The vanishing cabinet appears

More evidence that maybe J.K. was planning the whole series right from the start: in the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, Peeves saves Harry from Filch's clutches by dropping a massive object onto the floor above the caretaker's office.

The object? A vanishing cabinet.

As we all know, it was with the help of that same vanishing cabinet that Draco Malfoy managed to sneak Death Eaters into Hogwarts to help him kill Dumbledore in The Half-blood Prince, the second to last book.

I realise that much more careful readers than me have noticed this little detail a long time ago but it jumped out at me this morning as I read the second novel over breakfast. Peeves drops a vanishing cabinet! Amazing.

So either Rowling had it all planned, and took care to describe the dropped furniture as a "vanishing" cabinet rather than just a "cabinet", or she got to the sixth book and thought, "hmm, how should Draco do this? Didn't I mention an interesting piece of furniture in one of the first books that might help me out now?"

As always, I'm a little bit in awe of both her writing and her planning/memory.

Hermione, Fluffy and Harry Potter's wand

Another detail I failed to notice the first 20 times I read The Philosopher's Stone: when Hermione performs the Alohomora charm to open the door that leads to Fluffy, the three-headed dog, as they run from Peeves and Filch, she uses Harry's wand.

I don't know why I find this so amazing but I do. I only noticed this little detail when I read it in French, probably because I'm being forced to read the book very slowly and to consider every word in order to understand it.

One of Hermione's first acts of magic under pressure is performed with Harry's wand! With all the discussion of wandlore in The Deathly Hallows, I guess we should be happy that Harry's wand actually worked for Hermione here and worked well. Remember how much trouble Harry has in the seventh book with the snatcher's wand.