Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery players are no stranger to the game’s many plot holes. The game has been heavily criticized for its lack of consistency, including in the Year 2 story. While players have called upon developer Jam City to patch these plot holes up, the latest Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery update has added yet another plot issue.
The latest major update to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery introduced pets, allowing players to purchase a rat, a toad, a cat, and an owl. The four pets were added in accordance to the pets owned by the series’ main characters, for example, Harry owns Hedgwig the owl and Neville Longbottom owns a toad. When players purchase these pets from the in-game store, they can see all of them sitting in their character’s dorm room. Players are even able to get free energy from their pets, helping them complete missions and lessons.
However, eagle-eyed Harry Potter fans have noted that the ability to own multiple pets and keep them in the player character’s dorm is a violation of Hogwarts’ rules. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in the series, Harry’s school list states that “students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad,” with the emphasis on “OR” being J.K. Rowling’s own. While there is some leniency with these rules (e.g. Ron Weasley’s pet is a rat, rather than an owl, cat, or toad), it seems unlikely to think that any student would be allowed to own four pets and keep them all in their dormitory.
Some fans have also accused developer Jam City of ignoring the game’s canon in order to force more microtransactions into the game. Because the pets in the dorm offer free energy, players are encouraged to purchase them. Players are also encouraged by the large icons displayed in the dorm, which, when clicked, take players to the in-game store. Since buying pets is quite expensive in the game, Jam City may well be making bank by breaking canon like this.
Though, some fans who are less strict about following the series’ canon may point out that the player character in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a chronic rulebreaker. The lead will constantly find themselves getting into trouble which why they keep getting House Points docked from them, potentially preventing them from winning the House Cup. In that case, violating the rules on pets may not be allowed in canon, but some would agree that it’s just very in-character.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is available on Android and iOS devices.
Source: Reddit, Pottermore
