Top 10 Craziest Harry Potter Details You Missed
Only die hard fans of Harry Potter caught these small details the first time around! For this list, we're looking at some of the most surprising bits of foreshadowing that even the biggest “Harry Potter” fans may not have caught onto. We can't say for sure whether every single one of these was intentionally written in by J. K. Rowling, but considering her masterful storytelling skills, we'd be surprised if they were simply coincidences. Keep in mind that many of these subtleties didn't make it into the films!
#10: Myrtle's Murderer
In “Chamber of Secrets,” Harry, Ron, and Hermione are working to solve the mystery of what is petrifying their fellow students at Hogwarts. Along the way, they come across something curious in the trophy room- an award with Tom Riddle’s name on it which he won for “services to the school.” While they’re hypothesizing about what this could mean, Ron jokes that maybe he was the one who killed Moaning Myrtle and says “that would've done everyone a favor.” In the end, though, that’s exactly what happened, because Tom Riddle was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets. We’re pretty sure that’s not what the award was for, though.
#9: Correspondence Confusion
In the sixth book, Albus Dumbledore comes to number four Privet Drive to collect Harry during the summer. While there, he of course makes the Dursleys very uncomfortable, but also drops a hint to something readers wouldn’t learn more about until the final book. When he sees Petunia he says, "We have corresponded, of course,” which could have simply referred to a howler that he sent to their house once. We later find out though that Petunia wrote to Hogwarts when she was a child, disappointed that her sister was offered admission when she was not.
#8: Who Broke the Vanishing Cabinet
Top 20 Crazy Harry Potter Details You Missed
Much of the sixth book revolves around Harry’s attempts to prove that Malfoy is up to something sinister at Hogwarts. In the end we find out that of course Harry was right all along, and Malfoy had been attempting to fix a broken vanishing cabinet in order to transport Death Eaters into the school. Several books earlier, when Harry is having a confrontation with Filch, he hears Peeves the Poltergeist drop a large cabinet above the caretaker’s office. Perhaps these two cabinets are one and the same? If so, that’s some seriously subtle foreshadowing.
#7: Snape's Last Words
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Longtime fans of the series probably recall the fact that for many years before the final book was published, J. K. Rowling hinted that there would be an important meaning behind the fact that Harry had his mother’s eyes. This finally came to fruition in the final chapters of “Deathly Hallows” when with his dying breaths Snape says to Harry, “look at me.” Only later do we find out about Snape’s feelings for Harry’s mother Lily when Harry delves into the professor’s memories. Rowling never explicitly spells this one out, but you can assume that Snape wanted the last thing he saw to be the eyes of the woman he loved.
#6: Snowball Fight
This delightful “easter egg” must have been intentionally written in by the author. During the winter of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, he watched Fred and George Weasley bewitch snowballs to follow Professor Quirrell around and “[bounce] off the back of his turban.” Of course, at the end of the first book we learn that Lord Voldemort has partially taken over Quirrell’s body, and his face is situated at the back of the professor’s head. We can only imagine the laugh J. K. Rowling had to herself when imagining snowballs hitting Voldemort right in the face.
#5: The Gleam of Triumph
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At the end of “Goblet of Fire” when Harry has just escaped his encounter with Voldemort in the graveyard, he is discussing his experience with Dumbledore when something curious happens. Harry notices a “gleam of something like triumph” in the headmaster’s eyes. Considering readers had to wait three years for the next book to come out, they had plenty of time to speculate about this oh so subtle hint. It was only in the final novel, though, that this was finally clarified, because Voldemort using Harry’s blood for his resurrection meant that he would never be able to kill him.
#4: The Three Brothers
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In “Deathly Hallows,” Harry learns of the tale of the Three Brothers. The brother who chose the elder wand wanted power, the brother who chose the resurrection stone longed for his lost love, and the brother who chose the invisibility cloak greeted death like an old friend. These characters are mirrored by three of the major players in the “Harry Potter” books: Voldemort, Snape, and Harry himself. Voldemort wanted power, Snape loved and lamented the loss of Lily, and in the end Harry showed that he was not afraid of death -- who, by the way, may be the part Dumbledore plays in all this. …
#3: A Horcrux Hint
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This is one of those tiny details that could possibly be a coincidence, or could be a well-buried hint from J. K. Rowling. Professor Trelawney is making predictions about Harry, and hazards a guess that he was born in “midwinter.” This is of course wrong, because his birthday is July 31st. Readers could just take this as one of the many examples of Trelawney being a bit of a crackpot. Interestingly though, Voldemort’s birthday is December 31st, which is midwinter, and in “Deathly Hallows” we find out that a part of Voldemort has always been within Harry. Could it be that she was sensing someone else’s birthday?
#2: Plausible Predictions
While trying to get through their divination homework in “Goblet of Fire,” Harry and Ron put in the least amount of effort possible by making up wildly bold predictions, all of which involve horrible things happening to Harry. The thing is, though, as the story unfolds, all of these things come to pass. They say he will be "in danger of burns," which corresponds to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, that he will "lose a treasured possession," which corresponds to the second, and that he will "come off worse in a fight," which is essentially what happens when he encounters Voldemort in the graveyard. Are your minds blown yet?
#1: Unlucky 13
At Christmas in “Prisoner of Azkaban”, Professor Trelawney won’t sit down for dinner because that would make for a group of thirteen, which would mean the first person to rise from the table would die. Everyone dismisses her folly, but in actuality there already were thirteen people around the table if you include Peter Pettigrew disguised at Ron’s rat, Scabbers. Dumbledore was the first to rise, and also the first of the group to die. In book five, there are thirteen people dining together when Sirius is the first to rise, which foreshadows his untimely death.
