In the Philosopher's Stone (yes, I prefer the original British title) HP and company get introduced to Hogwarts and have all manner of little adventures, all the while discovering that something is happening in the background. The villain makes several attempts over the course of the school year to get what they want, but somehow can't figure it all out until the very end of the school year.
In addition, the Mirror of Erised is not at the end of the path of puzzles at the start of the school year - so either the Stone is just sitting on a little plate waiting for whoever solves the puzzles to get to it, or it's already in the mirror, in what I assume is the Room of Requirement.
But there's really no reason why it would take the villain 9 months to penetrate the depths of Hogwarts, considering that three first-year students figured it out in about twenty minutes. Granted, there was Fluffy, the three headed dog, and the villain needed to figure out how to get past it. But this is Voldemort we're talking about, so why wouldn't he just kill it? That's what I would do if I were an evil sorcerer trying to get to the Stone at any cost. But he does get the word out of Hagrid mid-year by trading him a dragon egg. Okay, so what's stopping him then? Snape's watching? All the time? I have an idea. Wait until Snape is teaching a class, and then walk over to the restricted wing of Hogwarts, put the dog to sleep, use bright light on Devil's Snare, play some chess, catch a key, drink a potion, and take the stone. Or take the mirror, and flee to another location to figure out how to get it out of the mirror.
Why did it take exactly the same amount of time as the school year? Well, because it's an obvious device by the author to also showcase a whole year in the life of the main character. In general, this works okay for one book, but it gets really old and tired after four or five books. The Tri-Wizard tournament is another example of what feels like very arbitrary timing for the evil plot to come to fruition. The Chamber of Secrets does a little better with the device, in that the villain is sucking the life out of someone as quickly as possible, but it still takes a long time to get strong enough. However, it's awfully convenient to the book that it takes the villain about 9 months to get strong enough to make his move.
So, how would I approach this differently without destroying the overall plot of the books? Well, I think as an author you have to decide which 'plot' has priority. Either you're telling the story of a year, with many little pieces and parts, where the fruition at the end of the book is more in line with 'coming of age' or some success tied to way the year works. These tend to be "small" books, with little victories, personal victories, life lessons, etc. So boring. But a choice that some authors make. In books like this, the stakes are generally not super high, and generally don't reach outside the direct environment of the story. If HP were written along these lines, Voldemort wouldn't be part of the series, basically. Instead, it would focus on Harry's relationships, classes, successes and failures within the context of the school. On the other hand, if the the story you're telling is one where an outside force is trying to do something, and Harry Potter finds himself in the position as the only person who can stop it, then just toss the school schedule out the window. Who cares? Maybe he gets to school in September, discovers the plot by October, and foils the bad guy by Halloween night. Why not? Well, because it's fun to read all the other stuff about Harry's school year. Okay, so maybe there's five different attempts throughout the year. Why not? Maybe the book for "Year 2" starts in October and ends in November, because that's when the crazy stuff happened.
All I'm saying is that forcing your villain to obey the year-long schedule that your hero lives in makes for some clunky plotting. I think the first time Rowling gets away from it is in book 7, when HP and friends basically don't go to school, and set off to do more important stuff.
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