David Yates has definitely been doing a great job, adapting the later Potter books. They reflect the growing darkness in the books and manage to capture the essence of the huge books in the inadequate two hours that the movie can span.

This means that a lot of things are cute and pruned, in the movies. Many things that were important in the book are sidestepped neatly in the movies. This is one disadvantage of having to make the movies when you don’t know how the series end. Small things in each book have definite consequences in the following books, and some of the finer details missed out in the movies can lead to gaping holes in the next movie, unless David Yates does so fine tap-dancing.

Dobby the house-elf: In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the book, Dobby has an important role to play. He finds them the Room of Requirement for Dumbledore’s Army, or DA, to practice in. Dobby’s role is even more important in the last book, and cutting out his character this way might be a problem.

The Weasley twins and the Vanishing Cabinet: In the fifth book, the Weasley twins shove Montague, one of the members of the Inquisitorial Squad, into a Vanishing Cabinet. This becomes extremely important in the next book, because this is how Malfoy gets his masterplan for getting Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Of course, this can be passed over, but that would mean that one of the connections that makes the books so closely knit will be missing.

· Sirius’s mirror: Sirius gives Harry a mirror, one of a pair, in the book. Sirius means Harry to use it to communicate with him. If you look into one mirror, you can see the person in the other mirror and talk to them. This mirror is not that important in the Order of the Phoenix, or even in the Half-Blood Prince, but in the Deathly Hallows, this mirror becomes crucial. Again, it can be introduced without that link, but the structure that the series enjoy will suffer.

· The Room of Requirement: The whole concept of the Room of Requirement changes in the fifth movie. In the movie, Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad break into the Room of Requirement, but in the book, the concept is more subtle. If you know exactly what you will find, you can get into the Room of Requirement. This is how Malfoy and his buddies get in. This room is even more important in the next two books. How it can function with the gaping hole in the wall the room gets in the movie is a mystery. Anyway, the fact that such a magical room can be broken into so easily is hard to believe.

· Kreacher: Kreacher becomes a very important character in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but the fact that he betrayed Sirius to ‘darling Miss Bella and Miss Cissy’ is not mentioned in the fifth movie at all. Without that fact, the evolution of his character and Harry’s attitude to him cannot be properly explained.

· Hermione’s fake galleons: The DA members communicate using Hermione’s fake galleons that do not appear in the movie at all. These fake galleons are crucial, especially in the next two books, because they really show how oppressive the regime at Hogwarts becomes in the last book and add a poignant touch to the characters of Neville and Luna.

These are some of the obvious missing links that David Yates is bound to find himself with. Knowing the creativity he has shown, he will probably find ways around them, but we will have to wait and see what they will be.