Things I don't understand about Harry Potter

[jeneralist]

OK, with less than a month to go before the last book in the series is released, I've got some questions. No, not "Who is Snape really working for?" -- that's something that everyone wonders. My questions are more idiosyncratic.

• When Harry's parents were killed, he was taken to live with his aunt and uncle. We're told this was because Harry got some protection from living with his relatives; plus, if he had grown up among Wizards, he would have had a swelled head early on. My question: what about his grandparents? Do any of the books come out and say that all four of Harry's grandparents were dead or incapacitated? Lily's parents were Muggles, so he would have grown up without contact with the Wizarding world -- but at least they weren't virulently anti-magic, the way his aunt and uncle are.


• One early summer, Harry let the Dursleys think that he could do magic at any time; they were surprised (and quite pleased) to eventually find out that under-age wizards aren't allowed to do magic unless at school. Petunia, having grown up with her witchy sister, should have remembered that important fact from her own childhood.


• Dumbledore apparently collected the invisibility cloak from James Potter's effects after his death, and held it aside for Harry. We are given to believe that it is a rare object, even among wizards; no others have been encountered (even Draco Malfoy, whose family is quite wealthy, doesn't seem to have one -- if he did, he would have used it at some point in Year 6!), and people rarely take precautions against being spied upon by invisible watchers. So where did James Potter get it? He used it during his time at Hogwarts, so it could not have been the result of any money he earned after graduation. Together, James and Lily left behind a tidy sum for Harry to inherit -- did they have that money during their lives, or are the contents of Harry's vault at Gringott's the result of a good life insurance policy? (Related question: who was dumb enough to write insurance policies for members of the Order of the Phoenix?)


• Another question about artifacts: wouldn't Hermione's teachers have been aware of the oddities in her schedule the year she had the time-turner? Wouldn't they have compared notes about the smartest girl in her year? Which means that when Snape suggested that Harry had something to do with Sirius Black's escape, and Dumbledore suggested that would be impossible unless Harry had a way to be in two places at once, Snape stopped arguing because he understood Dumbledore's subtext: yes, Harry did do it; it was an action I authorized, now be quiet.


• And am I the only one that thinks that Hogwarts is, at its heart, a puffed-up Vo-tech school? All of their classes are about how to use their main "technology": magic. Even the history class is history of magic. Where are the classes on general history (given that Dumbledore defeated a noted dark magician in 1945, there's a chance the wizarding world was involved in WWII), literature, or art? I feel sorry for the teachers -- reading homework essays by 16-year-olds who haven't been taught anything about grammar and composition since they were 10. [Of course, the Muggles have their own glorified vo-tech: medical school comes to mind!]

Feel free to suggest your own answers, or to jump in with more questions of your own.