudley's right is the graffitied name "Jim", which is directly opposite the "ta" in "Stark". When the Dementor holds Harry up by the throat Harry hangs well past "Stark", as the Dementor floats at an angle in front of "Stark". After the close-up of Harry's sneakers, in the wideshot, Dudley's silhouette (at the right, in the foreground) is off to Harry's left (viewer's right) staring to his left (precisely where Harry and the Dementor are positioned), which would put Dudley farther into the tunnel. But when it cuts to facing Dudley close-up, he's now standing in front of the "Jim" graffiti, which is off to Harry's right, closer to the entrance and he's still staring off to his left. (00:03:20)
Continuity mistake: Before the Dementor attack, just as the sky darkens and the wind kicks in at the playground, newspaper is blown against the fence, behind Harry, but after a brief shot of Dudley the newspaper is gone then blows there again. In the following overhead shot, the newspaper is gone, but when it cuts back to Harry, the newspaper is back yet again. (00:04:00)
Continuity mistake: After bandaged Arthur arrives at Grimmauld Place, in the shot facing the twins, Molly hands the twin on the left the gift with blue wrapping and the twin on the right gets the orange wrapping. Next shot facing Arthur, as Molly pulls her hands away from the gifts, each twin actually has the opposite color than the previous shot and it is at this point they switch gifts onscreen. (01:11:35)
Continuity mistake: In the Great Hall, when Dumbledore says, "Good evening children, I have two changes in staffing this year," we see Fred and George Weasley sitting in the fifth and sixth seats, and the other students near the end of the Gryffindor table. Next shot facing Dumbledore, we see the last seven students at that side of the table and not only are the Weasleys gone, but other students differ as well. This is also seen in additional shots. (00:30:30)
Continuity mistake: When Harry and Arthur Weasley head toward the sidewalk with the Ministry's phone booth, we see the asphalt they walk on. In the next shot of that street, there is a puddle of water precisely where they both walked puddle-free a second earlier. (00:17:20)
Continuity mistake: When Dolores Umbridge uses her wand to hand out the textbooks to the class, we see a shot of Ron and Harry picking up their books and looking at the backs. In the next shot, they are both looking forward with no books in their hands. (00:34:30)
Continuity mistake: During the movie, the neatness and position of students collars, ties, buttons, and shirt bottoms sometimes differs during scenes, most noticeably in the common room and courtyard scenes. (00:32:10)
Continuity mistake: After the Centaurs make off with Umbridge, Harry and Hermione meet the other D.A. members on the bridge. As the comment about Puking Pustules is made, the string tie at the bottom of Ginny's sweater is rather long. When Neville says, "Dumbledore's Army is about doing something real," the tie is quite short now. (01:40:35)
Continuity mistake: In the Room of Requirement, when Neville and Harry are alone, Neville stands before the mirror and Cedric's photo and other things are taped to the mirror. Not only does the position of the photo, etc, change between shots, the tape also differs. This occurs in other scenes as well. (01:17:40)
Answer: Sure. The whole prophecy, taken from the books, reads as follows: "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...". Thus stating that the person who will be able to defeat Voldemort will be born at the end of July, to parents who have escaped Voldemort on three occasions - this applies to Harry, born on July 31st, and also to Neville Longbottom, born the previous day. It states that Voldemort will mark his enemy, which occurs when Harry was a year old, when Voldemort failed to kill him, leaving him with his scar - the deciding event that determined that Harry was the subject of the prophecy. The power "that the Dark Lord has not" is believed to refer to Harry's capacity for love, which Voldemort lacks entirely. Finally, the "neither can live while the other survives" section is fairly straight-forward; only one of the pair will live, the other must die - the interpretation being that one must kill the other.
Tailkinker ★